Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-19
After the Battle.
The Peruvian Battie-fields When the
 Victory was Won.

The Peruvian Battie-heIdS When the
 Victory was Won.
 Correspondence San Francisco Calll
 Procuring saddle horses at Lima this writ ter and two companions rode out to the bat tle-felds Before we reached the spot we could smell the stench, as the wind was blow ing from 1t toward us. The flies began to bother animals, and we soon reached the first subject. It was dead cholo, of Peru vian Indian, with his rifle and 40 or 50 car tridges lying near also @ bag of moldy bread He had bayonet stab in the breast, and his skull was broken in by blow from a musket stock. as it is said the Chilians finish their victims in that style. Benzine had been poured over this body, and then set on fire. The flames had ran swiftly over, burning the clothing and portions of the body, and then went out. So there he lay in half consumed condition just where he fell a week before. We soon found others in the same condition, and then groups of and 10 in a pile; some on their backs, others lying on their face as they were dragged up and flung together by the Chilian soldiers All seemed to be with the legs and arms spread out and distorted prob- ably by the action of the fire. In many places the hend had been burned off at the neck, and the hands and feet were gone. as the fingers and smal bones of the feet would burn quicker than the larger mass of fesh We saw no carrion- eating birds, but the flies fairly covered us and everything else. We 
 the latter were standing around on three legs some unable to move, and others trying to crop few spears of grass that grew close by. We noticed one large, fine fellow, with hind leg at the ankle almost severed; 1t WAS black with flies, and he was slowly dy ing with mor- tifcation. Poor, suffering fellow We tried to fit a cartridge into a Remington rifle for the purpose of putting him out of misery, but could not At Mirahores, mounted on an old Incahuaca, or tomb, we found Dahl gren eIeven-inch smooth bore of 1S63 weigh ing over 5000 pounds It stood solitary and alone out on the plaln with It's dead gum ners lying around.
 Arms were found all over the valley, and cartridge boxes nicely filled, with not a sin gle cartridge missing, showing that they had been cast of and thrown away before the firing of the shot. It was actually pitiable to see the waste of ammunition here. Ev- erywhere in the track of the retreating army the ground is thickly sown with it. Often we came across cases of ammunition lying in the dust of the public road that had never been opened-too valueless to carry away. In one place, in a small graveyard where the fight had ragged very hot, the unburied dead lay thick on the graves, and in a receptacle for a coffin in the thick wall-a sort of large pigeon hole-we saw a dead soldier with the feet protruding from the aperture. He had been wounde1 and crawled in to die; thus burying himself before death found him. Along the puDllC QlSQWdy we constantly came across bodies, some with little dirt shoveled over them, some half consumed and others just as they fell. They were on their backs, with arms extended and head thrown back, mouth wide open and face upturned, in a mute appeal to the clear, unpitying sky. The whole valley is crossed in all directions with adobe walls, breast high, and from 15 to IS inches thick, and, in many places. the Pe- ruvians had dug out loopholes with their bay onets, and posted field artillery in different places. Now, here were the Peruvians in possession of these natural breastworks- breastworks so close together that the fine Chilian cavalry could not operate, and yet they failed to hold this excellent position.
 At San Juan, where the first battle took place, the soldiers of the Esmeralda regi- ment, still encamped there, were collecting and burning the dead. We stood near and watched the cremating until the exploding cartridges on the bodies caused us to fall back in some disorder. The soldiers would fasten 8 rope to the neck or leg of the corpse and drag it carelessly along in the sand, followed by procession of flies othe pyre. They were laughing and joking and sometimes growing with each other for hanging ''back in the traces" and not pulling the right share of the load; they would haul it up on the pile and go lazily for another, till they got the place cleaned out, just as we have seen California farmer dragging out and burning logs from his blow lard.
 These heart-slckening scenes did not occur of on an isolated plain, but within four five jumps of the busy camp. We found a trooper sitting on the bank of little stream, and asked him for a drink of water. He handed us his canteen, which he had just filed from which we drank heartily Riding our horses on up the stream found a body lying slimy and bloated in puddle of water that oozed into the creek As we had been accustomed to horrible sights and smells, we did not get sick, but felt squeam- ish the rest of the day, and dreamed of that body all night. It is said that the Chilians lost about 1000 in killed, while the Peru vians lost about 5000 At Chorrillas the ChiIians learned that the canteens of the enemies were filled with rum. So every one they caught they killed as quick as possible and drank his liquor. Soon that part of the division were all drunk and fighting like devils and many savage deeds were committed that night The Peruvians had protected their line by ditch and sand bags, and the China men are doing 8 good business eulptying the bags and selling them.