THE BOMBARDMENT OF RIO. 789 establishing a blockadeof the harbour entrance. But the foreign consuls, backed by the commanders of the foreign warships in the bayvetoed a blockade. So the chief incidents of the first stage of the war were intermittent cannonades carried on almost daily between Mello's ships and Peixoto's forts, the batteriesof Villegagnon joininginafter a whileon theside of the Admiral. One would have expected that antagonists fighting at such close quarters would have destroyed each other, or at least done each other very serious injury, but as a rule the shooting was bad, and the ammunition, which had been years in store in that tropical climate, had so deteriorated that often a fair shell into the heart of the city in the attempt to silence some battery which has given them trouble. No point is safe, for Peixoto, with characteristic indifference to life and property, has planted these batteries anywhere and everywhere, and Mello's menaim so badly that their shots fall more often where they should not than where thev should. One of the worst nights was that of the ioth of December, when the people were just leaving the theatres; as the shells exploded round them they fled madly up and down the darkened streets, trying to find their way to their homes, and when these were gained, leaving them again in new fear as the shells burst upon their roofs. A general hitdid insignificant damage.

The townsfolk soon got used to the desultory warfare carried on in the harbour. An English lady who lived at Rio during the revolt gives a striking description of what she calls " the inexplicable conduct of the Brazilian non- combatants." "They are to be seen," she wrote, " in their hundreds from dawn to dusk on the heights overlooking the bay, as they watch the attempt of their army to destroy their navy, and of their navy to destroy their capital. ' Ola!' they cry, rush, with bags and parcels in hand, was finally made for the stations of the tramway, and the cars, putting out theirlights on thebeachsection that they might not afford a mark for the insurgents,carried the citizens by hundreds to the suburbs leaving their deserted residences to the robber."

Besides carrying on this drawn battle with the forts, Mello endeavoured to send help to his friends in the south. His first effort was a failure. A transport with 200 of his adherents on boardtried to run the gaunt-ADMIRAL DE MELLO. {Photo: //cnsc/tel &* Co., Rio deJaneiro.)

let of the forts on the night of October 12th, but was seen, badly crippledby theenemy's fire,aud driven ashore to saveher from sinking. A few days later Mello had his revenge, his cruiser, the Republica, ramming and sinking one ot the President's transports, which had just taken on board 1,100 troops destined for the south. In November the insurgents suffered several losses.

Two of the magazines on the islands were blown up, a torpedo boat was sunk by a fair hit with a shell, and the Javary sank while engaging the forts. It appears that she went down, not from any injury caused by hostile fire, but through large leaks opening between her plates under the concussion of her own heavy turret guns.

Mello was anxious to convey help to his friends in the south, and to provoke a demonstration in his savour in some of the other coast towns. At the end of November he coaled and provisioned his flagship, the Aquidaban, and the as a shot from a fort, missing the gunboat at which it was aimed, falls into the water to its stern, throwing up a waterspout as it does so. 'Tiro magnifico! A splendid shot!' is pronounced a moment later, as the confusion on board shows that another gunner had had better luck. Then they clap their hands as though they were watching a scene got up by the manager of some theatre, and exchange remarks on the skill of the actors, while some whohave glasses lend them to those who have none, and so on from day to day, foreigners meanwhile looking on in amazement, and wonderingif these can indeed be the people who will be called upon to pay during a couple of generations to comefor that amusement to-day which is destroying the work of a couple of generations in the past."

"But sometimes," the writeradds, "the laugh and the applause are turned into a shriek of terror as the insurgents pour their shot and