238 



INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL. 



But even yet party spirit was dominant. General Mo- 

 razan encamped a {ew leagues from the city, hesitating 

 to enter it or to employ the forces of the general gov- 

 ernment in putting dovrn a revolution in the state ex- 

 cept with the consent of the state government. The 

 state government was jealous of the federal govern- 

 ment, tenacious of prerogatives it had not the cour- 

 age to defend, and demanded from the president a plan 

 of his campaign ; passed a decree offering Carrera and 

 his followers fifteen days to lay down their arms, which 

 General Morazan would not permit to be published at 

 his headquarters ; two days afterward annulled it, and 

 authorized the president of the republic to act as cir- 

 cumstances might require. 



During this time one of Morazan's piquets had been 

 cut off and the officers murdered, which created a great 

 excitement among his soldiers ; but, anxious to avoid 

 shedding more blood, he sent into the city for the Ca- 

 nonigo Castillo and Barundia, deputing them as com- 

 missioners to persuade the bandits to surrender their 

 arms, even offering to pay fifteen dollars a head rather 

 than come to extremities. The commissioners found 

 Carrera at one of his old haunts among the mountains 

 of Matasquintla, surrounded by hordes of Indians liv- 

 ing upon tortillas. The traitor Barundia had been re- 

 ceived by Morazan' s soldiers with groans ; his poor 

 jaded horse was tied up at Morazan' s camp a day and 

 a half without a blade of grass ; and, as a farther reward 

 of his treason, Carrera refused to meet him under a roof, 

 because, as he said, he did not wish to plunge his new 

 lance, a present from a priest, into Barundia's breast. 



The meeting took place in the open air, and on the 

 top of a mountain. Carrera refused to lay down his 

 arms unless all his former demands were complied 



