REVOLT AT LIMA.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 2, Issue 129, 24 July 1895, Page 3

REVOLT AT LIMA.

TeUKIBLE SCENES IX THE STKEETS,

Reuter's agency has received from Lima a graphic narrative of tho fighting which took place in the streets of that city last March., Early on tho morning of March 17th Lima was attacked by the troops of the National or Coalition army, led by Don Nicolas Pierola, and numbering in all about 2 000 men. The main body, entering by Cocharcns, where the Cacensts were entrenched, were twice thrown into disorder, the execution done by •„he guns of the defenders bemg apparent from tho fact that of a troop of cavalry numbering 43, which here •went into action, only six men wore left at the end of the fight. For a moment the assailants wavered, but Don Nicolas Pierola, galloping to tho front, revolver in hand, shouted : ' Follow mo my men ; otherwise I shall go forward and perish alone.' This was responded to by a loud shout of 'Viva Pierola !' and, rushing to the assault with renewed determination, the Nationalists soon put the Cacerists to flight. At daybreak on Monday, March 18th, the strugglo was resumed. From behind their barricades the Cacerists directed a murderous firo from their Krupp and Gatling guns upon their opponents. The slaughter produced by tho Gatlings was terrible. In the street alono 40 horses lay piled in a ghastly heap, while men fell like corn before the reaper. In tho tower of San Augustin Church tho firing of each shot by the Cacerists was followed by tho derisive ringing of tho bells. ' Hero' a young Englishman named Robert Mackenzie, with sevan soldiers of tho National force, held tho place for four hours against all attempts of the Cacerists to take it. Mr Mackenzie received eight wounds, of which only one, namely, in the right hand was serious. When darkness fell, about six o'clock, tho Government forces made a desperate attack with infantry and artillery on the Theatresquare and San Augustin church. They could not, however, advance n Btep against the constant and deadly fire which the National troops kept up from the roofs and windows of houses and from behind their burricudes, and at last the retreat was sounded. The night was one of great anxiety, the city being in complete darkness, as the gas lamps had been destroyed, and tho gasholder was leaking from the number of bullet holes in it. In many houses tho inmates had been killed by tho bullets which during the day had come whistling through windows and doors. Over 1,000 corpses were lying about tho streets in all directions, and among tho dead moved the Red Cross ambulance, with tho women among its Btaff, collecting tho wounded and Carrying them off to the various temporary hospitals. Owing to tho intervention of the Diplomatic corps, who had succeeded in arranging a 23 ho'urs's truce, the morning of Tuesdayopened quietly, and tho streets wore soon filled with spectators. Tho sight, which met their eyes was horrible in tho extreme. Corpses, alono or in heaps, surrounded by masses of coagulated blood, most of them swollen and already in a state of decomposition ; dead horses in all directions, their putrofied remains tainting the already pestilential and sickening atmosphere; women crying, and men looking on with horror at. the scene ; gas lamps shattered, doors and windows broken in, clubs and shops plundered by the troops, the flagstones torn up, the whole a spectacle of confusion, destruction, and death. The British Firo Brigade soon appeared with an iron tank filled with tar. With this they covered the dead horses, and then sot firo to them. Steps were also taken to remove all the wounded and to bury tho dead. ' It was estimated that in the two days' lighting no fewer than 3,000 persons had been killed and wounded. At last came the grateful intelligence that terms of peace had been signed, and that an end had thus been put to the dreadful civil war which had raged for the past 12 months.