Elsewhere, a Gatling gun was purchased in April 1867 for the Argentine Army by minister Domingo F. Sarmiento under instructions from president Bartolomé Mitre. Captain Luis Germán Astete of the Peruvian Navy took dozens of Gatling guns with him in December 1879 from the United States for use during the Peru-Chile War of the Pacific, especially in the Battle of Tacna (May 1880) and the Battle of San Juan (January 1881). The Gatling gun was used most successfully to expand European colonial empires in Africa to defeat mounting massed attacks by indigenous warriors (e.g. the Zulu, Bedouin, and Mahdists). Imperial Russia purchased 400 Gatling guns against Turkmen cavalry and other nomads of Central Asia. The British Army first deployed the Gatling gun in 1873–74 during the Anglo-Ashanti wars, and extensively during the latter actions of the 1879 Anglo-Zulu war. The Royal Navy used Gatling guns during the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War.