the rights accruing to the Princess Carlota from the abdi- A spirited answer from the Cabildo,* expressing their If that flag has now ceased to float in the Indies, it was not from any want of loyalty up to that time on the part of the South Americans; nothing could be more unequivocal than the manifestation of feeling in behalf of the Royal family when intelligence was received in America of their detention in France by Buonaparte, of the abdication of the King, and of the appointment by Napoleon of his brother Joseph to fill the vacant throne of Spain in 1808. The French messenger who brought to Buenos Ayres the first tidings of those occurrences, M. Sastenay, an agent despatched by Buonaparte to secure, as he flattered himself, the ready submission of the people of the Rio de la Plata, and to induce them to swear fealty to his brother Joseph, was received in a manner he little expected. The proclamations of the usurper, of which he was the bearer, were committed to the flames, and he himself was placed under arrest, whilst the authorities proceeded without further delay to proclaim, not Joseph, but Ferdinand VII. as the only lawful successor to Charles IV., and to collect * See Historical Documents in Appendix. རི-ཅ་ the voluntary contributions which the people everywhere hastened to raise for the maintenance of his rights. In the midst of these loyal demonstrations, they received the official announcement of the rising of their countrymen in Spain against the French, and the commencement of that ever memorable struggle which, happily for the liberties of all Europe, was eventually crowned with such signal success. But the events of the two following years were of a nature sorely to test the constancy of the Spaniards in both hemispheres. An overwhelming French army of more than 300,000 men, commanded by Joseph Buonaparte in person, took possession of all Spain, sweeping every thing before them to the walls of Cadiz, the only place which was enabled to hold out against the invaders at the commencement of 1810. The Supreme Central Junta, till then recognized as the National Government, had been not only dissolved amidst a popular commotion at Seville, upon the approach of the French, but had been accused of treason by the Spaniards themselves; and although replaced by a Regency, being of their own nomination, it seemed doubtful if that was likely any better to maintain its authority. The Colonies could not but be seriously affected by this state of things, which threw them upon their own resources, and eventually led everywhere to important changes in their condition. At Buenos Ayres (in 1808), when the intelligence of the abdication of the King and the declaration of war against France was received, the Viceregal Government was in the hands of Don Santiago Liniers, who had been appointed to it as a reward for the gallantry he had displayed in heading the people against the British invasions; but he was by birth a Frenchman, which, in the altered circumstances of Spain, unfortunately for himself, rendered him immediately an object of distrust and jealousy to the old Spaniards. Elio, the Governor of Monte Video, was the first to give vent publicly to this feeling. He refused to obey his orders, and convoking the inhabitants, established an inde CHAP. VI. THE TRADE OF BUENOS AYRES OPENED. 73 pendent junta of the Monte Videans, after the example of those set up in the Peninsula. Shortly afterwards, in January, 1809, some of the leading Spaniards in the Municipality of Buenos Ayres attempted to do the same; but that movement was put down by Liniers with the aid of the troops, who were personally attached to him, and the parties implicated in it arrested and sent to Patagonia, pending a reference to the Superior Government in Spain. The Central Junta at Seville, upon being informed of what had taken place, and thinking perhaps to calm the public mind, which had been greatly agitated by these events, superseded Liniers, and sent out an old naval officer, Cisneros, to take his place. But Cisneros went alone, without troops, without arms, without money, and, what was of still more consequence, without any permission to relax in the smallest degree the stringency of those colonial regulations which Spain in the plenitude of her might had established, but which in her altered condition it was impossible for her officers to enforce. Upon his arrival at Buenos Ayres he found the treasury empty, and a total want of the funds necessary to meet the current expenses of the Government, from the paralyzation of the trade with Spain, and the falling off of the Custom-house Duties in consequence; whilst the people, in want of everything, and with an enormous accumulation of produce on their hands, were clamorous for at least a temporary opening of the ports. Their appeals to that effect were ably advocated by Don Mariano Moreno, one of the most enlightened of their public men, in a memorable memorial in favour of the principles of Free Trade, as opposed to the restrictive commercial policy of Spain, which was irresistible, and there is no doubt very mainly contributed to force upon the Viceroy the allimportant measure which he was obliged shortly after to adopt of throwing open the trade of Buenos Ayres to the English and other nations. But the reluctance which Cisneros had manifested to listen to their applications created great disappointment; and although he was forced at last to give way, the excite ment caused by his opposition, at such a time and under such circumstances, to concession, upon a point of such manifest importance to the interests of the Americans, had rendered him extremely unpopular, and tended much to accelerate a crisis for some time preparing, and which was brought on at last by the publication, by Cisneros himself, of the disastrous news from Spain of the progress of the French armies, and the dissolution of the Junta at Seville. The Viceroy, who had received his appointment from that body, seems to have been totally at a loss, upon receipt of the intelligence, what course to adopt; whilst, on the other hand, his manifest incompetency and vacillation satisfied the people that the time was at last arrived when they were called upon to act for themselves. A public meeting, summoned at his own desire, on the 25th May, 1810, to deliberate upon the news above mentioned, and the measures which it might be necessary, in consequence, to take, came to the determination to establish, without further delay, in place of the Viceroy's authority, a Provisional Junta to carry on the government in the King's name, as best they could, till better times. An ill-timed attempt made by the old Spaniards to secure a preponderating influence by naming Cisneros President, only led to a counter movement on the part of the people, and to a determination amongst the Americans to exclude all Spaniards from the new Junta-a very important resolve in its consequences, and which, following upon the angry feelings already excited amongst the mercantile body (at the time all powerful) at Cadiz by the opening of the trade of Buenos Ayres to other nations, constituted perhaps the real gravamen of the extraordinary offence which seems to have been taken upon receipt of the intelligence of these proceedings in Spain. The establishment of an American instead of a Spanish Junta was held to be nothing less than an insurrectionary movement against the mother country; the authors of it were denounced as traitors, and the King's officers were commanded to put them down, and to punish them with the utmost severity-orders which unhappily were acted upon but too promptly. They led to a long and bloody struggle, CHAP. VI. STRUGGLE WITH SPAIN. 75 between the royal forces supported by the old Spaniards on the one side, and the South Americans on the other, in which the most horrible atrocities were perpetrated-the latter, during its continuance, vainly looking forward to the King's restoration for the adoption of a different policy, and a redress of their grievances. It is useless now to say that, if they had been met with kindness and conciliatory measures, there is every reason to believe the colonists would have been found abounding in the same loyal and affectionate feelings for the mother country, of which in other times they had repeatedly given such striking proofs. Ferdinand VII. was otherwise advised. His only reply to the representations of the South Americans and their prayers for better government was to call them rebels and insurgents, and to assemble fresh armies to subjugate them again to his arbitrary rule. Mediation was rejected till too late; and under these circumstances the people, goaded to desperation, rose in arms, not only in self-defence, but declaring their solemn determination never again to submit themselves to the rule either of Ferdinand or of Spain. But, withal, such was the attachment of a strong and influential party in the country still to the dynasty of their old monarchs that, although they declared it to be their irrevocable resolution never to submit themselves to King Ferdinand, the Provisional Government set up at Buenos Ayres sent plenipotentiaries to Europe to present a humble memorial to the ex-King, Charles IV., praying him to repair himself to Buenos Ayres, or, if that were impossible, to send out his second son, Don Francisco de Paula, to take upon himself the sovereignty of the country as an independent prince. This remarkable document is dated London, the 18th of May, 1815, and bears the signatures of Don Manuel Belgrano and Don Bernardino Rivadavia.* It was their last appeal; which failing, in the course of the following year the people of the provinces of the Rio de la Plata, who had acquired a knowledge of their own real strength and importance, under the conviction forced upon them that they had nothing to hope, and all to fear, from the * See Historical Documents in Appendix. |