his country under any circumstances; and the example which he thus nobly set was soon followed by others. By-and-by San Martin and O'Higgins arrived, and many stragglers coming in and uniting themselves with the fresh levies, a new army of six thousand five hundred men was speedily embodied. With this force San Martin posted himself upon the Plains of Maypo, determined to risk a second battle in defence of Santiago.

The royalists followed up their first success with so little vigour, that it was not till the morning of the 5th of April that they appeared within six leagues of the city. Here they were met by the patriots, when a sanguinary contest ensued, in which, though at first successful, the Spaniards received a total defeat. Two thousand royalists fell upon the spot; upwards of three thousand were made prisoners, and scarcely a hundred men,-among whom was the general-in-chief, Osorio, escaped by bye-roads to Talcahuano. In this affair, however, Captain Miller was not engaged, he having been previously detached with a company of infantry, to take possession of the Lautaro frigate, which the Buenos Ayrean government had just purchased; and in which he began his services, as an officer of marines, under the orders of a brave countryman, Captain O'Brien.

The Lautaro, an old East Indiaman, of eight hundred tons, was manned by one hundred foreigners, two hundred and fifty Chilenos, who had never before been afloat, and Miller's company of marines. It immediately put to sea, and in ten hours after, was engaged with the Spanish frigate, Esmeralda, in the bay of Valparaiso. Though the latter escaped, and the gallant commander of the Lautaro perished, this first naval essay on the part of the Chile government was not without its advantages; for it served, at once, to raise the blockade of Valparaiso, and it gave to the patriots a superiority in those seas, of which they failed not to make the most. Other ships were purchased and fitted out, and as it was known that part of a large force, organised at Cadiz, was destined to act against Chile, the squadron prepared to intercept the transports, in which it was represented to be conveyed.

In this squadron, Miller, now promoted to the rank of Major, re-embarked, as senior officer of the troops distributed throughout the ships. These were the San Martin, of fifty-six guns-the Lautaro, of twenty-four-the Chacabuco, of twenty-and Araunaco, of sixteen, the whole under the guidance of Don Manuel Blanco Ciceron, lieutenant-colonel in the army, and commodore. The armament put to sea, at noon on the 9th Oct., 1818, amidst the loudest cheers of an assembled multitude, and the roar of artillery on the forts. But in spite of this display of confidence, there were not wanting persons, whose fears obtained the mastery

over their hopes; and who, remembering the discordant materials of which the crews were composed, and the comparative inexperience of the chiefs, anticipated nothing but disaster and disgrace. Nor is this to be wondered at. Of the naval officers, almost all were Englishmen or North Americans totally ignorant of the Spanish language, while the ships' companies were made up, partly of deserters from the British navy, and partly of conscripts drawn from the Pampas, to whom the very sight of the ocean was new. Yet the best spirit prevailed among them; and though Major Miller was compelled to act as interpreter, to render the most common orders intelligible, everything went on with astonishing regularity.

On the 28th of October, a Spanish frigate, with whose approach the commodore had been made acquainted, was seen at anchor, within pistol-shot of Talcahuano. The commodore hoisted English colours, and steered towards her; but having arrived within musket-range, these were displaced by the Chileno flag, and an irregular but heavy cannonade began. The Spaniards soon cut their cables, and ran their ship on shore, taking to the boats themselves, and escaping; when the prize was immediately taken possession of, and an attempt made to tow her off. But the wind blowing against them, the efforts of the Chileans proved unavailing; and they were themselves sorely annoyed by a fire of musketry from the beach. At this juncture, Miller was despatched with a flag of truce, to offer generous terms to the fugitives, provided they would surrender. But instead of being received as he expected, the Major was made prisoner, and it was even seriously debated whether he should be immediately put to death. From such a fate he was, however, preserved by two militia officers, who compelled him to accompany them towards Conception, on the road to which, he was met by General Sanchez, at the head of one thousand six hundred men; but Sanchez passed on without condescending to speak to him, desiring, at the same time, that he should be blindfolded. This was done with circumstances of extreme barbarity; and when, at last, the Spanish general consented to receive his message, it was met only by an order, that the bearer should be despatched, as he deserved.

That Sanchez desired the death of Major Miller cannot be doubted; but, being anxious to escape the odium which would have attached to a direct murder, he contented himself with directing that his prisoner should be bound hand and foot, and laid únder a shed, in a direct line with the fire from the Patriot squadron. Here Miller passed the night, the shots of his friends falling in all directions round him; but as he had borne himself proudly

before

before his enemy, on the day before, a lively interest was excited in his favour among the Spanish officers. Two of theseColonels Loriga and Cabanos, warmly remonstrated with Sanchez on the cruelty of his proceedings; and throwing out certain hints, which he could not fail to understand, they succeeded, at last, in obtaining his release. Miller was set at liberty; he was led to the beach by Colonel Loriga, and a romantic friendship arose between these individuals, which lasted throughout the remainder of the war, and continues to this day.

In the meanwhile the Chileans, by dint of continued exertions, had succeeded in making themselves masters of the Spanish frigate, and the whole squadron, as soon as Major Miller was received on board, again put to sea. Though exposed to many dangers through the unskilfulness of the crews, this armament completely succeeded in the object which it was intended to serve, capturing, one after another, the entire Spanish convoy of which it was in pursuit; and it returned on the 7th of November to Valparaiso, increased by the amount of its prizes to no fewer than thirteen sail. In these were embarked upwards of two thousand troops, whose junction with the corps of Sanchez, had it been effected, must have given a decided superiority to the royalist cause; indeed it is not going too far to assert that, but for the good fortune which attended the efforts of Commodore Blanco, the progress of the revolution in Chile must have been, at least for a time, arrested.

Whilst Miller and his comrades were enjoying, at Valparaiso, the honours and attentions to which their services entitled them, Lord Cochrane arrived in that city, to take upon himself the chief command of the naval forces of Chile. He was received with the distinction due to his rank, and the deference justified by his professional reputation; and a round of balls and other amusements, private as well as public, caused several weeks to pass merrily away. But the circumstances of the times were not such as to authorise a neglect of other matters, and in the midst of so much gaiety, warlike preparations were rapidly proceeding. These were in due time completed; and on the 14th of January, 1819, Lord Cochrane put to sea with four sail of armed vessels, the largest of which mounted fifty, and the smallest twenty guns, with the design of destroying the enemy's shipping at Callao, blockading his principal seaports, and inducing the Peruvians to cooperate with an expedition which it was intended to embark at Valparaiso, for the purpose of liberating Peru.

On arriving off the bay of Callao, Lord Cochrane, whom Major Miller accompanied in his former office as commandant of the troops, found two Spanish frigates, the Esmeralda and Venganza, moored under the guns of the castle. These he made an attempt

to

to carry, bearing down in his own ship, the O'Higgins, disguised as the United States frigate Macedonian, upon the Esmeralda, and causing the Lautaro, Captain Guise, to act against the Venganza; but the wind unfortunately failing, both vessels were compelled to anchor-Lord Cochrane, at the distance of a thousand yards from his opponent, and Captain Guise no nearer. A heavy but not very destructive cannonade ensued, in which the castle and batteries on shore took part, till Captain Guise being severely wounded, and the O'Higgins cut a good deal in her running rigging, the Independent squadron withdrew.

Nothing daunted, however, by this repulse, Lord Cochrane fell upon other plans for the attainment of his end. He caused rockets to be constructed, and fire-vessels organized, with which repeated attempts were made to destroy the enemy's ships, but all his efforts proved fruitless. The Spaniards rested secure under shelter of their works, and the Chilenian admiral was compelled to return to Valparaiso.

During the course of these operations, Major Miller met with an accident, from the effects of which it was a long time before he recovered. A cask of gunpowder, near which he was standing, exploded, and he was so dreadfully scorched, that the nails dropped from his hands; and for many days he was fed, through a sort of plaster mask, put on to save him from utter blindness. He was delirious for some time; and six weeks elapsed ere his strength was sufficiently reinstated to permit his quitting the cabin even to walk the deck.

The squadron remained in Valparaiso during three months; the whole of which were spent in manufacturing rockets, and making other preparations for a fresh attack upon the shipping at Callao; and on the 12th of September, 1819, the undermentioned vessels of war again set sail :

In these were embarked four hundred soldiers, of whom the chief command was taken by Lieutenant-colonel Charles; and Major Miller, now recovered from his hurts, accompanied them as second.

It is not possible within our present limits to give any detail

of

of the desperate service encountered by this armament in the prosecution of its leader's enterprise: during the space of a fortnight, attempts were made at all hours, and by every means, to reduce the Spaniards; but such was the advantage of their position, that these attempts invariably failed. At last the admiral, considering that the hostile frigates could not be subdued without risking the utter loss of the Patriot squadron, decided upon pursuing a different plan of operations. On the 7th of October, he accordingly weighed anchor, giving the signal to make for Arica. But of his ships so many proved dull sailers, that it became necessary to divide his force; and he left Captain Guise with a portion of it behind, with directions to look in,' as he termed it, at Pisco.

Three hundred and fifty out of the four hundred marines, were embarked on board the vessels entrusted to Captain Guise; and both Colonel Charles and Major Miller were of the number. As soon as they arrived off the place, preparations were made to land; and on the 7th of November the landing was effected. But the garrison of Pisco was now ascertained to amount to nearly one thousand men, of which one hundred and sixty were cavalry, with four field-pieces; and it was found to be hazardous in the last degree, to pursue an undertaking, in which, had they sooner been acquainted with its true nature, there was little probability that they would have embarked. Against this, however, the recollection of their repulse before Callao served sufficiently to steel them; and it was resolved to go on, at all hazards, with a business, in the success of which they hoped to obtain some recompense past misfortunes.

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The little column pushed on in admirable order, till they came in sight of the Spanish corps, its infantry drawn up in the square, its artillery, supported by the cavalry, on a rising ground, which commanded the entrance of the town. There a short halt was made, that the leaders might arrange their plan, after which Colonel Charles, at the head of twenty-five men, filed to his right to reconnoitre; whilst Major Miller, followed by the main body, pressed directly forward. A brisk fire, both of grape and musketry, speedily opened upon them, which did considerable execution; but the Patriots, without returning a shot, still advanced, till scarcely fifteen yards separated the hostile lines. Then the Spaniards, giving their last volley, broke and fled. But though the victory was thus won, and the loss of the enemy great, the Chilenians purchased it at a price which in their eyes was more than commensurate, for Colonel Charles was killed, whilst charging thrice his own numbers, and Miller fell, at the last fire, covered with wounds. His right arm was perforated, his left hand permanently disabled, and a third ball breaking one of his ribs, passed

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