STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 



305 



a few hundred Spaniards, by superior bravery and skill, 

 and with more formidable arms, had conquered the 

 whole Indian population. Naturally peaceable, and 

 kept without arms, the conquered people had remained 

 quiet and submissive during the three centuries of Span- 

 ish dominion. In the civil wars following the independ- 

 ence they had borne but a subordinate part ; and down 

 to the time of Carrera's rising they were entirely igno- 

 rant of their own physical strength. But this fearful 

 discovery had now been made. The Indians constitu- 

 ted three fourths of the inhabitants of Guatimala ; were 

 the hereditary owners of the soil ; for the first time since 

 they fell under the dominion of the whites, were organ- 

 ized and armed under a chief of their own, who chose 

 for the moment to sustain the Central party. I did 

 not sympathize with that party, for I believed that 

 in their hatred of the Liberals they were courting a 

 third power that might destroy them both ; consorting 

 with a wild animal which might at any moment turn 

 and rend them in pieces. I believed that they were 

 playing upon the ignorance and prejudices of the In- 

 dians, and, through the priests, upon their religious 

 fanaticism ; amusing them with fdtes and Church cere- 

 monies, persuading them that the Liberals aimed at a 

 demolition of churches, destruction of the priests, and 

 hurrying back the country into darkness ; and in the 

 general heaving of the elements there was not a man 

 of nerve enough among them, with the influence of 

 name and station, to rally round him the strong and 

 honest men of the country, reorganize the shattered re- 

 public, and save them from the disgrace and danger of 

 truckling to an ignorant uneducated Indian boy. 



Such were my sentiments ; of course I avoided ex- 

 pressing them ; but because I did not denounce their 



Vol. I.— Qq 



