[VI-49] Many of the immigrants died, while others returned to England or went to the West Indies, but few remaining. Dunlop, Cent. Am., 191, makes appropriate remarks on the 'infatuation in Europeans to attempt colonizing on pestiferous shores, under a burning sun, where no native of a temperate region, not even those of the interior of the same country, can enjoy tolerable health.' See also Astaburuaga's comments on the undertaking. Cent. Am., 25. A glowing and favorable account of the enterprise was issued as late as 1839. See Cent. Am., Brief Statement, 1 et seq.
[VI-50] On the 6th of March, 1837. Marure, Efem., 39; Montúfar, Reseña Hist., ii. 353.
[VI-51] B. Lambur, commissioned by Galvez, jefe of Guatemala, to report on the origin and progress of the disease, wrote from Aceituno April 3d: 'There can be no doubt that cholera came by way of Omoa to Gualan, thence went to Zacapa and to Esquipulas, this last-named town being the focus whence it has irradiated with such velocity to the towns at present infested.' Esquipulas is a species of Mecca which people from all parts of Central America and Mexico visit in January of each year, to worship an image of Christ, to which countless miracles have been attributed. In the Boletin de Noticias del Cólera of Apr. 4, 1837, appear the following words, 'En San Sur han muerto muchos romeristas de Esquipulas.' Id., 351-3. The fact is, that the disease had been doing havoc in the towns near the northern coast since Feb., and gradually spread throughout the rest of the state and republic till toward the end of the year, when it abated. The first case in the city of Guatemala occurred on the 19th of April. The mortality in that city during the invasion was 819, or a little over the 44th part of the population, which was much smaller than in other less populated cities. Marure, Efem., 40. See also Dunlop's Cent. Am., 193-4; Salv. Diario Ofic., Feb. 14, 1875; Rocha, Código Nic., i. 215-16; ii. 163-4.
[VI-52] Squier's Travels, ii. 427-8. Montúfar, Reseña Hist., ii. 370-2, gives copies of the documents that were circulated.
[VI-53] Such as making them swallow the contents of their medicine-chests, or pouring water down their throats till they died, a circumstance that was always looked upon as an evidence of guilt. Crowe's Gospel, 141. Montgomery, Guat., speaks of an Englishman who was nearly killed by the water torture inflicted by an enraged Indian mob.
[VI-54] On the plains of Ambelis, near Santa Rosa, accompanied with imprecations against the ley de jurados and the so-called 'envenenadores.' It was the beginning of a struggle which, in less than two years, wrought a complete change in public affairs. Marure, Efem., 41, copied by Montúfar, Reseña Hist., ii. 353; Squier's Travels, ii. 428.
[VI-55] Tempsky, Mitla, 337, says that Carrera was born in Santa Rosa, misled probably by the circumstance that the first Indian outbreak under his lead occurred there. He was born about 1815 or 1816, and was the illegitimate offspring of Antonio Aycinena, a member of one of the chief families of Guatemala, and of Manuela Carrillo, a servant in the paternal mansion. Through the influence of the Aycinenas he was immediately after his birth adopted by one Juana Rosa Turcios, whose husband's name of Carrera the boy subsequently was given. Such is the version of the author of a manuscript written in July 1844, and entitled Orígen de Carrera, in Morazan y Carrera, no. 4, 1 et seq., the authenticity of which is made doubtful by some inaccuracies in other statements, the object evidently being to give Carrera's descent a little respectability. Stephens, Cent. Am., i. 225, says that in 1829 he was a drummer-boy, leaving the army after the capture of Guatemala by Morazan, and retiring to Mataquescuintla, where he became a pig-driver, or, as Montgomery, Guat., 143-4, has it, a dealer in hogs, having risen in the federal army as high as corporal. Dunlop, Cent. Am., 195, followed by Crowe's Gospel, 141, and Squier's Trav., ii. 429, essentially confirms Stephens' statements. Belly, Nic., i. 75, adds that Carrera was for a time employed in the plantation of a Frenchman named Laumonier, near La Antigua. Montúfar says of him: 'Un joven como de 25 años, sin ninguna educacion, ni conocimientos de ningun género, pues no conocia siquiera el abecedario. Los primeros años de su vida los empleó, ya de sirviente doméstico, ya de apacentador de cerdos, ya de peon en los trabajos de campo.' The same authority refers to Milla's eulogies of Carrera, where the words occur, 'Carrera á pesar de su falta de educacion, y de los hábitos de la vida del campo,' which might have secured for Milla lodgings in the dungeons of the castle of Guatemala. The same writer repeats the assertion often made against the jesuit Paul, later bishop of Panamá, and raised to the position of archbishop of Bogotá, that he said at Carrera's death, in his funeral oration, that the man whose corpse was descending into the tomb was on the right side of God the father. All repentant villains are given some such post-mortem place by sympathizing ministers of the gospel.
[VI-56] In the early days they assured the Indians that he was their protecting angel Rafael, and resorted to tricks to favor the delusion. Squier's Travels, ii. 429-30.
[VII-1] On the 15th of June. Marure, Efem., 41. Gen. Carrascosa's report of his victory, with details, in Montúfar, Reseña Hist., ii. 356-9.
[VII-2] Among the sufferers was Carrera's wife, which circumstance, it is said, awakened in him an implacable hatred. Stephens' Cent. Am., i. 226; Crowe's Gospel, 142. Montgomery, Guat., 144, states that Carrera was then commanding a few men of the military cordon established because of the epidemic, which he induced to rebel.