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CHAPTER XXIII.

BUENOS AYRES, OR THE UNITED PROVINCES OF RIO DE LA PLATA. —Invasım of South America by the British.-Expedition of Beresford and Popham against Buenos Ayres.-Capture of the city.-Exultation in England.-Opposition of the Spanish Americans.-Exertions of Liniers.-Insurrection at Buenos Ayres.-Liniers attacks the city.-Defeat and capture of the British army.-Capture of Maldonado and Monte Video, by the fleet.-Expedition of General Whitelocke against Buenos Ayres.-Obstinate defence of the city by the inhabitants.—Slaughter and repulse of the British.-Proposal for a capitulation.-Anecdote of the Spanish sailors.-The British forces evacuate the country.-Liniers appointed viceroy.-Parties at Buenos Ayres.-A French envoy from Napoleon arrives in the country.—Proclamation of Liniers in favor of Napoleon.-Proceedings of Elio at Monte Video.-Liniers displaced and restored.-Arrival of Goyeneche from Spain.-Ferdinand VII. acknowledged at Buenos Ayres.-Arrival of Cisneros, the new viceroy.—Banishment of Liniers. -Spirit and feeling of the people.-Ideas of independence circulated.—Embarrassments of Cisneros.-He convenes a congress.-Cisneros deposed.—A provincial junta established.—Affairs in Monte Video and the interior.—Civil war. -Liniers defeated and put to death.-Independence.-An army despatched to revolutionize Chili.-Affairs in Peru and Paraguay.-BANDA Oriental.— Elio, Captain General.-War between Banda Oriental and Buenos Ayres.— Proceedings of Artigas and Rondeau.-Siege of Monte Video.-Interference of the Portuguese of Brazil.-Dangers of the Buenos Ayrean government.— Treaty with the Portuguese.-Troubles and conspiracies.-The constituent congress.-San Martin.—Surrender of Monte Video.—Artigas chief of Banda Oriental.-Capture of Santa Fe.-Formal declaration of independence.— Conquest of Banda Oriental by the Portuguese.-Constitution of the United Provinces.-Intrigues of the French.-General character of the recent transactions in this country.

THE Spanish Americans who made the earliest demonstrations of a wish to throw off the government of the mother country, were those of Buenos Ayres. In 1806, war existed between Spain and Great Britain, and the neglected state of the province of La Plata offered strong temptations for an invasion on the part of the English. The Spanish government maintained only a few wretched troops at Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, and a feeble naval force at the latter place. The viceroy, Sobremonte, was a person destitute of energy and capacity; Spain was absorbed in European politics; her marine had been annihilated by the fatal defeat of Trafalgar, and everything invited the cupidity of the English. yet the invasion was undertaken without orders from the govern

ment. A fleet and army, under Commodore Popham and General Beresford, which had been despatched against the Cape of Good Hope, after effecting the conquest of that colony, proceeded to Buenos Ayres, in 1806, and on the 8th of June, arrived in the mouth of the river La Plata. A general consternation seized the inhabitants of Buenos Ayres when the squadron appeared in sight of that city. Not more than three hundred muskets could be found for the defence of the place, and these the inhabitants had not the skill to use. A show of defence was attempted by the viceroy, but the only military movement was made by a single troop of cavalry who undertook to harass the British army of two thousand men, on their march to Buenos Ayres. The viceroy, panic-struck, fled for safety to Cordova, and the British took possession of Buenos Ayres on the 28th of June.

When the news of this conquest reached England, it excited the greatest exultation both in the government and the people. It was believed that Great Britain had made a permanent acquisition of a most valuable colony, and councils were immediately held to devise means to turn it to immediate profit. The population of the country was represented as deeply disaffected towards the Spanish rule, and moreover too effeminate and slothful to offer any resistance to the arms of the invaders. The British government immediately took measures for the regulation of the colony, as if their authority had been completely established and the people had become quiet British subjects. The most extravagant expectations were indulged of commercial profits in the introduction of British manufactures into the market of this rich and thriving country.

Never were sanguine hopes more severely contradicted. Instead of conquering the whole province, the British forces had, in fact, only made themselves masters of the city of Buenos Ayres. The neighboring villages submitted only from the fear of military execution, and the invaders dared not penetrate into the interior. The Spaniards, too, when the first moments of panic were over, appeared to rouse as from a dream or lethargy, and exhibited a degree of energy and resolution which astonished their enemies. Inflamed with indignation at the unmanly conduct of their leader, and chagrined at seeing foreigners in possession of their capital, they began to meditate upon the means of driving them out of the country. An active and resolute leader was found in Liniers, a French officer in the Spanish service. He exerted himself with great industry, in the districts north of the river, in collecting and arming the people. A secret correspondence was set on foot between him and certain persons within the city. Arms were

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distributed and secreted in Buenos Ayres, and a regular insurrection organized under the guidance of Puyrredon, a magistrate, and a person of great talent and address.

Liniers having collected a considerable force at Colonia, opposite the city, the British attempted to drive him from this post, but without success, and, on the 1st of August, Liniers crossed the river with his whole army, and marched to the attack of the city. Buenos Ayres was a large open place, difficult to defend with the force commanded by Beresford. He, therefore, judged it more advisable to meet his enemy at a distance; and a smart action took place the next day, in which the British had the advantage; but this was only a temporary check to the Spaniards, for torrents of rain, which continued to fall for three days afterward, disabled the English troops, which were all infantry, from active operations. The Spaniards, on the contrary, being abundantly supplied with horses, found the bad roads no great impediment, and approached the city in various directions. On the evening of the 10th they had occupied all the avenues to the place. The townsmen then took up arms, rose in insurrection, and the house-tops were covered with people ready to coöperate in the attack upon the British troops. Surrounded with enemies, the British commander saw at once that his post was untenable, and would have escaped across the stream of the Chello, but a violent storm rendered this impossible.

On the morning of the 12th the combined attack began. The British occupied the castle and great square, and planted their cannon towards the principal streets which led to those points. The Spaniards advanced with their artillery along the avenues, while the roofs of the houses were covered with musketeers, who could pour their fire upon all below without any hazard to themselves. The attacking columns in the streets were repeatedly checked in their advance, but the fire from the house-tops made dreadful havoc and threatened the British with utter destruction. The British commander had now no choice, but to surrender or see his army slaughtered to the last man. A capitulation was therefore proposed, and immediately accepted; the whole army surrendered prisoners. The Spaniards engaged in this action were computed at above twenty thousand, seven hundred of whom were killed and wounded. The British loss was stated at one hundred and sixty-five. Thus, after a turbulent and precarious possession of Buenos Ayres for fifteen days, the city proved only a trap for the British army; and their ministry at home were occupied in framing regulations for its government, and despatching valuable cargoes to supply the demands of its commerce,

several months after the Spaniards were established in quiet repossession of the place.

The squadron, however, continued in the river, and being shortly after reinforced, made an attempt on Monte Video. This proving unsuccessful, they took possession of Maldonado, near the mouth of the river, where they found a secure port for their shipping. Being strengthened by additional reinforcements, the attack on Monte Video was repeated a year afterwards, and on the 3d of February, 1807, after a close siege and great slaughter, Monte Video fell into the hands of the British. The hostile temper of the Spaniards prevented them, for some time, from attempting to regain their lost footing at Buenos Ayres; but early in the summer, they received large reinforcements of troops, and on the 25th of June, an army of twelve thousand men, under General Whitelocke, proceeded from Monte Video up the river, and disembarked about thirty miles from Buenos Ayres. They drove a body of Spanish troops before them, and on the 30th, arrived before the city. There were no walls or fortifications to repel the assault of the British, and the Spanish troops were few and undisciplined. The inhabitants, nevertheless, determined to make an obstinate defence, and the manner in which the city is built enabled them to do this with remarkable success. Buenos Ayres is divided pretty equally into squares of four or five hundred feet each. The walls of the houses are built up in a solid manner, with flat roofs, so that the whole city may be considered an assemblage of fortresses. The inhabitants were animated with intense animosity against the British. The master of each house, surrounded with his children and slaves, was posted on its roof and amply supplied with arms and ammunition. The doors were strongly barricaded, and the main avenues of the city obstructed by ditches cut across them. The whole male population, and a great portion of the females of Buenos Ayres, were engaged in the defence.

The British army moved to the attack on the 5th of July. The troops marched in separate columns, each having its distinct point to assail. As the columns entered the city, they were greeted with a furious and overwhelming fire from the roofs and windows. At every step they encountered a fresh storm of shot and missiles. Grape-shot were poured upon them from every corner; musketry, hand-grenades, bricks and stones rained from the house-tops. Every dwelling was a fortress, and all its tenants were indefatigable in its defence. For ten hours the battle raged without diminishing the ardor and obstinacy of the coinbatants on either side. Some of the detachments were totally destroyed by the fire of the citizens. Others had their retreat cut off, and

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were forced to surrender in the streets. Others took shelter in convents and churches, and after terrible slaughter, yieided to overwhelming numbers. Only two of the posts assailed by the British remained in their hands at the end of the conflict, and after a loss of twenty-five hundred men in killed, wounded and prisoners.

Notwithstanding the disastrous issue of the attempt, the British commander determined to repeat the attack on the following day; but he was deterred by a communication from the Spanish commander, Liniers, who proposed to deliver up his prisoners on condition that the British should immediately evacuate the country. Extraordinary as this proposal may seem, General Whitelocke found himself compelled to listen to it by the following singular circumstances. When the British fleet arrived in the river, the commodore, Sir Home Popham, with equal inhumanity and impolicy, turned ashore, on the desolate island of Lobos, two hundred Spaniards, the crews of some vessels which had fallen into his hands. These men were exposed to the danger of starvation on a barren rock, that the British might not be encumbered with their prisoners. They lived for some time on the flesh of seals and shell-fish; and at length some of them contrived to form a sort of raft with bags of seal-skins inflated with air, and by the help of this, floated themselves to the main land. A vessel was despatched to Lobos, which brought away the remainder. Some of these men were carried to Buenos Ayres, where the relation of their story inspired the inhabitants with horror and indignation against the British, and these feelings were by no means diminished at the period of the attack on the city. Liniers represented to General Whitelocke that the prisoners were in danger of a general massacre, as, from the exasperated state of the populace, he could not answer for their safety, should the British persist in their attack. These representations had so much effect with Whitelocke, who appears not to have possessed an uncommon degree of firmness, that, after a slight hesitation, he agreed to the terms, and signed a treaty agreeing to withdraw all the British forces from Buenos Ayres in ten days, and from South America in two months, leaving at Monte Video the artillery and stores unconsumed, which were found there. Thus a wanton act of cruelty on the part of the invaders, led the way to their overthrow and disgrace in the end. It is remarkable that the repulse of the British at Buenos Ayres, resembles, in many circumstances, the defence of New Orleans. Both cities were attacked by regular troops, and defended by irregulars. Both attacking armies comprised about the same number of men, and the loss of the as

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