GEN. BERESFORD'S AND COL. PACK'S ESCAPE. 79

richest in Buenos Ayres. His mind was of that commanding nature that he soon became the facile princeps of the community in which he dwelt.

It was Alzaga who was the main-spring of the movements which ended in the recapture of Buenos Ayres from General Beresford, by the old Spaniards; for the energy of his character gave life and animation to tamer spirits; and the indomitable courage with which he fought against all obstacles in his way, and the success with which he overcame them, gave to his followers a confidence which was the very cause of that success.

The parties who aided General Beresford and Colonel Pack in their escape, had formed a plan for declaring the independence of the country, under the auspices of England; but Alzaga contrived to get partly into their secrets, by feigning that he would lead the movement; and although Messrs. Peña and Padilla got clear off with the gallant officers just named, Alzaga fell upon several others implicated in the business, subjected them to the cruellest treatment,* and frustrated their incipient plans.

* Peña and Padilla received a pension from the British Government, as well as Lima, one of those who suffered imprisonment, but who, after his enlargement, made his way to England.

80 ALZAGA DEPOSES THE VICEROY SOBREMONTE.

But Alzaga, if he watched with an eagle eye, any attempt of the creoles to free themselves from the subjugation of Spain, was yet not of a temper to put up with an imbecile rule, even on the part of the Vicegerent of sacred Majesty. Besides, he was haughty and ambitious, and he felt, perhaps, that he had fallen upon times in which the highest rule would be safer in his own hands than in those of any other individual.

Be that as it may, Alzaga determined, at the commencement of 1807, on the bold and unheard of measure of deposing a viceroy in the person of the Marquis of Sobremonte. This man, unworthy of his high calling, behaved in a dastardly manner on the occasion of the capture, by Sir Samuel Auchmuty, of Monte Video; for the viceroy having gone to the relief of that place, and encamped outside the town, fled in dismay and confusion, as soon as it was occupied by the British troops.

It was during the absence of the viceroy from the capital, and with a knowledge of his pusillanimous conduct and total want of either military or political capacity, that Alzaga, staunch royalist as he was, determined to dethrone the representative of royalty. But he took a fatal means of executing his purpose.

LINIERS MADE VICEROY.

81

As head of the municipal body, which, from the energetic character he himself had given it, possessed a powerful popularity, he convoked a public meeting, and amid the acclamations of the people, not only carried the deposition of the viceroy, but also his arrest in the Banda Oriental, by means of a force to be immediately despatched for that purpose.

"Such," says the estimable and judicious author from whom we have taken the foregoing account, * "such was the first most popular assembly which was held in the country, and such the resolution which emanated from it." A fatal example indeed, which was not lost sight of by the South Americans.

The viceroy was suddenly pounced upon at a little post-house in the Banda Oriental, and himself and family carried to Buenos Ayres. † His political power was given by the Cabildo to the Audiencia, or Court of Oidores, half judges, half privy councillors; and to Colonel Liniers was given the military command; while the ambitious Alzaga

*Our old and respected friend Don Manuel de Moreno, the present Minister Plenipotentiary at our Court for the River Plate Provinces, author of "Coleccion de Arengas en el foro y Escritos del Dr. Don Mariano Moreno."-London, 1836.

† See Appendix, Vol. III.

82

LINIERS MADE VICEROY,

retained for the municipality the supremacy or sovereignty, to which the other powers were ordered to hold themselves subject.

It was under this mixed, this semi-royal, semirepublican government,—that the defence of Buenos Ayres, against the invasion of General Whitelock, was organized; with what signal success our English readers too well know. The "resolution, pride, ambition, and enterprize," of Alzaga, carried all before them.*

Liniers was rewarded by the Cabinet of Madrid with the viceroyalty, which now became his own, unshackled by a higher local power; but the members of the municipality and the principal creoles of Buenos Ayres, with whom the real glory rested, were so parsimoniously and inadequately recompensed, as to cause new discontents, and to alienate the colony more and more from the mother country.

*It will be in the recollection of the readers of "Letters on Paraguay," that it was Alzaga, who, in the drawing up of the terms of capitulation for Whitelock, said, "throw in also the evacuation and surrender to us of Monte Video." He was remonstrated with on the insertion of so untenable and proposterous a stipulation, when, as has been narrated, he merely said, "the worst that can happen is to withdraw it;" but in proof of his sagacity, General Whitelock signed the Convention, without any salvo whatever for Monte Video, then in our secure possession.

DEPOSITION OF THE VICEROY LINIERS. 83

In August, 1808, the Cabildo, the old Spaniards, and the people at large of Buenos Ayres, decided in favour of the ancient dynasty of Spain, as opposed to the usurped power of Napoleon, and accordingly Ferdinand VII. was proclaimed, and the oaths of allegiance to him were taken with great solemnity.

But, from sinister motives, the audiencia and Liniers secretly took the French side, and soon afterwards the viceroy openly proclaimed his adhesion to Bonaparte. The Spanish party had other reasons than this for being disgusted with Liniers.* They did not like his disorderly administration, the prodigality of his patronage, the waste of the public money, and the laxity of morals which he introduced at the vice-regal palace; added to all which, he was of French parentage, an obnoxious point with the haughty Spaniard.

The Cabildo, therefore, or more properly speaking, Don Martin de Alzaga, determined on the deposition of another viceroy. The mayor (Alzaga) went to Monte Video to concoct measures with the governor of that citadel, General Elio,† and this * See Appendix, Vol. III.

+ General Elio, on his return to Spain, was named Captain General of Valencia, and after the downfall of the absolute party, he was degraded and executed in 1822.