BOLIVI A. THE REVOLUTION IN LA PAZ. A JUNTA ESTABLISHED.-THE CITY TAKEN BY THE ROYALISTS. THEIR CRUELTIES. THE PATRIOT ARMY MARCHES FROM BUENOS AYRES.-ITS SUCCESS AND SUBSEQUENT DEFEAT. SECOND ATTEMPT AT REVOLUTION.-MASSACRES IN COCHABAMBA AND POTOSI. FARE. SECOND EXPEDITION FROM BUENOS ITS DISCOMFITURE.-GUERILLA WAR- THE seven provinces now known as Bolivia, and formerly as Upper Peru, were the earliest theatre of war between the patriots and the tyrants of South America; but, the operations in these territories having been mainly carried on by the republicans of Buenos Ayres, (or the United Provinces,) their relation may be mostly deferred to the account of the revolution in that country. Other events, of much interest, belong more exclusively to the subject of our title. The citizens of La Paz, deservedly distinguished for their courage and intelligence, on the 25th of March, 1809, excited by the example of Spain in forming a popular government, held a public meeting in that city to consider their political prospect. Having deposed the colonial authorities and created a provisional executive, they proclaimed their right to an elective government, in the same manner as exercised by Spain itself. To suppress this popular movement, an army, under Cieto, was dispatched against them by Cisneros, the viceroy of Buenos Ayres, and another from Peru, under the ferocious Goyeneche. The latter, arriving first before La Paz, took it, after a resolute defence, and executed numbers of the principal citizens. Cisneros, to whom he applied for directions, commanded that all in prison should be put to death; but fortunately, before this sanguinary measure was accomplished, the revolution in Buenos Ayres, over throwing his authority, saved the lives of a portion of the victims. La Paz, however, was almost completely depopulated; and the inhabitants who escaped, betaking themselves to the mountains and forests, maintained a desperate defence against the royal forces until they perished by famine or in battle. The revolution in Buenos Ayres having broken out, and a popular government being established there, an army was dispatched against the royalists in Upper Peru. Balcarce, the commander, after gaining several victories, and exercising some sanguinary reprisals, with six thousand men approached the royal army, somewhat less, under Goyeneche, at the village of Desaguedero. An armistice for forty days, however, was concluded, which enabled the latter to strengthen his forces, and by appealing to the religious fanaticism of his ignorant soldiery, (assuring them that the Buenos Ayreans had come to take away their religion, and that the Virgin in person had taken charge of their own ranks,) inflamed their zeal and courage to the highest point. His object effected, on the 20th of July, 1811, without waiting for the conclusion of the armistice, he attacked the patriot army at Guaqui with such suddenness and fury, that they were completely routed, and fled from the field, leaving all their artillery and baggage in the hands of the enemy. Upper Peru, after this decisive defeat, remained, for the most part, in the hands of the royalists until the memorable victory of Sucre, at Ayacucho, in 1824, and his liberation of the long-oppressed provinces of Peru. In 1813, enkindled by the victory of Belgrano, in Salta, over the royalist army, the flame of revolution again broke out in the departments of La Paz and Cochabamba. The Spaniards were expelled from the latter by the patriots under Arce, and a junta was established in its capital. Goyeneche, with the flower of his army, marched against that city, and, though the junta would have submitted to his superior force, the inhabitants, preferring every extremity of war to Spanish mercy, resolved to hold out to the last. "The city was defended with matchless valour and resolution; the inhabitants fought with a fury and desperation which nothing but tyranny and cruelty could inspire; the women mixed promiscuously with the men, and combatted with equal ardour and courage, regardless alike of hardships and dangers. But the patriots had more bravery than discipline; their efforts were irregular, and they were in a great measure destitute of arms, but they fought with the best weapons they could obtain. After a most fearful struggle, the royalists entered the city over the dead bodies of its inhabitants such as survived were devoted to massacre and rapine. The city was delivered up to the lawless plunder of a ferocious soldiery, and exhibited a picture of desolation and horror."* While these atrocities were enacting in Cochabamba, another insurrection, which had broken out in Potosi, was suppressed by Emas, an officer of Goyeneche, with the same savage ferocity. More than sixty villages were laid waste, and the country was converted into a desert; and the brutal commander, when finally satiated with massacre, amused himself by cutting off the ears of the patriots whom he captured, and setting them, thus disfigured, at liberty. Reinforced by troops from Lima, the royalist forces defeated Belgrano and the army of Buenos Ayres, in two sanguinary engagements. The survivors from the massacre of Cochabamba, escaping into the Valla Grande, and uniting with the patriots of Santa Cruz, gained, indeed, some signal advantages; and a partisan warfare, distinguished by great rancour and cruelty on both sides, was waged, with much success to the republican arms. La Paz was rētaken from the royalists, who in their malice poisoned all the springs of water in that city, and blew up a barrack, by which three hundred of the patriots were killed. Such was the fury inspired in the latter by these outrages, that they cut the throat of every Spaniard in the city. Reverses soon overtook the insurgents in their defeat by Pezuela, and their forced retreat toward Cuzco. Conspicuous in their ranks was an Indian named Pomakagua, who, in the war with Tupac Amaru, had taken the royal side, and had been rewarded with the title of general and with other honours. This bold chief, assuming the republican cause, had attacked Arequipa, where, after a sharp fight, he defeated the royalists, and took the town, with the Spanish governor and commander-in-chief; but was finally defeated, after displaying the most heroic valour, by Pezuela and Ramirez, and with other prisoners suffered death by execution at Cuzco. Rondeau, commanding an army of Buenos Ayreans, now advanced into the country, and, after gaining two victories, took possession of Potosi and Cochabamba. In attempting to keep open the communication between these two places, he was defeated at the hard-fought battle of Sipesipe, and the unfortunate Cochabambians, who had prepared triumphal arches in honour of his anticipated victory, once more beheld their city a prey to rapine and massacre. After this signal defeat, the Buenos Ayreans were unable to maintain possession * Niles' History of South America and Mexico. of the upper provinces, and the war was reduced to a guerilla contest, in which Padilla, Warnes, and other popular leaders, still maintained the cause of independence. The great victory of Bolivar's general, Sucre, over the royal army at Ayacucho, in 1824, was decisive, not only of the fate of Peru, but of the adjoining provinces. The victorious general marched into Upper Peru, where many of the royalist garrisons surrendered without opposition, or declared in favour of independence. Olaneta, the chief commander in that region, after an ineffectual resistance, was slain, and all the troops in the country, to the number of five or six thousand, surrendered. The total result of that splendid victory, indeed, was a loss to the enemy, in the two Perus, of more than eighteen thousand men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners. The Brazilians, who had commenced aggressions against the distracted state, were compelled, by the prompt resistance of the patriot general, to withdraw their forces. The country freed from foreign domination, a general congress, convened at Chiquisaca, on the 6th of August, 1825, published a declaration of independence, averring that "the happy day has arrived when Upper Peru has become liberated from unjust power, from the tyrannic and wretched Ferdinand VII., and this fertile. region has escaped the debasing relation of a colony of Spain; that it is important to its welfare not to incorporate itself with any of the co-terminous republics, but to erect itself into a sovereign and independent state, in relation to the new as well as the old world; that the provinces of Upper Peru, firm and unanimous in their resolution, proclaim to the whole earth that they will govern themselves, under their own constitution, laws, and authorities, in that way which they may think most conducive to the prosperity of the nation, the inviolable support of the Catholic religion, and the maintenance of the sacred rights of honour, life, liberty, equality, property and security. To carry into effect this determination, they bind themselves through this sovereign representation, by their lives, property, and sacred honour." It is supposed that Bolivar, whose armies had accomplished their liberation, had desired the union of these provinces with those of Lower Peru; but he offered no interference with the free action of the people he had served. In honour of the Liberator of South America, the title of Bolivia was adopted by the new state, and suitable rewards and honours were decreed to Sucre, and to the patriot army to which it was indebted for its rescue from Spanish tyranny. UNITED PROVINCES OF LA PLATA. CHAPTER I. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION IN BUENOS AYRES-THE VICEROYS THE almost interminable civil feuds-the innumerable succession of general or local rulers, and the inextricably tangled condition of domestic politics in the government or governments of those extensive provinces, watered by the Rio de la Plata, and since known as the Argentine Republic, (or Republic of La Plata,) during their protracted revolution, will necessarily confine the account of that struggle to the facts most important in their emancipation from Spanish authority. The first impulse to that emancipation was given, as with all the South American states, by the disturbed condition of the government at home. When, in July, 1808, news arrived at Buenos Ayres of the "cessions of Bayonne," and the consequent ascendency of the French interest in Spain, the viceroy, Liniers, exerted his influence in favor of Napoleon. Elio, the governor of Monte Video, accusing him of treason, separated his own province from its allegiance, and found his conduct approved by Goyeneche, agent of the Spanish revolutionary junta. The latter, as we have seen, however, used every exertion, and committed every cruelty in attempting to suppress a spirit of revolution in the colonies. |