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

"Foreigners also began to suffer all kinds of vexations and pilferings, with his carta de morada (letter of residence), without considering that the felicity of the country depended on its increase of industrious inhabitants. Owing to this, none have established themselves in Lima, it being worthy of observation, that not even one person has purchased a house or any immoveable property. And is not this a proof of general disgust and a want of confidence?

"In fine, such repeated acts of despotism irritated the people of Lima to that degree, that an explosion became inevitable. In eight days after the Protector left the capital, his insults to the patriots were incalculable. He caballed in the most barefaced manner to place in the coming congress his own creatures. He hurried off those whom he had sentenced to exile, because they were the favourites of the people; and in the exercise of his fury Lima took the alarm."

On the twenty-fifth of July the people of Lima assembled in the plasa, and insisted on a cavildo abierto, a public meeting of the corporation; this was immediately complied with, and the general voice of the people was, "let the minister Monteagudo be deposed, let him be tried, let him experience the severity of the law." At seven o'clock in the evening of the same day, a note was addressed by the corporation to the Supreme Delegate, requesting that the minister might be deposed; the council of state met, and convinced of the necessity of separating Monteagudo from the ministry, immediately informed him of the state of affairs, when to save appearances he made a tender of his appointment, which was accepted, and the supreme delegate in answer to the note of the corporation, assured them, that the ex-minister should be called upon to answer before a committee of the council of state for his past administration, according to the provisional statutes.

This note was answered on the twenty-sixth by the municipality requesting that the ex-minister should be placed under an arrest, until called upon for his defence, which request was immediately put into execution. The people of Lima being aware of the ascendancy which Monteagudo held over the delegate, Torre Tagle, and fearing that some crafty subterfuge might be practised to replace him in authority, met again on the twenty-ninth, when the corporation, to pacify the popular commotion, requested of the government, that the ex-minister should be embarked privately, and exiled for ever from the state; this was acceded to, and on the thirtieth, the anniversary of his arrival in Lima, Monteagudo was sent down to Callao, under an escort, and at six o'clock in the evening he left the port. This ambitious individual was assassinated at Lima on the night of the twenty-eighth of January, 1825, having returned under the protection of Bolivar, and the expectation of being replaced in the ministry.

While these affairs were transacting in Lima, the Protector, San Martin, was at Guayaquil, where he had proceeded for the purpose of soliciting troops from Bolivar, for the prosecution of his campaigns in Peru. It is impossible to ascertain what took place in the private conference between those two chiefs, but the result was not at all favourable to San Martin, for he returned in dudgeon to Callao, when to his surprise and mortification, he was informed, that his arch-minister had been exiled for ever during his absence. Before his excellency ventured on shore, he had an interview with the principal officers of the army; who assured him that the troops were faithful to him, and under this certainty he presented himself at the palace in Lima, where in the most unbecoming language, he reprobated the whole of the proceeding, threatened his councillors of state, the corporation and the city itself, and declared, that he should immediately recall Monteagudo and reinstate him in the ministry. Notwithstanding the deference and respect which he had been accustomed to receive from every one who acknowledged his authority, he was wounded at observing, that the Limenians were not intimidated at his promised vengeance, and leaving the palace he betook himself to his country house near to Callao.

In the beginning of October, the arbitrary conduct of Rodrigues, the minister of war and finance in Chile, began to excite the public indignation, and petitions from every part of the state were forwarded to the supreme director, O'Higgins, praying his removal from the ministry. Crimes the most injurious to the prosperity of the state; his sordid venality, monopoly of commercial transactions, and even illegal appropriations of the public funds, were brought against him, in the most tangible shape; and yet all this was not sufficient, even with the knowledge of what had transpired in Peru, to force him to resign, or to induce O'Higgins to dismiss him. At the time that all Chile was in this state of suspense, and many alarming threats were issued from different quarters, an event not in the least expected took place, which for a while lulled the rising storm—this was no less than the sudden arrival at Valparaiso of his excellency General San Martin, the Protector of the liberties of Peru.

This great man had continued to reside at his country mansion, until the twentieth of September, when the sovereign congress met, from which he received on the same day the following official communication:

"Most Excellent Sir,—The sovereign congress considering that the first duty of a free people is to acknowledge their gratitude to the authors of their political existence and their felicity, convinced that the country of the Sun owes this incomparable benefit to the efforts of your excellency, have decreed to you a vote of thanks to be presented to you by a deputation of the house.

"The Peruvian nation flatters itself that its gratitude is equal to the efficacious efforts which your excellency has made, destroying, like the thunder-bolt on the celebrated mountain that witnessed the last days of Lautaro, the iron power of Spain in the country of the Incas.

"The congress manifests, in this communication, the sincerity of their votes, which shall be expressed in the first act of their sessions, and which cannot be obliterated by the hand of time; holding General San Martin as the first soldier of their liberty.