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

As the badge of the order was of the most vital importance, it was decreed on the thirty-first of October, that, instead of a medallion, a golden sun should be suspended to the ribbon of the fundadores, benemeritos, and asociados; but the size of it was to be limited according to the rank of the bearer.

On the twenty-third of October a committee was appointed to frame a constitutional code or reglamento de administration de justicia for Peru, San Martin having determined on being a legislator as well as a liberator; and, as he himself said, on "being crowned with laurels till he could not nod." About this time some verses made their appearance, addressed to the Protector, under the epithet of Emperor of Peru. The idea of an imperial crown was obnoxious to the Peruvians, and some street clamour induced the government to announce its supreme displeasure at such productions.

Desertion in the liberating army now became prevalent, and the government was obliged to issue a decree, stating that any person who should harbour or protect a deserter in his house, or on his property, should subject himself to a general confiscation for the first offence, and to perpetual exile for a repetition. All slaves were invited to inform against their masters, under the assurance of manumission, should the crime of occultation be proved. On the thirty-first of October a new tariff for the coasting trade was published, superseding the one of the twenty-eighth of September, with the addition of the ports of Nasca, Cañete, and Pacasmayo, and also allowing foreigners to sell their own cargoes, without the intervention of a native consignee, on their paying twenty-five, instead of twenty per cent.; and on the twenty-first of November all foreigners, as well as citizens, being merchants, were ordered to enrol their names at the consulado, (board of trade,) that they might all be equally taxed with such contributions as the government might judge necessary to exact.

Several Spaniards having been apprehended and sent to the public gaol, accused of sedition and conspiracies, were sentenced, on the twentieth of November, eight to a confiscation of their property, and exile to Europe, and thirteen to partial confiscation, and exile to Chancay for two months.

On Sunday the sixteenth of December the knights of the order of the sun were decorated with the insignia, by the president of the high chamber of justice, alta camara de justicia, in the presence of his Excellency the Protector of Peru, institutor of the order, and a most splendid concourse of the nobility of Peru, with the assistance of Sir Thomas Hardy, whom the gazette styles the representative of the British nation, on this occasion. Every care was taken to make this civic feast as solemn as possible; the troops were formed in the streets; the different military bands continued playing national airs and marches in the balcony of the palace; repeated salutes were fired by the artillery placed in the plasa; all the bells in the city were heard in merry peals; the illuminations on the nights of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth, were of the most brilliant description; and every nerve was strained to produce and support harmony and conviviality on this festive occasion. After the ceremony of condecoration, the procession left the palace and proceeded to the church of Santo Domingo, where a solemn Te Deum was chanted, and high mass celebrated, in thanks to the Almighty for having inspired the supreme government of Lima with such celestial ideas.

That the ancient nobility of Peru might not be reduced to a level with the plebeians, it was decreed on the twenty-seventh of December, that they should preserve their armorial bearings on the fronts of their houses, as usual, and all the solar nobility were permitted by the same decree to place on theirs a sun, with the initials of the class to which they belonged in the centre. It was also ordered on the same day, that those persons who had enjoyed titles during the Spanish domination, under the name of titles of Castile, should enjoy the same honours under the appellation of titles of Peru, or change them for such as might appear more congenial to the then existing state of things. Thus we have a republic with counts, marquises, viscounts, &c. which is certainly an anomaly, and worthy of the wisdom that planned it.

On the twenty-seventh, the Protector, with the advice of the council of state, ordered, that on the first of May, 1822, the general constituent congress of Peru should meet in the capital; and that proxies should be named for such provinces as were oppressed by the enemy. The object of this congress was to be, only, the definitive form of the established government, and the formation of a constitution most proper for Peru, according to the circumstances of its territory and population: any other powers given to the deputies to be considered null and of no effect.

It was further ordered, that a previous committee be appointed in Lima, to draw up the plan for the election of deputies, and to prepare the basis of the constitution, to be finished before the reunion of the congress. Thus the laws of the nation were to be formed by a private committee, under the guidance of San Martin and his ministers, and the congress were to be called in to sanction the proceeding. This duplicity was ultimately the cause of the Protector's voluntary abdication.

On the nineteenth of January, 1822, the Protector announced, that he was about to leave Lima on a visit to Guayaquil, where he expected to meet the Liberator of Colombia, the immortal Bolivar, for the purpose of consulting with him on matters of the highest importance to the state. All his executive powers were delegated to the gran mariscal Marquis de Torre Tagle, to the due obedience of whose orders, the tribunals, ministers, corporation, chiefs of the army and navy were called upon to swear. This ceremony took place on the twentieth. The first decree of the supreme delegate was, that all unmarried Spaniards, who should leave the state, were to deliver to the national treasury one half of their property, and in case of any attempt at fraud, the whole to be confiscated, and the persons to be exiled. It also contained other articles respecting Spaniards residing in Peru.

On the third of March the Protector announced in Lima, that having touched at Huanchaco in his passage to Guayaquil, he received official communication that the Liberator of Colombia had changed his plans, and would not be at Guayaquil as was expected; he had, in consequence, returned to Callao; but that it was his will that the Marquis de Torre Tagle should continue in the full exercise of the authority delegated to him. San Martin then retired to the country residence of the ex-viceroy Pesuela, at La Magdalena, which village immediately changed its name to that of the town of the free, "pueblo de los libres."