Lieutenant Mackinnon, jumping
on the embankment and waving his cap, while the British flag was hoisted
under the very nose of the enemy, sang out, "Pepper, lads! pepper, lads!
pepper, pepper, pepper!" and pepper away the men did with a vengeance.
In one minute forty rockets, admirably directed, were poured into the
opposite battery, compelling the dismayed enemy to desert their guns.
Terrific must have been the slaughter among them. The steamers meantime
taking up their position under the batteries, the fleet of merchantmen
passed quickly down under the showers of rockets which were fired
without cessation. The sternmost ships of the squadron being out of
range, the rocket party prepared to retreat, while the enemy, misled by
the flagstaff, which was erected at some distance from their place of
concealment, fired away at that. A better-conducted or more successful
exploit was never performed. The rocket party got back to their boat
without the loss of a single man, and, pulling rapidly down the stream,
rejoined their ship. The British and French squadron, on their return
to Monte Video, defeated an attack made on the city by some of the
allies of Rosas, a party of marines and seamen being landed to assist in
placing it in a better position for defence.

CAPTAIN LOCH'S EXPEDITION UP THE SAINT JUAN DE NICARAGUA.

In 1848 Captain Granville G. Loch led a boat expedition up the Saint
Juan de Nicaragua, which was as spiritedly carried out as any in the
times of the previous war. It consisted of the boats of his own ship
the _Alarm_ and the _Vixen_, Commander Rider; and its object was to
punish a certain Colonel Sales of the Nicaraguan army, who, after
carrying off two British subjects and committing various outrages, had
fortified himself in the town of Serapaqui, situated about thirty miles
up the river. The current runs at the rate of five knots an hour, and
the fort was situated at the head of a long reach, its defences
consisting of six angular stockaded entrenchments eight feet in height,
of considerable thickness, one side of each looking down the reach and
the other across the river, completely commanding the only
landing-place. Notwithstanding the strength of the current, Captain
Loch commenced the ascent with twelve boats, carrying 260 officers and
men, accompanied by the consul in his own boat. Passing over numerous
downfalls and rapids, by immense exertions the party, at the end of
seventy-two hours, got