No. 471.
Mr. Thomas
to Mr. Fish.
Lima, Peru, November 13, 1874. (Received December 1.)
Sir: After my dispatch No. 130 was mailed, news by telegraph was received in this city that the steamer Talisman had anchored at the port of Pacasmayo, about three hundred miles north of this city, on the 23d ultimo. The commander of this vessel landed at this port, and was immediately taken into custody by the authorities. The captain of the port of Pacasmayo, and an officer of the customs, with a boat’s crew of four men, went off on board the steamer Talisman, and were immediately seized and made prisoners. The captain of the port and his boat’s crew were carried away in the Talisman; the custom-house officer jumped overboard, and was saved. Before leaving, the Talisman fired on a launch containing soldiers, who left the shore for the purpose of seizing the ship, but abandoned the undertaking upon being fired at by cannon and small-arms from the steamer. No lives were lost.
On the 6th of November the commander of the Peruvian man-of-war Huascar, which had been crusing in search of the Talisman, found that vessel at anchor at a place called Pachoca, about six hundred miles south of this port, and succeeded in capturing the ship, and found on board of her a large portion of her cargo and only six men of her crew. Pierola and Escobar, the leaders of this revolutionary movement, with the force under their command, succeeded in landing, and, with part of the arms and ammunition which they had provided, and taking possession of a railroad-train, they moved to an interior town called Moquegua, which, for the present, is made their headquarters, and they are endeavoring to enlist troops. The state of their military organization it is not easy to ascertain. But it is generally believed that the forces sent from Lima to check this movement are sufficiently numerous.
We have to-day a telegraphic dispatch that a revolutionary movement is progressing in the interior, at a place called Cajamarca, about one hundred miles from the coast, and about three hundred miles north from this city, for the suppression of which a military force deemed sufficient left the harbor of Callao last evening. The Congress of Peru, now in session, have authorized the President to borrow five million soles to defray extraordinary expenses, including an increase of the military force, which these revolutionary movements have rendered unavailable. And as the commanders of the naval force of Peru are faithful to the administration, the government has the means to transport with facility, north and south, the military force required to quell this divided insurrectionary movement.
I am, &c.,