Santa Fe is situated on the east bank of the river. It is a place of some size. Built partly at the foot and partly on the side of a lofty hill, surrounded by _corrales_ where thousands of cattle are slaughtered, their hides and their tallow being shipped from the port, while vast flocks of vultures, carrion crows, and other birds of prey hover over them to consume the refuse beef, which there are not human mouths sufficient to eat. As may be supposed, it is far from an agreeable place. The greater part of the English and French men-of-war were lying at Baxadar de Santa Fe, which was the appointed rendezvous of the merchantmen. Here the larger number, having effected their object, collected towards the middle of May. The difficulty was now to get the convoy safely back past the batteries of San Lorenzo. Sir Charles Hotham had got up to settle some diplomatic affairs with the Government of Corrientes, and on the 16th of May he returned in the _Alecto_. A plan had occurred to Lieutenant Mackinnon of that ship, by which the passage of the convoy might be facilitated; and, having proposed it to Sir Charles Hotham, he, after a short consideration of its possibility, expressed his willingness to have it carried out, should everything be as supposed. Lieutenant Mackinnon stated that opposite to the heavy part of the batteries of San Lorenzo he had observed an island covered with long reeds, grass, and small trees, but completely commanded by the guns of the battery. He proposed, the night before the convoy was to fight their way down, to take on shore a certain number of congreve rockets, to land them at the back of the island, and to place them in readiness for use when the time of action should arrive; this could be effected in a few minutes,--then to dig by the side of each rocket a hole large enough to contain the men working them, and to throw the earth up as a kind of barricade before it; at the signal given by the commander-in-chief, when all the enemy's batteries were fully manned, waiting for the convoy, to commence a tremendous fire of rockets, which, being totally unexpected by the enemy, would be proportionally effective and destructive. The chances were that they would return this fire, which the prepared holes would render harmless; and if the rocket-stands or tubes were hit,--very difficult objects,--poles and instruments would be at hand to repair them immediately. Besides, when the vessels were passing, the chances were that, from the height of the cliffs, the rockets would strike the enemy over the mast-heads of the ships, thus causing a double-banked fire of great force.