Rojas had lost men and was short of supplies. He made camp at Volta da Empresa and sent messengers to Puerto Alonso and Riberalta asking for fresh guns and ammunition Plácido de Castro surrounded the Bolivian camp but failed to achieve surprise in an attack on 5 October 1902 and instead settled into a siege, digging diagonal trenches to close in on the Bolivians. He invited Rojas to surrender on 9 October. Rojas held out for a few more days, then surrendered on 15 October and led his disarmed men back to Bolivia. On 14 October 1902 the rebels captured some of the outer defences of Puerto Alonso and the armed Bolivian launch Rio Afua, which they renamed the Independencia. Further successful fighting continued in the south against a column of Bolivian rubber tappers and a picket of poorly trained troops at Santa Rosa del Abuná.
