South America

In some respects Hernandarias's tenure of office resembled that of Irala, for, although unanimously elected by the colonists, in whose eyes he was estimated at his true value, the official ratification of Spain of his appointment was many years in forthcoming, the principal reason for the delay being, of course, due to the fact of his colonial birth. On several occasions his government was interrupted owing to this, and, indeed, Hernandarias may be said to have ruled for various distinct periods. It was only on November 7, 1614, that he received the definite appointment as Governor from the Court of Spain.

It was at this period that the Government of the River Plate was separated from that of Paraguay, Buenos Aires being made the capital of the former, while Asuncion remained the capital of the latter. This process of subdivision was continued until, at the period when the Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires was constituted, it consisted of the provinces of Paraguay, Tucuman, Cuyo, the River Plate, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Charcas.

The value of these River Plate provinces was now become apparent to Spain. Lacking in minerals though they were, these south-eastern territories of the Continent were now exporting an amazing quantity of horns, hides, tallow, and other such produce of the pastoral industry. So abundant, indeed, had become the wild herds of cattle which roamed on the plains of the alluvial country that a stray buccaneer or two landed a force with the object of collecting horns and hides.

At a later period a French adventurer of the name of Moreau endeavoured to establish himself permanently on the Uruguayan shore for this purpose. He had already fortified himself, and had collected a considerable store of hides, when he was attacked by the Spaniards and driven from the spot. He returned to attempt the venture for the second time, but his force was again defeated, and on this occasion he lost his life.

The Indians in these provinces had now become expert horsemen. They, too, possessed their share of the enormous quantities of live stock with which the country abounded; but if from drought or any other such cause the numbers of their animals grew uncomfortably diminished, they would raid the European settlements, and, taking the colonists by surprise and slaughtering without mercy, would sweep the country-side clear of live stock, and scamper away to their own haunts at top speed.

Thus the hatred between the natives and the colonials grew ever more bitter, and weapons, ambushes, and massacres constituted the sole means of communication between the two. These Indians of the open plains proved themselves formidable enemies, and, utterly merciless as they showed themselves to the vanquished, they rapidly became a continual source of dread to the pioneers living in the remoter settlements.

In 1767, when the order was received from Spain to expel the Jesuits from the Spanish colonies in South America, the expulsion took place unattended by any untoward circumstances in such places as Córdoba, Corrientes, Montevideo, and Santa Fé. In these places the buildings that had been devoted to the objects of the Order were ransacked, and, unfortunately, many valuable collections of books and similar objects were destroyed.

The authorities regarded with more hesitation the carrying out of the orders from Spain in the province of Paraguay. Many tens of thousands of Indians formed part of the Jesuit settlements, and the influence of the Company was supreme throughout all the territories which now constitute North-West Uruguay, South-East Paraguay, and South-West Brazil.

Don Francisco de Paula Bucareli y Ursua, the Governor of Buenos Aires, marched north in order to effect the eviction. Bucareli's few companies of troops would, of course, in actual warfare have stood no chance whatever against the numerous Indian regiments which the Jesuit missions now possessed. Bucareli relied on his gifts of tact and diplomacy, of which he gave no small evidence during the negotiations which ensued. As it turned out, the employment of neither of these qualities, nor of the troops which he brought with him, proved necessary, for the Jesuits expressed themselves ready and willing to comply with the order, and, having obeyed it, they were escorted to Buenos Aires. From thence they were sent by ship to Europe, and the great social structure they had erected fell forthwith to the ground.

The districts which had formerly been occupied by the mission Indians became after a while practically depopulated, and the Portuguese, remarking this state of affairs, decided that the moment was favourable for aggression. Thus, in 1801, Portuguese troops from the town of San Pedro advanced against the Spanish port on the western shore of the Lake Patos, whilst others advanced towards the River Prado.

The majority of these invaders appear to have been more or less of the freebooting order. One of the most notable bodies was commanded by José Borges do Canto, who assembled a small army of forty men, which he armed at his own expense. Learning that the Indians, bereft now of their Jesuit Fathers and discontented with the Spanish rule, would take the first opportunity of rising against the Spaniards, he determined to push on towards the site of the old missions.

At San Miguel the band of desperadoes came across an entrenchment manned by Spaniards. These, entirely deceived as to the real importance of the force which attacked them, retired after the exchange of a few shots, and capitulated on condition of permission to retreat unmolested. This was granted, but the retiring Spanish garrison was almost immediately afterwards taken prisoner by another roving Portuguese body. It was some while before their protests caused them to be liberated.

In the end the Portuguese obtained possession of much territory by means of this invasion, including that of the seven famous missions of San Francisco Borja, San Miguel, San João, San Angelo, San Nicolau, San Laurenço, and San Luiz.

We arrive now at an event which exercised an even greater influence on the destiny of South America in general than was suspected at the time. This was the invasion of the River Plate Provinces by the British. Undoubtedly, one of the prime causes of this invasion was the presence of the famous South American patriot, Miranda, in England, and the antagonism which existed at the time between Great Britain and Spain.

Urged by Miranda, Pitt determined to lend active military assistance to the South American colonists. Many of these were now openly demonstrating their sense of discontent, yet none, it must be said, had so far shown any inclination or desire to go to the length of taking up arms against the Mother Country. It was, nevertheless, entirely on this latter supposition that the British forces sailed for the River Plate.

The first expedition consisted of some 1,600 troops, under the orders of General Beresford, which were transported to Buenos Aires by a fleet under Admiral Home Popham. On June 27, 1806, Buenos Aires was captured. The Viceroy, Sobremonte, demonstrated remarkably little warlike ardour, fleeing in haste before the advancing British. A French naval officer in the service of the Spanish, Don Santiago Liniers, organized an army of relief at Montevideo, to which all the South American volunteers, officers and troops, flocked. The local forces, now powerfully recruited, crossed the River Plate, attacked Buenos Aires, and won the city back for the Spanish Crown on August 12. Admiral Popham, notwithstanding this, remained in the River Plate with his fleet, and, having blockaded the estuary, received reinforcements from the Cape of Good Hope. By means of these the town of Maldonado was captured. A little later more important bodies of British troops arrived on the scene. Commanded by General Auchmuty, these attacked Montevideo, which fell into the hands of the invaders on February 3, 1807.

Determined to pursue its operations in this quarter of the world, the British Government now despatched General Whitelocke with a formidable army to the River Plate. Twelve thousand of the finest British troops were now established at Montevideo preparing for the expedition which was to bring Buenos Aires within the British Empire. The attempt, however, failed completely, and a terrible disaster ensued, the cause of which is imputed entirely to the crass folly of Whitelocke, who sent his regiments to march through the streets of the town, to be shot down in hundreds by the determined defenders congregated on the housetops.

In many instances the result of this extraordinary piece of strategy was mere slaughter, since the British troops, many of whom had been charged to use nothing beyond the bayonet and to refrain from firing, could adopt no retaliatory measures whatever. In the circumstances total defeat was inevitable, and at the end of the engagement the General found himself a prisoner in the hands of the South Americans. On this Whitelocke signed a treaty agreeing to evacuate the River Plate Provinces altogether, and within two months not a British soldier was left in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. On his arrival home Whitelocke underwent a court-martial, and was cashiered with well deserved and bitter censure.

Apart from the extraordinary incompetence—to call it by no worse name—shown by General Whitelocke, there is some doubt as to whether the British would have succeeded in permanently retaining possession of the territory they had captured. For one thing, their expectations that the colonials would join them were not realized. The inherent loyalty of the South American to the motherland forbade any such move at the time. Nevertheless, it is freely acknowledged that this English expedition played no small part in the ultimate liberation of South America, since it was owing to the invasion that the South Americans, deserted by their Viceroy, had only themselves on whom to rely for the expulsion of the expeditionary army. From the force of no initiative of their own, they had been left to their own resources, and had found that their strength did not fail them. Amid the doubts and hesitations of later days the knowledge of this played an important part.

CHAPTER XIV

THE NORTHERN COLONIES

It is, to a certain extent, difficult for one familiar with the South America of to-day to realize the New Granada of the Spanish colonial period. From Guiana westward along the northern coast was an extensive and, for the most part, unexploited stretch of territory, devoid of such arbitrary boundaries as characterize it to-day, and limited only on the north and west by the sea, and on the south by the Portuguese colony of Brazil and the great Spanish territory of Peru. Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, and the sharply defined limits these names represent, are, of course, modern creations, comparatively speaking. For centuries the landward boundaries of Spanish New Granada remained shadowy, indefinite limits. There was a Viceroyalty of New Granada, so named from the resemblance between the plains around Bogotá and the Vega of the Moorish capital, and there was a Captain-Generalship of Venezuela. New Granada was estimated as comprising all the country between 60° and 78° west longitude, and between 6° to 15° north latitude. In this was included Venezuela, under which name was comprised an extent of territory far less important than is at present the case.

As has been related, Ximines de Quesada, together with Benalcazar, the Governor of Quito, conquered the district of Bogotá, and founded that city in 1538. After this followed the banishment of Quesada by the Spanish authorities, his return and his wise rule of the country—over which he was appointed Marshal—from 1551 onwards. Later, after his appointment as Adelantado, he devoted three years of toil and an enormous amount of wealth to the quest of El Dorado. Three hundred Spaniards, 2,000 Indians, and 1,200 horses set out on this quest; 24 men and 32 horses only returned. The costly myth of El Dorado, from the earliest days of its conception, was insatiable in the matter of human lives.

Quesada died, like one or two other great figures of medieval times, of leprosy, after having founded the city of Santa Aguda in 1572. He left behind him a will in which he requested that no extravagant monument should be erected over his grave—a rather superfluous request as it turned out, since he also left debts to the value of 60,000 ducats! The city of Bogotá holds his remains, which were conveyed to that city after his death.

The value of New Granada in the eyes of Spain lay in its being the chief emerald-producing centre of the world. The conquistadores of Peru had met with emeralds, and had gathered the impression that the real emerald was as hard as a diamond, a belief which led them to submit all the green gems they found to the test of hammering—with disastrous results to the stones. The loss occasioned by this procedure was intensified by the fact that for a long while it was found impossible to discover the mine from which the Incas had procured their emeralds. It was not until the discovery of New Granada that the source was revealed from which the stones had been obtained. The wealth of the land did not end here. From Popayan and Choco, provinces of the north-west, "placer" gold was obtainable in fairly large quantities by the simple expedient of washing. Thus, on the whole, New Granada promised the Spaniards ample supplies of the minerals which they coveted, and which they sought without intermission.

By reason of these things the Spanish Government, ever fearful of undue colonial strength, came to the conclusion that the Viceroyalty of Peru was quite powerful enough and wealthy enough without these newer possessions. In the year 1718 the limits of the Viceroyalty of New Granada were defined, rendering the tract of land which now forms the republics of Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, quite independent of the Peruvian Viceroyalty; for, notwithstanding the fact that the Peruvian authority had every claim to the retention of the inland province of Quito, that also was assigned to the newer government.

The conquests of Quesada and Benalcazar had established centres of Spanish influence, but they had not gone far towards organizing the control of the country. Consequently, the establishment of a central authority at Bogotá, independent of all but the Spanish Crown, was a decidedly advantageous move. As was the case elsewhere in the Continent, one of the chief evils requiring stringent treatment was that of smuggling. It was said, for instance, that in the early days half the great gold output of the colony was smuggled abroad by way of the Rivers Atrato and Hacha. The first Viceroy of New Granada caused forts to be erected on these and other streams, with a view to stopping the illegal traffic, and this measure mitigated the evil which nothing—in view of the half-settled state of the country—could quite subdue.

So little under control was the greater part of New Granada, that the good results of establishing a separate Viceroyalty only became apparent slowly. The conquest of the Chibchas, effected as it was with all the refinements of cruelty familiar to the conquistadores, had added fierce resentment to the natural racial antipathy already existing in the savage tribes of the country, and communication between provinces and towns was difficult in all cases, while in many it was altogether impracticable. There remained numerous bands of roving savages, fierce and predatory, to render travel unsafe; and though the efforts of the missionaries and others brought gentler ways to some in course of time, the whole of the colonial era was characterized by the presence of utterly fierce and vindictive bodies of aboriginals, while sufficient reprisals were indulged in by the Spaniards to keep alive the flame of hostility.

There is something in the transportation of the European to tropical climates and the control of an inferior race which, in certain circumstances, appears to loose and to intensify all the most cruel instincts and desires of which humanity is capable. In reckoning up the racial contests in New Granada, reader and historian alike must give the aboriginal his due. He was by no means the gentle savage such as he is frequently depicted. Indeed, many of his native customs were completely brutal. Nevertheless, it is necessary to debit against the invader numerous excesses and deeds of cruelty directed against the inferior or subject race. And since popular feeling, which ranges on the side of the oppressed to-day, was undoubtedly on the side of the oppressor during the earlier centuries, there can be little doubt that the ferocity of the Indians of New Granada, and their hesitating acceptance of the missionary's doctrine, were not without excuse.

Although the soil of New Granada offered endless possibilities to the colonists, the cost of transport and the difficulties attendant on this necessary commercial operation rendered agriculture in the interior of little importance as an industry. Each settlement grew sufficient for its own needs, and no more. Other factors in the slight use made of the rich soil were the natural indolence and the improvident habits of the people—habits not yet quite eradicated, since at the present day Venezuela, although it possesses some of the richest and best maize-growing lands in the world, still imports maize from the United States. From the creation of the Viceroyalty onward, attempts were made by the Spanish authorities to make the people industrious and thrifty, but these met with scant success.

The power and character of the aboriginal tribes may be estimated from the fact that, up to the end of the colonial period, Spanish authority in the immense territory of Quito was only exercised over a valley, formed by two spurs of the Andes, which reached some eighty leagues in length, with an average breadth of fifteen leagues. At the beginning of the eighteenth century a number of towns were established by Catholic missionaries on the Atlantic coast and on the rivers emptying into the Gulf of San Miguel; but the Indians destroyed them all, and remained so little dominated by the white race that a treaty of peace, concluded between Spaniards and native chiefs in 1790, contained a clause by which the Spaniards consented to abandon all their forts in Darien.

Beyond these there were other foes to be feared, quite as grim and even more dangerous. In 1670 the famous buccaneer, Captain Morgan, destroyed the castle of San Lorenzo at Chagres. This, of course, was in addition to his feat of capturing and burning the town of Panamá. Ten years later another party of buccaneers captured the city of Santa Maria, in consequence of which the mines of Cana were closed in 1685.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century William Paterson established a Scottish colony on the Bay of Caledonia, at Puerto Escoces, but the venture scarcely proved a success. Ill-fate seems to have pursued most of the attempts at settlement in New Granada while the Spanish rule lasted. Yet the town of Santa Fé de Bogotá flourished, and has continued to flourish to this day, so that no less an authority than Mr. R.B. Cunninghame Graham has described it as the chief literary centre south of Panamá.

The town is set at the foot of the hills, facing a vast plain, and towards the end of the colonial period was represented as a city of 3,250 families—a population of upwards of 16,000. It was the centre of archiepiscopal authority, with jurisdiction over the Dioceses of Cartagena, Santa Marta, Panamá, Caracas, and Quito. The route from Bogotá to Europe lay by way of Cartagena, 300 miles distant from the capital.

Next in order of importance was Quito. The immense province was—and is at the present day—made up for the most part of dense jungle growth, alternating with marshy and desert stretches, with nomadic tribes inhabiting the more open areas. The city of Quito itself, set in perpetual spring, is considered one of the most beautiful spots in the world, almost its only drawbacks being the tremendous violence of the tropical storms to which it is subject, and occasional earthquake shocks.

The poverty of the mines of Quito freed the Indian inhabitants from mining labour, a form of industry which, under Spanish rule, depopulated so many native centres. In consequence of this Quito was reputed to be the most thickly populated province of South America. Various manufactures were pursued, and there were several towns with populations of over 10,000. The products of the land were exchanged for wine, oil, and other extraneous products, but so inefficient was the colonial administration that in 1790 Quito was one of the poorest of South American cities.

The article of chief value—for rubber had not then come into prominence—was the quinquina, or cinchona bark, at first considered peculiar to the territory of Loxa, but subsequently found to exist at Bogotá, Riobamba, and many other parts of New Granada. It was first introduced to Europe by the Jesuits in 1639, and after its use had been established at the Spanish Court in 1640, it commanded a price of 100 crowns a pound. In these circumstances quinquina was, as a matter of course, subject to adulteration and substitution—practices which brought their own reward, since the quinine of Loxa, at one time considered of the highest quality, fell into disrepute when the gatherers in that province mixed with the real article the bark of other trees. Perpetually increasing demand led to more careful search for supplies, and the New Granada of the colonial era owed almost all its prosperity to the exports of the famed bark, for the output of minerals dwindled almost to vanishing point.

The Captain-Generalship of Venezuela was chiefly noteworthy for the Spanish settlements on the Orinoco, where over 4,000 Spaniards were contained in a dozen or so of villages rather indolently engaged in cattle raising. Together with tributary Indians, the settlers made up a total population of nearly 17,000, with over 70,000 head of cattle among them. Their trade was with the Dutch of Curaçoa, who supplied goods in exchange for cattle, hides, and tobacco.

Caracas was then, as it is now, the head-quarters of the colony, which was separated from the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1731. Three years previously—in 1728—some merchants of Guipiscoa obtained exclusive trading rights with Caracas, conditionally on their putting an end to the trade with Curaçoa, and landing all cargoes at Cadiz. So successfully did they fulfil these conditions, and to such an extent did they increase the development of the colony, that it was deemed necessary to separate it from New Granada, and form an entirely new administration.

Yet the climate, or some obscure effect of the mingling and cross-breeding of conquerors and conquered, seems to have paralyzed human effort in these colonies of the northern coast. The land was something of an earthly paradise, and men were tempted to doze in it rather than to develop its resources. The cacao of Venezuela takes first place in the markets of the world, and has done so since its initial cultivation there; but not one-tenth of the area available for the growth of the bean has ever been utilized.

Caracas itself, earthquake shaken from time to time, was never—even in the most favourable periods of colonial rule—a flourishing city, but rather a centre of trade for scattered settlements. The town could claim little literary or educational movement to mark it as the capital of a potentially rich country. It was concerned, moreover, with scarcely a trace of the social and erudite development that characterized Bogotá almost from the time of its foundation by Quesada. In so far as it had to be, Caracas existed, but there its ambition ended.

Except for some isolated centres, this was true of the whole of New Granada and Venezuela. Under Spanish rule the Viceroyalty and its dependent Captain-Generalship formed a great area into which Spaniards had come to hunt for mineral wealth, and while that wealth was obtainable there was a vast amount of activity. The aborigines, save for the Chibcha race, numbered among them some of the lowest types on the Continent, and where gold or emeralds or other valuable minerals were to be obtained these unfortunates were pressed into service, or rather into slavery.

When the minerals were exhausted, enterprise ceased. Sufficient cultivation for material needs—an easy matter in this productive land—was carried on, and in certain districts a definite amount of cacao growing was practised. For the rest, little was achieved, while farther south development was proceeding along the lines which have brought into being the great republics of to-day.

Then Venezuela gave to South America Simon Bolivar, and the storm of revolution which swept the Continent shook these northern dependencies into transient wakefulness and energy, until the great day of Boyaca dawned, and New Granada and Venezuela, as Spanish colonies, ceased to be. Fit or unfit as they might have been for self-government at the time, these peoples set out to make histories as independent States, and the Spanish colonial era, having lasted over two and a half centuries, came to an end.

CHAPTER XV

THE LAST DAYS OF EMPIRE

We have now arrived at the most critical of all the periods which Spanish South America has undergone in the course of its history, the decade or so which preceded the actual outbreak of the revolutionary wars. In order to arrive at a just appreciation of the situation it is necessary to realize that, although the policy of Spain had consistently demonstrated itself as discouraging towards learning and progress in every direction, to such an extent had the population of the colonies grown that this task of repression of the intelligence of a Continent had now become Herculean and altogether beyond the powers of the moderately energetic Spanish officials.

Despite every precaution, the colonists had succeeded in educating themselves up to a certain point; moreover, a number of them, flinging restrictions to the wind, had now begun to travel abroad, and had visited European centres. These sons of the New World had adapted themselves admirably to the conditions of Europe. They had been received by notable personages in England and France, who had been struck with the intelligence and ideals of the South Americans. These latter, for their part, had benefited from an exchange of views and from conversations concerning many subjects which were necessarily new to them. With an intercourse of this kind once in full swing it was inevitable that the regulations of Spain should automatically become obsolete and, in the eyes of the Americans, ridiculous.

In South America itself, nevertheless, the social gap between the Spaniard and the colonial continued entirely unbridged, and the contempt of the European officials for the South American born was as openly expressed in as gratuitous a fashion as ever. Indeed, as the opportunities for education broadened for the colonists, it would seem that their Spanish alleged brethren affected to despise them still more deeply—no doubt as a hint that no mere learning could alter the solid fact that their birth had occurred without the frontiers of European Spain.

The ban upon mixed marriages continued, and neither Viceroys, Governors, nor high officials might lead to the altar any woman born in America, however beautiful she might be, and however aristocratic her descent. A few minor privileges had been accorded to these oversea dwellers, it is true. A system of titles had been instituted throughout the colonies, for instance. By means of this it was hoped to pander to the vanity of the Americans, and to bring into being a new tie of interest which should cement the link between the Old and the New World which was proving so profitable to Spain.

As a matter of fact, none took the trouble to grant these titles in return for merit or service; it was necessary to buy them and to pay for them. Their grandeur was strictly local. Thus a Marquis or a Count in Lima or elsewhere in the Southern Continent would have been crassly unwise to leave the shores of South America, for once in Spain his title fell from him like a withered leaf; he became plain "Señor" and nothing beyond, for in Spain these colonial distinctions were a matter for jeers and mockery. What remained, therefore, for the poor local noble but to hasten back to the spot where his nobility held good! It was better to bask as a Marquis in the sunshine of the south than to be cold-shouldered as a plebeian in stately Castile.

Commercial and more material distinctions which favoured Spain as against her colonies remained equally marked. Bartolomé Mitre has appropriately explained the situation which preceded the Revolution:

What would have happened had the position of Spain herself in Europe remained unimpaired is idle to conjecture, but it is practically certain, with the new light which was now beginning to flood the new Continent, that the struggle for independence would have been postponed for a few years only.

The first herald of the great struggle for liberty which was to ensue was Francisco Miranda. The character of Miranda resembled not a little that of Bolivar. Both men were of exalted and enthusiastic temperaments; both were skilled in the arts of oratory and the management of men, and both possessed a visionary side. For each the situation in the New World formed an ample and, indeed, justifiable field.

Long before the first outbreak of hostilities in America Miranda had played the part of stormy petrel in other continents. Born in Venezuela, he had the advantage of a wider knowledge of the world than many of his compatriots; he had already taken an active part in the struggle between North America and Great Britain, and he had joined with Lafayette in the territories of the then British Colonies in order to assist the revolutionaries in their campaign.

No ill-will appears to have been borne him by the English for the part he played in this war; for some while afterwards we find him residing in England, and corresponding with many prominent men of the period. He is said to have gained the friendship of Fox, and it may have been due to his efforts, whether direct or indirect, that Canning gave such whole-hearted support to the South American cause. As has already been said, it was largely due to Miranda's persuasions and assertions—somewhat premature and optimistic though these eventually proved themselves—that the various British expeditions sailed for the River Plate. The result was disastrous in every respect save that it lent to the colonials a new confidence in their own powers. In any case Miranda's good faith and honour were unquestionable, although at a later period he appears to have fallen somewhat under the suspicion of his fellow-patriots.

It was not long before the efforts of Miranda began to be seconded by those of other distinguished and high-spirited South Americans. Simon Bolivar, the liberator himself, accompanied by a tutor, was sent by his parents to gain an intimate knowledge of Europe and of the polite arts of the Old Continent. Here he had plunged himself into Latin classics and the French philosophy, and his remarkable personality is said to have created no small impression upon those with whom he came into contact. Venezuela has every right to be proud of the fact that, although the seeds of liberty had already been sown throughout the Continent, and especially in the River Plate Provinces, they first sprouted into material activity in Venezuela, for Bolivar, having been born at Caracas, could claim Miranda as a fellow-countryman, or rather as a neighbour, since theoretically, in the colonial days, all South Americans were fellow-countrymen.

It is certain that during this early European tour of Bolivar's he had already become strongly imbued with the idea of freeing his country and Continent from the rule of Spain. At one period of his travels he was at Rome, and he is said to have chosen the holy city as the spot in which to swear a solemn oath to take his share in the liberation of his native land—an oath which, as history proves, he fulfilled in generous measure, since the first desperate fights in the north of the Continent were conducted on the patriot side under his auspices and those of Miranda.

In the face of all the trials and injustices which they had undergone, it is important to remember that the temperament of the South Americans was one which urged them strongly to remain loyal to the Mother Country. Although it had now become evident that a rupture was inevitable, the colonists viewed the snapping of the ties which bound them to Spain with reluctance and unease. As fate would have it, it was the situation in Europe which arose to solve the difficulty, and to remove the last doubt from the breasts of the South American patriots. The news of catastrophe after catastrophe filtered slowly through from the peninsula to the colonies. The Napoleonic armies had overrun the country; the Corsican's talons were now fixed deeply in its soil, and the rightful Sovereign had abdicated while the throne was being seized upon by Joseph Buonaparte. Then came the news of a Spanish junta, formed as a last resource to organize a defence of the harassed country; after this followed tidings of dissensions among the numbers of these defenders themselves, of the formation of other juntas, and, in fact, of the prevalence of complete desolation and catastrophe and of the wildest confusion.

In the midst of the reports and rumours, contradictions and confirmations which followed one another at as great a pace as the methods of communication of the period would allow, there came at last definite proofs of the chaos which reigned in Spain. An envoy arrived in Buenos Aires, sent by Napoleon in his capacity of Lord of Spain, in order to announce the fact to the colonies, and to open up negotiations for future transactions. Almost simultaneously arrived another envoy—a special messenger this, sent from the Junta of Seville, who claimed that Spain still belonged to the Spaniards, and that the Junta of Seville represented Spain.

In one direction the colonial authorities were enabled to act without hesitation. Napoleon's envoy was sent packing back in haste to where he had come from! The messenger from the junta, on the other hand, was received with every consideration; but his presence failed to dispel the doubts from the minds of the South Americans. For the downfall of Spain was now patent to all, as well as her impotence, not only to maintain communication with her colonies, but to move hand or foot to free herself from the grasp of the French.

The situation as it now presented itself would have been sufficiently bewildering even in the case of colonies who had enjoyed fair treatment on the part of the Madre Patria. Amid the chaos which prevailed in Europe it was practically impossible to discover in whose hands the actual authority lay in Spain. The Spanish King, his rival Prince, Joseph Buonaparte, the Junta of Seville—all these reiterated their claims to the supreme authority. The storm of contradictions and disclaimers ended by proving clearly to the colonists what was actually the case. In Spain no single supreme authority existed. This in consequence lay with themselves.

From the moment that this became clear the passive submission to the local royal garrisons and to the powers of Spain set above them began to give way to active protests. In ordinary circumstances these would probably have continued for some while, and efforts would have been made to avoid the actual resort to arms. So fiercely, however, were the first claims to their rights on the parts of the colonists resented and opposed by the Spanish officials that the South Americans, disgusted and embittered, threw caution to the wind, drew the sword in turn, and met force by force, while the flare of battle burst out from the north to the south of the great Continent.

CHAPTER XVI

THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE—I

The analogy between the first invasions of South America by the conquistadores and the campaign of liberation undertaken by the South Americans of a later age is curious to remark. The conquistadores undertook three separate invasions: the first in the north; the second in Peru, and subsequently Chile; the third in the Provinces of the River Plate. In the struggle of the South Americans against the Spanish forces, the field of war was divided into precisely the same categories.

Bolivar, Sucre, Miranda, and their colleagues blew up the flames of strife and kept them alive in the north; Belgrano, San Martin, Guëmes, and their comrades maintained the fight in the River Plate Provinces; while the Chilean O'Higgins and his companions accompanied the great San Martin in his march from Argentina westwards over the Andes to Chile. From there, having freed the province, the liberating army turned northwards into Peru, eventually to fuse with the stream of patriot forces which was flowing down from the north with the same purpose in view.

Since both Miranda and Bolivar had played such important parts before the outbreak of the revolution, it will be well to deal first of all with the progress of the wars in the north. It was in Caracas that the plans and projects of independence were matured. When the outbreak in the south took place, Caracas girded up its loins for war, and Bolivar and Miranda took the field beneath the banner of independence. In no place were the fortunes of war more varied than in the north, and the campaign was destined to last fourteen years before the Spanish power in the old kingdom of New Granada was finally broken.

It is impossible here to go into the full details of the campaigns. In the first place, the patriots, although they fought desperately, ill-armed and undisciplined as they were, suffered numerous reverses from the Spanish veterans who garrisoned the northern districts. More than once the flames of revolution seemed to all practical purposes extinguished, and Bolivar and his lieutenants, fugitives from the field of strife, were obliged to continue their plans in other lands, among these places of refuge being some of the British West Indian Islands.

Even here the patriots were by no means safe from the vengeance of Spain. Various attempts were made to assassinate Bolivar. On one occasion a dastardly endeavour of the kind was within an ace of being successful. Bolivar had sailed to Jamaica in order to obtain supplies for the patriot forces. His presence in the island was noted, and some Spaniards bribed a negro to enter the house where he was staying and to slay him as he lay asleep at night.

The murderous black succeeded in penetrating to the room where the General usually slept. A figure lay upon the bed, and this the assassin stabbed to the heart; but it was not that of the Liberator. It was his secretary, who had died in his stead.

Bolivar, however, was not a man to be deterred from his plans by attempts such as these. He was possessed of a high courage, and was by no means averse to distinguish himself on the battle-field from the rest in the matter of costume. At Boyaca, for instance, he donned a jacket and pantaloons of the most brilliant scarlet and gold, thus attracting an amount of attention on the part of the enemy which was sufficiently perilous in itself.

The British did not long delay in taking an active interest in the struggle for independence, and very soon volunteers came flocking to the assistance of these northern districts of South America. Two separate British legions fought for Bolivar. One had been raised in England, and was commanded by General English; the other, formed in Ireland, was led by General Devereux. Some corps of native Indian troops, it may be remarked, were officered by the British, and there was, moreover, in the patriot service a battalion of rifles composed entirely of British and German troops.

At first it appears that a marked spirit of distrust manifested itself between the native patriots and the British; but very soon a mutual admiration cemented a friendship between the two races. The English volunteers found it difficult to display their true mettle in the early days of the war. They suffered very severely on their first landing, since they were unaccustomed to the climate, and found themselves unable to accomplish the long marches made by the patriots. In a short while, however, they grew used to the country and its ways, and then their feats, instead of meeting with a certain amount of derision, provoked the enthusiastic admiration of the Columbians.

It is certain that the campaign was no kid-glove one. Some of the marches were attended by almost incredible hardships and sufferings. It was, for instance, necessary in some districts to ford rivers in which the perai fish abounded. This fierce little creature, as is well known, is capable of tearing off a formidable mouthful of human flesh at a single bite, and this it never fails to do when the opportunity offers. Many severe wounds were caused among the British ranks by these ferocious fish, and it may be imagined that in the first instance experiences of the kind were as startling as they were disconcerting.

General Paez was one of the chief heroes of the north. His career was to the full as adventurous as that of any other revolutionary leader. He enlisted in the first place as a common soldier in the militia of Barinos, and was soon after captured by the Spanish forces. His execution, together with that of all the other prisoners, was ordered, and would have taken place on the following day but for some circumstances which enabled him to give his captors the slip.

The manner of his release was afterwards frequently recalled with no little awe by the superstitious. At eleven o'clock at night the alarm was given that the Royalist forces were about to be attacked by the patriots, whose army had been seen advancing. The Spaniards retreated in a panic, and Paez and his fellow-prisoners effected their escape. The following morning, when the Royalists had recovered from their alarm, they could find no enemy within a radius of fifty miles. This incident was put down by the populace to the intervention in his favour on the part of the host of departed spirits known as the "ejercito de las animas."

Paez was extremely popular among his men, the hardy Llaneros of the northern plains, born horsemen and fighters, corresponding in many respects with the famous Gauchos of the south. Paez himself was a magnificent horseman, and wielded the lance, the characteristic weapon of the Llaneros, to perfection. He was thus doubly beloved of his troops, since it was these qualities, of course, which appealed to them more than the military strategy of which he gave such marked evidence. On one occasion, when accompanied by very few of his own troops, Paez rode up to a powerful body of Royalist cavalry. When quite close to the enemy his men turned their horses as though in sudden terror, and galloped away, hotly pursued by the Royalist horsemen. When Paez considered that he had drawn these sufficiently far from their camp, he turned upon them and cut them up in detail.

His most extraordinary feat, however, was the capture of some Spanish gunboats on the River Apure by means of his Llanero cavalry. This is an account of the feat as given by an eye-witness who was attached to the British Legion: