[V-58] The commissioners, as agreed upon, were to meet at Jutiapa. Those of the general government went there and waited several days; no Salvadorans appeared.
[V-59] The mutiny took place at Xalpatagua on the 9th of Feb. Marure, Efem., 20; Mem. Rev. Cent. Am., 83-5. Aycinena wrote his cousin Antonio, who was in the theatre of war, that in order to hinder all peace arrangements, measures would be resorted to that were unknown even to Machiavelli. The mutiny against Perks was evidently one of these measures.
[V-60] He alleged as a reason the unwillingness of Salvador to enter into negotiations as long as he remained at the head of affairs. Arce, Mem., 84-7. The real cause, however, was a resolution of the assembly of Guatemala demanding his resignation, and he was unable to disregard it. This course of the assembly was altogether illegal, but the time for the expiation of Arce's political sins had arrived. According to his own statement, he retired to his plantations at Santa Ana.
[V-61] This was the most bloody fight of the war of 1826-9, and opened the third campaign between Guatemala and Salvador. Marure, Efem., 21.
[V-62] Their supply of ammunition had been destroyed by fire, and their commander had received a serious contusion. This fight has been since known as the 'ataque del viérnes santo,' having taken place on good-friday, March 12, 1828. Id., 21.
[V-63] April 13th, action of Quelepa, in which the Salvadorans were defeated. With that victory, and another at Guascoran on the 25th of the same month, the whole department of San Miguel was brought under subjection to the federal government. June 12th, peace stipulations were signed at the house of Esquibel, Manuel F. Pavon acting for the federal government and Matías Delgado for Salvador, by which the former was to be recognized by the latter, a general diet was to meet at Santa Ana, and a federal force occupy San Salvador; but the Salvador government refused to sanction the arrangement, and the war continued with more fury than ever. Details on those preliminaries are given in Mem. Rev. Cent. Am., 100-1. July 6th, battle of Gualcho, on the banks of the Lempa, in the department of San Miguel, between Hondurans and Guatemalans. The latter, under Col. Dominguez, hitherto victorious, were utterly defeated. Marure, Efem., 21-2; El Espíritu Púb., Jan. 18, 1829.
[V-64] Arzú had abandoned them to their fate. Montúfar, Reseña Hist., i. 47-51.
[V-65] Morazan, Apuntes, MS.; Montúfar, Reseña Hist., i. 53-4. Thus ended disastrously for the federal forces their third invasion of Salvador territory. The actions of Gualcho and San Antonio were the first in which the great Central American soldier and statesman Francisco Morazan figured as a general. Morazan will stand in history in many respects as the best, and in all as the ablest, man that Central America had. He was born in Honduras in 1799, his father being a French creole from the W. I., and his mother of Tegucigalpa, in Honduras. His education was such as he could obtain in the country at that time; but his quickness of apprehension and thirst for knowledge soon placed him far above his countrymen. He was of an impetuous temperament, and possessed at the same time great decision and perseverance. His bearing was free and manly, and his manner frank and open. These qualities could not fail to and did secure him the love and respect of his fellow-citizens, giving him an immense influence over them. In 1824 he was already occupying the position of secretary-general of Honduras, and later was senator, and for a time acting jefe of that state; but his temperament soon made him turn his attention to martial affairs. He ever after was noted as a republican of very liberal views. Squier's Travels, ii. 400; Dunlop's Cent. Am., 170-1; Astaburuaga, Cent. Am., 17. The writer of Mem. Rev. Cent. Am., 92, says that Morazan had been at one time a clerk in a notary's office at Comayagua, where he 'habia dado á conocer disposiciones muy felices, pero poco honrosas, para la imitacion de letras ó firmas.' It has been said that Morazan joined the party opposed to the existing federal government at the instigation of Pedro Molina. Gaceta de S. Salv., Oct. 3, 1851. A portrait of Morazan is given in Montúfar, Reseña Hist., i. 72.
[V-66] It has been asserted that he offered his services to Salvador, and was slighted, Mem. Rev. Cent. Am., 97-8, which finds confirmation in Arce's own statement. Mem., 88-9. Squier has it that Arce went to Mexico, Travels, ii. 402; but this seems to be a mistake, for he was in Guatemala in 1829.
[V-67] A few days previously, on the 20th, the assembly of Guatemala decreed a renewal of all the powers of the state, with the vain purpose of removing one of the obstacles to the termination of the war. Marure, Efem., 22.