But even, independent of an Indian revolt, there were two places only, on all the coast of the South Sea, which could be supposed capable of resisting our squadron; these were the cities of Panama and Callao: as to the first of these, its fortifications were so decayed, and it was so much in want of powder, that the president himself, in an intercepted letter, acknowledged it was incapable of being defended; whence I take it for granted it would have given us but little trouble, especially if we had opened a communication across the isthmus with our fleet on the other side. And with regard to the city and port of Callao, its condition was not much better than that of Panama; since its walls are built upon the plain ground, without either out-work or ditch before them, and consist only of very slender feeble masonry, without any earth behind them; so that a battery of five or six pieces of cannon, raised anywhere within four or five hundred paces of the place, would have had a full view of the whole rampart, and would have opened it in a short time; and the breach hereby formed, as the walls are so extremely thin, could not have been difficult of ascent; for the ruins would have been but little higher than the surface of the ground; and it would have yielded this particular advantage to the assailants, that the bullets, which grazed upon it, would have driven before them such shivers of brick and stone as would have prevented the garrison from forming behind it, supposing that the troops employed in defence of the place should have so far surpassed the usual limits of Creolian bravery as to resolve to stand a general assault. Indeed, such a resolution cannot be imputed to them; for the garrison and people were in general dissatisfied with the viceroy's {264} behaviour, and were never expected to act a vigorous part. On the contrary, the viceroy himself greatly apprehended that the commodore would make him a visit at Lima, the capital of the kingdom of Peru; to prevent which, if possible, he had ordered twelve gallies to be built at Guaiaquil and other places, which were intended to oppose the landing of our boats, and to hinder us from pushing our men on shore. But this was an impracticable project of defence, and proceeded on the supposition that our ships, when we should land our men, would keep at such a distance that these gallies, by drawing little water, would have been out of the reach of our guns; whereas the commodore, before he had made such an attempt, would doubtless have been possessed of several prize ships, which he would not have hesitated to have run on shore for the protection of his boats; and besides, there were many places on that coast, and one particularly in the neighbourhood of Callao, where there was good anchoring, though a great depth of water, within a cable's length of the shore; consequently the cannon of the man-of-war would have swept all the coast to above a mile's distance from the water's