recourse had to the old system of forced loans. This exasperated the moneyed men; and in the midst of discord and confusion news was received that Quezaltenango, one of the departments of Guatimala, had seceded, and declared itself a separate state. At this time, too, the government received a letter from Carrera, stating that he had been informed, since his arrival at Matasquintla, that people spoke ill of him in the capital, and if they continued to do so he had four thousand men, and would return and put things right. From time to time he sent a message to the same effect by some straggling Indian who happened to pass through his village. Afterward it was reported that his followers had renounced his authority and commenced operations on their own account, threatening the city with another invasion, determined, according to their proclamations, to exterminate the whites and establish a government of pardos libres, "free tigers," and enjoy in their own right the lands which had devolved upon them by their emancipation from the dominion of the whites. To the honour of Guatimala, a single spark of spirit broke forth, and men of all classes took up arms; but it was a single flash, and soon died away. Again intelligence arrived that Carrera himself had sent out his emissaries to summon his hordes for another march upon the city. Several families received private information and advice to seek safety in flight. Hundreds of people did so, and the roads were crowded with processions of mules, horses, and Indians loaded with luggage. On Sunday everybody was going, and early on Monday morning guards were placed at the barriers. Hundreds of passports were applied for and refused. Again a decree was published that all should take up arms. The militia were again mus

ARRIVAL OF MORAZAN.

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tered. At ten o'clock on Tuesday night it was said that Carrera was at Palencia, at eleven that he had gone to suppress an insurrection of his own bandits, and on Wednesday night that he was at a place called Canales. On Sunday, the fourth of March, a review took place of about seven hundred men. The Antigua sent three hundred and fifty muskets, and ammunition, which they did not consider it prudent to keep, as there had been cries of "muera Guatimala, y viva Carrera!" and placards bearing the same ominous words had been posted on the walls. At this time a letter was received from Carrera by the government, advising them to disband their troops, and assuring them that he was collecting forces only to destroy a party of four hundred rebels, headed by one Galvez (the former chief of the state, whom he had deposed), and requesting two cannon and more ammunition. At another time, probably supposing that the government must be interested in his fortunes, he sent word that he had narrowly escaped being assassinated. Monreal had taken advantage of an opportunity, seduced his men, tied him to a tree, and was in the very act of having him shot, when his brother Sotero Carrera rushed in, and ran Monreal through with his bayonet. The government now conceived the project of inducing his followers, by the influence of the priests, to surrender their arms on paying them five dollars apiece; but very soon he was heard of stronger than ever, occupying all the roads, sending in imperious proclamations to the government, and at length the news came that he was actually marching upon the city.

At this time, to the unspeakable joy of the inhabitants, General Morazan, the president of the republic, arrived from San Salvador, with fifteen hundred men.

But even yet party spirit was dominant. General Morazan encamped a few leagues from the city, hesitating to enter it or to employ the forces of the general government in putting down a revolution in the state except with the consent of the state government. The state government was jealous of the federal government, tenacious of prerogatives it had not the courage to defend, and demanded from the president a plan of his campaign; passed a decree offering Carrera and his followers fifteen days to lay down their arms, which General Morazan would not permit to be published at his headquarters; two days afterward annulled it, and authorized the president of the republic to act as circumstances might require.

During this time one of Morazan's piquets had been cut off and the officers murdered, which created a great excitement among his soldiers; but, anxious to avoid shedding more blood, he sent into the city for the Canonigo Castillo and Barundia, deputing them as commissioners to persuade the bandits to surrender their arms, even offering to pay fifteen dollars a head rather than come to extremities. The commissioners found Carrera at one of his old haunts among the mountains of Matasquintla, surrounded by hordes of Indians living upon tortillas. The traitor Barundia had been received by Morazan's soldiers with groans; his poor jaded horse was tied up at Morazan's camp a day and a half without a blade of grass; and, as a farther reward of his treason, Carrera refused to meet him under a roof, because, as he said, he did not wish to plunge his new lance, a present from a priest, into Barundia's breast.

The meeting took place in the open air, and on the top of a mountain. Carrera refused to lay down his arms unless all his former demands were complied

with, and unless also the Indian capitation tax was reduced to one third of its amount; but he softened his asperity against foreigners to the demand that only those not married should be expelled the country, and that thereafter they should be permitted to traffic only, and not to radicate in it. The atrocious priest Padre Lobo, his constant friend and adviser, was with him. The arguments of the Canonigo Castillo, particularly in regard to the folly of charging the gov ernment with an attempt to poison the Indians, were listened to with much attention by them, but Carrera broke up the conference by asserting vehemently that the government had offered him twenty dollars a head for every Indian he poisoned.

All hope of compromise was now at an end, and General Morazan marched immediately to Matasquintla; but before he reached it Carrera's bands had disappeared among the mountains. He heard of them in another place, devastating the country, desolating villages and towns, and again, before his troops could reach them, the muskets were concealed, and the Indians either in the mountains or quietly working in the fields. Mr. Hall, the British vice-consul, received a letter from eleven British subjects at Salama, a distance of three days' journey, stating that they had been seized at night by a party of Carrera's troops, stripped of everything, confined two nights and a day without food, and sentenced to be shot, but finally ordered to leave the country, which they were then doing, destitute of everything, and begging their way to the port. A few nights after, at ten o'clock, the cannon of alarm was sounded in the city, and it was reported that Carrera was again at the gates. All this time party strife was as violent as ever; the Centralists trembling

with apprehension, but in their hearts rejoicing at the distraction of the country under the administration of the Liberals, and that one had risen up capable of inspiring them with terror; and the divided Liberals hating each other with a more intense hate even than the Centralists bore to them; but the excitement became so great that all the parties drew up separate petitions to General Morazan, representing the deplorable state of insecurity in the city, and begging him to enter and provide for its safety. Separate sets of deputies hurried to anticipate each other at General Morazan's headquarters, and pay court to him by being the first to ask his protection. General Morazan had become acquainted with the distracted condition of the city, and was in the act of mounting his horse when the deputies arrived. On Sunday he entered with an escort of two hundred soldiers, amid the ringing of bells, firing of cannon, and other demonstrations of joy. The same day the merchants, with the Marquis of Aycinena and others of the Central party, presented a petition representing the dreadful state of public feeling, and requesting Morazan to depose the state authorities and assume the reins of government, and to convoke a Constituent Assembly, as the only means of saving Guatimala from utter ruin. In the evening deputies from the different branches of the Liberal party had long conferences with the president. Morazan answered all that he wished to act legally, would communicate with the Assembly the next day, and be governed by their decision. The proceedings in the Assembly are too afflicting and disgraceful to dwell upon. So far as I can understand the party strife of that time, after wading through papers and pamphlets emanating from both sides, General Morazan conducted himself with probi