In the magazines there were eight hundred and forty barrels of gunpowder, each weighing one hundred and twenty-five pounds, one hundred and seventy thousand musket cartridges, about ten thousand shot, many of copper, besides an immense quantity of all kinds of warlike stores. Our loss consisted of seven men killed, and nineteen wounded; that of the enemy of three officers and ten soldiers killed, and twenty-one wounded; besides six officers prisoners, among whom was the Colonel of Cantabria, Don Fausto del Hoyo, and seventy-six Spanish sergeants, corporals, and privates.
Every thing being secured in the port, his lordship went with part of the troops to the city, which had been sacked by the Spaniards, who had fled towards Chiloe. A provisional government was immediately elected by the natives who were present, at which, by his lordship's orders, I presided, and received the elective votes; the person chosen being afterwards confirmed in his situation as governor ad interim by the admiral. On examining the correspondence in the archives, I found that many serious complaints had been made by Quintanilla, the governor of Chiloe, to Montoya the ex-governor of Valdivia, stating his fear of a revolution at San Carlos, the principal town. This induced his lordship to appear off Chiloe, and even to land part of the force that could be spared at Valdivia. He gave orders to prepare for embarkation on the 12th, but unfortunately the brig Intrepid was driven from her anchorage by a strong northerly wind, and wrecked on a sand-bank that stretches into the bay from the island of Mansera. This very serious loss was regarded by the admiral like our former accident at Talcahuano, and orders were immediately issued for the soldiers to embark in the Montezuma and Dolores. The short respite from active duty allowed his lordship to inform the supreme government of Chile of his success at Valdivia; which he effected by sending a small piragua, with orders to touch at Talcahuano, and to report to General Freire the result of the expedition.
The receipt of the unexpected news at Valparaiso was a moment of exultation to the friends of Lord Cochrane, and a very severe check on the tongues of his detractors; some of these had been busily employed in forming matter wherewith to tarnish the rocket expedition; and they generously attributed its failure to the unskilfulness, not of those who had prepared the missiles, but to the persons who had used them. His absence from Chile was adduced as a proof of his disobedience to the orders of the government. Now, however, all was hushed, and every one exclaimed, "we knew that our admiral would not return to Chile without adding new laurels to his brows." This was re-echoed in Valparaiso; and long live Cochrane! was the general cry; long live the hero of Valdivia! resounded in every street.
On the 13th, Lord Cochrane went on board the schooner Montezuma, and sailed with the Dolores for Chiloe, where the troops were landed, and two small batteries taken, and afterwards demolished. The young Ensign Vidal was again appointed to command an advanced party of twenty-four soldiers, and when, ascending the hill on which the Castle de la Corona is built, he lost eleven of his men by a volley of grape from the battery, he immediately ordered the drummer to beat a retreat: that is impossible, said the boy, knocking the sticks together, for my drum is gone. In fact it had been shattered to pieces by a shot; however Vidal retired, carrying three wounded men with him, and Miller being wounded at the same time by a grape shot which had passed the fleshy part of his thigh, the retreat to the boats was immediately ordered. The resistance made at this place by the natives, headed by several friars, was a convincing proof that they were determined supporters of the cause of Spain, and as the patriot force was not sufficient to attempt a conquest of the town, the soldiers were re-embarked.
During the absence of the admiral with the marines, part of the troops embarked at Conception were left on duty at the Castle del Corral, under the command of Ensign Latapia, who in cold blood, and without the slightest provocation, ordered two of the prisoners, a corporal and a private, to be shot. I immediately ordered four officers who were on shore to be sent on board the O'Higgins, fearful that they might be treated in the same manner. On the return of his lordship on the twentieth, Latapia was placed under arrest on board, and the necessary declarations were taken, according to the Spanish forms, for his trial by a court-martial. He was conveyed to Valparaiso as a prisoner; his conduct, together with that of Erescano, was reported to the government, and when we expected to hear of their being sentenced to some kind of punishment, we were surprized to find that they had been promoted. These two individuals were afterwards employed by San Martin, and by him they were again promoted in Peru.
His lordship having given orders for the O'Higgins to be overhauled and repaired, considering it unsafe to venture again to sea in her, he embarked on the twenty-eighth in the Montezuma for Valparaiso, taking with him five Spanish officers, and forty privates, prisoners, leaving directions with me to superintend what was going on here, until I should receive orders from the supreme government.
Major Beauchef having collected all the force he was able, which, including the troops embarked at Conception, and some volunteers of Valdivia, amounting only to two hundred and eighty individuals, marched to the Llanos, having received information that the Spaniards who fled from Valdivia had sworn at Chiloe that they would return and either conquer or die in the attempt. The two armies met near the river Toro, on the sixth of March, and after an engagement of less than an hour, the Spanish officers mounted their horses and fled, leaving the soldiers to their fate. On the tenth Beauchef arrived at Valdivia, bringing with him two hundred and seventy prisoners, with all the arms and baggage belonging to the Spaniards.
The Independencia and Araucano arrived on the twelfth, with the necessary workmen and tools for the repairs of the O'Higgins; after she was hove down, it was discovered that besides a great quantity of sheathing, she had lost nineteen feet of her false keel, and about seven of her main keel. On the eleventh of April the repairs were finished, and we embarked for Valparaiso, where we arrived on the eighteenth.