Spanish America, Vol. 2 (of 2)

by Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle

In Caraccas and other places, Ferdinand the Seventh was proclaimed with all due solemnity, and when it was announced in July 1808, that Joseph Buonaparte had usurped the throne of Spain, 10,000 of the inhabitants of Caraccas flew to arms, surrounded the palace of the captain-general, and demanded the proclamation of their sovereign; this he promised to do next day, but such was their ardour, that they proclaimed him immediately themselves. In Buenos Ayres, the viceroy, Liniers, receiving intelligence of the events in the peninsula, in July 1808, exhorted the people in the name of Buonaparte to remain quiet; but Xavier Elio, the governor of Monte Video, accused him of disloyalty, and separated his government from that of Buenos Ayres; and this officer afterwards ineffectually endeavoured to persuade that city to acknowledge the title of viceroy, which he had received from the mother country.

In Mexico, the news of the Spanish affairs was not known, till the 29th July 1808, when a junta was immediately established; and the city of La Paz in Charcas, in the beginning of 1809, formed a similar junta for its government; but the viceroys of Buenos Ayres and Peru opposed this motion, and both sent armies to quell the insurrection, in which they were successful.

In Quito a junta was established on the 10th of August, 1809, but the viceroys of Peru and New Granada, with the greatest promptitude, detached a force against this city, which compelled the insurgents to abandon their project. At this time affairs wore a serious aspect in America; numerous adventurers appeared on her shores, eager to enrich themselves on the spoils of Spanish power. The partizans of revolution in Caraccas, the coast of which was more accessible to emissaries from Europe, formed themselves into a junta suprema, assumed the reins of government, but still published their acts in the name of the Spanish monarch. At Buenos Ayres a similar measure was taken; in Chili, the junta was organized in September, and an insurrection breaking out in the town of Dolores, near Guanaxuato in Mexico, the whole continent was now in a state of alarm and tumult.

In the mean time these proceedings were related to the council of the regency in Spain, which determined that body to take such active steps as their circumstances enabled them to do, and the coasts of the captain-generalship of Caraccas were declared in a state of vigorous blockade. From this period, the revolt in that province and the northern parts of New Granada, became daily more alarming; General Miranda was the commander of the Venezuelan army, in which capacity he achieved one victory, the result of which can never be forgotten in the Caraccas. The inhabitants of Valencia were for the royal cause, and though of very inferior force, resisted the insurgent party in two actions, in the first of which they were victorious, but in the second were subdued.

The 4th of July 1811, was the day on which the congress of Venezuela proclaimed themselves the representatives of the free provinces of Caraccas; and the little village of Mariara, close to the beautiful lake of Valencia, saw the first blood that was spilt in the civil war of these unfortunate countries. On the return of the king to his throne, on which he was placed by the glorious and ever-memorable conduct of the British and Spanish troops commanded by the Duke of Wellington; he issued a decree on the 4th of June 1814, announcing to the Spanish Americans, his arrival in his kingdom, ordering them to lay down their arms, and promising oblivion of the past; to enforce this mandate, he also sent General Morillo from Cadiz with a well equipped army of 10,000 men. This army landed on the coast of Caraccas in April 1815; but the insurgents not paying attention to His Majesty's commands, the general immediately commenced active measures. From Campano, where he landed, he proceeded to Margarita, from thence to Caraccas, and in the following August he besieged Carthagena.

Previous to his arrival, Boves, a Spaniard by birth, but a person of low rank, collected a handful of men, attached to the royal cause, and although destitute of assistance from the Spaniards, who were besieged in Puerto Cabello, he found means to raise a large body of troops in the interior, and seeking the insurgent army commanded by Bolivar, he fought several battles with them, in all of which his band was victorious, so that he was enabled to overthrow the new government established at Caraccas.

This valiant individual, following the career he had so fortunately begun, dispersed the army of the independents in every direction, but was killed in storming their last strong-hold, at the moment of victory.

On the arrival of General Morillo he found the province free from the independent troops, and therefore commenced his march for Carthagena, joined by the natives of the country who had formed the army of Boves, and who assisted him materially in taking Carthagena, and re-conquering the revolted provinces of New Granada.

Castello and Bolivar were at this time the leaders of the independent forces in this country, but dissensions occurring between them, Carthagena was supplied with only 2000 troops; the siege lasted from August to the 5th of December, 1815, when the governor and garrison evacuated the place, and the royal army took possession of it, but 3000 persons perished through famine during this siege.

General Morillo now advanced through the provinces of New Granada to the city of Santa Fé de Bogota, which place he entered in June, 1816, remaining in it till the following November: during his stay the leaders of the insurgents, and all who had been criminally engaged, were imprisoned, shot or exiled. From this period Bolivar, who had gone to Jamaica, turned his attention again towards Venezuela, planned an expedition to assist the people of Margarita, and joining Borion, an affluent native of Curaçoa, assembled the emigrants from Venezuela, and part of the garrison which had evacuated Carthagena.