Page 40 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

38 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

and all sort of wrecks of his ships already strewn with dead and wounded peo-
ple. On the other hand, things on land were going rather well for the
Uruguaians, despite major losses, among which the very painful one of the
brave commander Pereyra, fallen in the course of a very audacious attack
against the enemy’s fleet.
The second night passed with the fighters close to each other and always
in the most tiring alert. Garibaldi, availing himself of some small cargo ves-
sels skilfully transformed into fire-ships, tried to set fire to enemy’s ships; but
the current changed their course and even this last hope of victory vanished.
Cartridges and artillery shells were almost exhausted. During the night,
under the vigorous impulse of the tireless leader, the Garibaldians, although
very tired, made ammunition by crushing chains and improvising cartridges
with loose powder. At the same time, it was important to keep working at
the pumps because the vessels were letting water in all over the place. The
Constitución had a terrible gash in the keel. To add to the misfortune, that
night the Corrientes’s fleet of light ships, due to the cowardice of his com-
mander, fled, managing to go past the bank and therefore depriving
Garibaldi of those means that would have been appropriate in the case of
boarding and of very good means of transportation of large numbers of
casualties and supplies, in case of a retreat on land.

The dawn of the 17 th saw a terrible picture of death and destruction. The
heroic seaman had the energy to ask for a last and desperate effort from his
survivors exhausted by so much horror and so much hard work. His words
of encouragement moved those spectres and gave some heart to the defence.
Each one of them went heroically back to his battle position. By now
though, Garibaldi’s ships had lost any efficacy. The improvised ammunitions
could be used at most as a very short distance machine-gun. Only their hon-
our was spared; but the fatal moment to disengage from the enemy was
approaching. Garibaldi made arrangements for the disembarkation of the
survivors particularly the wounded and for the ships to be destroyed depriv-
ing the enemy of any trophy of victory. At the appointed hour, the landing
took place in an ordered manner under enemy’s fire. The blowing up of the
ammunition deposit of the Constitución was so shocking that the battle on
the sea and on land stopped for a moment. Garibaldi skilfully took advan-