Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/522

502 had a powerful succour in its militia, which was composed of three companies of artillery, six battalions of infantry and thirty light infantry companies, which made, altogether, a force of about 10,000 men.

The fixed battalion was disbanded by a decree of the constitutional assembly, in consequence of a sedition which took place on the 15th of September 1823; and the artillery company, then in the city, were also disembodied, for having joined in that disturbance. On the 17th of December of the same year, the assembly passed a decree for augmenting the national army with 1800 men: though aware of the necessity of raising this force without delay, they considered that it would be imprudent to do so without being possessed of the pecuniary means of maintaining it; and if, on the one hand, they felt how much the cause of independence might suffer from the want of a disposable military force, they were, on the other, alive to the dangers to be apprehended from such