FEARFUL TRAGEDY IN BOLIVIA.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1718, 22 April 1862, Page 5

FEARFUL TRAGEDY IN BOLIVIA.

A letter from Bolivia thus describes a terrible tragedy : — 11 Another bloody drama has been enacted at La Paz. I wrote to you in my last that General Fernandez, one of President Acha's ministers, was generally charged by the people with being responsible for the massacre, ordered by General Yanez, of the 23rd of October, in which 40 persons of note, including exPresident Cordova, fell, besides a large number of Cholos ; that Fernandez's motive in this massacre was, first to clear the coast of a good many influential men who might stand in his way, then to overthrow the government of Aca, and step into his shoes. Fernandez was not long in verifying the estimate of his plans. Iv conjunction with Morales, he pronounced against Acha in the south, while Colonel Babza, who commanded in La Paz, was to pronounce against him in that city, Aoha being absent at Osru. Babza and several other officers, on demand of the people, had previously been dismissed by Presideut Acha, on account of their complicity in the Yanez massacre, and Yanez had been ordered to be tried. So, the disinfected officers having joined Babza, at half-past four o'clock on the morning of the 23rd of November, battalion No. 3, commanded by Babza attacked battalion No. 2, in the streets. The fight was furious and lasted nearly 4 hours, when Babza was wounded and defeated, with the loss of a great many men, aud sought retuge in the house of Mr. Carter, the United States Minister. Yanez in the meantime had barricaded himself in the palaoa, and at the head of forty men resolved to defend himself against the populace, who were shouting for his head The palace was assaulted with fury. Many shots were exohauged, until cannon was dragged and pointed agaiust the gates. Despair having seized Yanez, he sealed himself in the corridor and ordered his soldiers to remain tranquil. Then bars of iron were brought, against the door by some, while others from neighbouring roofs fired at intervals through the windows, whence it was thought that he might try to escape. At last the doors were ioroed, and Yauez, armed escaped from the paUoe to the roof of the conti*

gnuus police building. A shout oF 1 Yanez !' announced that he was seen by the populace, when two shots were fired at him, and he fell, from a height of nearly twenty yards, to the roof of the printing-office. Thence he was dragged to the Plaza in the midst of thousands of people. Placing him before the door of the Loretto, in which he had ordered the massacre of ex-President Cordova, the crowd forced him to kiss the stone steps, yet red with the blood of Cordova, Then he was struck by all who oould get near him, women even taking part in the vengeance. After the body had laid a time exposed in the street, it was placed in a cart, and followed by a vast crowd to the cemetry, amid the laughs, the jeers, and curses of thousands. Then Leopoldo Davilda, his Lieutenant, who cursed the mourning women who came to the Loretto to seek for murdered husbands and fathers a month before, was seized, brought to the public Plaza, and torn to pieces, a youngT Indian woman concluding the shocking performance by punching out his eyes with a pointed stick. Lieutenant Colonel Shanchez was kilted in the coach house of the palace. Many others fell during the morning, including fifty Cholos killed, and 150 wounded. In the midst of the exoitementonaofthu prisons was broken open, and 150 criminals increased the terror of the people by the clanking of the chains through the streets. But, wonderful to relate, no robberies or outrages were committed after they had sated their vengeance on the assassins of October; but the 10,000 Cholos quietly retired to their houses, and the city was as still as it was before the outbreak. At the last accounts President Acha had returned to La Paz and resumed his authority. The military command was in the hands of General Perez, who had the entire confidence of the people. A force had been sent against Fernandez and Morales, who were in the neighbourhood of Potosi or Sucre.