THE SOUTH AMERICAN WAR.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1189, 30 October 1882, Page 2

THE SOUTH AMERICAN WAR.

♦ , HORRIBLE ATROCI'IES. h i. A Chilian correspondent writes to the Star and Herald : — '• When the inhabitants of Tacna learned that the Chilian forces were about to leave, a large majority of Peruvian families appealed to be allowed to accompany them, in order to escape the depredations of their lawless countrymen. A few foreign families believing the guerillas would respect them decided to remain. Fully 50 woman followed the army. Not five hours after the troops left the town, immense hordes of guerillas poured in. There were 600 armed with rifles, and equipped like regulars who entered and formed in column, followed by at least 3000 guerillas armed with sticks, clubs, lances, and other weapons, who entered pell inell shouting vociferously, On it being known that all the well todo aud decent faaiilies had lelt the town, the fury of the Indians knew no bound. .Residences were completely stripped, and those of many of the foreign residents shared the same fate. Many assassinations followed. Among the victims wei-e 18 foreigners. In the midst of a drunken ovgie Tacna was reduced to ruins. With the object of burning the proper ties of the foreigners and Chilanised Tacnaians, all the town was burned. The cities of Janiva and Huaacayo shared the fate of Tacna. At Conception, the Chilian garrison made a noble defence against the hordes of Indians. .When the ammunition of the Chilians was exhausted, the assailants secured paraffin and fired the barracks, burning some of the wounded soldiers. Captain Pinto and a few survivors of the garrison made a sally, and out down the enemy and cleared the front and sides of the barracks, while the men inside extinguished and flames and removed the wounded to a place of safety. In another sally Captain Pinto was shot dead. The Indians again fired the building, and sallies were organised under Sub-Lieuts Montecrutz and Pieze. In one of the first of these, the firstmentioned officer was moffcaHy wounded : subsequently, Sub-Lieut Jieze fell wounded in a sally. The young officer was immediately pounced on by hordes of Indians, who lanced him to death. At this hour five indis from the neighboring mosque of < )copa appeared on the scene, and, crucifix in hand, commenced to incite the Indians to renew the attack on the building. At ten o'clock, of 77 Chilians composiug the garrison, but four — and two of these wounded — remained to offer resistance. The others were either dead or dying. The building was now ablaze in every direction. Four women, wives of soldiers, were eye-witnesses of the deaths of their husbands. One of them, accompanied by her five-year-old boy and her infant, who had come into the world at the commencement of the attack, after removing the wounded from burning building, went out into the square, hopingthat their lives would be spared. • hey had barely stepped outside the building when they were set upon by a crowd of yelling and drunken savages, and horribly butchered, ihe five-year-old boy had his thvoat cut from ear to ear, and was barbarously mutilated and the body of the newborn child was found pierced with six lance wounds. Sub-Lieut Pieze and the surviving refused to surrender and fell one after another, but-not until they had sold their lives dearly. When other Chilian troops arrived a few days afterwards, they found in the Square and adjacent street, 261 ef the enemy's dead. "he wounded were double that number, and were carried to the hill. The Chilian dead were collected and buried. Th"? city was burned, and everybody implicated in the massacre who could be found was summarily executed.