The
temporary loss of sight is occasioned by the impossibility of opening the
eye-lids for a single moment, the smallest ray of light being absolutely
insupportable. The only relief is a poultice of snow, but as that melts
away the tortures return. With the exception of twenty men and the guides,
who knew how to guard against the calamity, the whole division were struck
blind three leagues distant from the nearest human habitation. The guides
galloped on to a village in advance, and brought out a hundred Indians to
assist in leading the men. Many of the sufferers, maddened by pain, had
strayed away from the column, and perished before the return of the
guides, who, together with the Indians, took charge of long files of the
poor sightless soldiers, clinging to each other with agonized and
desperate grasp. During their dreary march by a rugged mountain path,
several fell down precipices, and were never heard of more. General Miller
suffered only fifteen hours from the _surumpi_, but the complaint
usually continues two days. Out of three thousand men, General Cordova
lost above a hundred. The regiment most affected was the _voltigeros_
(formerly Numancia), which had marched by land from Caracas, a distance of
upwards of two thousand leagues.
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