Southern.and Meridional: Ameri¢a.. 
that the president would not confirm the 
sentence ; and in this hope they were not 
deceived. ren 
“‘ When the proceso was concluded, and 
required no more than the veto of the pre- 
silent, it was presented to him ; but instead - 
of concurring in the opinion of the fiscal, 
and giving way te the entreaties of Colonel 
Arredonda, he ordered the papers to remain 
in his cabinet. The agitation of the old 
count was now truly distressing, and he 
frequently said to me, that he would prefer 
signing his own death-warrant to. the sacri- 
ficing of so many deluded victims, the 
greater part of whom had only committed 
an error of judgment, founded, perhaps, on 
a mistaken sense of loyalty. At last he 
determined to refer the case for revision to 
the Viceroy of Santa Fé, to the inconceiva- 
ble chagrin of Fuertes, Arrechaga, and 
Arredonda, who all founded their hopes of 
preferment in Spain on the execution of 
the prisoners, who had been denominated 
traitors.”” ; 
“‘ The person chosen to convey to Santa 
Fé the whole of the proceso was Dr. San 
Miguel,-a young advocate who had become 
the constant companion to Arrechaga. 
Not less than six reams of written paper 
formed the important charge, for the safety 
of which a picquet of horse was ordered to 
escort San Miguel as far as Pasto, lest some 
of the outlaws might surprise him on the 
road. The prisoners expected no favour 
at the hands of the Viceroy, because he was 
the uncle of the Oidor Fuertes who had 
tried them.’ 
The prisoners were afterwards mas- 
sacred in their dungeons, as appears 
from the account of The Second Revo- 
lution. Vol. iii. p. 26 to 36. 
** After the departure of San Miguel for 
Santa Fé, many of the soldiers who had be- 
longed to the insurgent army returned to 
the city, supposing that the prosecution had 
closed; but they were apprehended, and 
sent to the presidio. Several individuals 
also, who came from different parts of the 
country, were apprehended on suspicion, 
and, although they were liberated after exa- 
mnination, the alarm flew from one place to 
another, so that none would bring their pro- 
duce to market, and a consequent dearth of 
provisions began to be experienced in the 
city. . This, instead of producing concilia- 
tory measures for procuring them, enraged 
the Spanish soldiers, who committed seve- 
ral depredations, and the injured individuals 
through fear abstained from complaining to 
the officers, or if they ventured to do it, 
they were insulted with the epithets of 
rebels, insurgents, and traitors. Thus the 
evil increased daily till the second of 
August 1810, when some of the soldiers 
confined in the presidio surprised the guard, 
and depriving them: of their arms, and. put- 
ting on their uniforms, ran to the barracks 
613) 
at one o’clock in the afternoon ; the dis- 
guise preyented-all suspicion on their ap= 
proach, and they succeeded in driving the 
sentry from his post at the door, and secur- 
ing the officer of the guard: at this mo- 
ment a bell was rung in the steeple of the’ 
cathedral, as an alarm: the officers, who’ 
had just sat down to dinner in the palacé® 
rushed into the plasa mayor, and ebserving. 
a considerable degree of commotion at the 
door of the barracks not fifty yards from 
that of the palace, the guard was ordered 
to fire on those at the barracks, which fir- 
ing was returned by the opposite party. 
This lasted about ten minutes, when, all 
being silent, an officer ran to the~ barracks 
to inquire into the cause of the disturbance : 
on being informed of what had taken place, 
as well as that all was then safe, he re- 
turned with the report to his commandant, 
Arredonda. Another officer was imme- 
diately sent to inquire into the state of the 
pfisoners, and he as briefly returned with 
the news, that they were all dead. Some 
had been shot during the uproar by the 
sentries placed over them, and many had 
been murdered by a zambo boy, one of the 
cooks to the soldiers, who had entered 
their cells, and despatched them with an 
axe. Terror and consternation for a mo- 
ment were visible in the countenances of 
the president and officers, when, on a sud- 
den, the Spanish soldiers rushed from the 
barracks into the streets, shouting revenge ! 
revenge ! our captain is murdered, Scarcely 
was the alarm given, when the infuriated 
soldiers abandoned their posts, and running 
up and down the streets, murdered every 
individual they met with, without. distinc- 
tion either of age or sex: the drums in dif- 
ferent parts of the city. beat an advance, and 
murder and pillage raged in this horrid 
manner till three o’clock, all the officers 
standing on the esplanade of the palace, 
without making any effort to check the 
massacre: at length, the soldiers having 
expended their stock of cartridges, began to 
return to the barracks, some of them so 
laden with plunder, that they had left their 
arms they knew not where. 
“ The number of prisoners confined in the 
cells, many of whom were secured with 
irons, and who fell a sacrifice te the insub- 
ordination of the soldiery, and the imbeci- 
lity of the officers, was seventy-two; a 
clergyman of the name of Castelo, and an 
individual of the name of Romero, were 
the only prisoners that escaped, and they 
saved their lives by feigning to be dead. 
Morales, Quiroga, Riofrio, and Salinas 
perished ; but to the memory of these, 
and their fellow sufferers, the government 
‘of Venezuela ordéred a day of mourning to 
be kept annually; thus paying to them the 
greatest possible respect ; they also after- 
wards determined to call them the Martyrs 
of Quito. In the streets of Quito about 
three hundred individuals perished, includ- 
ing seven of the Spanish soldiers, who were 
killed 
