CHAPTER V CARRYING THE WAR INTO PERU — NAVAL OPERATIONS The patriots, having achieved the independence of Chile on the plains of Maypo, now made strenuous efforts to equip a navy. Captain Joseph Andrews sold to the government the "Wyndham," an East Indiaman. This craft was fitted out at Valparaiso as a sixty-four gun frigate, named "Lautaro" after the heroic young Araucanian chieftain, manned by four hundred English, American and Chilean seamen, and given in charge of Captain O'Brien, who had had some experience in naval affairs, having once served as a lieutenant in the English navy. A North American vessel had also been purchased about the time of San Martin's march over the Andes ; this was mounted with eighteen guns and called "Ciiacabuco. " Until the battle of Maypo this warship was employed in assisting vessels to run the blockade at the port of Valparaiso, in defiance of the two Span- ish men-of-war stationed there. Withthe"Lautaro" and "Chacabuco" Captain O'Brien having taken on board a land force under Miller, sought to raise the blockade. At the offing of the port he fell in with the Spanish frigate "Venganza" and brig "Pe- zuela. " O'Brien in the "Lautaro" bore down upon the "Venganza" and boarding her, was followed by thirty
