St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1891-05-07
sf. John.bury, Thursday, May =, 1891
THE GILLIAN REVOLUTION
Two Letters from the Seat of War.


Through the kindness of Miss Lii
liam B. Matthewson, for several
years a teacher in Chill, the Gale
DOMAIN is enabled to present to it's
readers two letters from Chile giving
graphic accounts of the revolution
there. The first is from Coquimbo
and is written by a native of Chill.
The other is from the capital of the
republic.
CoQUIMBo, Feb. 81.
Poor Chile! l wonder how and
when our present troubles will end
For Coquimbo, and in fact for all
Chile, these last three months have
been months of great suspense and
anxiety Most dread iul rumors of
what the squadron intended doing
have been going around. Coquimbo
was supplied with an armed force"
(of handful of boys) to resist the
attempts of the national squadron
to take the town.
About five O'Clock on the morning
of the 10Th of January my sister
awoke me by calling out The revolu-
ton has commenced, don't you hear
the firing ?" We went to the window
to see if the fleet was in the bay, but
saw there only a steamer, which I
supposed was the mail steamer from
the north, as one was expected that
day. We still heard the sound Of
shots, but said "To me they sound
like blank cartridges. l expect our
armed force is practicing" Soon
we learned that my steamer from
the north" was the Amazonas "a war
ship and my "blank cartridges"
were anything but blank; that the
town was in possession of the fleet
and the governor had been taken on
board the Anazonas as a prisoner.
You wonder how our ARMED force"
let Coquimbo be taken so easily?
The Amazonas sent off two boats
full of men, who intended to land
and take quiet possession of the
place; but it was not to be so quiet,
for the soldiers were foolish enough
considering how few they were
to open fire, which the sailors return
ed with such effect that the soldiers
were completely dispersed, thereby
leaving the town in the hands of the
revolutionists.
They held the place about fifteen
days, and during that time every
thing was quiet and peaceful. In
every case the rebels have acted like
gentlemen. AS one Of the officers
said to us the day they took charge,
n "a f-rf1 n
come in peace and l assure you that
you will be better under the Nation
al congress than under the tyrant"
(meaning of course the president).
For private reasons on the evening
of the 9th the warships left Co
quimbo, and on the following day
the government troops occupied Co.
quimbo and Serena. They are here
yet. Several gentlemen who aided
the revolutionists while they were in
possession, had to embark with
them, lest they should fare as badly
in the hands of the government forces
as many of their friends have done.
On the afternoon of the 3rd of
February Coquimbo was greatly
alarmed, for three men-of-war were
sighted. The rumors, few days be-
fore, said that the port was to be
bombarded, so can you wonder that
the people were frightened? The
men-of-war that were seen were the
cruiser Esmeralda, the steamship
Itata and another little warship
whose name is not known even yet.
They came in quietly and nothing oc-
CURED for about two hours, but just
as we sat down to dinner we heard
the report of gun. The Esmeral-
da was firing at the incoming train.
The passenger train from Serena had
been delayed three quarters of an
hour, getting a carfull of soldiers.
1t was very stupid thing for the
Serena authorities to do, for the
feet knew perfectly well at what
time the passenger train was due at
Coquimbo, and seeing this train
coming at such an unusual time,
they naturally supposed it was a
special full of soldiers-so they fired
three or four well aimed shots.
However, thanks to the coolheaded
ness of the engineer, who immediate
" put on full power, the shots just
missed the train. You know that
the train usually takes twenty min
utes between Serena and Coquirnbo
well, Judge at what rate it was
coming that day when 1 tell you
that it covered the distance in nine
minutes.
When this excitement had seeming
" subsidized, we were told that the
Biobio-a ship containing cargo of
coal for the fleet and that had been
captured by the government people