The Emancipation of South America

by Bartolomé Mitre

The first act of La Serna, now Viceroy, was to invite San Martin to send Commissioners to a conference, for the purpose of putting an end to the disputes between Spaniards and Americans. San Martin joyfully acceded, and named Guido and Alvarado representatives of the Patriot cause. La Serna on his side appointed Colonels Valdés and Loriga.

The Commissioners met at a farm-house near Retes, when the Spanish officers presented a modification of the proposals of Miraflores, on the basis of the acceptance of the Spanish Constitution. The others declined to negotiate on any other basis than the recognition of the independence of Peru.

Alvarado then asked Loriga to walk out with him, leaving the other two to discuss the question. The Spanish officer accepted the invitation, and during their promenade informed Alvarado that they thought of abandoning Lima and retiring to the more healthy Highlands, where, with abundant supplies at command, they could easily beat off any attack of the Patriots. This information was the only immediate result of the conference, but it gave rise to further negotiations, on the basis of the establishment of an independent monarchy in Peru.

The change of Viceroys in no way improved the position of the Royalists; on the contrary, fresh disasters befell the army of Lima, and the new general fell into the same errors as his predecessor. The scarcity of provisions became worse in the city, and yellow fever broke out in the army, while the arrival of a royal commissioner from Spain prevented La Serna from taking any decided step.

The condition of the Patriot army at Huara was not much better. It also suffered greatly from fever, so that barely a thousand men were fit for service. San Martin himself fell ill, but his guerillas cut off supplies from Lima, and expeditions along the coast or into the Highlands kept the enemy in continual alarm.

On the 25th March the envoy from the new Government of Spain, a naval officer named Abreu, arrived at Huara, where he was well received. Four days he remained there, holding long conversations with San Martin, for whom he conceived a great admiration. At his instigation La Serna attempted to negotiate privately with San Martin, but San Martin replied that he would listen to nothing which was not proposed officially, and about the same time sent a column of his sickly troops, commanded by Miller, to act under Cochrane’s orders against Callao, and another under Arenales into the Highlands. Then leaving a strong rear-guard in charge of the hospitals and park at Huara, he embarked the rest of his troops in transports, and dropped down the coast to Ancon, whence his cavalry, aided by guerillas, scoured the country, and shut up the Royalists within a small triangle formed by the encampment at Asnapuquio, Lima, and Callao, and there awaited the opening of a formal negotiation.

After the Liberal movement in Spain in 1820 the revolusionists of South America were no longer spoken of as rebels or insurgents, but were recognized by the Home Government as belligerents, and were now invited by King Ferdinand, by a proclamation, to treat for peace with their brethren of the old country, “as their equals,” but they were offered only the Constitution of 1812, which they had already rejected by declaring themselves independent, and were threatened with forcible compulsion in case of refusal. This olive-branch of peace, wafted across the seas, only supplied fresh fuel to the flames of war.

Envoys from Spain bearing this message of peace had reached the northern part of the continent in December, 1820, during an armistice between Bolívar and Morillo. They had persuaded Bolívar to send Columbian commissioners to Spain, but in April, 1821, before anything could be known as to their prospects of success, hostilities recommenced, and there were no further attempts at negotiation.

To Mexico also the same message was sent, a message apparently one of peace and conciliation, which, when looked into, was seen to mean submission or war, and to which, in Mexico as elsewhere, answer was given in one formula, independence or war.

When in 1820 the revolution broke out in Spain the revolution in Mexico was crushed. General Vicente Guerrero, with a handful of men, alone upheld the flag of insurrection in the rough country to the south. In Mexico the movement was chiefly the work of the indigenous element of the population, and assumed the character of a rising of the proletariat against the superior classes, thus arousing a spirit of resistance in the country itself, which powerfully aided the efforts of the Royalist troops for its suppression. But amid this discord of opinions a sentiment for independence was latent in the hearts of all, so that the defeat of the insurrection combined with the Liberal movement in Spain to bring about a pacific evolution.