The president returned in July to San Salvador to quell a revolt. A few weeks later, on the 20th of July, 1838, the eleventh and last federal congress of Central America, presided over by Basilio Porras, closed its session.[VII-27] Subsequent efforts to bring it again into life proved unavailing, and from this time the dismemberment of the republic made rapid progress. Two days after the adjournment of congress, on the 22d, the state government of Guatemala was also dissolved, and was temporarily intrusted to the federal authorities,[VII-28] though the executive office finally was assumed by Mariano Rivera Paz, as president of the council, which satisfied the people, and peace was unbroken, it being understood that a constituent assembly would be summoned at once.
SALAZAR DEFEATS CARRERA.
As soon as Morazan was at some distance from Guatemala on his way to San Salvador, Carrera, the supposed beaten rebel leader, for whose capture a liberal reward had been offered,[VII-29] began to show signs of rallying. He gathered a numerous force, with which, about the middle of August, he defeated the federal troops, first at Jalapa and next at Petapa. He then, unresisted, took possession of La Antigua, a portion of which was pillaged, and forthwith started on his march for Guatemala.[VII-30] A general clamor for Morazan was aroused; but it was impossible for him to reach Guatemala in time, and the danger was imminent that Carrera would not only take the city, but also carry out his threats of burning every house in it. In this emergency, General Cárlos Salazar, with the garrison of 900 men, sallied forth, and aided by a thick fog, surprised Carrera at Villanueva, where the latter was concentrating his forces, now about 2,400 strong, with the plunder secured at La Antigua. A battle ensued, the bloodiest that occurred in 1837 or 1838, and Carrera was routed,[VII-31] with the loss of 350 killed and 24 prisoners, one of whom was the notorious Father Duran, the representative and agent of the aristocrats near the person of Carrera;[VII-32] besides giving up a number of federal prisoners and losing three pieces of artillery, 305 muskets, and a large number of other arms, besides ammunition. A portion of the defeated forces fled to La Antigua, and a smaller one joined the rebel Mangandí, who had 500 men. The latter, being ignorant of Carrera's mishap, approached Guatemala on the 11th, at 10 o'clock in the morning, causing no little commotion; but on learning of his leader's defeat, he retired to the mountains. The war might have ended here had the victors followed up their success; but petty annoyances prevented Salazar from doing so, and he threw up his command in disgust,[VII-33] though he was afterward induced to resume it.
The greater part of the clergy friendly to Carrera never forsook him. It was not so with the aristocrats, Manuel Pavon, Luis Batres, and Pedro and Juan Jose Aycinena, who feared at times that they could not control him. After his defeat at Villanueva they called him an 'antropófago sediento de sangre humana.'[VII-34] At that time they asked the vicar-general, Larrazábal, to fulminate censures against Carrera, which he did.[VII-35] Friar Bernardo Piñol also railed against him from the pulpit in the cathedral.[VII-36] However, not long afterward Carrera was called from that same pulpit 'hijo predilecto del Altísimo.'
CARRERA AGAIN DEFEATED.
The lack of energy on the part of the authorities after the affair of Villanueva[VII-37] enabled Carrera to reorganize his forces, with which he made a successful raid, in the latter part of October, against Ahuachapan and Santa Ana,[VII-38] returning afterward to Guatemala, when, on the 4th of November, he was attacked in Chiquimulilla by Colonel Carballo, defeated, and driven back to the mountain recesses of Mita.[VII-39] Morazan had in the mean time concentrated forces in Guatemala, and aided Carballo's operations by marching against the Indian chieftain from a northern direction. But all efforts to crush the enemy failed, though the federal troops were everywhere victorious; many of Carrera's followers were taken and shot, but he always managed to escape.[VII-40] This warfare, or rather chase, was kept up nearly two months. At last a capitulation was concluded, on the 23d of December, at Rinconcito. Carrera and his followers were to surrender their arms[VII-41] and recognize the government, which in turn was to confirm the former in his office of comandante of the district of Mita, and respect the lives and property of its inhabitants.[VII-42] Thus was Carrera a second time given a legal standing. General Guzman, who treated with him, seemed to place on the treacherous and barbarous mountaineer the same faith as if he were a civilized man and a respecter of treaty stipulations.[VII-43] The agreement was not carried out by Carrera, for he delivered only a small portion of useless arms, and kept his force under the pretext that the safety of his district demanded it. The government not only had the weakness to enter into this arrangement, but also that of not enforcing its fulfilment to the letter. This rendered the renewal of hostilities but a question of time.
I have mentioned the congressional decree of May 30, 1838, granting the states the privilege of acting as best suited their views. This was tantamount to a dissolution of the union; and when Morazan's second presidential term expired, on the 1st of February, 1839,[VII-44] not even an outward tie remained to hold together the several states. Morazan, and he alone, did not relinquish all hope of restoring the republic, and without delivering up an office which had ceased to exist, the strife was continued under his leadership. His efforts, supported by force though they were, met with resistance on the part of Nicaragua and Honduras, united by a treaty of alliance since January 18, 1839, which had been entered into for the purpose of maintaining the independence and sovereignty of the two states.[VII-45] Similar agreements were made in the following months between nearly all the other states, always protesting a willingness to form a federal convention of the Central American states, but opposing the idea of confederation.[VII-46]
FIGHTING IN SALVADOR.
A conciliatory spirit, to bring to an end the war against Salvador, and to act as mediator, was effected in these treaties; but it had no influence for good, and the hostilities continued between Nicaragua and Honduras on the one part, and Salvador on the other. Troops of the two former states entered Salvador territory in March 1839, and surprising a federal party at the crossings of the Lempa River, called Xicaral and Petacones, took without resistance the town of San Vicente; but having advanced to the heights of Xiboa, were repulsed and beaten by Colonel Narciso Benitez.[VII-47] The allies were signally defeated at Espíritu Santo, near the Lempa, by the Salvadorans, called federals, under Morazan, on the 6th of April.[VII-48] Equally successful were Morazan's operations during the rest of the year. His officers invaded Honduras, took the capital and Tegucigalpa, and routed the allies in several encounters.[VII-49]
But affairs underwent a change against him early in the following year. A joint force of Nicaraguans and Hondurans, under Manuel Quijano,[VII-50] attacked the federals under Cabañas at the hacienda del Potrero, on the 31st of January, 1840, and forced them to leave the state of Honduras.[VII-51] A formidable servile coalition was being formed against Morazan. Nicaragua was resolved to drive this jefe of Salvador from the executive chair. Honduras, under Jáuregui, was controlled by Quijano's sword. Los Altos had become again a department of Guatemala, which was subject to Carrera's will. This chieftain, in his pronunciamiento of March 24, 1839, had avowed his intention to champion the sovereignty of the several states as concordant with his own ideas.[VII-52] Morazan thought the situation might be saved with an extraordinarily bold move, attacking the serviles in their headquarters, and made preparation to bring matters to a final issue in the city of Guatemala. The serviles, on their part, pursuing their aim of overthrowing Morazan, entered into a league with Carrera, and invited him to take possession of Guatemala.