The little plain, really a plateau, is literally surrounded by ravines. It was just large enough to allow Sucre to use his seven or eight thousand men to the best advantage. An enemy attacking him must perforce come up hill on every side, even though it would seem as though the Spanish troops descending from Condorkanqui would have had some advantage. But they were under fire all the time they were descending to the plain, and just
before they reached it, they found themselves in a little gully up the sides of which they had to scramble at a disadvantage before they could actually be on a level with the defenders. La Serna was too good a general not to have appreciated the strength of Sucre’s position. In fact, as General Miller points out, the mistake of the Viceroy in attacking originated in allowing himself to be over-persuaded by the eagerness of his troops. Their patience had been exhausted by terrible marches which seemed to them to be endless. Only a few days before the battle, the tents of the Viceroy and his chief general had had lampoons pasted on them, accusing them of cowardice. It may fairly be said that he was goaded into action contrary to his own judgment.
The battle of Ayacucho, besides being the final combat, was one of the most brilliant in the history of the Wars of Independence. The troops on both sides were well-seasoned veterans. The generals in command were among the ablest that the long wars had developed. Every man fought with bravery. Although the Patriots were outnumbered, they made up for it by enthusiasm and by a knowledge that there was no opportunity for them to retreat. They were aided by the lay of the land, but the result was due to a most determined valor and a heroic daring that must always gratify lovers of Peruvian history.
We returned to the city in the middle of the afternoon in time to take a little walk in the streets and be bombarded by little Carnival balloons filled with scented water, egg-shells filled with colored powder, and the other missiles that are commonly employed to bear witness to the fact that Lent is approaching. The ladies and children, who occupied points of vantage in the second-story windows, kept up a brisk fire on everyone who ventured along the streets, and we had to do some very rapid dodging to avoid being entirely soaked and colored with all the hues of the rainbow.
In the evening, notwithstanding a terrific downpour of rain, the “society of Ayacucho,” including the Archbishop, the Prefect, and fifty or sixty of their friends, “tendered us” an elaborate banquet which quite took the palm for variety of food and drink. There were no less than fourteen courses besides seven kinds of wine including champagne. The after-dinner speeches were also quite remarkable. Hitherto, the chief interest in us had been the fact that we had “visited the lost city of Choqquequirau,” but here Choqquequirau meant little or nothing. The battlefield of Ayacucho meant everything, and the fact that we were delegados from a country whose aid Peru hoped to receive in case Chile became troublesome meant a great deal more. Whether it was at this banquet or at one of those that preceded it in the past three weeks, I do not remember, but the opinion was expressed more than once that, rather than have another war with Chile, they would surrender to the United States and become a protectorate. I mention this not as an indication of national sentiment, but merely to show the state of feeling that prevailed in the interior of Peru at the time, and the attitude with which they regarded the possibility of another war with Chile.
A large part of the hatred that exists between Chilean and Peruvian is due to their native ancestry. In the Chilean there is a large percentage of Araucanian blood. In the Peruvian there is as much of the blood of the Quichuas. The Araucanians are the hereditary foes of the Quichuas. For centuries there was no peace between them. The Incas pushed their army of Quichuas as far south as possible, but they never could conquer the lands where the Araucanians roved. Even the all-conquering Spanish soldiers were blocked in southern Chile. It is not necessary to repeat here the long story of the Araucanian wars and the heroic deeds of Lautaro and his kinsmen. Instead of being easily conquered by the handful of Spanish adventurers as were the Incas and Quichuas, the Araucanians kept the Spaniards at bay for centuries, and were in fact never subdued.