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TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.
T HE title of this translation is the second title of the original “History of San Martin.” This transposition of title is an index to the relation which the translation bears to the original. This latter is truly a biography of San Martin, whose life could not be understood unless very full account were given of the events in which he took so prominent a part, therefore the biography is also a history. No man who plays a prominent part in the history of a revolution can escape becoming involved
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PROLOGUE.
PROLOGUE.
T HE object of this book is to give a biography of General José de San Martin , combining therewith the history of the emancipation of South America. It is a necessary complement to the History of Belgrano , written thirty years ago. These two histories display the Argentine Revolution in its two principal aspects; one relates the development of a nation, the other the effect of this development upon the emancipation of a continent. This history is based, for the most part, upon documents hither
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CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
The Argument of the Book. T HREE great names stand forth conspicuous in the annals of America, those of Washington , Bolívar , San Martin . Of Washington, the great leader of the Democracy of the North; of Bolívar and of San Martin, who were the emancipators of the southern half of the continent. The story of the life-work of the latter of these two is the Argument of this book. The scene of action passes on a vast theatre, a territory extending for more than fifty degrees of latitude, from Cape
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CHAPTER II. SAN MARTIN IN EUROPE AND IN AMERICA. 1778—1812.
CHAPTER II. SAN MARTIN IN EUROPE AND IN AMERICA. 1778—1812.
J OSE DE S AN M ARTIN was born on the 25th February, 1778, at the town of Yapeyu in Misiones, and was the fourth son of Captain Don Juan de San Martin who was at that time Lieutenant-Governor of the Department of Yapeyu. When he was eight years old the family went to Spain, and he became a pupil in the Seminary of Nobles at Madrid, where he remained only two years, and learned little beyond the rudiments of mathematics and something of drawing. Before he was twelve years old, he joined the “Murc
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CHAPTER III. THE LAUTARO LODGE. 1812—1813.
CHAPTER III. THE LAUTARO LODGE. 1812—1813.
T HE Provisional Junta, which was established at Buenos Ayres on the 25th May, 1810, was a simple evolution of historic and municipal rights, and was legalised by the election of deputies to it from the Cabildos. This body was subsequently reconstructed, but this measure and the creation of Provincial Juntas were retrograde movements, arising from a latent tendency to decentralisation, in which lay the germ of the federal system of a later day. The next step was the creation of a Triumvirate, wh
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CHAPTER IV. SAN LORENZO. 1813—1814.
CHAPTER IV. SAN LORENZO. 1813—1814.
O N the 31st December, 1812, the vanguard of the army sent against Monte Video, under the command of Colonel Rondeau, completely defeated a strong sortie of the garrison and laid siege to the city. On the 31st January, 1813, the general Constituent Assembly met in Buenos Ayres. The majority were members of the Lautaro Lodge, so there was no longer that anarchy of opinion which had neutralized the former Assemblies. For the moment it fulfilled popular aspirations; the nominal sovereignty of the K
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CHAPTER V UPPER PERU. 1814.
CHAPTER V UPPER PERU. 1814.
T HE military policy of the United Provinces had three distinct ends: first, to construct a new nation within the geographical limits of the old Viceroyalty of the River Plate; second, to aid in the establishment of other South American nations, who would be their natural allies; and third, to carry their arms beyond their frontiers for the removal of obstacles to their expansion. Hence the expeditions to Paraguay and Monte Video, the aid given to the insurgents in Chile, and the war waged with
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CHAPTER VI. THE WAR IN THE NORTH. 1814.
CHAPTER VI. THE WAR IN THE NORTH. 1814.
T HE Army of the North when reinforced, barely numbered 2,000 men, mostly recruits, among whom desertion was frequent. Disorganized, short of officers, and badly clothed, it was quite incapable of making head against the enemy. Jujui and Salta were held by the victorious Spaniards, who threatened the whole of the northern frontier. San Martin was more especially troubled by the lack of officers and the general want of discipline in the troops. Pezuela, the Spanish general who had defeated Belgra
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CHAPTER VII. THE CHILENO-ARGENTINE REVOLUTION. 1810—1811.
CHAPTER VII. THE CHILENO-ARGENTINE REVOLUTION. 1810—1811.
I N September, 1814, San Martin took charge of the Government of Cuyo. The revolution in Chile had then lasted four years and was about to succumb, a prey to intestine discords and to the arms of Peru. In order to understand what followed we must first know what preceded the appearance of San Martin upon the scene. Never were two peoples more analogous and less alike than the peoples of Chile and of the United Provinces. Both countries were situate at the southern extremity of the new continent,
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CHAPTER VIII. PROGRESS AND FALL OF THE CHILIAN REVOLUTION. 1811—1814.
CHAPTER VIII. PROGRESS AND FALL OF THE CHILIAN REVOLUTION. 1811—1814.
T HE disappearance of the Radical party in Congress, the reactionary policy of the Conservatives, and the proceedings of Rozas at Concepcion, had most evil effect upon the course of the revolution in Chile. Liberalism became anarchy, and the Moderates became mixed up with the Spanish party. At this juncture Don José Miguel Carrera returned to his native land. Carrera was a scion of one of the most distinguished families of Chile, and was at that time twenty-seven years of age. He had fought in S
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CHAPTER IX. CUYO. 1814—1815.
CHAPTER IX. CUYO. 1814—1815.
T HE district of Cuyo lies to the east of the Cordillera, between 31° and 35° south latitude, and extends eastward to the 66° of west longitude, where the Andean formation dies away in the vast plain of the Argentine Pampa. Here the snow waters flowing from the mountain ranges lose themselves in lakes, or cut for themselves channels through the sandy soil, forming a network of inland rivers, which flow on undeterminately till they disappear. Peopled by colonists from East and West, this region w
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CHAPTER X. THE SPY SYSTEM OF THE PATRIOTS. 1815—1816.
CHAPTER X. THE SPY SYSTEM OF THE PATRIOTS. 1815—1816.
T HE restoration of royalty in Chile was attended with such excesses as might have been expected had some foreign power triumphed over the country. A system of blood and fire was established for its pacification, which had the natural result of reanimating the spirit of resistance. The great majority of the people were tired of war, and failed to see that revolutionary anarchy was any improvement on colonial despotism; they were anxious only for peace, and welcomed their conqueror as a liberator
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CHAPTER XI. THE IDEA OF THE PASSAGE OF THE ANDES. 1815—1816.
CHAPTER XI. THE IDEA OF THE PASSAGE OF THE ANDES. 1815—1816.
T HE plans of San Martin were not in accordance with the ideas which prevailed in the military circles of the United Provinces. The many disasters which had befallen Argentine armies in Upper Peru had failed to show either the leaders of those armies or Government that the true road to Lima did not lie through those mountain passes. He did not obtrude his opinions upon any one, still his idea at times leaked out in despatches, and after the fate of Alvear, met with a somewhat better reception at
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CHAPTER XII. THE ARMY OF THE ANDES. 1816—1817.
CHAPTER XII. THE ARMY OF THE ANDES. 1816—1817.
T HE organization of the Army of the Andes is one of the most extraordinary feats recorded in military history. It was a war machine, composed of men filled with the spirit of the Argentine Revolution and with a passion for things American, without which spirit and without which passion it could never have achieved the task before it. Never was the military automaton more thoroughly endued with human energy. The auxiliary corps of Las Heras formed the nucleus of this army, to which was soon adde
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CHAPTER XIII. THE PASSAGE OF THE ANDES. 1817.
CHAPTER XIII. THE PASSAGE OF THE ANDES. 1817.
“W HAT spoils my sleep is not the strength of the enemy, but how to pass those immense mountains,” said San Martin, as from Mendoza he gazed upon the snow-clad summits of the Andes, which as a mighty barrier separate the wide plains of the Argentine Pampa from the smiling valleys of Chili, through twenty-two degrees of latitude, from the desert of Atacama to Cape Horn. These mountains at 33° south latitude divide into two parallel ranges, one running southward along the borders of the Pacific Oc
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CHAPTER XIV. CHACABUCO. 1817.
CHAPTER XIV. CHACABUCO. 1817.
F ROM San Felipe, San Martin sent off a trusty spy to Santiago with instructions to bring him back, on the third day, information of the movements of the enemy. He then set himself to work to prepare for battle, mounting his artillery and concentrating the different divisions. On the 10th February all the army was united on the open plain at the foot of the slope of Chacabuco. On the 10th and 11th the engineers, protected by skirmishers, reconnoitred the roads and passes leading across the Sierr
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CHAPTER XV. THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH OF CHILE. 1817.
CHAPTER XV. THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH OF CHILE. 1817.
A FTER the victory of Chacabuco, San Martin made three mistakes, two of mere detail, but one of importance, which had an evil influence upon his later operations. The campaign which ought to have finished immediately was thus prolonged, and he was compelled to fight four more battles to accomplish the reconquest of Chile, retarding by three years the prosecution of his great enterprise. On the 12th February he remained encamped on the field of battle instead of pursuing the enemy at least to the
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CHAPTER XVI. ARGENTINE-CHILENO ALLIANCE. 1817.
CHAPTER XVI. ARGENTINE-CHILENO ALLIANCE. 1817.
T HE alliance between Argentina and Chile, sealed with the blood of her soldiers in the assault on Talcahuano, is the most important factor of this epoch in the struggle for the emancipation of America, whether the objects of the alliance be spoken of or whether its results be summed up. This alliance, the first celebrated in the New World between independent nations, was no artificial combination; it arose from the natural tendencies, and from the reciprocal interests of two peoples, and its ef
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CHAPTER XVII. CANCHA-RAYADA. 1817—1818.
CHAPTER XVII. CANCHA-RAYADA. 1817—1818.
T HE year 1817 had commenced with a victory and ended with a defeat, the year 1818 was to commence with a defeat to be followed by a victory which would decide the fate of Chile. From that moment all the forces of the revolution in South America would converge from the extremities towards the centre, shutting up the colonial power of Spain in its last stronghold, Peru, where the two great liberators of the South and the North, San Martin and Bolívar, would join hands. In the epoch at which we ha
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CHAPTER XVIII. MAIPO. 1818.
CHAPTER XVIII. MAIPO. 1818.
A T daybreak on the 20th March the Royalist army, although triumphant, was in utter confusion. Only one battalion, that of Arequipa, under Rodil, had not dispersed. Osorio, leaving his convent, rode over the field of battle, endeavouring to estimate the value of the victory he had done nothing to win. The orderly retreat of Las Heras filled him with apprehension, and his own cavalry was worn out. He crossed the Lircay and advanced to Pangue, from whence he despatched Ordoñez with a flying column
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CHAPTER XIX. AFTER MAIPO. 1818.
CHAPTER XIX. AFTER MAIPO. 1818.
T HE same day on which the despatch announcing the victory of Maipó reached Mendoza, Don Luis and Don Juan José Carrera were shot in that city. The suit against them had been carried on in a most irregular manner, both in Mendoza and in Santiago. Don Luis was accused and convicted of having violated a mail bag; Don Juan José was accused of the murder of a boy, of which there was no proof. Both were indicted for conspiracy against Chile in Argentine territory, and in Chile for high treason. It wa
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CHAPTER XX. THE FIRST NAVAL CAMPAIGN ON THE PACIFIC. 1818.
CHAPTER XX. THE FIRST NAVAL CAMPAIGN ON THE PACIFIC. 1818.
W HEN San Martin in 1814 at Tucuman first made a sketch of his continental campaign, he saw that the true road from Chile to Lima was by sea. At that time both oceans, from California on the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic, were dominated by the Spanish navy. Chile had but a few fishing-boats among the islands of the South Pacific, yet from the extent of her sea-line, from the number of her ports, and by her geographical position, shut in on a narrow strip of land between the Andes
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CHAPTER XXI. THE REPASSAGE OF THE ANDES. 1818—1819.
CHAPTER XXI. THE REPASSAGE OF THE ANDES. 1818—1819.
W HILE in the years 1818 and 1819 the independence of Chile became firmly established, and in the north of the continent the revolution crossed the Andes and invaded New Granada, the prospects of the United Provinces clouded over; civil war blazed on the coasts of La Plata, and public opinion in Chile turned against the American policy of San Martin, while a fresh expedition of 20,000 men was assembling at Cadiz, destined for the River Plate. In the South of Chile Chillán and Talcahuano were the
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CHAPTER XXII. COCHRANE—CALLAO—VALDIVIA. 1819—1820.
CHAPTER XXII. COCHRANE—CALLAO—VALDIVIA. 1819—1820.
T HE new Admiral when hoisting his pennant on the O’Higgins might, after the manner of the old Dutch admirals, have nailed a broom to his masthead; his commission was to sweep the Spanish fleet from the Pacific. This ideal hero was one of the first sailors of the first navy of the world, and became indisputably the first in the naval annals of three Nations of South America, yet he never was master of his own destiny, he founded no school which should endue posterity with his spirit. With great
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CHAPTER XXIII. The Disobedience of San Martin. 1819—1820.
CHAPTER XXIII. The Disobedience of San Martin. 1819—1820.
T HREE great duties pressed upon San Martin when he withdrew a part of his army to the east of the Andes. First, the prosecution of his plans for the liberation of America; second, his duty as a soldier to support the constituted authorities of his country in a time of civil war; and third, his duty as an Argentine in view of the expected expedition from Spain against the River Plate. His opinion was in respect to the first, “that if the expedition to Peru is not carried out, everything will go
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CHAPTER XXIV. THE CONVENTION OF RANCAGUA. 1820
CHAPTER XXIV. THE CONVENTION OF RANCAGUA. 1820
T HE army of Cadiz, decimated by yellow fever, was for sanitary reasons dispersed. On the 1st January, 1820, Don Rafael del Riego, Colonel of the regiment of Asturias, then in quarters at the village Cabezas de San Juan, proclaimed in front of his regiment the constitution of the year XII., opening an era of liberty for his own country, and putting an end to an era of war in America. The revolution triumphed, the King was forced to swear the constitution, and, by common accord between the people
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CHAPTER XXV. PERU. 1820.
CHAPTER XXV. PERU. 1820.
P ERU was the first of the American colonies in which, at the era of the Conquest, the spirit of rebellion against the Mother Country broke out. During the Colonial epoch the mixed races frequently rebelled against their Spanish masters. At the end of the eighteenth century Tupac-Amarú, who came of the old royal race of the Incas, made an attempt to restore the kingdom of his forefathers. But these insurrections had no root in the soil, they were but the convulsive efforts of a conquered race re
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CHAPTER XXVI. THE EXPEDITION TO PERU. 1820.
CHAPTER XXVI. THE EXPEDITION TO PERU. 1820.
F ROM Valparaiso, on the 22nd July, 1820, when on the eve of sailing on his daring enterprise, San Martin addressed a proclamation to his fellow-countrymen in justification of his refusal to enter into their civil discords, showing how the intervention of his army could only have added to their miseries, prophesying that when tired of anarchy they would seek refuge in oppression, and concluding:— “Whatever be my lot in the campaign of Peru, I shall prove that ever since I returned to my native l
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CHAPTER XXVII. THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. 1820—1821.
CHAPTER XXVII. THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. 1820—1821.
T HE Generalissimo of the Liberating Army of Peru had two campaigns before him—one military, of which he carried the plans in his own head; the other political, the secret ramifications of which were in his own hands. The first described a circle, one half of which was drawn along the coast by the keels of Cochrane’s ships; the other half was drawn through the Highlands of Peru by the feet of the flying column under Arenales. These two halves separated at Pisco to reunite in the north, enclosing
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CHAPTER XXVIII. THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN THE HIGHLANDS. 1820—1821.
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN THE HIGHLANDS. 1820—1821.
P ERU may be looked upon as a conglomeration of mountains, enclosed within a sort of triangle, whose base on the third degree of south latitude measures about eight hundred miles, from which it extends southward for about fifteen hundred miles to the southern frontier of Upper Peru on the eighteenth degree of south latitude, where the width of the triangle is reduced to about sixty miles. This territory comprises three zones; the coast zone, the highland zone, and the mountain zone. Along the sh
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CHAPTER XXIX. THE ARMISTICE OF PUNCHAUCA. 1821.
CHAPTER XXIX. THE ARMISTICE OF PUNCHAUCA. 1821.
A T the commencement of the year 1821 the Royalist cause appeared completely lost in Peru. Pezuela, at a council of general officers, declared, without reserve, “the impossibility of continuing the defence of the country.” This speaks highly for the political and military talents of San Martin, who in four short months had achieved this result. That the Spanish leaders, abandoned by the mother country, should raise up the fallen standard of the King, and with resources drawn from the country its
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CHAPTER XXX. THE SECOND CAMPAIGN IN THE HIGHLANDS. 1821.
CHAPTER XXX. THE SECOND CAMPAIGN IN THE HIGHLANDS. 1821.
W HEN Arenales rejoined the main army at Huara, and Ricafort descended by the mountain passes to Lima, Aldao and his Indian hordes were left in possession of the greater part of the Highlands, opposed only by a division under Carratala, who held Huancavelica and Huamanga. Aldao had given his Indians some sort of organization, styling the cavalry “The Mounted Grenadiers of Peru,” and the infantry, “The Loyalists of Peru,” under which names they figured as the two first Peruvian regiments on the m
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CHAPTER XXXI. THE EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH. 1821.
CHAPTER XXXI. THE EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH. 1821.
C OCHRANE , having failed to persuade San Martin to undertake active operations against Lima, and not content with the rôle imposed upon him of simply blockading Callao, set his fertile brain to work to devise some means of capturing these fortifications. San Martin entered heartily into his plans, and by means of his secret agents opened communications with some of the subordinate officers of the fortress, and placed Miller with 550 men under the orders of the Admiral. Nails, made in Lima for t
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CHAPTER XXXII. PERU INDEPENDENT. 1821.
CHAPTER XXXII. PERU INDEPENDENT. 1821.
O N the 6th July, 1821, the Patriots entered Lima; on the 24th June was fought the battle of Carabobo, the Waterloo of the Royalists of Columbia. San Martin’s plan of a continental campaign was on the point of realization; he from the south, and Bolívar from the north, converged to a common centre. The only troops which now upheld the standard of the King, were those which still held the Highlands of Peru, the province of Quito, and one isolated fortress, soon about to surrender. On the ocean, o
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CHAPTER XXXIII. THE PROTECTORATE OF PERU. 1821—1822.
CHAPTER XXXIII. THE PROTECTORATE OF PERU. 1821—1822.
P ERU was independent, but she had not achieved independence for herself; neither did she know how to organize a Government when she had one of her own; for everything she was indebted to outside help—principally to San Martin, who was now Protector of Peru, but whose power depended upon the help of Peru, and upon the support of the two armies he had brought with him. But in Peru the national spirit which he had awakened had a latent tendency to turn against him as a stranger, and in the armies
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CHAPTER XXXIV. SAN MARTIN AND COCHRANE. 1821—1822.
CHAPTER XXXIV. SAN MARTIN AND COCHRANE. 1821—1822.
H ISTORY seeks in vain to blot from her pages the invectives hurled at each other by the two heroes of the liberating expedition to Peru. They themselves have perpetuated them in documents, in which each appeals to the judgment of the world. Cochrane has insulted and calumniated San Martin by calling him a sanguinary tyrant, an incompetent general, a hypocrite, a thief, a drunkard, &c., &c. San Martin, through his ministers, accused Cochrane of depredations akin to piracy, and of
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CHAPTER XXXV. THE DISASTER AT ICA. 1821—1822.
CHAPTER XXXV. THE DISASTER AT ICA. 1821—1822.
A FTER the return of the expedition from Callao, La Serna removed his head-quarters to Cuzco, leaving the bulk of the army behind him in the valley of Jauja, under Canterac. He strengthened the garrisons of Puno, Arequipa, and Tacna, and entrusted the defence of the southern coast to the army of Upper Peru. Canterac detached two light columns under Loriga against Pasco, where the insurrection had still a footing under Otero, who had 200 regulars with him and 5,000 Indians. On the approach of Lor
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CHAPTER XXXVI. THE REVOLUTIONS IN QUITO AND VENEZUELA. 1809—1812.
CHAPTER XXXVI. THE REVOLUTIONS IN QUITO AND VENEZUELA. 1809—1812.
S PANISH America on the Southern Continent, is divided geographically and socially into two great systems, which are nevertheless analogous, having the same origin and the same language. Simultaneously they felt the same impulse, simultaneously arose in both sections the spirit of independence. In each section one man took the lead, devoting his life to the cause which was at once his own and that of his race; yet were these two men of character wholly different. The one, cool and calculating, w
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CHAPTER XXXVII. THE REVOLUTIONS IN NEW GRANADA AND QUITO. 1809—1813.
CHAPTER XXXVII. THE REVOLUTIONS IN NEW GRANADA AND QUITO. 1809—1813.
T HE events in Spain in the year 1808 produced great excitement in New Granada, which was increased in the following year by receipt of advices of the revolution in Quito, mentioned in the last chapter. On the 9th September, 1809, Amar, the Viceroy, summoned an assembly of the Corporations and of leading citizens of the capital, and sought counsel from them. Men of American birth, who were members of this assembly, not only spoke in favour of the Junta of Quito, but asked for the establishment o
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CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE RECONQUEST OF VENEZUELA. 1813.
CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE RECONQUEST OF VENEZUELA. 1813.
B Y the surrender of Miranda Monteverde was left unopposed in Venezuela, and was made Captain-General, with the title of “Pacificator.” He commenced his work of pacification by deeds from which the warmest partisans of Spain now turn away their eyes in horror. He violated the capitulation by imprisoning so many citizens that the gaols could not hold them; many died of hunger and suffocation in filthy dungeons. In the provinces his reign of terror assumed forms still more barbarous; the whole cou
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CHAPTER XXXIX. THE SECOND FALL OF VENEZUELA. 1814.
CHAPTER XXXIX. THE SECOND FALL OF VENEZUELA. 1814.
A DICTATORSHIP was a necessity of the time, but the powers of a Dictator to be efficient must be united in one person. Bolívar shared his power with Mariño, the alleged rights of both rested upon force only. To put an end to this anomaly Bolívar determined upon an appeal to public opinion. It was impossible to summon a Congress, he therefore convened an Assembly composed of the civil corporations and of the heads of families of the city of Caracas. Now was disclosed another phase of his complex
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CHAPTER XL. THE DISSOLUTION OF NEW GRANADA. 1815—1817.
CHAPTER XL. THE DISSOLUTION OF NEW GRANADA. 1815—1817.
T HE second fall of the Republic of Venezuela was coincident in point of time with the fall of constitutional government in the mother country, and the absolute King of Spain and of the Indies, after subjugating his vassals in the Peninsula, turned his attention to subduing by force of arms his insurgent colonists beyond the seas. Up to that time, with the exception of New Granada and Venezuela, none of the colonies of Spanish America had declared themselves independent, or had adopted the repub
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CHAPTER XLI. THE THIRD WAR IN VENEZUELA. 1815—1817.
CHAPTER XLI. THE THIRD WAR IN VENEZUELA. 1815—1817.
I N none of the colonies of Spanish America was the struggle for emancipation so stubborn, so heroic, and so tragical, as in Venezuela. In the North of the Continent she was the nucleus of the revolution, gave it both its military power and its political basis, and supplied to it the genius of Bolívar. Twice conquered, she yet arose a third time against her oppressors. After the rout of Urica, and the catastrophe of Maturin, the remnants of the Republican army of the East were dispersed as gueri
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CHAPTER XLII. THE REORGANIZATION OF VENEZUELA. 1817—1819.
CHAPTER XLII. THE REORGANIZATION OF VENEZUELA. 1817—1819.
T HE Home Government, on hearing of the third insurrection on the island of Margarita, sent a reinforcement of 2,800 men under the command of General Canterac. Morillo on his way to that island with his 3,000 men met Canterac at Barcelona, and, embarking his troops in twenty vessels, sailed with him for Margarita. Brion had left the island with his flotilla for the Orinoco. Arismendi was also absent, and General Gomez, who had been left in command, had but 1,100 infantry badly equipped, 200 cava
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CHAPTER XLIII. BOYACA—COLUMBIA—CARABOBO. 1819—1822.
CHAPTER XLIII. BOYACA—COLUMBIA—CARABOBO. 1819—1822.
I N order to join Santander in Casanare Bolívar had to cross an immense plain, covered at this season with water, and had to swim seven deep rivers, taking his war material with him. Then lay before him the most difficult part of his enterprise, the passage of the snow-covered Cordillera in the depth of winter. All this he accomplished. He joined Santander at the foot of the Andes, at the sources of the river Casanare, on the 11th June, 1819. His army now comprised four battalions of infantry, o
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CHAPTER XLIV. THE WAR IN QUITO. 1821—1822.
CHAPTER XLIV. THE WAR IN QUITO. 1821—1822.
A FTER the battle of Boyacá, the defeated Royalists had retreated to the Highland Provinces of Pasto and Patia, in the south of Columbia, and were there strongly reinforced by Aymerich, Captain-General of Quito. General Valdez was sent against them, with three battalions of infantry, one of which was the Albion. On the 6th June, 1820, Valdez was attacked by 1,100 infantry under Calzada at the town of Pitayo to the north-west of Popayán. His vanguard was driven in, but the Albion re-established t
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CHAPTER XLV. GUAYAQUIL. 1822.
CHAPTER XLV. GUAYAQUIL. 1822.
U P to this time the struggle for emancipation, both in the South and in the North of the Continent had been the result of the instinctive desire for independence which was common to all the people of Spanish America, but towards the conclusion of this struggle, the peculiar idiosyncracy of each separate people began to show itself in action, and the ideas and personal interests of different leaders came into collision. Nevertheless the fundamental principles of the Revolution remained unchanged
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CHAPTER XLVI. THE INTERVIEW AT GUAYAQUIL. 1822.
CHAPTER XLVI. THE INTERVIEW AT GUAYAQUIL. 1822.
O NCE only do astronomers record the meeting of two comets at the point of intersection of their eccentric orbits. Almost as rare in the records of mankind is the meeting of two men who have made the history there recorded. After Washington, San Martin and Bolívar are the only two men of the New World whose names figure in the catalogue of the heroes of humanity at large. They were greater as liberators than as men of thought, but the influence of the deeds accomplished by them yet lives and wor
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CHAPTER XLVII. THE ABDICATION OF SAN MARTIN. 1822.
CHAPTER XLVII. THE ABDICATION OF SAN MARTIN. 1822.
D URING the absence of San Martin at Guayaquil an event had occurred at Lima which must have confirmed him in his intention of retiring from public life. The people had risen against the Government, and though the movement was not directed against him, it showed him the instability of his power. Before his departure the Council of State had consulted him as to what they should do in case of the death or incapacity of his delegate, Torre-Tagle. San Martin left with them a sealed paper, in which h
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CHAPTER XLVIII. THE FIRST NATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF PERU. 1822—1823.
CHAPTER XLVIII. THE FIRST NATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF PERU. 1822—1823.
O NE of the heaviest charges brought by his contemporaries against San Martin, and which history has repeated, is the precipitate manner of his retirement from Peru. He left his army under the command of a General without prestige; he left the country in the hands of a Government which had no authority; and he made no provision for an efficient Government. If he had delayed his departure until he had arranged all this it is probable that he would never have gone at all. The fact is that he left
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CHAPTER XLIX. JUNIN—AYACUCHO. 1823—1824.
CHAPTER XLIX. JUNIN—AYACUCHO. 1823—1824.
T HE day-dreams of men often mould the course of their lives. The day-dream of Bolívar was the unification of South America. It was in pursuance of this dream that he created a great military power, and carried his arms in triumph over half the Continent. His first step was the creation of Columbia. Then he dreamed of a South American Confederation, ruled by an international assembly, after the manner of the Achaian League of ancient Greece; and, at last, of a monocracy under the protection of C
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CHAPTER L. APOGEE, DECLINE, AND FALL OF BOLIVAR. 1824—1830.
CHAPTER L. APOGEE, DECLINE, AND FALL OF BOLIVAR. 1824—1830.
T HE victory of Ayacucho put an end to the War of Independence in South America. All the Royalist forces in Lower Peru capitulated, with the exception of those under command of Rodil, who with a garrison of 2,200 men, held Callao for a year longer. Besieged by land and blockaded by sea, he surrendered in January, 1826, “after the garrison had eaten all the horses, cats, and dogs in the place.” [21] In Upper Peru the cities of Cuzco, Arequipa, and Puno opened their gates to the victor, who crosse
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EPILOGUE.
EPILOGUE.
P OSTERITY has pronounced judgment upon the two liberators of South America, upon San Martin and upon Bolívar . They were both great men, the greatest after Washington that America has produced. Both fulfilled their mission. The one gave the first signal for a continental war, the other carried it to a glorious termination. Without San Martin at the South and Bolívar at the North it is impossible to conceive how the forces of the revolution could have worked together towards one end; neither is
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TRANSLATOR’S APPENDIX.
TRANSLATOR’S APPENDIX.
“T HE sole purpose for which the Americans existed was held to be that of collecting together the precious metals for the Spaniards; and if the wild horses and cattle which overrun the country could have been trained to perform this office the inhabitants might have been altogether dispensed with, and the colonial system would then have been perfect. Unfortunately, however, for that system, the South Americans ... finding that the Spaniards neither could nor would furnish them with an adequate s
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
Alvarado was in the year 1827 banished from Peru in consequence of the jealousy of the Peruvians of their Argentine allies. In 1829 he was for a month Governor of Mendoza, but was driven out by Aldao. In 1831 he was for a short time Governor of Salta, and again in 1855. He died in that city in the year 1872. Arenales. —This stout old soldier was from 1824 to 1827 Governor of Salta, where the remnants of the Royalist army of Olañeta surrendered to him in 1825. He died in Bolivia in the year 183
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