Apparently the insurgents had anticipated and were ready to fight. The white steam was hissing from the safety valve pipes on the “Aquidaban” and the “Tamandare,” lying well up the bay above Vianna Island, and the chains of their anchors had been hove short, ready for tripping on an instant’s warning. The crews of the “Trajano,” the “Guanabara,” and the fleet of armed tugs had been augmented by almost the entire force garrisoning Cobras and Villegaignon. The “Liberdade,” with her little blue ensign fluttering from the flag halliards on the main, showing that Admiral Gama was on board, was also under steam and, with the “Trajano” and the “Guanabara,” was lying just north of Enchados Island and within pistol shot of the trim Yankee bark “Amy,” one of the number that wished to go to the piers to discharge. Away to the north of these lay the Yankee barkentine “Good News,” a handsome craft, too, but not alone, for one of the swift Brazilian coasters, the “Parahyba,” which Mello had seized and armed, was at anchor not far away with steam up and crew at the guns; so, too, the bark “Agate” was guarded by one of these armed steamers as she lay at anchor in the merchant fleet. With the American fleet stripped for battle, with the American merchant-ships under the guns of the insurgent fleet, and with the crews of all on deck and ready for action, the picture on the bay as daylight came was one to thrill every spectator. At 6 o’clock sharp the “Detroit,” with Capt. W. H. Brownson on the bridge, got up her anchor and steamed slowly in toward the city, heading through between Enchados and Cobras islands. As if this had been a signal prearranged for the occasion, two of the insurgent tugs left the vicinity of the “Liberdade,” Gama’s flagship, and started in toward the north part of the city, where shipping piers are. They at once opened fire on the soldiers stationed at intervals behind sand bags on the bulkheads. It had been and still is the custom of these tugs to so assault the north littoral of the city, but on that morning they were making a live line of fire against the piers, which the American ships had no right to cross. Fortunately, as it appeared, the “Detroit” on getting her anchor to the hawse pipe found it badly fouled, and here was an ample excuse for proceeding slowly. She did so. She did not want to go with the Yankee clippers to the piers at a time when the act would interfere with a legitimate, if useless fight. For about half an hour the tugs swept up and down the beach, pouring a hail of Nordenfeldt projectiles on the piers, and then a bullet from a soldier’s rifle struck and killed the nephew of Admiral Gama, a young officer on one of the tugs, and both drew off though the fire was kept up until they were a mile away, among the merchant-ships.