War of Vengeance.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 August 1910, Page 4

War of Vengeance.

MEXICAN INDIANS' REPRISALS FOR TEN YEARS' PERSECUTION. TOWNS SACKED. MAN WHO HAS MADE MILLIONS OUT OF THE CAMPAIGN. Tho most serious ri.stno; that Iras taken place in Mexico i'ot years. Tliait. is how tile l'evolt of. the Yucatan Indians is described-.. Va)!ndolid lias been sacked, several other t|>wns have . been attacked;. and Merida. itself, tlie capital of fchfe pro.vincjp, is threatened'. The first news of the revolution came 011 Tuesday in telegrams from A r ei-<i Cruz, saying that 5000 Maya Indians had attacked and sacked Valladolid, killing nil the principal Govern nieiiit employes, the chief of police, and many others. They then seized all the. rifles and ■pistols tilley could lay their hands on; and instituted a reign of terror. Manv of tho inhabitants fled.

The towns of Tinum, Usyina, and Tunkas were afterwards attacked, hut the families of the residents, except those of the officials, wore not molested.

ln t three days, it is calculated, tho Mexicans, have lost five hundred men. Railway and telegraphic Communication between Merida and the affected district is interrupted. The telegraph operators have been killed, and the railway lms been destroyed for a distance of twenty miles. Many plantations liavo been laid waste and much property destroyed, .and Merida is expecting the Indians to arrive at her gates every day. Tlie revolt is said to be spreading iall over Yucatan, and troops are being hurried to the scene. But, if reports be time, they will have no easv conquest. White lilen, sympathising with the Mayans, have taught _ them something of military tactics, and the troons will find the revolutionaries strongly entrenched-. The Mayans appear to have originally come from rntlia> and to be the survivors of a race which was subdued a.ud EITHER MASSACRED or reduced to slavery by the Spaniards in tli'a sixteenth. century. Their survivors have been subjected to such persecution ever since that the fact that any art; left alive seems miraculous. This 'rising is the outcome of ten years' merciless persecution of the Mayans by the Mexican Government. The trouble began when the Mexicans found out that the Mayans preferred trading with the British in Honduras to.being robbed by the Yuaentese. The Mexicans accused the British of sellling arms to the Indians; and then, to make a cause of war, granted concessions to Mexican companies for working tike mahogany and other dye and cabinet woods, in which tho Mayan forests abound, and which belonged by treaty to the Mayans themselves. The India,lls naturally resented the companies' trespass, and, after duo warnings, killed the trespassers. This was just what Mexico expected, a,nd wanted. Talking grandiloquently about unprovoked outrages, cannibals, and a. menace of savages to tike republic, she started a wa.u of extermination. CRIMINALS AS SOLDIERS. Troops Mere sent before dawn to surprise defenceless villages. Men, women, and children were butchered as they slept. In one case — that of Chansenote—a settlement of many hundreds was reduced to thirty people. The Indians have been ruthlessly massacred 'Whenever ;t covr; 1 rdly opportunity offered. Tlit) Mexican troops have invariably got the worst of it in such open fighting as the country permits.

Two causes are advanced for tho failure of the troops. As a matter of economy convicts are taken from the gaols and put into the Mexican lighting line. These criminals desert and turn into brigands who levy war on their ow .11 account war against everybody—<ind any one of them, it is said, is ready to cut a thi'o-at -for <a dollar. The convicts left in tho ranks are miserably underfed and maltreated. Another reason is that General Tgnacio Bravo, who controls the campaign, has used his ofiife as a means of onrKilling himself. He. has made millions out of the war in dealings with contractors. There is 110 secrecy about it. He himself has openly stated that he is "the sleeping pairtner of every merchant in the territory." Yalladolid, in the Mexican State of Yucatan, has a population of about 10.000. It has some good public buildings, a fine square, a handsome church and Jesuit college, and a noble viaduct which which supplies the town with water. It is noted for tho salubrity of its climate. Merida, ,t<? wiliiclji many of the inhabitants of Yalladolid have fled, is one hundred miles to the northwest, and has a population of about 00.000. There is a line cathedral and many other notable .public, buildings. Owing to the nature of the country, whidlii afl'fi'ids ample opportunity to the insurgents for ire.tre.at into 'almost inaccessible fastnesses, the Mexican authorities may have some difficulty in repressing this outbreak. The peace strength of the army is about 27,000 officers and men. ,