The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1839-03-12 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

CENTRAL AMERICA.—The condition of Central America is distracted and deplorable. The news of the incursion of a tribe of Indians was the signal for Marazon, the President of the Republic of Guatemala, to march forthwith to St. Salvador. So soon as the Indians were apprised that the main body of the army had been removed from that locality, they mustered in great numbers, and threatened to attack Jalapa. The troops stationed in the city, finding that no chance of the arrival of reinforcements awaited them, bravely determined to hew their way through the ranks of the besiegers, and to retreat to the capital. In this manful attempt they were defeated, after sustaining considerable loss. The blood-thirsty Indians who of consequence succeeded in gaining possession of Jalapa, shot in cold blood all the prisoners whom they had captured in the battle. This base and murderous infliction failed to satiate their appetite for revenge. They desired the persons of some harmless and helpless women, whom they denounced as spies. These unfortunate victims of the frantic rage of their savage captors were stripped of their clothing, grossly insulted, and by the hands of their fiendish foes their ears were cut off. In this maimed and deplorable condition, bleeding, naked, and travel-toiled, they were hurried to Guatemala, to present to its inhabitants in their own persons, ft fearful omen of the doom which awaited the residents of the capital. The Indians declared that they considered the people of Guatemala to be en capilla—one and all, old and young, soldier and civilian, under sentence of death. In the meanwhile, the recreant outlaws seized and plundered the towns of Antigua and Villaneuva. The arrival of the martyrs to the fury of their invaders at Guatemala was the watchword for an universal rising. The women of the city loudly demanded from their husbands and sons swift and sweeping revenge. The appeal was not made in vain. Eight hundred citziens, with whom 300 of the regular troops were amalgamated, instantly armed themselves, and elected General Salazar their commander. In the dead of the night they departed for Villaneuva, within the walls of which the Indians had encamped themselves. Providentially a fog hid their approach from their butcherly enemies, who imagining themselves secure from all chance of attack, had appointed no sentry to herald the approach of a'hostile armament. The Indians were taken by surprise. The greater portion of them were cut to pieces, and on the market place alone the bodies of 500 of them were found on the subsequent day. Carrera, their commander, had escaped. The course which the fugitive murderer had pursued was traced, and Fonseca, whom his countrymen honor as the "American Cid,'' accompanied by three soldiers, determined to hunt down their pray. On their way they were attacked by a party of straggling Indians, who shot the chivalrous leader of the expedition dead. The wife of Carrera was subsequently captured. She entered Guatemala mounted on a mule, richly caparisoned. So fierce and fearful was the indignation of the people at her appearance, that had it not been for the vigilance of the escort who accompanied her, she would have been trampled to death on the spot.—Standard.