ficer
confirming this suspicion, a heavy fire was opened upon the _O'Higgins_;
she did not reply, but continued her work of investigating the channel,
and then withdrew out of range.

Two days were spent in further reconnaisances of the approaches, and on
the third day a brig was captured entering the port. She carried some
important despatches, and twenty thousand dollars for the payment of the
troops. Having ascertained the nature of the difficulties to be
encountered, Lord Cochrane sailed away to Concepcion, two hundred miles
distant, and obtained from the Chilian governor a force of two hundred and
fifty soldiers under Major Beauchef, a French officer in their service. He
there found a Chilian schooner, which he attached to his service, and a
Brazilian brig, which volunteered its aid; with them he sailed for
Valdivia. On the night of the 29th they were off the island of Quiriquina.
Owing to the incompetence of his officers the admiral had been obliged to
personally superintend everything that was done on board, and when the
ship was becalmed lay down for a few minutes' sleep, leaving orders that
he was to be called at once if a breeze sprung up. A breeze did spring up;
the officer of the watch was asleep, and a sudden gust carried the vessel
on to a sharp rock, where she hung beating heavily.

They were then forty miles from the mainland, and the brig and schooner
were both out of sight. For a short time a panic took place among the
crew, and officers and men made for the boats. The admiral, followed by
Stephen, rushed on deck, pistol in hand, and the former soon succeeded in
calming the panic, his authority among the men being unbounded. He pointed
out that the boats would carry but a hundred and fifty men, and that there
were six hundred on board, so that were a rush to take place to the boats,
they would assuredly be overcrowded and perhaps sink, while, should any
gain the shore, the occupants would be made prisoners, and would certainly
be put to death by the Spaniards. Their only hope, therefore, was to get
the ship off.

On sounding the well it was found that there were five feet of water in
the hold. The pumps were out of order, the carpenter utterly inefficient,
and Lord Cochrane, taking off his coat, himself set to work to repair
them, ordering Stephen to keep the men at work baling with buckets; the
captain being under arrest for disobedience to orders, and the one other
lieutenant absolutely incompetent