Both ships could, of course, quite honourably have saved themselves once their case had become hopeless, had their officers chosen to surrender. But it was with no thought of surrendering that they had engaged, and the stoic heroism of their end is the noblest legacy they could have left to their fellow countrymen. _Glasgow_ kept with _Monmouth_ as long as she could; but her orders from the Admiral had been explicit, and it was obvious that she could not single-handed engage the undamaged German squadron, nor be of the slightest service to _Monmouth_ had she attempted to do so. Captain Luce, quite rightly therefore, retreated from the scene. A private letter, written a day after the action by the German Admiral, throws an interesting light on the situation. After recounting the unimportant character of the damage suffered by his ships, he adds, “I do not know what adverse circumstances deprived the enemy of every measure of success.... If _Good Hope_,” he wrote “escaped she must, in my opinion, make for a Chilean port on account of her damages. To make sure of this I intend going to Valparaiso to-morrow with _Gneisenau_ and _Nürnberg_, and to see whether _Good Hope_ could not be disarmed by the Chileans. If so, I shall be relieved of two powerful opponents. _Good Hope_, though bigger than _Scharnhorst_, was not so well armed. She mounted heavy guns, but only two, while _Monmouth_ succumbed to _Scharnhorst’s_ as she had only 6-inch guns. The English have another ship like _Monmouth_ hereabouts and, in addition, as it seems, a battleship of the _Queen_ class carrying 12-inch guns. Against the latter we can hardly do anything. Had they kept their force together, we should probably have got the worst of it. You can hardly imagine the joy which reigned among us. We have at least contributed something to the glory of our arms, although it may not mean much on the whole and in view of the enormous number of English ships.”