66 
He cajoled all parties, and all individuals, 
and finally established himself as a military 
potentate, with all the trappings and exter- 
nals of republicanism. His vanity, how- 
ever, led him still further ; he made Bolivar 
the model of his career, and fancied him- 
self the heir of all his great qualities, be- 
cause he too undeniably imitated all his 
defects. To enlarge his dominion towards 
the North, he filched from the state of New 
Grenada the frontier provinces of Pasto 
bacoas. This affront, dissembled 
for a while in consequence of the disturb- 
ances excited by the faction of Urdamta, 
called for reparation as soon as a regular 
government was established. The Bishop 
of Santa Martha and M. Restrepo were 
sent, in the summer of 1832, to negotiate 
with a view to the restoration of the dis- 
puted territory; Flores relied on several 
battalions of veteran troops to preserve by 
force what had been gained by intrigue 
and treachery; but unfortunately for his 
views, his avarice was even stronger than 
his ambition : while he plundered and gave 
up to plunder the exhausted fthe 
country, he suffered his troops to be driven 
by want and hunger into mutiny. In Octo- 
ber 1831, the Battalion Vargas, commanded 
by General Whittle, an Englishman, rose 
in Quito, confined their officers, and march- 
ed towards the coast, with a view of escap- 
ing into the territory of New Grenada. 
This revolt was attended by several pecu- 
liar circumstances ; the soldiers, to say no- 
thing of previous and repeated sufferings 
of the same kind, had been six days with- 
out food, save what they could procure by 
begging, in the midst of a populous and 
abundant city, and under the eye of Flores 
himself, who was lavishing thousands of 
dollars in the decoration of a kind of baby- 
house he had recently purchased, without 
the slightest regard for the sufferings of the 
men on whom he relied for the execution 
of his ambitious projects. Such was the 
admirable seme of this corps, that al- 
though ec 
spare after they had 
wired him io Mec hid himself in a 
NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY TO PAYTA, 
convent till they had departed. On account 
of their arrears of pay, they demanded and 
received two thousand dollars, a sum which 
the day before would have prevented the 
evil. Early in the same day of the insur- 
rection, they evacuated the city, and com- 
menced their march towards Pasto. A 
tragical event followed—General Whittle, 
their brave and worthy commander, stung 
by their defection, rashly followed them 
with a few officers, hoping his presence | 
might be sufficiently influential to bring | 
them back to their allegiance. It is not 
improbable he might have succeeded if he 
had reached the main body, but the next 
morning after their retreat, he fell into the 
hands of their rear-guard, and as the ring- 
leaders were determined to break off all 
chance of a reconciliation in which them- 
selves would have been the victims, they 
shot him on the bridge of Guaillapamba, 
and threw his body into the river—a strik- 
ing instance among a thousand similar, that 
he who honourably serves a government 
without honour, sooner or later becomes ` 
its victim. After this cruelty, which was 
unknown to the main body, they continued 
their march through the province of Los 
Pastos, observing the most exact order and 
discipline ; a body of cavalry, sent to pur- 
sue them, was constantly repulsed; but 
served to contrast, by their robberies and 
disorders, the pacific demeanour of the re- 
bels, as if, to belong or not to the govern- 
ment of Flores, was sufficient, under any 
circumstances, to stamp the moral conduct 
of the parties concerned either with infamy 
or comparative innocence. From Los Pas- 
tos the insurgents took the road to Barba- 
coas; here the town had been abandoned, 
and the canoes removed from the river, by 
which means they were deprived both of 
the means of subsistence and of continuing 
their march through a country where the 
rivers were the only roads. They were 
consequently obliged to capitulate to the 
government, on condition their lives should 
be s; This condition was violated by 
Flores' officers, who arrived : 
found the danger over. 
arms, they were shot by scores on different — 
m 
