44 TRAVELS IN URUGUAY.
then hauled out the body, and it was dropped into the grave prepared for it. For this disease is contagious, as well as infections.
In the midst of this frightful scourge that existed in the city of Monte Video a revolution suddenly took place.
At two o'clock, on February 19th, as I was returning from a walk through the streets from the westward part of the city, I saw the people evidently communicating something to each other, and others running in an excited mauner, hurrying to close their shop windows. At the same time I heard repeated musket firing in the direction of the fort.
The political parties in the country had been for long divided into two factions, the whites and reds-Blancoes, and Coloradoes. A conspiracy had been formed by the Blanco party, both outside and inside the city, to oust the Coloradoes, and bring in their own representative, it being now the time for a new election to the presidency. Tidings of this had secretly reached the Government about a week before I arrived, and because Flores the president disregarded and disbelieved it, his son Edwardo had taken upon him to seize the fort to protect his father from the adverse party. It is to this that I referred in mentioning the excited appearance of the city on my first landing. The plan of the conspirators outside the city (headed by Berro a former president when the Blancoes were in power) was to assassinate Flores, and seize the Government. Their attempt first commenced by the sending up rockets, as a signal, outside the city, and murdering all the Colorado comandoes in the country round it. The Blanco party
