Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

164

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNT.

For the day, his house became a sort of hospital; and some of the scenes of distress were very lamentable. Yet was it truly gratifying to observe that many of the first females of the city, drawn together by the sufferings of the wounded, ministered to them every thing which sympathy, wealth, ingenuity, and care could do in alleviation of their sufferings.

The following is a translation of one of the accounts of the matter published by the Govern

ment.

"The SUPERIOR PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT of the United Provinces of the River Plate, acting in the name of Ferdinand the Seventh.

"The 7th of December presented to this capital, rendered glorious by so many great events, a spectacle of the most appalling kind. At last the implacable enemies of the country found means of consummating their execrable designs by the disasters with which they had sworn to overwhelm our illustrious defenders in perdition and death. Those men, as cowardly and despicable in themselves as their projects were sanguinary and depraved, had determined, as if to augment the

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNT OF

165

ignominy of their enterprize, to make use, in their detestable scheme of ruin and degradation, of the very men who had given to the country so many days of glory. The first regiment has been seduced, and their honour taken by surprise. The vices which they acquired under an administration, careless and corrupt, have been pampered, and at length made use of to give vent to the turbulent passions of perverse and immoral men, opposed to every law which constitutes the well being of society.

"The Government has left no measure untried in order to subdue on its first breaking out this spirit of insurrection, which, on the part of the troops, led to the scandalous disobedience of their officers, and to their openly insulting of the Government. It was in vain they were called upon to consider the interests of their country, and to accept the mediation of clergymen of the highest character. Threats, condescension, and even entreaties were all unavailing; so that in order to preserve the social system, the Government was constrained to employ against the ungrateful rebels an armed force with which to oblige them to surrender at discretion, or expiate with their blood the blackest of all crimes.

166

THE INSURRECTION.

The authors of the insurrection must have been filled with horror on seeing that blood flow; but the pacific citizens, lovers of justice and of order, must have congratulated themselves on finding that a few moments sufficed to avert the incalculable evils which appeared at first connected with the tumult.

"All necessary precautions having now been taken to avert any similar event, the Government earnestly entreats the inhabitants of the capital to be composed under its solemn guarantee, that there is not the slightest ground for apprehending the recurrence of a similar outbreak. And for further security, it is hereby ordered that all the dispersed and fugitive soldiers who have not given up their arms to the Government, through their officers, deliver them immediately, under the penalty of inevitable death in the moment of their having been found to conceal them.

"All other persons, under the same penalty of capital punishment, are in like manner required to give instant notice not only of any arms they know or suspect to be concealed, but of whatever else conduce to the immediate pacification of the city. In regard to the coming festival of our Lady of the Conception, it is further ordered that all the inha

may

EXECUTION OF THE GUILTY PARTIES. 167

bitants do illuminate their houses to night and to morrow night, taking care to set up a greater number of lights than usual, between sunset and break of day.

(Signed) "FELICIANO ANTONIO CHICLANA. "MANUEL DE SARRATEA.

[blocks in formation]

Of the men concerned in this insurrection, twelve were shot, and afterwards gibbeted; while a greater number were sentenced to various periods of banishment. Then came the Government's address to the troops in pretty much their usual style; and in a few days more, all was tranquillity and order.

Your's, &c.

THE AUTHORS.

LETTER XXXIV.

THE AUTHORS to GENERAL MILLER.

Intrigues of the Brazilian Court-Elio, nominal Viceroy-The Aspirations of Artigas-His Success-The Skirmish at YapeyùAscuenaga-Don Pio Tristan-General San Martin and Carlos de Alvear The General Assembly-The Contribution-Political Arrangement-Mrs. Clarke-Mission to North America-Elio and the Portuguese-General Belgrano-The Action between Tristan and Belgrano-Alzaga's Conspiracy and Execution.

London, 1842.

THE part taken by the court of Brazil on the outbreak at Buenos Ayres against the Spanish authorities, and during the vacillating state of affairs which followed, was tortuous and suspicious in the extreme. Sometimes their emissaries went to Buenos Ayres, trying to arrange for the succession of Doña Carlota,-sometimes to Monte Video, offering to uphold Elio and the Cortes. Sometimes they acted as if they would make the Banda Oriental their own; and committed, as they gradually encroached upon that territory, many acts of depredation, some of open hostility.

« AnteriorContinuar »