and the insurgents rushing in seized and disarmed the guard. They then released the prisoners, many of whom daily expected death, and supplying them with the weapons thus obtained, proceeded with the utmost caution to the city jail, having first secured the Carmelite friars, all of whom were Spaniards. With equal success they surprised the guard at the jail, and their numbers being now greatly increased by the prisoners whom they liberated, they directed their course to the artillery barracks. Here they met their first mishap. Opposite the barracks stood the house of the comandante, Cortina; and the guard, more vigilant than those hitherto encountered, fired on them, killing four. Undeterred, they rushed forward and quickly made themselves masters of the barracks. Ten cannon were immediately brought out and planted at the entrances of the plaza, one being trained upon Cortina's house.
The desperate design of Herrera was now all but accomplished. The remaining barracks of the city were soon in the power of the insurgents, and Cortina alone continued to offer resistance. Being wounded at last in the jaw, he was made prisoner by his own guard, who had hitherto kept up a vigorous fire, killing sixteen of the assailants and wounding many more. After the insurgents had thus gained possession of the comandante's house, it was delivered over to pillage; likewise his store and storerooms;[1] but this appears to have been the only excess committed. By seven o'clock in the morning the affair was over. The usual arrest of Europeans — to the number of forty — followed their triumph, but order and tranquillity were maintained.[2] Miguel Flores, one of the principal citizens of San Luis, was ap-
- ↑ Cortina was one of the principal merchants in San Luis.
- ↑ The only violence occurred on the night of the 12th, when a patrol guard was fired on from the house of a European named Gerónimo Berdiez. This so incensed the officer in command that he forcibly entered the house and mortally wounded Berdiez with his sword. Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., i. 97.
