In half an hour we saw three or four boats crowded with troops make for the shore, saw the black ragamuffins jumping into the shallow water, scrambling up the beach and lining the top of it, whilst more boats came along from the transports. They went to and fro so rapidly that, before the insurgents could get back to San Fernando, they must have had nearly a thousand men ashore. At last some insurgents began to pour out of the town along the beach, but directly they came in view, the cruisers began to fire at them, their shells bursting right among them on the beach, and the road, and among the trees behind it. The insurgents scattered like smoke. Presently we heard a good deal of rifle firing from the same spot, and Wilson sang out, very excitedly, ’They’re still there, sir; I can see them crawling along the beach, and there are others in the woods. The regulars are firing rifles at them now, sir.’ However, regular troops were being landed in such numbers, and we could see that they had already begun to push their way towards the town so determinedly, that I thought there was every likelihood of San Fernando being captured within an hour or two, and wished to goodness I had not allowed all those officers of mine to go ashore. I had just sent for the Commander, to see what could be done about recalling them, when suddenly two loud reports of guns fired from somewhere behind the town made me jump—they sounded so close, and were so unexpected—and two spouts of water leapt up among the anchored ships close under the bows of the _Presidente Canilla_. I guessed at once that they came from those two 4.7 guns I had seen ashore, and smiled to see my Sub’s face brighten. We all looked through our telescopes again to see what would happen. ’Bang! Bang!’ the reports knocked against our ears, the two guns had fired again, and two more water-spouts sprang up just beyond the flagship. The noise came from the back of the town, but I’m hanged if I could see the guns, though I searched the whole of that tree-covered ridge most carefully. I turned my glass on the ships and saw that they were all in confusion, their crews running about like ants, and then a spurt of flame shot out from the fo’c’stle of the flagship, and a large shell screamed and shrieked over the town. The other cruisers began firing too, their shells dropping all over the place, but very seldom bursting. One struck a patch of swamp, and sent the mud flying up in fine style. The two shore guns fired again, and this time I did see the thin brownish smoke for a second, but a moment later couldn’t see the guns themselves.