The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

After the victory of Guaqui, General Goyeneche had retired to Europe, to enjoy the honors conferred on him as Count de Guaqui and a grandee of Spain. General Pezuela and General Ramirez were sent to succeed him, with troops to prevent the Argentine forces from advancing into Alto Peru; and General Ramirez, who was in Oruro when the patriots entered La Paz, led twelve hundred men against them, forcing them to retire. He then passed on to Puno and advanced on Arequipa in time to reinforce the royalist troops which had been defeated and scattered by another division of the Cuzco army, under command of the Cacique Pumacagua and Vicente Angulo, at that moment occupying Arequipa, amid the rejoicings of the patriotic citizens. The trained hosts of Ramirez were more than a match for the Cuzco troops, who were forced to retreat, while the victors entered the city in triumph. Pumacagua and Vicente Angulo made a desperate effort to recover their position, but when, after months of marching and counter-marching, the armies met at Umachiri, the patriots with badly organized troops, many of them undrilled Indians, while Ramirez had a force of thirteen hundred, well armed and disciplined, the result of the battle was a total overthrow of the Cuzco troops, who were pursued and again defeated in an encounter at Azángaro, the captives being scourged and then set free—after having their ears cut off as a menace to their sympathizers. The royalist troops found many of these mutilated heroes among the insurgents whom they overcame in a final engagement at Asillo soon afterward.

THE SENATE CHAMBER, LIMA.

The third division of the Cuzco army, commanded by Mariano Angulo, Mendoza, and Bejar, marched on Huamanga, their progress as far as Andahuaylas being greeted by the people along the route with demonstrations of great joy, and the prospect appearing favorable for the capture of Jauja and Tarma. In Huancavelica they were also well received, by this time occupying all central Peru and cutting off the capital from communication with the royalist forces of Pezuela and Ramirez. The viceroy sent Colonel Vicente Gonzalez to meet them, and a battle took place at Huanta, the royalists gaining the day after seven hours’ fighting, during which the streets and suburbs of Huanta were filled with the dead and wounded. Bejar, Angulo, and Mendoza returned to Andahuaylas for reinforcements,—which were supplied by the patriots of Abancay and other towns,—and then prepared to march on Huamanga. Meantime, word was received of the victories of General Ramirez over the two other divisions of the Cuzco army and of the advance of his men on Abancay. Through treachery, Mariano Angulo and Bejar fell into the hands of the enemy and Mendoza was killed. The triumph of the royalists, who thus succeeded in putting down a revolution that had extended from one end of Peru to the other, threatening the very gates of the capital, was celebrated by condemning to death all the leaders, Pumacagua being hanged and his companions shot. In this courageous campaign, initiated by patriots representing every social class—an Indian, mestizos, and a criollo priest—the noble mission had levelled all ranks; the spirit of democracy had triumphed over caste; the proudest families of Peru mourned the loss of their sons, sacrificed for the cause of their country. A brilliant young poet of Arequipa, Mariano Melgar, was shot on the battlefield, and more than a hundred captives were cruelly murdered in Puno, among them, Miguel Paschal San Roman, the father of a future president of Peru.

While the troops of the viceroy were occupied in all parts of the colonial dominion, the patriots of the capital, led by Francisco de Paula Quiroz, a graduate of the University of Huamanga, took advantage of the momentary weakness of the garrison in Lima to prepare an attack, which, however, was frustrated by the arrival at Callao of the peninsular regiment of Talavera. The plot was discovered, and Count de la Vega, who commanded the garrison, was arrested on suspicion of complicity with the patriots, and imprisoned. Quiroz died in a duel. The government forces were victorious in all parts of the viceroyalty, news being received from Chile in 1814 that the patriots had been overthrown by the army of General Osorio, sent by Abascal to the relief of the royalists. But that which appeared to be a final triumph of the monarchy, was but a check in the advance of the patriotic cause, during which its leaders were able to reorganize their forces and, profiting by the experience they had gained, to make a better fight than ever, snatching victory from defeat in one of the most glorious campaigns that illustrate the annals of modern history.

When the Viceroy Abascal retired to Spain, leaving the government to his successor, Don José Joaquin de la Pezuela, in 1816, Buenos Aires was the only stronghold of the patriot party. General La Serna was given command of the army in Alto Peru, and General Ramirez was made president of Quito. General Pezuela was the last of the viceroys. Though he arrived at a moment when nearly all Spanish-America acknowledged the authority of the Crown, which had been restored to King Ferdinand VII., yet the astute warrior was in nowise deceived as to the actual condition of affairs and the strength of the revolution which seemed to have been dominated by the king’s armies. It was true that the Argentine patriots had retired from Alto Peru, leaving that country to fight its own battles under the guerrilleros; Chile’s patriotic army had withdrawn across the Andes; Quito had been subjugated; New Granada had succumbed to the superior strength of the royalist armies; the cause of independence had been apparently suffocated in Venezuela, its remaining defenders having taken refuge in flight; but, though all these facts apparently signified absolute victory for the government, they really indicated only the ominous calm preceding the tempest, and it was not long before the darkness of gathering clouds enveloped the monarchy, bringing confusion to its ranks, that were to be utterly overwhelmed by the full force of the storm as it broke over them on the field of Ayacucho a few years later.

CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, LIMA.

When the Viceroy Pezuela took command of the government, he found an empty treasury and general disorder in the various departments of colonial affairs. The king was disposed to establish rigorous absolutism in the monarchy, and ordered the severest punishment for the patriots who had given evidence of liberal intentions; their refusal to swear loyalty to the usurping Bonapartes was not regarded as entitling them to any consideration, unless they immediately declared their allegiance to the Crown, unreservedly. He counted on the support of the Holy Alliance, and felt sure that the encyclical sent out by Pope Pius VII. on January 30, 1816, to the archbishops, bishops, and clergy of America, obliging them to promote, by all means, the obedience and fidelity of the colonists to His Catholic Majesty, would have a speedy effect; the news of the victories won by his armies against the patriots was especially favorable to the triumph of absolute authority. But, without funds in the exchequer and with insufficient means of defence at his command, the Viceroy Pezuela found himself confronted by a sudden resurrection of the enemy, stronger and more determined than ever, better organized and disciplined, and advancing in two powerful hosts, the one from the north, the other from the south, under the command of experienced and accomplished generals, whose fame rang throughout all Spanish-America. The glory of the viceroyalty, which had dazzled Peru for three centuries, dwindled before the splendor of their deeds of valor and patriotism.

From the South came the great Ejercito Libertador, or Liberating Army, which had been organized by General San Martin in Mendoza and had effected the complete overthrow of the royalist forces in Chile in 1817. The invading troops were composed of two thousand five hundred men and twelve guns, protected by the naval forces of the newly inaugurated republic of Chile, under Admiral Cochrane. Landing near the port of Pisco, in what is now called Independence Bay, on the 7th of September, 1820, General San Martin issued a proclamation the following day, in which he declared that the purpose of his army was not to make conquests, but to liberate a people who had trembled for three centuries under the barbarous rights of conquest. His orders to the soldiers were an evidence of good faith and a proof of his soldierly principles: all robbery was prohibited; all bloodshed, except on the battlefield, was to be punished by hard labor; any insult offered to the citizens of the country, whether Europeans or Americans, was a grave offence and might be paid for at the cost of life itself, according to the circumstances. In concluding his proclamation the Liberator paid a high tribute to the courage and humanity of his troops, stimulating their enthusiasm by an attractive picture of the glories awaiting them as the heroic saviors of their oppressed fellowmen. This interesting document bore the date of issue, September 8th, 1820, with the significant words “First day of the liberty of Peru,” and the signature “San Martin.”