166 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



appeared as soon as they saw our orderly. I felt a 

 great longing and curiosity to witness the fight that 

 was evidently going on not, however, that I was 

 particularly desirous of taking share in it, or putting 

 myself in the way of the bullets. My friend the 

 captain jogged on by my side, taking little heed of 

 the roar of the cannon, which to him was no novelty; 

 for having passed his life at sea, he had had more 

 than one encounter with pirates and other rough 

 customers, and been many times under the fire of 

 batteries, running in and out of blockaded American 

 ports. His whole attention was now engrossed by 

 the management of his horse, which was somewhat 

 restive, and he, like most sailors, was a very indiffer- 

 ent rider. 



On reaching the top of a small rising ground, we 

 beheld to the left the dark frowning bastions of the 

 fort, and to the right the village of Bella Vista, which, 

 although commanded by the guns of Callao, had been 

 chosen as the headquarters of the besieging army 

 the houses being, for the most part, built of huge 

 blocks of stone, and offering sufficient resistance to 

 the balls. The orderly pointed out to us the various 

 batteries, and especially one which was just completed, 

 and was situated about three hundred yards from the 

 fortress. It had not yet been used, and was still 

 masked from the enemy by some houses which stood 

 just in its front. 



While we were looking about us, Ready's horse, 



