110 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



a league and a half from the city. On the seventeenth 

 Carrera rode into the city, and with the chief of the 

 state and others, went around to visit the fortifications 

 and rouse the people to arms. At noon he returned to 

 the Aceytuna, and at four o'clock intelligence was re- 

 ceived that Morazan's army was descending the Questa 

 de Pinula, the last range before reaching the plain of 

 Guatimala. The bells tolled the alarm, and great con- 

 sternation prevailed in the city. Morazan's army slept 

 that night on the plain. 



Before daylight he marched upon the city and enter- 

 ed the gate of Buena Vista, leaving all his cavalry 

 and part of his infantry at the Plaza de Toros and on 

 the heights of Calvario, under Colonel Cabanes, to 

 watch the movements of Carrera, and with seven hun- 

 dred men occupied the Plaza of Guadaloupe, depositing 

 his parque, equipage, a hundred women (more or less of 

 whom always accompany an expedition in that country), 

 and all his train, in the Hospital of San Juan de Dios. 

 Hence he sent Perez and Rivas, with four or five hun- 

 dred men, to attack the plaza. These passed up a street 

 descending from the centre of the city, and, while cov- 

 ered by the brow of the hill, climbed over the yard- wall 

 of the Church of Escuela de Cristo, and passed through 

 the church into the street opposite the mint, in the rear 

 of one side of the plaza. Twenty-seven Indians were 

 engaged in making a redoubt at the door, and twenty-six 

 bodies were found on the ground, nine killed and seven- 

 teen wounded. When I saw it the ground was still red 

 with blood. Entering the mint, the invaders were re- 

 ceived with a murderous fire along the corridor ; but, 

 forcing their way through, they broke open the front 

 portal, and rushed into the plaza. The plaza was oc- 

 cupied by the five hundred men left by Carrera, and two 



