Cochrane then sailed away for Arica, where there was a six-gun battery and a garrison of 300 men. After a fruitless cannonade, 250 men were landed higher up the coast in two divisions, one of which, led by Miller, marched on the city of Tacna; while Major Soler of the grenadiers marched with the other upon Arica, which is the port of Tacna. Arica was evacuated by the enemy on his approach, and Soler, starting in pursuit, captured a string of mules on the road to Lima, which were laden with 120,000 dollars in specie. Effects to the value of 300,000 dollars, the property of Spaniards resident in Lima, were also confiscated in the town and shipped on board the San Martin.
Miller was received with enthusiasm at Tacna, and was joined by many volunteers. The garrisons of both the city and the port passed over to him, and were embodied in a new battalion styled “The Loyalists of Peru.” Cochrane presented the new corps with a flag, a golden sun on a blue ground.
One of the volunteers was a Peruvian named Landa, a man of gigantic stature, and well acquainted with the country, who had served in the ranks of the Royalists. To the service which he subsequently rendered to the Patriots much of the success of the expedition may be attributed. Another of the volunteers was Colonel Portocarrero, also a Peruvian, who was one of the secret agents of San Martin.
Miller had now 900 men under his orders, of whom 400 were drilled troops, and determined to enter upon a formal campaign. Rumour had greatly exaggerated the number of his forces, and all the country about was in a ferment.
General Ramirez, who was stationed at Puno, directed several detached corps to concentrate on the river Ilo, under Colonel Santos la Hera, to resist the invasion. Miller, who was kept well informed by Portocarrero and Landa, started to prevent this concentration of the Royalists. He reached the river Samba on the 20th May, and at midnight, after a forced march of eighteen hours across a desert, reached the Ilo, opposite to the village of Mirave, where La Hera was encamped. An advanced picket gave the alarm, but two Englishmen, named Hill and Hunn, with twenty men, forded the river, and drew off the attention of the enemy, while Miller and the bulk of his force crossed unmolested in the darkness. At daybreak Miller attacked the village, and carried it after a sharp struggle, in which young Welsh, Cochrane’s physician, who accompanied the expedition as a volunteer, was killed.
Hardly had the last fugitives of La Hera’s party disappeared when Colonel Rivero came in sight, with another detachment from Puno, mounted on mules. A few rockets put them to flight.
The same afternoon Miller started in pursuit, and on the 24th reached the city of Moquegua, where Portocarrero was Deputy Governor, who at once passed over to him. The remains of La Hera’s force had been overtaken and made prisoners by Soler, and on the 26th Miller overtook Rivero, and either killed or made prisoners nearly all his party. In fifteen days from landing Miller with his small force had put more then a thousand of the enemy hors de combat, and Cochrane wrote to San Martin, telling him that in eight days more they would have Arequipa.
La Hera, having met in his flight with other parties on the march to join him, now turned upon Miller and tried to cut off his retreat, but Miller reached Tacna in safety, and was there met by the news of the armistice of Punchauca.
During the suspension of hostilities Miller employed his time in drilling his raw troops, while Ramirez collected 2,000 men to oppose him; Cochrane returned to Callao, leaving only three small transports at Arica, which very soon followed him.
Miller, left to himself, was at the expiration of the armistice compelled to retreat to Arica, where he seized four merchant vessels and embarked with those of his partisans who were most seriously compromised, leaving his sick to the care of La Hera, who, grateful for kindness shown by Miller to his prisoners, gave them every possible attention. A great contrast to the general procedure of the Royalist leaders.