A breath can make them, as a breath has made.
But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied.”
Upon this occasion, we are glad to say, that the new governor’s deceitful conduct towards us did not serve his turn as he wished.
The writer galloped to the capital of the department, where he found Colonel Lucar reviewing and selecting the recruits to be sent off from Huanuco to fill up the vacancies in the army of the line; and he must ever feel obliged to the politeness of the colonel, who instantly despatched a peremptory order to the said captain and governor to put our men of Andaguaylla at liberty, and to replace them from the list of idle vagrants, and not of useful husbandmen, within the term of a very few hours,—an order more easily given than executed, as by this time the rumour of imprisonment and seizure for the army had gone abroad, and young men, alarmed for their fate, fled to their woods and lurking-places.
Thus it appears that the real use of this mock militia is not to guarantee the internal order of the department, (which would be best secured by the absence of all troops, as the Indian population are never so well managed as by their own local magistrates of Indian family,) but to serve as a mask, under which to facilitate the means of raising soldiers for the general service. The governor’s wily attempt to deceive us under the assurances of friendship is not peculiar, for such unworthy conduct does not disgrace one of these petty tyrants in the eyes of his countrymen.
CHAPTER IV.
Missionary College of Ocopa.—Its foundation, utility, downfall, and decree for its restoration.—Introduction of Christianity along the rivers Marañon, Huallaga, and Ucayali, &c. by the Jesuits and Franciscans.—Letter from Friar Manuel Plaza, the last great missionary of Ocopa, to the prefect of Junin.