THE CHOLERA. 



225 



the better blood of the two. In 1829 he was a drum- 

 mer-boy in Colonel Aycinena's regiment. When the 

 Liberal or Democratic party prevailed, and General 

 Morazan entered the city, Carrera broke his drum and 

 retired to the village of Matasquintla. Here he enter- 

 ed into business as a pig-driver, and for several years 

 continued in this respectable occupation, probably as 

 free as one of his own pigs from any dreams of future 

 greatness. The excesses of political parties, severe ex- 

 actions for the support of government, encroachments 

 upon the property of the Church, and innovations, par- 

 ticularly the introduction of the Livingston Code, es- 

 tablishing trial by jury, and making marriage a civil 

 contract, created discontent throughout the country. 

 The last gave great offence to the clergy, who exercised 

 an unbounded influence over the minds of the Indians. 

 In 1837 the cholera, which, in its destructive march 

 over the habitable world, had hitherto spared this por- 

 tion of the American continent, made its terrible ap- 

 pearance, and, besides strewing it with dead, proved 

 the immediate cause of political convulsions. The 

 priests persuaded the Indians that the foreigners had 

 poisoned the waters. Galvez, who was at that time the 

 chief of the state, sent medicines into all the villages, 

 which, being ignorantly administered, sometimes pro- 

 duced fatal consequences ; and the priests, always oppo- 

 sed to the Liberal party, persuaded the Indians that the 

 government was endeavouring to poison and destroy 

 their race. The Indians became excited all over the 

 country ; and in Matasquintla they rose in mass, with 

 Carrera at their head, crying Viva la Religion, y 

 muerte a los Etr anger os !" The first blow was struck 

 by murdering the judges appointed tftider the Living- * 

 ston Code. Galvez sent a commission, with detach- 



VOL. I— -F F 



