steamer to
leave San Diego, and a guard was stationed on the ship. The "Itata,"
however, slipped away and made for the Chilean coast, carrying with her
the representatives of the United States. A fast cruiser was immediately
sent in pursuit, but only succeeded in overhauling the rebel ship after
she was at her destination. The "Itata" was then forced to return to San
Diego without landing her cargo for the insurgents. The necessary arms
and ammunition were arranged for in Europe; they were shipped in a
British vessel, and transferred to a Chilean steamer at Fortune Bay, in
Tierra del Fuego, close to the Straits of Magellan and the Falkland
Islands, and thence carried to Iquique, where they were safely
disembarked early in July 1891. A force of 10,000 men was now raised by
the _junta_ of the revolution, and preparations were rapidly pushed
forward for a move to the south with the object of attacking Valparaiso
and Santiago. Early in April a portion of the revolutionary squadron,
comprising the "Blanco Encalada" and other ships, was sent to the
southward for reconnoitring purposes and put into the port of Caldera.
During the night of the 23rd of April, and whilst the "Blanco Encalada"
was lying quietly at anchor, a torpedo boat called the "Almirante
Lynch," belonging to the Balmaceda faction, steamed into the bay of
Caldera and discharged a torpedo at the rebel ship. The "Blanco
Encalada" sank in a few minutes and 300 of her crew perished.

Defeat and suicide of Balmaceda.

In the middle of August 1891 the rebel forces were embarked at Iquique
(where a provisional government under Captain Jorje Montt had been set
up), numbering in all about 9000 men, and sailed for the south. On the
20th of August the congressist army was disembarked at Quinteros, about
20 m. north of Valparaiso, and marched to Concon, where the Balmacedists
were entrenched. A severe fight ensued, in which the troops of President
Balmaceda were defeated with heavy loss. This reverse roused the worst
passions of the president, and he ordered the arrest and imprisonment of
all persons suspected of sympathy with the revolutionary cause. The
population generally were, however, distinctly antagonistic to
Balmaceda; and this feeling had become accentuated since the 17th of
August 1891, on which date he had ordered the execution of a number of
youths belonging to the military college at San Lorenzo on a charge of
seditious practices. The shooting of these b