"My Lord—Chile and Chileans are every day more and more indebted to you; the favour which you have this day done me, in relieving me from the necessity of enforcing the execution of another sentence of death, is equal, in the scale of my feelings, to the pardon. I shall send the two deserters to thank your lordship, for I have impressed on their minds what they owe to your lordship's goodness. I have to beg that they be incorporated in the marines, where, fighting under your immediate orders, they may evince their love of the patria, and erase the stain with which they have soiled a cause which has the honour of counting Lord Cochrane among its most worthy defenders &c.—Ramon Freire."
On the day after our arrival, Lord Cochrane had a private conference with General Freire, and proposed to him an attempt on Valdivia, which his lordship offered to undertake with four hundred soldiers, if the general would place them at his disposal, secresy being a positive condition. This truly patriotic chief immediately acceded to the terms, and pledged himself not to communicate the plan even to the supreme government, until the result should be known. It is impossible not to admire this generous conduct of Freire. He lent part of his army, when he was on the eve of attacking Benavides, and exposed himself, by thus weakening his division, to the displeasure of his superiors, should Lord Cochrane not succeed. But his love for his country, and the high opinion which he entertained of the admiral, overcame every objection. The generosity of Freire is equally praiseworthy in another point of view: he gave part of his force to another chief, for the purpose of obtaining a victory, in the glory of which he could not be a participator, except as an American interested in the glorious cause of the liberty of his country.
Orders were immediately given to prepare for a secret expedition; but as this proceeding was so novel, a secret was put in circulation, that the destination was to Tucapel, in order to harass the enemy's force at Arauco; and the distance being so very short, neither officers nor privates encumbered themselves with luggage. All was ready on the afternoon of the 28th, and two hundred and fifty men, with their respective officers, under the command of Major Beauchef, were embarked on board the O'Higgins, the brig of war Intrepid, and the schooner Montezuma, which were at Talcahuano on our arrival. We got under weigh in the morning, because the wind continued calm during the whole of the night.
About four o'clock in the morning his lordship retired to his cabin to rest, leaving orders with Lieutenant Lawson to report if the wind should change, or any alteration should take place. As soon as his lordship had left the quarter deck, Lawson gave the same orders to Mr. George, a midshipman, and also retired to his cabin. The morning was so remarkably hazy, that it was impossible to see twenty yards ahead of the ship, and a slight breeze springing up, the frigate ran aground on a sand-bank off the island Quiriquina, and so near to it, that the jib-boom was entangled among the branches of the trees on shore. This accident brought the admiral on deck, half-dressed, when to his astonishment he saw large pieces of sheathing and fragments of the false keel floating about the ship. A kedge anchor was immediately carried out astern, and in a few minutes we were again afloat. The carpenter sounded, and reported, "three feet water in the hold:" the men at the pumps were almost in despair, all imagining that the expedition had failed at its very outset: in half an hour the carpenter reported, no abatement in the depth of water: well, said his lordship, but does it increase? no, said the carpenter, and orders were immediately given to stand out to sea.
On the second of February, to the southward of Punta Galera, the whole of the troops, including the marines of the O'Higgins, were placed on board the brig and the schooner; his lordship embarked in the latter, and proceeded to the bay of Valdivia; having anchored at sunset near to a small bay, called Aguada del Yngles, English watering place, Major Beauchef took the command of the troops, embarked at Talcahuano, and Major Miller, having recovered of the severe wounds which he received at Pisco, took the command of his brave marines, and assisted in adding new lustre to the arms of Chile.
An advanced party of six soldiers and a sergeant was despatched under the command of the Ensign Vidal, a young Peruvian, having as a guide one of the Spanish soldiers, who came off to the O'Higgins in the boat on our first appearance off Valdivia: they drove the Spaniards from the two guns stationed at the avansada, and following their footsteps, arrived at the battery of San Carlos, but not before the gate was closed.
This battery is formed on the land side by placing pieces of the trunks of trees one upon another to the height of ten feet; and Vidal finding it impossible to scale the wooden wall exerted himself in dragging out two of the logs, and then crept through the hole, followed by his piquet. Having entered, he formed his veteran gang and began to fire on the Spanish soldiers, who not being able to distinguish either the number or situation of their enemy fled in disorder, some clambering over the palisade, while others opened the gate and fled in less apparent disorder. Two officers came to Vidal, and said to him, why do you fire on us, we are your countrymen, we do not belong to the insurgents? I beg your pardon, answered Vidal, you now belong to the insurgents, being my prisoners of war. The two astonished officers immediately surrendered their swords. At this moment Captain Erescano, a Buenos Ayrean, arrived with forty marines, and without any hesitation butchered the two officers, heedless of the remonstrances and even threats of Vidal, who told him, that at another time he should demand satisfaction: he now immediately left Erescano, and with his brave soldiers followed the enemy. The batteries of Amargos and the two Chorocamayos fell in the same manner that San Carlos had fallen, and Vidal had passed the bridge of the Castle del Corral when Captain Erescano arrived with forty marines: thus in five hours all the batteries on the south side of the harbour were in our possession.
At nine o'clock in the morning of the third, the O'Higgins laid to at the mouth of the harbour, under Spanish colours. The Spaniards at Niebla were a second time deceived; for believing her to be a vessel from Spain, they made the private signal, which not being answered by the frigate, the soldiers immediately abandoned the battery, and fled in the greatest disorder. After the O'Higgins was brought to an anchor, detachments of troops were sent to Niebla and the battery of Mansera on the small island bearing the same name. The vessel at anchor, in this port was the Dolores, formerly under the Chilean flag; but in November, 1819, part of the crew took possession of her at Talcahuano, and having slipt her cables, sailed her to Arauco, where Benavides landed those of the crew who were accused of being insurgents, and immediately ordered them to be shot on the beach: a boy who witnessed this horrid spectacle began to cry, which being observed by Benavides, he immediately beat out his brains with his baston. This murderer not knowing what to do with the ship, sent her to Valdivia, where she became our prize; the ringleader, a native of Paita, was also secured, sent to Valparaiso, tried and executed.
The important strong hold of Valdivia was thus annexed to the republic of Chile by one of those inexhaustible resources in war which have marked the career of the hero under whose immediate directions and unparalleled intrepidity the plan was formed and executed. Lord Cochrane having personally attended to the landing of the troops, and given his final orders to Miller and Beauchef, took his gig, and, notwithstanding the shot from the battery of San Carlos, rowed along the shore, watching the operations of the troops, and serving as the beacon to glory.
In fifteen hours from our landing we were in possession of the advanced posts of Aguada del Yngles, el Piojo, de la Boca, and de Playa Blanco; of the batteries of San Carlos, Amargos, Chorocamayo alto and bajo, Mansera, and Niebla; and of the Castle del Corral, mounting on the whole one hundred and twenty-eight pieces of artillery.