CIVIL WARS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 788 them lately received from Thornycroft'syardat Chiswick. There were four smaller boats,two old gunboats, and some armed merchant steamers. The Aquidaban, the Tamandare, the Republica, and the three larger torpedo boats, were the effective portion of the fleet.

Mello hoped to repeatthe success wonby the Chilian Congressists, and tried to work on the same lines. The armyand the land forts around Rio Harbour remained true to Peixoto, but Mello's adherents were supposed to be strong in the southern provinces of Brazil. He hoped to raise an army there, and bring it north to attack Rio before Peixoto could assemble a fleet to oppose him.

executed. On the 28th, the Balmacedists were attacked on the heights above LaPlacilla, south of the city*. They were driven from their position by the rapid rifle fire of the Congressists. The two Balmacedist generals, Barbosa and Alcerreca, were killed in the fight— some sayshotby their own men, thousands of whom surrendered on the battle-field. The rest were driven back into the city. When Balmaceda saw that all was lost, he had hidden himself. His colleagues had fled, and the city was in the hands of the scum of the population and the criminals released from the prisons, who were burning and plundering the houses. The Congressists, assisted by landing parties from the foreign warships, quickly restored order. Most of Balmaceda's colleagues escaped. But theex-Dictator shot himself in his hiding-place. Chili has enioyed a period of peace and prosperity since his downfall.

The Brazilian Civil War, which lasted from the autumn of 1893 to the spring of 1804, also began with a naval pronunciamento against the Government. There were two rival candidates for power, Marshal Peixoto, the President, who was supported by At the outbreak of the revolt the President had nonaval force at hand. A few vessels that were away in Europe, or on the coastsofSouth America, were stillnominally onhis side, but he had no security that they would not declare for Mello if they were brought back to Rio. In any case it would take some time to assemble them, and the rebei fleet might destroy them in detail. Mello kept his fleet at first in the great land-locked sheet of water that forms the PRESIDENT PEIXOTO. {Photo;Pacheco 6 Zilho, RiodeJaneiro.)

the army,and AdmiralMello,the leader of the revolt, whohad the greater part of the navy on his side. On September 5th,1893,Mello,assisted by thirty-six navalofficers andhalf-a-dozenMembers ofCongress,wonover the fleetinRioJaneiro Bay. The party* assembledon the beach shortly* beforemidnight,andpulled off withmuffledoars, first to the turret-ship Aquidaban, then to the other warships in the harbour. The officers and crews were easily persuaded to declare forMello, and in the morning Rio was startled with the news that the fleet had revolted against the President during thenight.

Thevessels that had joinedMello were,besides the Aquidaban, theJavary, an oldcoast defence ironclad with two turrets, mounting 10-in. guns inpairs ; the Alagoas, a single-turretedmonitor, originally built for river service ; a protected cruiser, the Almirante Tamandare, a new ship, which was not yet completely fitted out ; two small cruisers, both old, the Tra/ano and the Guanabara;and a splendid new cruiser, the Rcpublica, just arrived from Elswick. There were also three sea-going torpedo boats, two of inner portion of the harbour. In this position he was safe from nearly all the forts, which are built to command the strait,about a mile wide,by which the harbour opens on the sea. The President's officers later on erected batteries near the city, which bore on his anchorage. But if he meant to get out to sea he would have to run the gauntlet of the forts. One of the most formidable of these stoodon the island of Villegagnon, which rises boldly from the sea in the middle of the passage between Rio and the harbour mouth. At first Fort Villegagnon wasneutral,butitsoon declared for Admiral Mello, and his position was further strengthened by Admiral de Gama coming over to him. Gama was in charge of the island of Enchadas, which contained large magazines of navalstores, and,thanks tohis defection, Mello now controlled all the available Brazilian warships, as well as the islands and magazines in the bay. The mainland forts remained steadily loyal to Peixoto.

Admiral Mello might have attempted to reduce the city by going out to sea and