RECENT REVOLUTION.

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LETTER II.

AUDIENCE WITH GENERAL LA FUENTE, PROVISIONAL CHIEF OF PERU.

MR. M'Call, of the house of

Lima, June 24th, 1829.

M'Call and Prevost,

We had met at the

visited me early this morning. dinner-table of Commodore Jones, on board the Brandywine; and he now kindly proffered his services in accompanying me with letters to various gentlemen in the city. After calling at the residences of Mr. Eldridge, of New York, and of Mr. Sholtz-a principal partner in an English house in the vicinity of the hotel we were crossing the Plaza, to wait on Mr. Stanhope Prevost, a friend of my boyhood, when we met Commodore Thompson, Captain Sloat, and Mr. Armstrong, just arrived from Callao, also on their way to the establishment of Mr. Prevost.

Commodore Thompson intended waiting on the authorities at the palace at 1 o'clock, and requested me to make one of his suite; to which I was happy to accede. A bloodless revolution, just achieved, has rendered useless letters with which I was furnished to the late president, La Mar, and to Don Luna Pizarro, a prominent member of the former administration. Only on Saturday last, Pizarro, after having suffered arrest and imprisonment, was obliged to embark for Valparaiso, under sentence of banishment by the present executive; and so recently as Monday, a governmental placard was issued, announcing the

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flight, from the head-quarters of the army in Upper Peru, of General La Mar, the president, and his departure from Paita, with a single aid-de-camp, for a foreign country.

The individual now occupying the palace, as head of the republic, is General La Fuenté, an officer who has risen from the grade of cadet to the rank he now holds. He was a protégé of Bolivar when dictator of Peru, and received from him a colonel's commission, and was afterwards made prefect of the district of Arequipa. This office was retained by him till about eight months ago, when, becoming an object of jealousy to the party in power, he was requested to resign the prefectorship, on the ground that his presence would be necessary, with the division of the army commanded by him, at the seat of war with Colombia, in Upper Peru; and to which, with his troops, he was ordered to repair.

La Fuenté resigned the civil office at Arequipa, but disregarded the marching orders. In the meantime General Gamarra, commander in chief under La Mar, the president, passed through Arequipa, after the reduction of Bolivia in the south, on his way to the headquarters of La Mar, at Paita, in the north; and it is believed that the revolution or usurpation which has just taken place was then concerted by the two generals. La Fuenté was advised by Gamarra not to obey the orders of the government by proceeding to Paita, but to wait a suitable opportunity of landing his troops at Callao, and of making himself master of Lima-from which all the soldiers, except a small guard at the palace, had been with

HIS ASSUMPTION OF THE EXECUTIVE. 161

drawn in the contest with Colombia-while Gamarra himself should take measures in the camp to secure the abdication and exile of La Mar.

After the defeat of the Peruvians by Bolivar at Cuenca, La Fuenté received new and peremptory orders to proceed with his division to Paita; and this being thought the desired crisis for action, leaving Arequipa with sixteen hundred troops, he landed at Callao, and encamped at Santa Magdalena, a village two or three miles from Lima, under pretext to the government in the city, that the transports in which he had put to sea were unfit for a longer voyage. The vice-president, Salasar, jealous of this movement, summoned La Fuenté to the palace, and, informing him that new transports would be in immediate readiness, ordered the embarkation of his troops for their destination without delay.

The general then began removing the mask, by replying that his troops were fresh recruits, unprepared for service, while the Colombian army was composed of veterans with whom it was impossible for them to cope that the war could not be maintained, and that there must be peace! adding, as he took his leave, that he should return to Santa Magdalena, and if the vice-president had any further communication to make to him, instead of sending for him to the palace, he must repair himself to the camp!

Soon afterwards he sent a communication to Salasar to say, that, satisfied of the incapacity of the administration to meet the exigency of affairs, he should take upon himself the executive power till

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POLITICAL STATE.

congress could be convened; and wishing to be informed when the vice-president would vacate the palace. No answer being returned, the next day, at two o'clock, two companies of soldiers, under an aid of La Fuenté, entered the city without music or any special display, and-orders from the camp having been privately issued to the troops on guard to allow themselves to be quietly relieved-took possession of the palace. Salasar immediately retired to his private residence in the city, and, in the course of the evening, La Fuenté arrived in the city, proclaiming himself "The provisional supreme chief of Peru, till the meeting of congress." And all things went on, and are still going on, as if no change whatever had taken place.

Meanwhile Gamarra was accomplishing his part in the army, and is now, by the abdication and exile of La Mar, uncontrolled commander in chief. It is understood that the result of the whole is to be, the appointment of Gamarra to the presidential chair, while La Fuente will be made vice-president, with the promise of succeeding eventually to the supreme office.

The people in general appear to have taken little interest in the change. The suffering, poverty, and various desolation brought on the city and whole land by the revolutions and counter revolutions of the last ten years, have been such as to break down the spirit of every class; and few seem to care in whom the chief power is vested, so long as they escape further oppression and sorrow. It is the general sentiment both of foreigners and native citizens, that a military

despotism in tolerable hands-if not absolutely necessary-is more desirable just at present than any other form of government.

After partaking of refreshments in a saloon at Mr. Prevost's, and making some preparation of dress, we directed our way, under the guidance of Mr. Radcliffe the American consul, and his son, to the palace. This is an extensive pile, forming the north side of the plaza or public square in the centre of the city, while the cathedral is on the east, and uniform ranges of houses, with shops under arcades on the ground floor, on the south and west.

It is a quadrangle occupying a whole block in the plan of the city-extending along three other streets the same distance it does on the square and inclosing a large area filled with gardens and shrubbery, and various buildings for the accommodation of the public offices.

The exterior of the whole presents a decayed and mean aspect. The front on the square is occupied on the ground floor by shops of every description, while the second and only other story shows nothing but a range of the gloomy wooden balconies which disfigure all the dwellings in the city. A lofty and ornamented gateway in the centre alone gives it the appearance of a public building. The offices of the city and district of Lima, as well as of the various departments of the general government, being accommodated within the palace, a part only of the pile is appropriated as the residence of the president. This is the same as, that occupied by the viceroys