After the fall of Oajaca during the Mexican war of independence, the patriot chief Morelos regarded the rear of his military operations as secure. Sympathizing messages had reached him from men of weight in Guatemala, which lulled him into the belief that attack need not be apprehended from this quarter. To Ignacio Rayon he wrote: "Good news from Guatemala; they have asked for the plan of government, and I'll send them the requisite information." It was all a mistake. His cause had friends in Central America, and enemies likewise. Among the most prominent of the latter were Captain-general Bustamante and Archbishop Casaus. The ecclesiastic, with a number of Spanish merchants from Oajaca who had sought refuge in Guatemala, prompted the general, then anxious to avenge the execution of his predecessor, to fit out an expedition, invade Oajaca, and harass the insurgents even at the gates of the city.
About 700 men, mostly raw recruits, were accordingly put in the field, early in 1813, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Dambrini, a man of little ability and unsavory record, and crossed the line into Tehuantepec. Dambrini could not abandon his money-making propensities; and having been led to believe he would encounter but little or no resistance, took along a large quantity of merchandise for trading. On the 25th of February a small insurgent force was captured in Niltepec, and Dambrini had its commander, together with a Dominican priest and twenty-eight others, shot the next day. This was the usual treatment of prisoners by both belligerents. But on April 20th the Guatemalans were flanked and routed at Tonalá by the enemy under Matamoros. Dambrini fled, and his men dispersed, leaving in the victors' possession their arms, ammunition, and Dambrini's trading goods. The fugitives were pursued some distance into Guatemalan territory.[I-25]
Germs of independence, as I have said, were fostered in secret by the more intelligent, and slowly began to develop, the movement being hastened by a few enthusiasts who were blind to the foolhardiness of their attempt. The government tried all means to keep the people in ignorance of the state of affairs in Mexico and South America, and when unsuccessful, would represent the royalist army as victorious. Other more questionable devices were also resorted to.[I-26]
Undue restraint and ill treatment, as practised under the stringent policy of Bustamante, soon began to produce effects. Restiveness and despair seized a portion of the people; the hopes for a government more consonant with the spirit of the age, which had been held out from Spain, evaporated. Men were unwilling to live longer under the heel of despotism; and the more high-spirited in Salvador and Nicaragua resolved to stake their fortunes upon a bold stroke for freedom. It was, indeed, a rash step, undertaken without concert, and almost without resources. It could but end as it did at every place where a revolutionary movement was initiated.
Matías Delgado and Nicolás Aguilar, curates of San Salvador, Manuel and Vicente Aguilar, Juan Manuel Rodriguez, and Manuel José Arce were the first to strike the blow for Central American independence. Their plan was carried into execution on the 5th of November, 1811, by the capture of 3,000 new muskets, and upwards of $200,000 from the royal treasury at San Salvador. They were supported by a large portion of the people of the city, and in Metapan, Zacatecoluca, Usulutan, and Chalatenango. But other places in the province of Salvador, namely, San Miguel, Santa Ana, San Vicente, and Sonsonate, renewed their pledges of fealty to the government, declaring the movement for freedom a sacrilege.[I-27]
The promoters of the revolt, which had been started in the king's name, became disheartened and gave up further effort, and with the dismissal of the intendente, Antonio Gutierrez Ulloa, and other officials, peace was soon restored. San Salvador had been quiet without other government than that of alcaldes during the disturbance.
AYCINENA IN SALVADOR.
Upon the receipt of the news of these occurrences, Bustamante despatched Colonel José de Aycinena with ample powers to take charge of the intendencia, and restore quiet. He had been getting troops ready to send down, but by the mediation of the ayuntamiento of Guatemala he had suspended preparations, and had adopted the former course. A member of that body, José María Peinado, was associated with Aycinena.[I-28] They reached San Salvador on the 3d of December, amid the acclamations of the fickle populace; their presence and the exhortations of the missionaries checked all revolutionary symptoms. The authors of the revolt were leniently treated under a general amnesty.[I-29] Peinado was a short time after appointed Aycinena's successor as acting intendente.[I-30]
Another and a still more serious attempt at revolution, which may be called a sequel to that of Salvador, had its beginning in the town of Leon, Nicaragua, on the 13th of December, 1811, when the people deposed the intendente, José Salvador. This action was seconded on the 22d at Granada, where the inhabitants, at a meeting in the municipal hall, demanded the retirement of all the Spanish officials. The insurgents, on the 8th of January, 1812, by a coup-de-main captured Fort San Cárlos. The officials fled to Masaya. Villa de Nicaragua—the city of Rivas in later times—and other towns at once adopted the same course.
Early in 1812, after the first excitement had become somewhat allayed, a board of government was organized in Leon, the members of which were Francisco Quiñones, Domingo Galarza, Cármen Salazar, and Basilio Carrillo. Bishop Fray Nicolás García Jerez was recognized as gobernador intendente by all the towns, and his authority was only limited in one point, namely, he was in no way to favor the deposed officials. The people of Granada resolved to send two deputies to the board.[I-31]