The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-02-08
SOUTH AMERICAN BAsHI.BAzouKS

SOUTH AMERICAN BASHI-BAZOTKS
Horrible Details of the Recent shoclino
Massacre the Valley of the Cauca
Drunken General Incites HIS Troons -
Unparalleled Acts eff Atrocity
Town of Cali, in Colombia. Destrove0
and its Inhabitants Butchered eobI,o<s
and Burned.
A letter to the Panama Star on2
Herald, giving details of the recent horD
rible scenes at Cali, in the Cauca, saws.
that Gen. Pena, who commanded the
Liberals, was drunk, and gave his drunk
en- soldiers five hours freedom.
during which they gave themselves
up to every excess. Neither AGE
nor sex were spared. Many Conservs.
tives were dragged from their hiding
places and killed before the ewes of their
wives and daughters, who met worse
fate before they were killed in tnrn.
Eighty seven houses in the center of
the city were plundered, and the
churches robbed. The murders nunn-
bered several hundred. FOREIGNERS
lose $150.000 to 5000, 900 in Cali alone.
In the suburbs these scenes were kept
up for several days, and the country
nearly ruined. Palmira escaped the
fate of Cali by paying 5000, 900 ransom.
The houses of the Italian Consul, and
of an American merchant named Mac
Cune, were plundered. Fears were en-
tertained that the civil war will degen-
crate into war of races. The foreigners
are flying.
The letter detailing the massacre
continues; "Crowds of furies in the
shape of women of the lowest class, in
many cases with their offspring at their
heels, swarmed in the streets, bounding
the excited mob to break down all doors
not Immediately thrown open. ALI
houses were bedizened by red rags,
shawls, handkerchiefs, table covers,
petticoats, and everything bearing the
distinctive colors of the invaders. AL
trusted to a broken reed for safety. By
midday most of the stores were
cleared of their contents. Men.
women and children were staggering
in every direction under the burden of
their spoils, and were In turn maltreated.
knocked down, and sometimes even
killed, and deprived by their fellow
thieves of the proceeds of their rober-
les. Barrels and cases of wines and
spirits were turned into the streets, and
a saturnala of drunkenness began that
will never be forgotten by those who
have had the misfortune to witness the
deplorable scenes. Alter the first rush
On the stores had procured them an
abundance Of drink, bands of frenzied
men patfolled the town, firing and hack
ing every living creature, but unsatiated
with the slaughter in the streets
they poured into the houses of the Liber-
ais and Conservatives alike, mostly,
though, the latter, and continued the
work of murder and destruction. All
Conservatives were ruth]essly killed, and
many Liberals who tried to arrest the
barbarians in their progress or to shield
friends or relatives, and persons sus-
pected of sympathiziug with the Con-
servatives, or of having no decided
opinion in politics, shared the same fate.
But all horrors are as nothing compared
with the still more frightful excuses
perpetrated in the suburbs and on the
estates in the surrounding coun-
try. There murder, lust, robbery
and incendiarism have continued
unchecked for days together. All
small shopkeepers have been deprived
of house and home, all estates ravaged,
cattle driven away or shot, hedges torn
down, cane-felds burned, and even
machinery destroyed SO as to render it
useless to it's owners. The Government
at Bogota has condemned the acts of
Gen. Pera, but, owing to his popularity
and influence in that region, it was i'm
possible to remove him. There were no
foreigners killed, but their property has
been confscated in the most shameless
manner"