Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

expecting
RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 77
for months from Para did not come till
the end of the year, and by that time nearly all
Peru was in a state of revolution. The first wave
of insurgency rose in this very province, but was
soon stilled. The Governor (Colonel Ortiz) was
on his way from Tarapoto, where he had been so-
journing a while, to Nauta, his usual place of abode.
He went by way of the river Ucayali, and ere he
could reach Nauta, the garrison of that place had
deserted, and set off for Tarapoto by way of the
iluallaga. From Nauta he pursued them, but
before him and took it
they reached Tarapoto
without resistance. They got here by night, made
the Commandant prisoner in his bed, and the small
garrison left here by Colonel Ortiz deserted to the
insurgents. It was festival time at Tarapoto, and
the town was full of people. As day broke they
were preparing to resume the festivities for the
insurrection had been accomplished so quietly that
few but the actors knew of it when all at once
the cry arose " Viene el reclntamicnto \
The
horror of that word to a Peruvian may be compre-
hended when I add that " recruiting
something like what the pressgang
'
in Peru is
used to be in
England, only much more barbarous. Somebody
had caught sight of the soldiers' uniforms
once concluded it to 1)" a recruiting party,
mediately all was panic and confusion, and in 1