DIAS DE LA PATRIA
In January the French armies forced the passes of the Sierra de la Morena, and poured like a deluge over the smiling plains of Andalusia, sweeping everything before them. Cordova and Granada fell, and on the 1st February King Joseph, at the head of his triumphant army, marched into the city of Seville.
Rumours of these events reached Buenos Aires in April, but till a month later there arrived no certain information. On the 13th May full details were received by a ship from Europe which anchored in the port of Monte Video. On the 14th the news reached Buenos Aires.
Don Manuel Belgrano had been for a fortnight absent from the city, recruiting his strength and refreshing his jaded energies in quiet solitude at a quinta he possessed at the little town of San Isidro, which stands on the banks of the river about five leagues north of Buenos Aires, leaving the Diario in the care of Marcelino Ponce de Leon. On the afternoon of the 14th he received a letter from Marcelino.
"Come at once, we have need of you. The moment has arrived to work for the Patria, and to achieve our longed-for liberty and independence."
Before nightfall Don Manuel was again in the city. A meeting of the secret committee was at once convened, not one of the brotherhood was absent, long and earnestly they discussed the measures they should adopt. The proposition of Don Carlos Evaña to appoint a committee of public safety with absolute powers, and to proclaim a Republic, was overruled. It was determined to call upon the Ayuntamiento of the city to appoint a Junta, elected in "Cabildo Abierto," which should unite the powers of the various corporations; that this Junta should invite the concurrence of each Province of the Viceroyalty for the purpose of assembling a Congress which should decide upon the future of the country; and that for the prevention of any attempt to oppose the authority of the Junta the first act of this body should be to despatch an army into the interior, the commander of which should be invested with ample power for the repression of any hostile movement.
For three days the city was in a state of great agitation; Spain had fallen, the colonies of Spain were free.
"What shall be done?"
"What authority shall take the place of that which exists no longer?"