BUENOS AYRES.
_February 12th._—Public events here, for the last few days, have
been more exciting in their progress, and more important in their
issues, than any that have occurred on the Plata for many years. On
the evening of the 4th inst., the Hon. Mr. Schenck arrived from
Buenos Ayres on his return to Brazil. He boarded the Congress from
the steamer in which he came, announcing, as he crossed the gangway,
the utter overthrow of Rosas by Urquiza, “foot, horse and dragoons!”
as he expressed it. This had occurred on the morning of the
preceding day. He left the city the same evening, when thousands of
mounted troops were pouring through it in rapid flight, before the
victorious pursuers. It was not yet known whether Rosas had fallen
in battle, was a prisoner, or had made a safe escape.
Before the arrival in Buenos Ayres of Mr. Schenck and Commodore
McKeever, he had left for the camp, ten miles distant; and they did
not see him. They were twice at Palermo, however, on visits to Doña
Manuelita; once before any collision between the hostile forces had
taken place; and again on the evening of the 1st inst., when it was
known that an advanced guard of six thousand Buenos Ayrean troops,
under General Pachecho, had been routed the day previous, and the
general made prisoner: a foreboding shadow of the coming event. Till
then, Manuelita had sustained her position with great spirit and
energy; receiving all visitors—official, diplomatic, and private—as
usual, in the saloons of the Quinta, and conducting with ability and
despatch the affairs of the Home Department of the government.
Toward the close of the last named evening, however, when surrounded
by those only who were in her immediate confidence, tears might
occasionally be seen trembling in her eye, or stealing down her
cheek; but only to be dashed away on the approach of any from whom
she would conceal the weakness. It was now well known to her that a
general and decisive battle might at any hour take place; and that
Palermo, immediately in the line of march from the point of contest
to the city, was no longer a place of safety for her. The night was
one of splendid moonlight in midsummer, and among others, Commodore
McKeever and Mr. Schenck remained with her till a late hour of the
evening. Before they left, a walk in the flower-garden was proposed
by her; and, taking the arm of Mr. Schenck, she led the way to the
rose-covered arbor mentioned in my visit last year. Standing within
it in silence for a few moments, she said—“This is my choicest
retreat at Palermo; it is here that I come alone, to be alone; and I
am here now for the last time, perhaps forever!” adding, as the
tears fell rapidly down her face, upturned to the moon, as if in
appeal to Heaven for her sincerity, “I leave Palermo to-night!
Whatever the issue of the morrow is to be, I know our cause to be
just, and believe that God will give to it success!” In this,
however, she was mistaken. That cause, the next day but one, was
utterly defeated; and the following midnight witnessed her flight
with her father disguised as an English marine, and she in the dress
of a sailor boy—not from Palermo only, but from her city and
country, without even a change of clothes, to find safety and a
conveyance to distant exile, under the protection of the British
flag.
But this is anticipating the order of events. Rumors of the defeat,
on the 1st instant, of the vanguard of the army of Rosas, or some
disaster of the kind, reached the city on Sunday evening, the 2d
inst.—the night on which Manuelita forsook Palermo. It produced
little impression on the public mind, however; and on Monday the
shops were open, and general business transacted as usual. At
daybreak on Tuesday, heavy cannonading was heard for several hours
in the direction of the opposing armies. Early afterwards, whispers
of a defeat were afloat; and a straggling cavalry soldier here and
there, soon followed by others, in groups of three and four, began
to enter the city. The excitement spread rapidly, till three guns
from the citadel—the signal for martial law—confirmed the report of
the overthrow, and led at once to the shutting up of every shop, and
the closing of every door. The retreating cavalry now rushed through
the town by hundreds, and soon by thousands, hastening from harm’s
way to their homes in the pampas of the South. General Mancilla, the
brother-in-law of Rosas, and governor of the city, despatched
messengers to the foreign ambassadors, reporting the place to be
defenceless, and soliciting their intervention with the approaching
conqueror, for a halt in his march, till terms of capitulation could
be presented. Permission was at the same time granted by him, for
the landing of the marines attached to the different foreign
squadrons in the harbor, to protect the lives and property of
residents from their respective countries—British, American, French,
and Sardinian. Forty American marines, including those from the
Congress, were disembarked from the Jamestown, under the command of
Captain Taylor and Lieut. Tatnall, and the crew of the captain’s
gig, in charge of Midshipman Walker. These were distributed in the
central and richest part of the town—at the Embassy and Consulate of
the United States; at the residence of Mr. Carlisle of the house of
Zimmerman, Frazer & Co., the head-quarters of Commodore McKeever;
and one or two other principal American mercantile establishments.
At the same time, a hasty consultation of the diplomatic corps led
to the sending of a deputation from their number to the
head-quarters of Urquiza, in behalf of the city. The chief member of
this was Mr. Pendleton. Mr. Glover, the secretary of our
commander-in-chief, an accomplished young man, well fitted for the
service by his talents, and the facility with which he speaks the
principal modern languages, formed one of the mission. The special
object was to solicit from the victorious chieftain an order to
restrain his troops from entering the city, till the authorities
could make a formal surrender to him, and thus spare the inhabitants
the violence and rapine they had reason to fear. Happily the
exhaustion of the victors rendered such an order, for the time,
unnecessary. The whole force of thirty thousand men had been without
refreshment of any kind, except, perhaps, a little water, for
forty-eight hours; and, after having put their opponents to flight,
they found it absolutely necessary to come to a rest themselves, not
far from the scene of the principal conflict.
It was not till noon of the following day, that Urquiza reached
Palermo, and established his head-quarters there. Here the
deputation first met him, and readily secured the interposition of
his authority in the point of mercy craved. Notwithstanding this,
early the same morning—that immediately succeeding the battle—before
any thing had been heard from the deputation, the sack of the city
in one quarter was reported to have commenced; and, in confirmation
of the rumor, the alarm-bell of the Cabildo, or town hall, sent
forth an incessant peal. It appeared that a large number of the
routed cavalry of Rosas, finding the pursuit by the victors given
over, remained in the outskirts of the town during the night; and at
the dawn of the next day, commenced breaking open the shops and
houses in the more remote parts, and stripping them of their
contents, bore off the plunder; alleging the authority of Mancilla
himself, the governor of the city, for the outrage. The dress of the
troops of both armies is the same; red flannel shirts, caps, and
cheripas or swaddling cloths. Those of Urquiza, that they might be
distinguished by each other in battle, had chosen for a badge a
square piece of white cotton cloth, placed on the shoulders by
thrusting the head through a hole in the centre, in the manner of a
poncho. This badge these marauders assumed that they might be
mistaken for the invading soldiery. Emboldened by success in the
outskirts, they began to penetrate the central parts of the place.
The terrified inhabitants believing them to be the invaders,
submitted unresistingly to rapine and spoliation, lest they should
lose their lives; and consternation spread every where with the
increasing violence and robbery. Many of the largest and most
valuable plate and jewelry shops had already been sacked; and the
spirit of plunder grew in proportion to the success.
At this juncture, while a party of twenty or thirty of these mounted
pillagers was engaged in bursting off the door-locks of a rich
jeweller’s shop with powder, a company of American marines and
sailors, in charge of Midshipman Walker, accompanied by Mr. Graham,
the American Consul, on their way to the chief scene of
pillage—turned into the street near them. The robbers at once fired
upon them, happily without injury to any one. Our fellows, under the
authority of their officers, were not slow in returning the salute;
bringing to the ground, by one volley, four of the leading brigands.
Two were killed outright, and two mortally wounded. The rest wheeled
instantly in flight, and were seen no more. This first example of
the manner by which to check the pillage, led at once to a rally by
the citizens. They immediately commenced arming themselves, and a
stay was put to the progress of what, in a short time, would have
become a general sack of the town.
Mr. Glover arrived the same moment, at the consulate near which the
above scene took place, to report the success of the mission on
which he had accompanied Mr. Pendleton. He had passed a sleepless
night, and been in the saddle many hours; but, as there was reason
to fear that the check which had been put by our marines upon the
pillage, would be but temporary, and that the marauders would soon
return in augmented numbers to avenge the death of their comrades,
as well as to load themselves with fresh booty, he was requested by
Commodore McKeever to return immediately to Palermo, and solicit
from Urquiza a force sufficient to control the disorder and robbery
existing. The Chief of Police, at the same time made his appearance,
to urge the same measure. Accompanied by this functionary, Mr.
Glover, therefore, again hastened as an express to the Quinta. He
was admitted immediately to the chieftain, though his companion, the
Chief of Police, was forbidden his presence. The object of his visit
was accorded, by an instant order for the entrance to the city of a
body of troops sufficient for its protection. Informed of the result
of the rencontre with the American marines and sailors, he gave full
sanction to the interference, and authorized its continuance. The
report of this interview was quickly spread through the city; and
the patrol of the foreign marines and armed sailors, and the speedy
arrival of the forces promised by Urquiza, allayed the panic of the
inhabitants.
The troops of Urquiza brought with them orders to shoot down all
persons implicated in the robbery and disorder. This was
reiterated by the Provisional Government appointed by him upon
receiving, as soon as he had taken up his quarters at Palermo, the
deputation from the city, empowered to surrender it to his mercy.
Under the orders thus issued, three or four hundred persons, both
men and women, were summarily put to death, within twenty-four
hours; and a scene of such frightful carnage was taking place,
with the liberty of its continuance for eight days, that the
humanity of Mr. Pendleton led him, accompanied by Mr. Glover, to
hasten once more to head-quarters, to beseech that an immediate
stop might be put to a slaughter in which it was so apparent that
the innocent, through false accusations of robbery, might become
the victims of their political and even private enemies. The good
sense of Urquiza led him at once to appreciate the justice of this
appeal to his humanity, and to countermand the order first issued.
The alarm was thus quieted, and a general feeling of safety
restored.
It is quite a matter of congratulation with us, that the marines and
sailors of the Congress and Jamestown, should have been so eminently
the means, by their prompt and gallant conduct, of staying a
frightful evil; and, that the prestige of the American name, through
the frank and philanthropic agency of Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Glover,
should have had such ready and such important influence with the
victor, now invested by right of conquest with all power here.
These particulars I learned before leaving Montevideo, from my
friend Lieut. Turner. This officer was despatched to Buenos Ayres by
Captain Pearson, immediately after the report made by Mr. Schenck of
the overthrow of the Dictator. He went in charge of the American
propeller, “Manuelita de Rosas,” which the emergency of affairs and
the absence of every suitable tender of the kind in the squadron,
led Commodore McKeever to charter for the time being. He arrived in
the midst of the excitement and consternation of the second day
after the battle, when the pillage was at its height, and the
summary execution of the perpetrators by the troops of Urquiza was
begun. Being a fellow Virginian and a friend of Mr. Pendleton, he
was invited to a seat in a carriage with him and Mr. Glover, on
their last mission of humanity to Palermo; and thus was a spectator
in the city and its environs, and at the Quinta itself, of a
succession of scenes of alarm and confusion, of bloodshed and
affecting tragedy in various forms, which it is not often the lot
even of a naval officer to witness. The city, containing more than a
hundred thousand inhabitants, was under pillage and in panic; the
wide suburbs were thronged with ten thousand savage troops, dashing
to and fro in various directions; the bodies of dead men were
scattered about, after having been shot down, or having their
throats cut, not in the conflict of battle, but in wanton pursuit,
or by order of a drum-head court-martial; women in common life were
rushing here and there in terror, and ladies of wealth and rank
hastening in their carriages through these scenes, in agitation and
affright, to the centre of power, to throw themselves at the feet of
the conqueror, in supplication for the lives and fortunes of those
dearest to them.
It was in the carriage of Madame E——, a sister of the fallen
Dictator, that the party made the excursion. This lady herself made
one of their number; and, under the favoring auspices of the
American minister, sought the presence of the chief, who now
occupies the palace, and wields the power, so long and so recently
in the undisputed possession of her brother. The avenues and
corridors of Palermo were crowded with mothers, sisters, and
daughters, pressing for audience, on like errands of mercy. The
suits of many of whom, I am happy to add, were not in vain, but most
promptly and generously accorded. Such were the scenes amidst which
Mr. Turner passed his first day here. Those of the second, in a ride
of fifteen miles, to the battle-field, under the guidance of an
adjutant and the protection of a guard furnished by Urquiza, were,
if possible, more exciting and more revolting to the feelings, and
scarcely bearable in the disgust created. The whole way was marked
with evidences of the completeness of the overthrow; and the scene
of the conflict, strewn for miles with the bodies of the slain lying
still unburied. The whole atmosphere was tainted with the effluvia
of the dead, both of man and beast, and sad demonstration given on
every side of the horrors of war.
It was his representation of the state of affairs that led me—the
marriage of my friends Miss H—— and Dr. R—— having been duly
celebrated, and the crew of the Congress still in the process of a
general liberty—to the determination of making the visit of a few
days. I came up in the propeller, still bearing a naval pennant:
embarking on the evening of the 10th, and arriving the next morning.
On landing, I found every hotel and lodging-house crowded to
overflowing, with officers, naval and military, both natives and
foreigners, and with strangers from various quarters, who had
hastened to the capital on hearing the result of the conflict. After
long search, I was able to secure a small sleeping-room only, in a
public house of very inferior order; and suffered so much during the
night from the oppressive heat, fleas, and mosquitoes, as to have
made up my mind by morning, to return to the Congress the same day.
During my former visit, I had made the acquaintance of the Rev. Mr.
Lore and Mrs. Lore, of the Wesleyan Methodist mission here, and had
been so much interested in them by the brief intercourse, as to be
unwilling to take my departure now without a call at the parsonage,
of a few minutes at least. Here I was most cordially welcomed; and
the cause of my intended return becoming known, they at once laid an
interdict upon my purpose, and constrained me to accept a room in
the parsonage, in their power to offer, and the kind hospitality of
their house.
I had brought with me from the Congress, with the purpose of
affording him a peep at Buenos Ayres, one of the lads of the
ship, who had been commended to my special care by an excellent
widowed mother at home, and who had merited this indulgence by
long-continued good conduct in his position on board ship. His
leave of absence extended to the passing day only; and, knowing
that he was especially anxious to visit Palermo, I applied to
Mr. Lore, as soon as it had been determined that I should
remain, for aid in securing a vehicle to take the drive with
him. This he at once gave; but in place of a carriage from a
livery stable, as I intended, he soon appeared with the handsome
equipage of one of his parishioners, and accompanied us in the
excursion.
The morning was excessively hot—the character of the weather for the
last fortnight. No rain had fallen in that time, and the road was
one continued bed of deep dust, kept in constant motion by the
thousand and ten thousands of horses and cattle, which the large
force in bivouac in the environs of the city had brought together.
It is computed that on the day of the battle, and for some days
succeeding it, there were not less than three hundred thousand
horses, within the circuit of a few miles, around the city. The
number of cattle may be estimated by the allowance granted to the
troops for subsistence—one animal a day for every hundred men: the
number of men in both armies, the conquering and the conquered;
amounts to more than fifty thousand, and the daily consumption,
therefore, is at least five hundred. It would require pages to
describe the novelty and wild romance of the scenes witnessed in our
short drive. The riding at full tilt, to and fro, of unnumbered
Indian-like horsemen in the picturesque and fiery costume of the
native cavalry; the flying past of carriages in one direction or
another, through the thick dust of the road; the lassoing of cattle
amidst the herds crowding the open plain; the butchering them when
entangled, wherever that might be—even in the middle of the highway;
and flaying them while still alive, and scarcely well brought to the
ground; the masses of hides, and horns, and offal scattered about
every where; some freshly stripped from the carcasses and others in
a shocking state of putrefaction; the hundreds of loose horses
scampering about amid clouds of dust; and unnumbered savage men, in
all attitudes, and in every kind of grouping, presented sights
beyond the power of description.
As we approached the Quinta, such objects became, if possible, more
varied and more crowded: while dead horses and dead cattle lined the
road-side, and in some places dotted the ornamental canals of the
domain with their bloated carcasses. The white shell-dust of that,
which was once the private drive, covered every thing so thickly,
that the iron railings, now bent and broken down, the orange trees
and willows, once kept so neatly washed and so green, appeared as if
just powdered with meal. Indeed, the aspect of every thing in this
respect, was very much that of a landscape at home after a fall of
snow, while the trees and their branches are still in leaf. The
house itself—though surrounded, as when last seen by me, with guards
and soldiery, and in the same dress; and by a long line of carriages
and led horses awaiting the visitors within—had a closed and
forsaken air. The reception rooms occupied by Urquiza, are not in
the front. Those there, in which we had been received, with blinds
drawn, and shutters closed, appeared as though death, as well as
desertion, was there. It was not our purpose to alight; and, after a
general survey of the establishment as we drove by, we returned to
the city amidst the same scenes through which we had arrived.
The next evening I joined a large party of American ladies and
gentlemen, residents of Buenos Ayres, in a visit of ceremony to
Urquiza at Palermo. Notwithstanding the pressure of military and
state affairs in the disposition of his troops, and the appointment
of a provisional government for the city and province, he has been
constrained to hold an almost uninterrupted levee, for the reception
of the crowds whose interest it is to pay court to him. Many of the
most servile of the partisans of Rosas have done this in the most
sycophantic manner; and many of them, I have rejoiced to hear, only
to meet his ill-concealed contempt and pointed rebuke, by a refusal
to recognize their presence in some instances, and by prompt and
stern dismissal from the audience-room in others. One incident which
occurred interested me much. Col. Maximo Terero, the favorite
aide-de-camp of Rosas, and the affianced husband of Doña Manuelita,
was made prisoner on the day of the battle. It was believed by
many—judging of the course Urquiza would pursue in the case, by the
sanguinary precedents of Rosas and other successful aspirants in the
past history of the country—that he, and such others of the
immediate partisans of the Dictator as had fallen into his hands,
would be severely dealt with, if not summarily shot. Contrary to all
expectation, Col. Terero was at once set at liberty on parole.
Touched by this magnanimity, Gen. Terero the father, a confidential
friend of Rosas, and long his partner in extensive financial
operations, hastened to Palermo to wait upon the commander-in-chief,
and to thank him for the clemency and kindness he had shown to his
son. He approached him with the following words, “Gen. Urquiza, I
have come to Palermo to tender to you the unfeigned thanks of a
father, for sparing the life of a son, whose life and liberty were
in your power. You have, sir, my most sincere and heartfelt
gratitude. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am known to
you as the friend of General Rosas. He long since won my confidence,
has long had my warm friendship, and I have never seen cause for
withdrawing these from him.” The frankness and independence of this
address met an appreciating spirit in Urquiza; and seizing him
cordially by the hand, he exclaimed, “Gen. Terero, I am most happy
to see you. I am glad to hear you express yourself as you have. I
believe what you say—yours is the first honest speech I have heard
in Palermo; and I honor you for it.”
At the time of our presentation by Mr. Pendleton the saloons and
corridors were crowded; and the audience was brief, and, on the part
of the General, unavoidably constrained. He wore a dress-coat of
black, with white waistcoat; and, though polite and gentlemanly,
appeared to much less advantage and less at home in the
drawing-room, than on the tented field of Pantanoso. He appeared,
too, to be jaded and exhausted; which he indeed must be, after the
fatigue and excitement without intermission of the last fortnight.
At the end of fifteen minutes we took leave; and after a turn along
the parterres of the flower-garden, drove rapidly to the city, to
escape a gust of wind and rain which was seen to be gathering with
great blackness, in a threatening quarter.
On Friday, I made a visit to the hospital, in which most of the
wounded of both parties are now collected, to the number of five or
six hundred. The accommodations, in ordinary times, are limited and
indifferent, and are now altogether inadequate. The surgeons and
physicians are too few for the duty, and the services of Dr. Foltz,
of the U. S. sloop Jamestown, have been gratefully accepted. The
wounds of many of the poor creatures are frightful; especially those
caused by grape and round shot. From the heat of the weather, and
the length of time that elapsed after the battle before they could
be properly attended to, such are now in a dreadful condition. Those
made by lances are chiefly from behind, and show frightful thrusts
on the part of the pursuers. Many of the wounded have died daily;
and the state of many more is hopeless. The edifice appropriated as
a hospital is itself spacious and massive, and is of special
interest, from having been the residencia or palace of the viceroys
of Buenos Ayres. Mr. Lore took me a ride also, the same morning,
through the suburbs, in a semicircular sweep from one end of the
city to the other—the base-line of the circuit being the river.
There is little to interest one in the scenery, the whole is so
flat; and the road was but a succession of dry and dirty lanes,
lined by mean and shabby huts. We called in the eastern suburbs upon
an English family, parishioners of Mr. Lore, who occupy and
cultivate as a fruit and vegetable garden, the grounds of what
appears once to have been a tasteful and luxurious country-seat. We
were most kindly received, and refreshed with some very fine peaches
and grapes, the former the last gatherings of the season. The
situation is an exposed one in times of public commotion and
disorder; and we were shown a cavern, screened and hidden almost
beyond discovery, where the females of the household were to have
been concealed, had the city, in the overthrow of Rosas, been given
over to pillage and rapine. In one part of the enclosure, a natural
terrace attains a height of about twenty feet above the general
level. To this I was led as one of the finest points of view in the
neighborhood. The extent of the landscape commanded from it was less
than a mile, across a flat meadow, bounded at that distance by a
range of tree-tops, above which rose the masts of some small craft
at anchor in a stream, whose banks the trees line. I could scarcely
avoid a smile in hearing this called a “fine view,” while in
imagination my eye swept, in comparison, over that spread before you
in such wide expanse at Riverside. In the course of our ride, we
visited the English Protestant burial-ground; a rural cemetery on
the south-side of the city. It embraces several acres, surrounded by
a substantial wall, entered by a handsome gateway of iron; and has a
lodge for the keeper, and a small, well-built chapel for the funeral
service. Besides a variety of prettily-arranged shrubberies, it is
ornamented with two or three avenues of the Pride of China, which
grows here in great perfection: the whole forming an attractive and
rural resting-place for the dead.
The observations of the day were completed by the inspection, under
the guidance of Mr. Graham, of the new city residence of Rosas. It
is already in possession of the provisional government appointed by
Urquiza, and its elegant saloons are converted into offices for the
various public bureaus. It is an extensive and finely-constructed
edifice, one story in height, enclosing several quadrangles, and
covering half a square; the front extends the length of a “block” on
a principal street near the centre of the city. The middle section
of this contains the suite of private rooms of the late owner. From
these the furniture had been removed, preparatory to the sale of all
his effects. The structure, though of one story only on the streets,
rises to two in some of the inner sections. The whole is well built,
and, for this part of the world, beautifully finished. One of the
inner courts is filled with orange trees, and another contains a
garden of choice flowers. A lofty tower or mirador rises from the
centre. This is ascended by a spiral staircase of mahogany. The view
from it comprises, as on a map, the city, river, roadstead and
shipping; and the country in every direction as far as its flatness
allows the vision to reach. It conveys a strong impression of the
size, good order, and architecture of the city. Every prominent
building is in conspicuous view: all the old Spanish churches—the
Cathedral, the Merced, the collegiate, or former Jesuit College,
that of San Francisco, San Domingo and San Miguel; and the
Residencia or vice-regal palace, now the general hospital. All these
are of dark stone, and are time-stained and moss-covered: massive
and enduring piles, with many attractive features in the varied
taste and symmetry of their architecture, and in the well-defined
proportions of dome and tower, pediment and belfry. The lantern top
of this look-out is furnished with a fine telescope, by which every
object is subjected to near inspection; and it was a favorite resort
of the Dictator, during his hours of seclusion in town. One story of
the tower leading to this observatory, is a handsomely proportioned
apartment, paved with tessellated marble of red and white. It is
said to have been the favorite sleeping-room of Rosas, when he
remained in the city over night, being secure from approach except
by the spiral stairs, which could be easily defended. A fixture in
one of the galleries of an open court into which the chief suites of
rooms open, particularly struck me as a novelty: it is a fireplace
with a grate and handsomely finished marble mantle, so that, if one
choose, he may sit by a fireside in the open air, when the
temperature makes it desirable.
As I looked around upon the spacious and well-appointed
establishment, through which Doña Manuelita, a few days since, moved
a princess, surrounded by luxury, and oppressed with the adulations
of courtiers and admirers, I could not but anew deeply sympathize
with her, in her flight and exile, with scarce a change of apparel,
or a friend to cheer her under her reverse of fortune.
On leaving, we made an effort to gain admission to the Sala, or hall
of Representatives near by, and to the public library of the city;
but without success, from the absence of the persons having
possession of the keys. A _Porteno_—a name by which the Buenos
Ayreans pride themselves in being called—of intelligent and
gentlemanlike appearance, on overhearing our application for
admittance to the library and the cause of its failure, said
pleasantly to us, “It is well for the credit of the city that the
key cannot be found; we are thus saved a just reproach in the eyes
of intelligent visitors.”
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