1828.) Facundo Quiroga, Governor of La Rioja. 595 
among the gauchos of the Llanos, soon found that they would prove wil- 
ling assistants if he attempted a revolution. 
After intriguing with his friends for a short time, he threw of 
the mask, and took the field against the Davilas, at the head of about 
three hundred gauchos, half of whom were armed with sabres, and the 
remainder with knives and lazos. The governor became alarmed at 
this formidable conspiracy, and held himself aloof from action ; but 
not so his more gallant brother. The latter, finding that his number of 
men was far inferior to those of Quiroga, left him in possession of the city 
of La Rioja, and retreated to Chilecito, where, having procured some old 
church bells, he caused four rude cannon to be cast for him by a silver- 
smith, with balls formed of the same metal. The balls and cartridges 
were packed up in boxes, placed on low wheels, so that they could be 
drawn along with a lazo fixed to a horse. To prevent the boxes from 
-splitting, they were bound up with raw hide; and, when Quiroga sud- 
denly made his appearance one morning, unexpectedly, at the head of 
his mounted gauchos, neither ball nor cartridge could be come at. How- 
ever, the appearance of artillery made the gaucho cavalry keep their dis- 
tance, and at last the boxes were opened ; but a werse error was now 
diseovered, for they found that the balls were too large for the bore of 
the cannon. Quiroga’s party finding they were not fired at, again put 
their horses to their speed, and came to the attack; but a discharge of 
blank cartridge put them all to flight. They again rallied, and a second 
discharge again dispersed them ; but they now found that the cannon 
were harmless, and, on the third attempt, they closed with their opponents, 
and rode down the artillerymen. Davila’s troops now all dispersed ; and 
their commander, finding that he was left alone, reined round his horse, 
with the intention of flying ; but it was too late, a party had cut off his 
retreat, and all that remained for him was to sell his life as dearly as 
possible. He, therefore, placed the rear of his horse against a mud hut, 
and killed his two foremost assailants with pistol-shots, stunning a third 
with the pistols, which he threw at him. A fourth he cut down, and his 
horse then fell dead under him, killed by a carbine-shot. He now disen- 
gaged himself from the fallen animal, and made it serve him as a rampart, 
ever which the other horses would not charge for some time; but 
the unceasing efforts of the gauchos at last obliged them. Davila 
now cut down his fifth opponent; but his sabre breaking with. the 
effort, he remained disarmed, and retreated into the hut. The gauchos 
with a furious shout of merciless exultation, now dismounted from their 
horses, and, rushing into the hut, after a vain struggle on his part, drag- 
ged him out by his long hair, on which he had greatly prided himself. 
One of the strongest of them then seated himself on the carcass of the 
dead horse, and, throwing Davila on his back across his knees, drew his 
head down by the hair, and after feeling the edge of his knife, with all 
the coolness of an experienced butcher, deliberately severed his head 
from his body ; for, before the fight commenced, Quiroga had given 
orders to his men that Davila should have no quarter. As soon as he 
was dead, they disfigured his body most brutally.* 
The governor, when he heard the news of his brother's defeat, fled 
away to Catamarca ; and Quiroga, who was anxious to extinguish the 
* This” fact was commiunicated to the author in the village of Chilecito, by Dona 
Manuela Davila, the beautiful and accomplished sister of the wofortunate commandant. 
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