The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-03-31
Scenes in CallaO and Lima on Their
Capture by the ChilianS.


Capture by the Chilians.
The New York Erening Post publish
es a letter from its Panama correspond
ent giving very interesting details con-
cerning the capture of Lima and CallaO.
The correspondent says: 1t was univer-
sally conceded that at the termination
of the battle near Mirahores, five or six
miles from Lima, the Peruvians held ad-
vantage, and might, by one more de-
termined and prompt effort, have made
themselves masters of the situation.
Encouraging and congratulatory dis
patches from the front, bulletins an
noancing Peruvian victory were put
in press, fireworks were prepared, and
the streets of Lima and Callao were
filled by jubilant and excited crowds.
At this time occurred one of those un-
anticipated events which sometimes in
one moment changes the fortune of a
battle and the destiny of a people.
Pierola, who had passed four days and
nights almost continuously in the sad
die, overcome by exhaustion, was placed
upon stretcher in the field, where he
was instantly plunged into profound
sleep. The troops, it is said, had been
all day without food or water. At this
critical moment. while their chief was
unconscious, the superior officers dis
banded their forces, and assuring them
that the Chllian hordes would soon be
swarming through Lima and Callao,
robbing, pillaging and devastating, ad-
vised them to anticipate the Chilians
and "help themselves to whatever they
wanted Later on stragglers from the
front began to arrive in Lima and CAL,
lao, and their doleful reports were cir
culated as if by magic. Bulletins and
fireworks were suppressed, and in an
instant preparations were made for de-
stroying the forts and shipping. All
the morning of the 10th armed soldiers
continued to pour into Lima and Callao
and the day passed in quiet and gloom,
without the indication of what was to
follow, except the forming of many
groups of soldiers, negroes, and Indians
in the suburban cities and suspicious
quietness with which they seemed
to discuss recent events. About ten
at night the work of pillage be-
gan. Doors were smashed in, and
soon the streets swarmed with
men, women and children laden with
huge bundles of every class of objects
that could be imagined. The attack
was opened on the stores of the Chi
nese, and these furnished huge quanti-
ties of firecrackers, bombs and cheap
fireworks. the popping and banging off
of the which added to the uproar and
confusion. Toward morning the scene
was rendered still more frightful by the
glare OF burning ships. all of which had
been fred and the frequent explosions of
dynamite which had been placed under
every gun which defended the port. No
sooner did the rioters ''get taste" of
pillage and excited, perhaps, by liquor.
than they Systematically began sacking
all the stores and houses on level with
the street, without regard to nationality.
In Callao perhaps thirty Chinese were
killed. AS most were killed upon the
outskirts of the town and upon the
pampas, it is probable that they were
pursued and murdered simply for the
pleasure of killing. a T" s
In Lima the mob was greater and
the riot began at an early hour. Some
hundreds of Chinese were sacrificed.
Not only does it appear that the rioters
were melted to and encouraged in these
barbarities by their superior officers in
the Peruvian army and navy, but many
detachments or squads of rioters were
led by Peruvian officers, who participate
ed in the plumber. .-....
At noon on the 18th the riot sudden
ly ceased. A number of foreign resi-
dents, many of them the owners of
stores which had been pillaged. hastily
organized themselves as an "urban
guard" and sailed forth upon the mob.
The news of this seemed to spread like
lightning through the city and stimuli
taneously and in one moment the riot
ers disappeared as if swallowed up by
the earth. The guard was soon ade-
quately armed with abandoned rifles
and undertook systematic search
through the lanes inhabited by the poor
classes of people and much stolen prop
erty was recovered. The men, in
fluenced by their losses (and perhaps
by other stimulants, of which there was
no 1ack), did not perform their self-im-
posed task with negligence or undue
gcntleness, and in the morning follow
ing many corners were incumbered with
swarthy corpses. In fact, several of the
guard fell victims to their zeal; as in
Lima, rioters were much more numer-
Gus, and the area of operations greater,
the resistance to the urban guards was
much more serious, and it is said more
than i've hundred rioters were killed.
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