The Spanish fleet next tried Callao, which was fortified and gave the Spaniards more to think about than they cared for. The principal guns in the batteries were four Armstrong rifles, 300-pounders, which were in turrets faced with 10-inch armour, and five rifles of the Blakely pattern, firing 450 lb. shot. There were also several smaller smooth-bore guns. A small vessel of the monitor type, the _Victoria_, with one 64-pounder, and the monitor _Manco Capac_, with railway iron armour and two 68-pounders, constituted the Peruvian fleet. The _Numancia_, at 1,500 yards range, led her consorts to the attack, but in about half an hour the _Ville de Madrid_ was placed _hors de combat_ with a shot in her steam-pipe. The next disaster to the Spaniards was when the _Berenguela_ had a hole blown in her side by a Blakely shell, so that she could do no more fighting. Then two more Spanish ships had to retire, as they had fired away all their ammunition. The _Numancia_ was hit repeatedly, but her armour saved her from serious damage. The smaller projectiles did her no harm at all, but one of the shells from an Armstrong gun went through her plating and was prevented by the backing from going farther. Both sides lost heavily, but notwithstanding the amount of ammunition expended the damage was not very extensive. This time the honours were distinctly with the shore batteries, and the Spaniards sailed for home. That the advantage given by the possession of powerful warships may be entirely neutralised was demonstrated by the Brazilians in their conflict with Paraguay, in 1865. The Paraguayans fought with the energy of despair. They were between the devil and the deep sea, for they knew that if they did not conquer their enemy, their commander would reward them with tortures from which death would give them a welcome release. In these circumstances the Paraguayans displayed extraordinary daring with a by no means adequate fleet for resisting the Brazilians, who were allied with Uruguay and the Argentine republic, as the outcome of the Paraguayan president, Francisco Lopez’s, energetic, if unconventional, methods. During this war the _Cabral_ and _Colombo_ were added to the Brazilian fleet from Thames builders. They were each 160 feet long and drew 9 feet 9 inches when loaded, and with two pairs of direct-acting horizontal engines of 200 h.p., each driving a screw propeller, so that they were twin-screw boats, they could attain a speed of ten and a half knots. They were really oblong iron forts, supported on rafts. There was no central battery, but each vessel carried six guns forward, two being disposed in the front of the citadel and two on either side of the fore part. A similar battery was placed at the other end. The armour-plates were 4½ inches in thickness, and the deck before and abaft the battery gradually sloped all round to the water-line, and being covered with 2½-inch armour-plating, prevented a shot from penetrating into the ship.