Historical and descriptive narrative of twenty years' residence in South America (Vol 3 of 3) / Containing travels in Arauco, Chile, Peru, and Colombia; with an account of the revolution, its rise, progress, and results

by active 1803-1825 William Bennet Stevenson

The character of Selva Alegre is almost indefinable. As a private man he was extremely kind and polite, having more of the polished courtier about him than might be supposed to exist in an individual born in what may be termed a sequestered country. Both in his town and country house a great deal of taste and splendour were exhibited, in a manner somewhat uncommon at Quito; yet neither his income nor his popularity could in any way be compared to those of Miraflores nor Solanda. As a public character Selva Alegre was extremely unfit; wavering and timid, wishing rather to reconcile the two parties than to support either; fond of show and parade, but frightened at his own shadow, as if it mocked him. At the gaze of the people he would, like a peacock, have allowed his gaudy plumage to fall to the ground; he would have endeavoured to hide himself, or, as the most enthusiastic Quiteños expressed themselves, "his shoes did not fit him."

On the thirteenth the new government visited the church of the Carmen Alto, the different members dressed in their robes of ceremony; His Serene Highness in the full costume of the Order of Charles III., of which he was a knight; the members of the junta in scarlet and black; the two ministers were distinguished by large plumes in their hats; the corporation, officers of the treasury, and other tribunals, in their old Spanish uniforms, and the military in blue, faced with white instead of red, as heretofore.

After the thirteenth of August, anarchy began to preside at all the meetings of the junta. Morales insisted on a reform in the regulations of the tribunals; Quiroga, that preparations offensive and defensive against the neighbouring provinces which did not follow the example of Quito should be made; Selva Alegre and the members wished that every thing might remain as it was. However the army was increased, and detachments sent to Guallabamba against the Pastusos, and to Huaranda, to prevent an invasion by the Guayaquileños. The people began to shew marks of discontent, particularly dreading a scarcity of salt, which article was procured from Guayaquil. The governor of Guayaquil first threatened to invade the provinces, next the Viceroy of Santa Fé, and lastly the Viceroy of Peru. Advices arrived that troops from these different quarters were absolutely on their march, and to complete the consternation of the people, the Count Ruis retired from his palace into the country, to a small quinta, or country seat, two leagues from the city, where he remained, till on the night of the eighth of November a deputation from the sovereign junta waited on him with proposals for his reinstatement in the presidency, to which he acceded. On the part of the president the condition was, that the members of the junta should retire to their respective homes, and become quiet citizens, as before the tenth of August; and on the part of the junta, that what had passed should be referred to the central junta in Spain, and that no prosecution should take place against them until the resolution of the representative authority of Spain should be known. These simple preliminaries being agreed to, his excellency the Count Ruis entered Quito on the following morning, and was received with the most enthusiastic demonstrations of joy; the inhabitants and the members of the ex-junta presented themselves, and made a tender of their several titles, which were accepted by the president, and with all the acts and other papers belonging to the intrusive government, as it was stiled, were ordered to be burnt; but Arrechaga, instead of obeying the order given to him, kept them with the most depraved intention for the most execrable purposes.

On the second of December the auxiliary troops arrived from Lima and Guayaquil, composed of five hundred infantry, and fifty artillery men, under the command of Colonel Arredonda. The inhabitants of Quito, relying on the fulfilment of the conditions agreed to by the Count Ruis, erected triumphal arches to receive them, and strewed flowers along the streets as they passed; but scarcely had they taken quiet possession of the city, and disbanded the native troops, than Arrechaga, who had been appointed fiscal on the death of Yriarte, advised Arredonda to solicit of the president an order for the apprehension of all persons who had taken an active part in the late revolt, grounding his solicitude on the law of power, that good faith ought not to be kept with traitors. The count had the weakness to accede to the request of Arredonda, and an order was immediately issued commanding Don Manuel Arredonda, Colonel of Infantry, and Commandant of the Pacifying Troops, tropas pacificadoras, to arrest all the persons who had been concerned in the late rebellion, the names of whom were subministered by Arrechaga, and on the twelfth of December upwards of fifty of the most respectable inhabitants of Quito were dragged from their homes, and immured in cells in the barracks. Judge Fuertes Amar was again appointed to form the proceso criminal. Every succeeding day brought new victims to the prison, for not only those who had taken an active part in the affair were apprehended, but many individuals also to whom letters had been written by the insurgents; and some because they had not declared themselves hostile to the revolutionary government; however the Regent, Oidores, Fiscals, and other persons who had remained neuter, and some Spaniards in office who had kept their places during the administration of the junta, were not included in the number; but the Bishop, who, being an American, was included in the list of insurgents, and accused of having connived at the treason of his flock, because he did not anathematize them, interdict the places of public worship, and sentence to everlasting torments all schismatics to royalty and passive obedience.

Two hundred more soldiers arrived from Santa Fé de Bogotá, and brought with them a greater security to the ministers of despotism, and the whole of the provinces of Quito groaned under their tyranny. Many of the most wealthy inhabitants fled to their estates in the country, and many, although totally unconnected with the affairs of the junta, were afraid of being swept away by the torrent of persecution. Among those who fortunately absconded, and eluded the vigilance of the government, was the Marquis of Selva Alegre: the Marquis of Miraflores died of grief in his own house, and a guard of soldiers was placed over him even till he was interred.

Not content with imprisoning those persons who might be termed the ringleaders, the soldiers were taken into custody, and placed in a separate prison, called the presidio. This alarmed the lower classes, who began to steal into the country, and seek in the mountains and woods an asylum against the systematic persecution that now pervaded the miserable hut of the labourer as well as the residence of his employer—the cabin of the indigent as well as the mansion of the wealthy. Provisions became daily more scarce in the city, the soldiery in the same ratio became more insolent, when, to crown the state of desperation among all classes of the inhabitants, except the natives of Spain who resided here, the examination of the prisoners was concluded, and the vista fiscal was drawn up. This horrible production, worthy of its author, Arrechaga, divided the prisoners into three classes, but sentenced them all to death: their number was eighty-four, including the prisoners and the absent, who were outlawed; even the Bishop was not excluded, although, according to the laws of Spain, he could only be tried by the council of Castile. Distress, affliction, and grief now reigned triumphant: mothers, wives, and daughters filled the air with their cries for mercy on their sons, their husbands, and their brothers, who had been torn from them and immured in dungeons, where they were not allowed to visit them; and who lay under sentence of an ignominious death, no hopes being left, except that the president would not confirm the sentence, and in this hope they were not deceived.

When the proceso was concluded, and required no more than the veto of the president, it was presented to him; but instead of concurring in the opinion of the fiscal, and giving way to the entreaties of Colonel Arredonda, he ordered the papers to remain in his cabinet. The agitation of the old count was now truly distressing, and he frequently said to me, that he would prefer signing his own death-warrant to the sacrificing of so many deluded victims, the greater part of whom had only committed an error of judgment, founded, perhaps, on a mistaken sense of loyalty; at last he determined to refer the case for revision to the Viceroy of Santa Fé, to the inconceivable chagrin of Fuertes, Arrechaga, and Arredonda, who all founded their hopes of preferment in Spain on the execution of the prisoners, who had been denominated traitors.

The Count Ruis was at this time eighty-four years of age; he had resided in America upwards of forty; first in the capacity of Corregidor of Oruro, then of Governor Intendent of Huancavilica, afterwards as President of Cusco, and lastly of Quito. When at Huancavilica he commanded the troops, in 1780, against the unfortunate Tupac Umaru, who was taken prisoner, and quartered alive in the plasa mayor at Cusco, by being tied to four wild colts, which were driven to the four opposite angles of the square.

When President of Cusco, the unhappy victims of Spanish jealousy and cruelty, Ubalde and Ugarte, in 1796, were executed on an ex-parte evidence. This proceso was conducted by the Oidor Berriosabal, afterwards Count of San Juan and Marquis of Casa Palma, and who was afterwards, in 1821, proscribed in Lima by San Martin. The Count Ruis as a private individual was remarkably kind and familiar, and excessively charitable: in his public capacity he was too easily overruled, especially by persons in authority under him, and when he could be induced to believe them to be actuated by motives of justice; but he was obstinate in the greatest degree if he once suspected their integrity. The court of Spain was so well convinced of the virtuous character of this nobleman, that in 1795 a royal order was issued inhibiting him from a residenciary investigation at the expiration of his first government of Cusco: an honour which I believe was never conferred on any other governor in the Spanish colonies.