498 POLITICAL TROUBLES. 



erate preparations to attack the artillery cuartel the government not yet strong enough to 

 assume the offensive. If the coolness of the people had at first mortified the former, they were 

 now making amends ; and he had a right to believe there wanted but a trifling success to bring 

 under his banners a very large proportion of the tens of thousands who filled every avenue 

 leading to the probable scene of conflict. The cuartel, at which he was aiming, lies at the base 

 of, and on the southwest side of Santa Lucia ; the Canada, its south front ; and Calles Keco- 

 jidas and Breton flanking it the former on the west. Two squares being united in one, as 

 occurs in several other parts of the city also, there is no street in the rear proper. It walls are 

 of adobes, with the principal entrance on the south front. There is a second and smaller door 

 in the rear, in Calle Kecojidas, and a number of windows on each of the streets, all pro- 

 tected by strong gratings of iron. Within, there are suites of rooms around open courts ; but 

 to guard all this space of more than four hundred feet square, enclosing above twenty field- 

 pieces of different calibers, howitzers, small-arms, and munitions for an army, besides sufficient 

 powder to have shaken the earth almost as did nature on the morning of the 2d of the same 

 month, ordinarily there were only some thirty or forty soldiers. Strange to say, instead of 

 putting others into it within the preceding four hours, two howitzers with their due quota of 

 men had been ordered out. 



It has been mentioned, in the description of the prominent objects of the city, that there are 

 two forts on the angular ridges of Santa Lucia : one on the northern slope, with a battery of 

 six field-pieces ; and the other on the southern, still incomplete and without armament. There 

 is, however, a breastwork at the latter ; and as it overlooks and is within short musket-range 

 of the cuartel, a single piece of artillery would have been quite sufficient to drive out any force 

 protected only by tiles and reed roofs. Why Urriola did not send a corporal's guard to take 

 possession of the north castle and its battery is incomprehensible, though scarcely more so than 

 his trifling away so many hours in the plaza and Canada. A single company at an early hour 

 could have made themselves masters of the artillery and its rich stores with very little effort, 

 and the city would have surrendered without a blow. The conduct of both parties was most 

 extraordinary, and is most difficult of explanation. On the part of Urriola we must assume his 

 confident belief that he had but to present himself, and the whole regular and militia force 

 would take sides with him. So far as the artillery regiment was concerned there was certainly 

 good ground for it, because the old colonel (Arteaga), now second in command of the insur- 

 gents, had always been personally popular with the soldiers, and the new one (Maturana) was 

 not. But Maturana and his handful of men, like too many others for his purposes, were 

 faithful, and the doors of the cuartel were coldly closed on the ancient leader and his comrades. 



It. could no longer be concealed that a fight must take place ; and in order to pr-otect his men 

 as much as possible, a lumber store close by was broken open, with whose contents, and some 

 sacks abstracted from neighboring shops and paving- stones, Urriola caused a low barricade to 

 be thrown diagonally across the Canada, and within short musket-shot of the cuartel. Then 

 giving his men a breakfast from the panniers of the passing venders of bread, milk, and fruits, 

 they were ready to' begin their work. It is said, and greatly to his credit, that whilst he 

 forcibly took loads of provisions they were liberally paid for in every case. Indeed, as ounces of 

 gold were found in the shoes of several who were killed in the subsequent conflict, there seems 

 to have been no lack of money. 



"Round-shot, canister, and musket-balls flying along the Canada too rapidly for comfort," 

 as Lieut. MacRae wrote to me, it was not prudent for the assistants to continue near spectators 

 after the firing began ; and information of the remainder of the morning's events has been 

 derived from the government paper an account which was said to be reliable so far as it went. 

 For some time Santa Lucia was crowded with spectators, who were indifferent to occasional 

 shrill sounds as bullets whistled over them, and would probably have remained mere lookers-on 

 until the end; but one or the other party, perhaps remembering that "those who are not for us 

 are against us," sent a volley towards its craggy peaks, which brought them from their look-out 



