Archibald Smith

War of Independence.—Unsettled state of the country at the close of 1835 and early in 1836.—Gamarra’s Government.—Insurrections.—Guerilla and Freebooters.—Foreign Marines.—Lima invaded from the castles of Callao, under command of Solar.—Orbegoso enters Lima.—Castles of Callao taken by assault.—Battle of Socabaya.—Salaverry taken prisoner.—Execution.—Public tranquillity hoped for under the protection of Santa-Cruz.

Having in the preceding chapters attempted to give a correct idea of the general aspect of Peru, and of the social condition of its inhabitants, we will subjoin a brief sketch of the anarchy into which it fell about the close of the year 1835 and beginning of 1836.

From the year 1810, when first the Patriot flag was triumphantly carried into upper Peru by the spirited Buenos-Ayreans, the natives of lower Peru, or that which is now called the Peruvian Republic, had the path to freedom boldly pointed out to their view. But in Lima, where Spanish influence and loyalty were strongly concentrated, it was not until 1819, when Lord Cochrane appeared with a liberating squadron on the shores of Peru, and the Chilean and Buenos-Ayrean forces in the year following landed on the same coast under the command of General San Martin, that the national spirit of the Peruvian people declared itself in that joyful welcome, and effective support of their proposed deliverers and fellow patriots, which struck dismay into the councils, and confusion into the operations of their proud oppressors. Then, indeed, were kindled all the horrors of civil strife and warfare in this once opulent and peaceful country; and these sanguinary struggles never ceased, until, aided by the Colombian troops, and the directing mind of the great Liberator Bolivar, the Peruvians were at length enabled to throw off the chains of despotism which for more than three centuries they had submissively worn,—chains of which they will long bear evident marks on their national and domestic character; for the battle of Ayacucho, which was gloriously fought and won by the Patriots on the 9th day of December 1824, and which terminated the great liberating campaigns of Peru, has not yet secured prosperity to that distracted country. But the Peruvians, having thrown off the tameness of bondage, and assumed the name of freemen, have yet harder work before them than the expulsion of the Spaniards: they have to finish their own work of regeneration; to surmount all the intestine difficulties and reconcile all the discordant elements which originate among themselves; they have to free their community of noisy demagogues that poison the public press, and discontented agitators who, affecting the purest zeal for the commonwealth, have an eye only to their own interest, and whose object is change—they care not what, so long as it may benefit themselves. How far they are yet from having realized the final advantages they proposed to derive from their great, and, so far, successful revolutionary struggle, is plainly discovered in times of public disturbance, when all classes suffer more or less severely from grinding contributions and wanton exactions.

The wealth of the “hacendado,” or landed proprietor, is dissipated in every turmoil; and the less affluent farmer, or “chacarero,” is arrested in his labour, and has his arm paralysed by indigence and violence. Predatory troops, as well as government hirelings, seize and drive off his cattle, lead astray his slaves, press or frighten away his free labourers, destroy his crops, and pillage his granaries; and should the spoliated countryman, or country gentleman, be able to rally his spirits and renew his exertions so as to recover the shock of one year’s depredation, the repetition of the like violence, or an aggression yet more destructive, on the following year, consigns him to hopeless beggary. The miners likewise, though a greatly privileged corporation, are for the most part destitute of real capital; yet, in these times, misnamed patriotic, they are a prey to unjust collectors of tribute, who, on fixing any particular miner’s contribution at a certain sum in current money, which he is unable to pay, take care to recover the amount in piÑa. Now, the extortioner asserts that the miner’s piÑa, though truly excellent, is very badly purified,—that it is of “mucha merma,” or sustains great loss of weight in fusion; and, under this false pretence, again comes upon the miner, and obliges him to make up the alleged deficiency: this, in fact, is a surplus, over and above the demands of the government, which swaggering colonels, or other such commissioned pilferers, appropriate without scruple to their own unworthy purposes. Such acts of violence and villany in times of petty revolutions lead to the worst consequences; for they not only occasion great private distress, but create such a general distrust in the government and its rapacious agents, as frequently prevents the miners from remitting silver bars to Lima, when otherwise it might be their interest to do so; and this oppression causes a contraband trade, for which, indeed, the open coasts of the country afford all imaginable facility. Nor should it be here overlooked that, as a common consequence of the frequent public broils in this republic, the small merchant or retail dealer often feigns, on the convenient plea of bad times, an utter incapacity to pay the wholesale foreigner in Lima who credits him with goods. Should a person of this character once get into the interior with a respectable stock on hand, he is sure to play the part of a gentleman in feasting and dancing, &c.; and it may take some trouble not only to get him to render fair accounts, but to hunt him out of the town or village where, under the pretext of transacting business, he is pleased to locate himself. In short, so great is the disorder in every department of the social and political system in Peru, that, to express the sentiments of a friend of ours, and a distinguished Peruvian statesman, “In Peru there cannot for a long time to come be any other than a military government; every state pretends to regulate itself by a moral government; but, as we have little or no morality in our land, the bayonet must inevitably direct us. Here we have no industry; there is not more than one man in ten that labours for his bread: and putting out of the question the ‘empleados,’ or those who fill public stations under government, and who are supported at the cost of the state, there is not one in thirty of those mannikins who are daily seen loitering about the streets that live by their own proper industry. Give to the Indian, in whose arm rests our physical strength, an idea of his wants; let him know the conveniences of civilized life; in short, enlighten the mass of our people so as to let them understand something at least of the nature and end of government, and then we shall not have daily revolutions. But, situated as we are at present, we have neither capital, industry, nor private security. All is insecure; all is loose and common, unhinged, unprotected, and without order. Good men have nothing to hope for: the few individuals who have access to our rulers are guided by none but the most sordid motives. It is the ruin of my lacerated country, that no man looks beyond his personal interest; that no one attaches himself to the government with sound intentions, or with any view except that of plunder.”

The mountain Indian in particular, whose knowledge and usefulness our patriotic friend would fain improve and enlarge, long inured to servitude, and only acquainted with the rudest arts of life, has never arrived at a correct idea of the extent of his privations, or of the nature of those primary political rights which, by skilful combination and promises, (though himself too ignorant to reason on the merits of the cause,) he was at length goaded forward to assert, and for some time to sustain with manly energy. Thus have the meekest and most submissive of men, through vigorous exertions on the part of the few who conceived and originated the plan of their independence, been stirred up to despite their unjust rulers, and trained to the use of fire-arms, at the very sight of which they formerly trembled. The effect of such education must for some time be productive of disorder; for, to apply a homely illustration, the fire that is lit by the husbandman to destroy overgrown and noxious weeds, cannot always be checked before it scorches the cane or the corn field; and so it is with hostile passions, which when once excited, though for a good and patriotic purpose, cannot always be quelled at pleasure, or at once restrained within the limits of perfect order and rational liberty. Of this the recent history of Peru affords ample evidence, for, since the close of General Gamarra’s troubled government, there has scarcely been a lull of temporary peace in that ill-fated country.[27] It is asserted by those who best knew this influential man’s counsels, that, during his four years’ rule, he crushed no fewer than fourteen conspiracies more or less matured against his person or government: yet at the expiration of his lawful term of presidentship, to which dignity his artful schemes conducted him on the ruin of his predecessor, the beloved General La Mar, he had scarcely relinquished his high office in January 1834, when he was seen to rear the standard of rebellion, and hasten the downfall of his country by authorizing insurrection with his example. Although frustrated in this shameful revolt, in the year following he was again at the head of an armed faction, and in open and sanguinary rebellion. But finally, after the disastrous battle of Yanacocha, and total dispersion of his surviving partisans, he came to Lima for refuge against the united and victorious force of his legitimate foes, the Peruvian president Orbegoso, with his Bolivian ally, Santa-Cruz. And here in the capital, while receiving the condolence of his mortified friends, and mourning the loss of his heroic wife, the renowned Panchita,[28] whose heart in his utmost adversity was presented to him by a confidential female friend, enclosed in a glass,—he had little leisure to weep over it. Ere his awakened sorrow was soothed, he was arrested on a rough military warrant, and, in company with several of his friends or adherents, once more hurried away into banishment by the stern orders of the impetuous General Salaverry, a rival leader, less artful and wary, but more active and daring than himself.

Lest anything should be wanting to crown the accumulated miseries of a distracted and afflicted people, his excellency the provisional president of the republic, Don Jose Louis Orbegoso, in his address to the Peruvians, dated Tarma, January 4th, 1836, and published in the Redactor of Lima on the 9th day of the same month, solemnly affirmed and promulgated that “the very laws, dictated with the pure intention of securing happiness to the commonwealth, had concentrated within themselves the elements of her destruction. These laws had proved a safeguard to the seditious, and had been the bulwarks of rebellion. Through their operation the executive had been forced to feel the volcano at its feet, though unable to prevent an eruption. Yes, under the overseeing eye of the government, the revolutions had been hatched and brought forth, reared and strengthened into maturity.”

This acknowledgment, from a president duly invested with extraordinary or dictatorial powers, renounced every rational idea of government, and virtually declared the incapacity of the supreme authority to protect the person, property, or rights of the citizen, or to sustain the necessary subordination of society. By this government, which so frankly declared its own imbecility, men either faithless or inept were, perhaps for want of better, appointed to fill offices of high trust and power; and in this way was kindled the train of that sanguinary revolution, which, in the year 1835, burst forth like the flaming combustibles and poisonous eructations of an overwhelming volcano; spreading consternation, outrage, and desolation over the wide range of its fearful sweep. But, during the whole of this tumultuous period, the Limenian mob, made up, though it be, of mixed and most variegated castes, illustrated by their example how slow the mind is to cast off early and deeply rooted habits; for, after the lapse of so many years of civil dissension, they showed that, as a whole, they still retained the feelings of public subjection (unfortunately not turned to account by any steady government) to which, in olden times, they were habituated under the jurisdiction of the Spaniards. For several days during this period there was no sort of police in the capital. The government and garrison had abandoned it, and shut themselves up within the fortress and castles of Callao; but yet the populace showed a singular measure of forbearance, and the instances of outrage and pillage committed in the streets were exceedingly few.

At this conjuncture of danger and uncertainty, foreign property in the capital was guarded by marines, English, French, and American, from their respective vessels of war on the station: but, for several months previously to these days of general panic and dismay, the capital had been the theatre of daily broils; the banditti and soldiery being engaged in ceaseless though irregular contest for the mastery both within and without the walls. The inhabitants were affected with a sort of nervous infirmity, or morbid susceptibility of impression, proceeding from the unsubdued feeling of impending danger.

A pillar of dust rising in the distance, or the smoke of burning weeds in the neighbouring farms, were sure to be attributed by the anxious spectator in the city to the less harmless fire of musketry and skirmishers. On the appearance of any such sign, notice was immediately given from the lofty steeple of La Merced, or the arcade of the bridge opposite the palace balconies. If a playful black boy was seen to gallop on his donkey by the trees of the old Alameda, or suburbs of Malambo, then some mercachifle or pregonero[29] would instantly give the alarm, which was conveyed by the vocal brotherhood with the rapidity of lightning—and “Hay viene el negro Escobar y los ladrones!” (Here comes the negro Escobar and the robbers!) was soon ringing through all parts of the city—whereupon in every direction would follow the running tumult of “Cierra puertas!”—shut doors!—and then the creaking and heavy clash of massy doors, and the jarring of chains and bolts, as every street and area entrance were closed and barricaded. During these moments of self-imprisonment, suspense, and anxiety, the streets were entirely abandoned by the unarmed populace; and the noise from the pavement, caused by the gently progressive motion of an ambling hack, was exaggerated in fancy, so as to imitate the clang and tread of a hundred horses. It produced the same startling effect in the over-excited imagination of those within, (who, to see what passed without, hardly ventured to peep through a key-hole, or from the corner of a latticed balcony,) as the unwelcome rattling of a wheeled carriage or the dull Pantheon car, on the morning succeeding a desolating earthquake, never fails to produce on sensitive frames while under the still abiding influence of recent alarm. Under such circumstances of general consternation it was that the timely arrival of irregular troops, “montonera,” under the command of a Patriot general, Vidal, delivered Lima out of the hands of a formidable band of freebooters under the celebrated negro Escobar, who had already begun the work of depredation, and whose sanguinary disposition, if excited by drink or excess, threatened to realize the worst anticipations of the dismayed citizens. In this very condition of infuriated exultation and inebriety, being in the act of plundering a house in open day, he was surprised, and in less than an hour afterwards shot in the plaza; where, only the day before, he had showed off very proudly under the balconies of the archbishop’s palace, mounted on a magnificent black steed, which he had taken by force from the prelate’s own stable. But now in his last moments his only intelligible prayer was said to be that he might receive forgiveness from the archbishop, whose sacred dignity he had so recently insulted; and, probably, of all the unhappy Peruvians who are brought to suffer death at the “banquillo,” there falls not one but shows some mysterious respect for the church; and the greatest criminal among them is never, perhaps, entirely forgetful of his tutelar saint. Whatever their career of life may have been, their faith, well or ill founded, yields them hope at the last hour; and it is allowed by those who witness their tragic end, that they generally die the death of the wicked with the composure of martyrs.

On the day that General Vidal, with his orderly montonera, entered at the invitation of the municipality—“cabildo,”—for the protection of the terrified city, it was interesting to observe the contrast presented by the negro Cimarones, when arrayed in the cathedral square of the capital by the side of the freemen of Huamantanga, and the poor but independent Indians of Yuyos, who, of all their tribe and fellow aborigines, are the least passive under political oppression. In the laughing negroes, the perpetual motion of their long and dangling limbs, never at rest in the saddle, betokened an exuberance and locomotive waste of nervous energy; while, on the other hand, the contemplative-looking and compact little Indian, mounted on his hardy nag, just emerged from the solitary and rugged wilds of the mountains, though surrounded with the novelty and excitement of a great city in confusion, never for a moment lost the composure and serenity of his countenance and demeanour.[30] These highland bands, together with a few other brave but undisciplined volunteers, inspired the lower orders of the Limenians with that transient enthusiasm to which, on extraordinary occasions, they have more than once shown themselves capable of being raised; and simultaneously they rushed to arms as the bells from every spire tolling the solemn “llamada a fuego,” or the alarm of conflagration, summoned them to the defence of their beloved Lima, which was menaced and ultimately attacked by a formidable sortie from the castles of Callao. The assailants were led on by Solar the governor, and cousin to the spurious president, Salaverry, whose illegitimate cause, now on the eve of being lost for ever, his less energetic relative but faintly sustained. It is worthy of remark, that even on this momentous occasion, the spirit-stirring 6th of January 1836, the patrician youth—“los hijos de familia”—took no active part. Educated with the utmost tenderness of indulgence, they are more inclined to love than arms. In short, the business of their life is pleasure.

Until the last memorable rally and sanguinary struggle at Socabaya, near Arequipa, under that Limenian lusus naturÆ, General Felipe Santiago Salaverry, the military name of the Patriot officers of Peru had been rapidly sinking into utter contempt. By far the greater number of their spirited and intelligent country-women decried the turncoat fraternity, and regretted that they themselves were not born to carry arms, that they might redeem the fallen honour of their country. These degenerate officers seemed to take pleasure in calling every now and then the attention of the public to their vile “pronunciamientos,” or open abjuration of honourable allegiance to those placed in just authority over them. Such vain and faithless vaunters, whose proudest achievements were but to forsake their duty, bind their chiefs, and desolate their native land, became the objects of public scorn, and were despised even by the softer sex, as being fitter to wield the distaff than the sword.

But Salaverry, a man of vast though ill-directed energy and reckless spirit, made the sky re-echo to his shout of war to the death! And such complete ascendency did he acquire over the minds of his countrymen, by his almost insane impetuosity and appalling executions,[31] that he not only constrained them to a state of awe and submission, but, what is more remarkable, inspired them, when he pleased, with martial ardour, and made them emulate the deeds of Zepita, Junin, and Ayacucho. During the gloomy reign of the black banner, and continuance of the revolution of Salaverry, the Limenian women, uneasy beneath the accumulating evils of political oppression, made their way into the ranks of the insurgents. Disguised in their mysterious “mantos,” they circulated patriotic proclamations, and whispered abroad the low and solemn murmur of public opinion; until at length, on the famous 6th of January 1836, when the populace rushed to the walls, it was shouted aloud from every mouth,—ay, the cannon’s mouth,—to the confusion of rapacious upstarts struggling for ascendency. And still the women played their part—as they raised the whirlwind, so they rode on it; for, without any metaphor, they were to be seen armed and on horseback amidst the crowd.

Two days after this display of popular feeling so unusual in Lima, the provisional president made his entrance into the city amid loud rejoicings that nothing could exceed. A few weeks after this event, the eminently brave General Moran by a gallant assault forced the castles of Callao, then under the command of the insurgent Solar, to capitulate; and, on the 7th of February, General Salaverry lost the hard-contested battle of Socabaya, also called Altos de la Luna, or Heights of the Moon, a name singularly in character with that high and lunatic excitement which hurried to his doom this enthusiastic child of ambition. He escaped from the field of action with many of his officers, and the remainder of his wearied troops; and, when nearly in sight of their shipping at Islay, they were taken prisoners by our countryman, General Miller, under circumstances which demanded on the part of this very distinguished officer the exercise of that active vigilance, coolness, intrepidity, and self-possession, for which he has been so remarkable throughout his honourable military career.

On Thursday, February 18, 1836, General Salaverry, and eight of his principal officers, were by sentence of court-martial condemned to death; and, accordingly, were publicly shot in the great square of Arequipa. This event, though lamented by a few, was matter of rejoicing to the many, who now looked forwards to the re-organization of the political state of Peru under the protection of General Santa Cruz, the President of Bolivia.