In complete ignorance of Muravev and his ambitions, of Perry and Japan, and with only a general knowledge of events in China, Rear-Admiral Price set about his work in the leisurely way of the peacetime Navy. He had been at Valparaiso for a fortnight before his predecessor Moresby sailed for home, and then he spent a further three weeks in that port before sailing to inspect his area of command. He sent the Virago along the South American coast to Arica in southern Peru and then to Callao, the port for the Peruvian capital Lima. A revolution was brewing in Peru, and investigating this took priority.

Price himself, in President, and with the store ship Cockatrice in attendance, sailed north on 20 February, first to Coquimbo, a voyage of about 300 kilometres, and then to Caldera, a similar distance further north. This place was just south of the Chile–Bolivia border (as it then was), a good place from which to observe the Peruvian problem without getting directly involved. Price may have intended to go further, but at Caldera on 2 March he received mail from Britain. Two of the letters were instructions to send Virago to Panama and another ship to carry supplies to Rattlesnake and Plover in the Bering Strait. There was as yet no clear word about war with Russia.

Price also received mail addressed to Rear-Admiral Moresby, one letter of which was from the British Consul-General in Honolulu, William Miller.