them in readiness
for use when the time of action should arrive; this could be effected in
a few minutes,--then to dig by the side of each rocket a hole large
enough to contain the men working them, and to throw the earth up as a
kind of barricade before it; at the signal given by the
commander-in-chief, when all the enemy's batteries were fully manned,
waiting for the convoy, to commence a tremendous fire of rockets, which,
being totally unexpected by the enemy, would be proportionally effective
and destructive. The chances were that they would return this fire,
which the prepared holes would render harmless; and if the rocket-stands
or tubes were hit,--very difficult objects,--poles and instruments would
be at hand to repair them immediately. Besides, when the vessels were
passing, the chances were that, from the height of the cliffs, the
rockets would strike the enemy over the mast-heads of the ships, thus
causing a double-banked fire of great force.

Sir Charles Hotham having consulted Captain Hope and Captain Trehouart,
who highly approved of the plan, provided the ground when reconnoitred
was found as suitable as expected, the execution of it was entrusted to
Lieutenant Mackinnon, of the _Alecto_, with Lieutenant Barnard, of the
_Firebrand_, as his second. For several days the preparations were
going on; and on the 25th of May, all being ready, the convoy and
men-of-war dropped down the river, and anchored about five miles above
the batteries of San Lorenzo, while the _Alecto_, continuing her course,
brought up still nearer to them.

At length, on the night of the 1st of June, Sir Charles Hotham and the
French captain, with some other officers, reconnoitred the locality.
Besides the island we have spoken of, there were several others of
nearly the same size, and at the same distance from the western shore;
to the eastward of them, again, was an immense archipelago of low swampy
islands, covered with brushwood, extending in that direction six or
eight miles between them and the main shore of Entre Rios.

There was just sufficient light for the reconnoitring party to see their
way as they steered through the intricate passages to the east of the
large islands. With muffled oars and in dead silence they pulled on
till they reached the island they wished to examine; and as they shoved
the boat's bow into the mud, a loud rustling was heard in the brushwood,
and a wild beast of some sort, which they took for a ti