Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

took them before they reached St. Augustine, and used every exer tion to persuade them to return, but in vain." The rights of these persecuted people were speedily established, and a tract of land in the north part of the city was granted to them by the authorities. Their descendants, at this day, form no inconsiderable portion of the inhabitants of St. Augustine.

When Spain came again into possession of Florida, at the close of the war of American revolution, these Greeks and Minorcans were almost the only portion of the population that remained in the country. The establishments of the English were generally deserted, and in a few years the greater portion of the cultivated districts were little less a wilderness, than when white men first set foot on their shores.

any

Movements were set on foot by the government of the United States, in the year 1811, for the acquisition of the Floridas from Spain. Commissioners were appointed to confer with the governor of Pensacola relative to a cession of the western province, and powers to proceed to hostile measures, both respecting East and West Florida, were conditionally conferred upon them: the intention of our government being to prevent at all risks the acquisition of Florida by other foreign power. Mistaken reports concerning this proceeding became prevalent; and, in accordance with the idea that the jurisdiction of the United States was to be at once forcibly extended over the peninsula, a large number of Georgians and American inhabitants of Florida, congregated near St. Mary's, and organized plans for an immediate hostile demonstration. Proceeding by water to the Spanish town of Fernandina on Amelia Island, their formidable array induced an immediate capitulation. The revolutionists had made appointments for a provisional government, under which John H. McIntosh assumed the office of director.

The Seminole Indians at first proffered their assistance to the revolutionary party, but, from motives of humanity, the leaders of the movement, acting now in concert with General Mathews, one of the commissioners deputed to West Florida, declined availing themselves of their services. The consequence was, that the Indians took up arms in favour of the Spanish government, and their depredations, and the expeditions fitted out against them, formed the most important incidents in the subsequent hostilities. The question of the invasion was made a matter of diplomatic adjustment between the governments of Spain, Great Britain and the United States. The overt acts of hostility were disavowed by the latter power, and, in

May, 1813, the few remaining American troops were withdrawn from the country, an amnesty being at the same time proclaimed by the legitimate government, for all offences connected with the attempted revolution. During the long period of desultory hostilities, the settlements and plantations of East Florida were extensively destroyed. During the last war with Great Britain the western districts of Florida were made the scene of some important encounters, and many interesting particulars of the Indian campaigns of that period are related, the natives having generally been enlisted against the United States. About the middle of November, 1814, the town and fortifications at Pensacola, strongly garrisoned by Spanish and English troops, were taken by the Americans, under General Jackson, and the military works were destroyed. The Seminoles continued hostile to the Americans after the conclusion of war with England, and proved formidable enemies to the border settlers, until the year 1818, when their territory in the northern and western districts of Florida was completely overrun by the forces under command of General Jackson. In this war the negroes, who for many years had been increasing in number by accessions of fugitives from the plantations of the adjoining states, enacted an important part. They had formed extensive settlements in the Indian territory, and in defence of their possessions and fortifications, not unfrequently fought with desperate courage and determination. It appeared that the Indians had been furnished with supplies and munitions of war by the Spanish authorities at Pensacola, and in the month of May, 1818, General Jackson, with little opposition, again took possession of the town and fortifications. The governor and the Spanish garrison were compelled to leave the country.

The Floridas were ceded to the United States by treaty concluded with Spain, in the summer of 1821, and General Jackson received the appointment of governor of the newly-acquired country. In the following year, it was regularly constituted a territory, with appropriate representative powers. The population is so sparse that Florida would probably have enjoyed at least equal prosperity, had she continued to remain under a territorial government. In the opinion of many of the most intelligent inhabitants, the satisfaction of enjoy. ing the independent position of a sovereign state has hardly compensated for the increased expenditures rendered necessary by the change of government. This state was admitted into the Union at the session of Congress held in the year 1845.

South-American Revolutions.

[The Revolutions of Mexico, Peru and Chili, and the erection of those Provinces into independent States, have been already described in the preceding articles.]

COLOMBIA.

CHAPTER I.

LOYALTY OF THE SPANISH COLONISTS.-ARROGANCE AND TYRANNY OF THEIR RULERS. -CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION.—THE ESTABLISHMENT OF JUNTAS.-MASSACRE AT QUITO.

THE JUNTA OF CARACCAS IN VENEZUELA.

COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES.-DE

CLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

THE principle of loyalty and national feeling, so inveterate in the Spanish character, had preserved to Spain the attachment of her numerous colonies through centuries of oppression and misgovernment; and nothing except the most fatuous arrogance, cruelty, and obstinacy on the part of that nation and its colonial agents, could possibly, in so brief a space of time, have alienated a people sc attached to the land of their origin. When the distracted and impoverished condition of the mother-country, at the commencement of its contests with the French under Napoleon, afforded the fairest opportunity of throwing off the yoke, so far from availing themselves of it, the Spanish-American colonies, with devoted loyalty, long continued to furnish supplies of treasure to the state, and to exhibit the liveliest interest in behalf of the fortunes of their rulers.

In default, however, of any settled government in Spain, the colonists, in emulation of their countrymen at home, began to agitate the formation of juntas or associations for national defence; and these attempts being suppressed with great severity by the colonial govern

ors, first sowed the seeds of disaffection. The viceroys of New Granada and Peru, combining their forces, revenged, with savage ferocity, a scheme of this kind matured at Quito, committing a massacre of three hundred of the citizens, and delivering up the town to the rapine of a ferocious soldiery. This and other similar acts of oppression, singular to state, did not suffice completely to alienate the affections of the people from the provincial government; but, seeing the apparently complete ascendency of France, the colonists were anxious to adopt measures to secure their independence against the encroachments of the latter. Actuated by this feeling, the citizens of Caraccas, in Venezuela, in the year 1810-proceeding, however, in the name of Ferdinand VII.-deposed their colonial officers, and appointed a junta of their own.

The imprudent arrogance of the old Spaniards towards the pro vincials, first diverted this current of independence into a disloyal channel, and the vindictive measures of the nominal Spanish government, which, on the news of this and other similar demonstrations, hastened to declare war against the refractory provinces, precipitated hostilities. The whole Spanish nation, indeed, appears to have been exceedingly indignant, and although unable to contend successfully with the French at home, managed to ship off considerable bodies of troops for the purpose of suppressing by force the spirit of independence abroad. This movement increased still further the popular disaffection, and Venezuela first took the lead in asserting open resistance. At a congress held in Caraccas on the 5th of July, 1811, the delegates from the various provinces of that state, in imitation of that memorable convention held, just thirty-five years before, in British North America-published a declaration of independence, pledging, like their illustrious prototypes, their lives, their fortunes, and their honors to maintain it. This noble example was speedily followed by New Granada and Mexico, and, at a later date, by the province of Buenos Ayres.

Meanwhile, the Cortes, or temporary Spanish government (January, 1811) had obstinately rejected all proposals for an accommodation; and though England, in April of the same year, had offered her mediation, proposing (with interested commercial policy) a schedule of terms for an adjustment of the difficulty, her interference was finally rejected. Curiously enough, Joseph Bonaparte, the nominal king of Spain, to whose elevation the colonists had shown such determined antipathy, now, by his agents, used every exertion to favor the spirit

of insurrection in the Spanish-American provinces. The govern ment of the United States, to which an envoy had been dispatched, hesitated to commit itself by openly countenancing the cause of the liberals, though the sentiments of the people were ardently in their favor; and the British ministers, their overtures repulsed, announced that they should observe neutrality, but with a reservation in favour of the Spanish crown, as represented by Ferdinand VII.

The original junta of Caraccas, of 1810, after deposing the authorities, and dispatching several of them to the United States, had made many useful regulations, of a liberal nature, but had experienced some difficulties, arising from the unsettled state of the country. A hostile collision with the royalist party in Maracaibo, resulted in considerable fighting, without any decisive result, and dangerous conspiracies, fomented by the agents of the Spanish government, rendered that of the junta insecure in the extreme. But the declaration of independence, and the regular appointment of a popular government, as already mentioned, infused fresh energy into the councils of the leaders of the revolution. An alarming scheme for their overthrow and slaughter was detected, and ten of the conspira tors, after trial, were executed, and their heads, after the barbarous custom of the people, placed on poles at the entrance of the city.

At the same time, Valencia, in the interior, had been secured by the royalists, and General Toro, who was dispatched to regain it, had experienced much loss in taking possession of an outpost. General Miranda, already famed for his repeated attempts to excite insurrection against the Spanish rule in Venezuela, who was next dispatched thither, took the town by storm, and entered with his forces. But the Spanish garrison, fighting with courage in their barracks, finally repulsed the patriots with much loss; and the royalists in the town, from the towers of churches and convents, and from the roofs and terraces of houses, discharged such destructive volleys of musketry, that he was compelled to evacuate the place, and retire to a fortified position at some distance. Being reinforced, in the following month, he again assaulted the town with four thou sand troops, gained posession of it, and dispersed the enemy.

After the declaration of independence, public attention was deeply engrossed by the formation of a constitution; and the plan of a federative republic, similar to that of the United States, was warmly urged by the most enlightened friends of freedom. An instrument, resembling in form the celebrated constitution of that republic, but

« AnteriorContinuar »