The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

The viceroy hastened to make proposals of peace to General San Martin, inviting him to a conference for the purpose of agreeing on a basis of mutual understanding. The invitation was accepted, as San Martin saw in it his opportunity to gain time, to get into communication with the patriots of Lima, to learn the state of public opinion, the situation and strength of the viceroy’s army, and other important matters. The patriots of Lima had not been idle, though the vigilance of the colonial authorities prevented them from securing possession of the enemy’s stronghold; three daring leaders, among them Colonel Gomez, planned an attack on the fortress of Callao but they were captured and punished. Riva-Agüero, Francisco Javier Mariátegui, Pezet and Don Eduardo Carrasco, maintained correspondence with the emissaries of San Martin and gave valuable information. The conference between the envoys of Pezuela—who were Count de Villar and Don Hipólito Unánue—and San Martin’s representatives, Colonel Tomás Guido and Don Juan Garcia del Rio, took place at Miraflores, a suburb of Lima, and resulted in a short armistice, but in no agreement of peace; the viceroy proposed the submission of the patriots to a liberal government under the monarchy, while the patriots demanded the recognition of their independence.

Before leaving Pisco, San Martin sent General Arenales at the head of a thousand men in the direction of Huamanga; they were received at Ica and Huamanga with enthusiastic support, and continued their march to Huancavelica, Huancayo, and Tarma. The viceroy sent troops to stop Arenales’s progress, and the opposing forces met near Cerro de Pasco, the patriots gaining the battle, in which the royalist general O’Reilly and Colonel Santa Cruz were captured, as well as four hundred soldiers, who were added to the patriots’ ranks. General O’Reilly received permission from San Martin to return to Spain, but committed suicide by jumping into the sea, rather than live under the shame of defeat; Colonel Andrés Santa Cruz accepted service in the patriot army, and was afterward president of the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation. Arenales’s campaign was notable for its influence in winning recruits to the cause of independence among the inhabitants of the sierra, who were greatly impressed by the conduct of the troops, especially their respect for property and human life, which had been ruthlessly sacrificed by the royalist armies.

The first point of disembarkation made by General San Martin after leaving Pisco was Ancón, to the north of Lima, where he received word that Guayaquil had declared its adhesion to the Ejercito Libertador. In the meantime, many Peruvian patriots had joined San Martin’s army. A young soldier named Vidal became conspicuous for his zeal and energy and was promoted to a captaincy for valuable services at this time. Admiral Cochrane was busily preparing to seize the Spanish frigate Esmeralda in the port of Callao, and on the 6th of November, at midnight, he perfected his plans, organizing the squadron into two divisions, each of which advanced on the frigate from opposite directions; the Spaniards made a heroic resistance but to no avail, as the prize was captured and carried off to Ancón. This was one of the most daring and brilliant episodes of the campaign. Soon afterward, General San Martin removed his army from Ancón to Huaura, near the port of Huacho, about one hundred miles north of Ancón. Everywhere he was welcomed by the patriots, whose number increased daily. The adhesion of Trujillo was secured through the Intendente, the Marquis de Torre-Tagle, his pronunciamiento, which was issued on the 29th of December, 1820, gaining for the patriot cause all the provinces of his jurisdiction, which included Lambayeque, Cajamarca, and Piura. Meantime, Arenales was making uninterrupted progress through the interior, the patriotic Huánuco having issued its pronunciamiento in favor of the cause immediately after the victory of Cerro de Pasco. In Lima, the viceroy was losing all control of affairs; the royalist battalion “Numancia,” six hundred strong, joined the Liberator’s army; the very secretaries of Pezuela were coöperating with the patriots; and public opinion was divided only between admiration for the Liberator and contempt for the policy of the viceroy, who, at least, controlled a larger military force than San Martin, and was better protected.

In January, 1821, the leading generals of the royalist army, distrusting the purposes of the viceroy and dissatisfied with existing conditions, demanded his abdication, and raised General La Serna to the supreme command. General Pezuela retired to Europe with his family. After his abdication more than a hundred royalist officers and soldiers joined San Martin’s army, among others, Colonel Gamarra, who became president of Peru later; and Colonel Eléspuru, who organized the first exclusively Peruvian battalion in the Liberator’s army. General La Serna, no more courageous than Pezuela, did not believe that he could offer sufficient resistance to the advance of the patriot army on Lima, and retired to the interior, General San Martin entering the capital on the 12th of July, 1821. On the 28th of July, the date celebrated throughout the republic of Peru as “Independence Day,” the proclamation of independence took place in the Plaza Mayor, in front of the government palace; after the memorable words: “From this moment Peru is free and independent by the will of the people and by the justice of their cause which God defends!” the standard was unfolded and the shouts of a joyous people voiced the sentiment of an emancipated country in Viva la Patria! Viva la Libertad! Viva la Independencia!

The Protector, as San Martin was called, began at once the organization of a provisional government. He appointed his cabinet, naming as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Don Juan Garcia del Rio; Minister of War and Marine, Don Bernardo Monteagudo; and Minister of Finance, Don Hipólito Unánue. The patriot Riva-Agüero was appointed President of the Department of Lima. Among the first political acts of the Protector was the abolition of slavery and of the mita. He also proclaimed liberty of the press and reform in the administration of justice and finance. At this time Lord Cochrane insisted that his soldiers were impatient to be paid; and, in order to meet their demands, he went to Ancón where he seized a cargo of silver ready for shipment, amounting, it is said, to four hundred thousand dollars. His action was disapproved by San Martin, and he retired from Peru. Meantime, the royalists were defeated in an attempt, made under General Canterac, to get reinforcements to the garrison in the fortress of Callao, which had been left in charge of General La Mar when La Serna withdrew from the capital. The garrison was forced to capitulate and General La Mar entered the army of the Independence. The final triumph of the patriots depended on the capture of the royalist army, still encamped in the sierra, and the troops of the Protector were growing impatient over the delay; the political leaders were occupied with the preparations for the forthcoming national Congress, which was to meet the following year to promulgate the Constitution of Peru; in the midst of these conditions, General San Martin gave the reins of government into the hands of the Marquis de Torre-Tagle as Supreme Delegate and went to Guayaquil, in order to meet the great leader of the Ejercito Colombiano, General Simon Bolivar, who had accomplished for the northern provinces of South America that which he himself had done so well in the southern half of the continent,—securing their independence of the Spanish monarchy.

The particulars of the conference between General San Martin and General Bolivar in Guayaquil are not known to this day; but when the Protector returned to Lima he resigned the government into the hands of the first constituent congress, which met in Lima in 1822. This assembly conferred on him the title of Founder of the Liberty of Peru; gave him the grade of captain-general; decreed a life pension for him equal to that which Washington received from the United States; ordered that his bust should be placed in the National Library and a statue erected in his honor; and conceded to him in perpetuity the honors due to the chief of government. A short time afterward General San Martin went to Europe where he died in 1850 at seventy-two years of age. His patriotism, the constant and unfailing devotion with which he worked for the realization of the noble ideal to which his life was consecrated, his honorable principles, magnanimous conduct, and sterling character, the intrepidity of his courage as a soldier, the modesty of his deportment as a victorious leader, place him high above most of the great men of history and make him worthy of immortality among the best of them.

THE HISTORICAL PALACE OF THE VICEROYS, LIMA.

The first independent Congress of Peru decreed that the government should be exercised by Congress, and that a Junta de Gobierno, composed of three of its members, should constitute the chief executive power. General La Mar, General Alvarado, and the Count de Vista Florida were named for the first Junta, General La Mar being appointed its president. The oath of allegiance to Congress took place with great éclat in September; the following year the Junta de Gobierno was dissolved and Don José de la Riva-Agüero was elected president of the Republic, taking the oath of office and receiving the banda bicolor, a band of ribbon in two stripes, “white and red,” which is still worn by the chief executive of Peru on official occasions. Congress also bestowed on President Riva-Agüero the rank of grand marshal. At the same time, the command of the army was given to General Santa Cruz and General Gamarra was appointed chief of staff. The president gave especial attention to the army, and within a few months after his inauguration General Santa Cruz left Callao for the interior at the head of five thousand troops, in two divisions, one of which was under his own command and the other in charge of General Gamarra. They marched into Alto Peru and met the united royalist forces under La Serna’s generals, Valdes and Olañeta, but were obliged to retreat before the superior force of the enemy; and Santa Cruz lost the greater part of his army while making his way to the coast over the bleak Cordillera, during a dreadful storm. La Serna, who had his headquarters at Cuzco, had organized his forces in two divisions: the army of the North, commanded by General Canterac and stationed in the valley of Jauja, as a menace to Lima; and the army of the South, under General Valdes, supporting the royalist cause between Arequipa and Potosí. This was the condition of affairs when General Santa Cruz left Callao. Soon afterward General Sucre, who has been called the diplomatic agent of General Bolivar, arrived in Callao with a force of three thousand Colombian troops. At the same time, General Canterac was preparing to march on Lima at the head of nine thousand men. In view of the circumstances, President Riva-Agüero convoked a council of war, which resulted in the appointment of General Sucre as commander-in-chief of the patriot army. Canterac entered Lima in June, 1823, with his splendid troops, but finding that Santa Cruz was on his way to the interior he retired to Jauja. With the advent of Canterac’s army into Lima, the republicans removed their headquarters to Callao, and later, to Trujillo. The difficulties incident to the inauguration of a new form of government occurred in the present case; a quarrel arose between Congress and executive, the president resenting the action of Congress in bestowing supreme authority on General Sucre, and the president’s enemies seeking to undermine his authority. General Sucre, who immediately set out with his army to overtake Santa Cruz, gave the command of the capital to the Marquis de Torre-Tagle. The enemies of President Riva-Agüero secured his downfall, and after being treacherously seized and imprisoned, he was forced to retire from the country. He was one of the most distinguished characters of the revolution and his services deserved a better reward. Posterity is proud to honor, as one of the heroes of his country, the Grand Marshal Riva-Agüero, Marquis de Monte Alegre and Chevalier of the Order of Charles III.

General Bolivar arrived in Lima on the 1st of September, 1823. He was received with the greatest enthusiasm, and was immediately invested by Congress with supreme authority, military and political. Later, his power was amplified, General Necochea being at the same time made political and military chief of the capital, to replace the Marquis de Torre-Tagle who fell into disgrace, through his correspondence with General Canterac. As soon as possible, Bolivar began plans for the accomplishment of the great purpose that had brought him to Peru, and two months after his arrival he left Lima to establish military headquarters at Pativilca, two hundred miles north of the capital and due west of Cerro de Pasco near which the royalist troops were stationed, in the department of Junin. Preparations were at once begun for a campaign against the enemy. The Liberating Army, which consisted of six thousand Colombian and four thousand Peruvian troops, was organized in three divisions,—two Colombian, under Generals Cordova and Lara, and one Peruvian, under General La Mar, the Peruvian cavalry being placed in charge of General Miller, that of Colombia under Colonel Carbajal’s orders, and the Argentine cavalry under Colonel Bruiz, while General Necochea commanded the united cavalry force, General Sucre, who had returned from the interior, being appointed chief of staff of the whole army.