prising a number of provinces. When the authority of the regency of Spain was disobeyed, in 1810, these territories acted separately, although with some degree of concert, and established separate juntas and provisional governments. Some of the provinces, also, availing themselves of the general disorder, attempted to withdraw themselves from their political connexions, and established governments for themselves. This led to much confusion, and in some instances, to war, among the different independent governments; at the same time, that they were all at war with Spain. It also served to disconnect the events of the revolution, so that it becomes necessary to trace them, for some time at least, distinctly in each of the new governments. We commenced with Caraccas, or Venezuela, and having traced the events of the revolution down to the establishment of the constitution, we will return to the opening of the bloody drama in New Granada.

The government of New Granada comprised twenty-two provinces, situated between Venezuela, Peru, and Guatemala. These provinces contained two and a half millions of inhabitants, and the capital, Santa Fe de Bogota, nearly thirty-five thousand.

It has been stated, that on receiving intelligence from Spain of the dispersion of the central junta, and the creation of the regency, a junta was established at Santa Fe de Bogota, in July 1810, by a public meeting assembled under the sanction of the viceroy. This junta at first chose Don A. Amar, the viceroy, president, and acknowledged the authority of the regency at Cadiz. In a few days the junta, alarmed by the report of a conspiracy formed by the viceroy, and the members of the audience for their safety caused the viceroy and most of the members of the audience to be arrested and sent to Carthagena, from whence they were conveyed to Spain. The junta disavowed the authority of the regency, and published a manifesto, inviting the several provinces of New Granada to send deputies to a congress at Santa Fe de Bogota, to establish a provincial government, during the captivity of the king. Nine of the provinces, namely, Tunja, Pamplona, Casanare, Carthagena, Socorro, Antioquia, Choco, Neyva, and Mariquita, declared in favour of the revolution. Santa Martha was also in favour of the revolution, yet acknowledged the authority of the regency; but some months afterwards, the junta of the province was overthrown by the intrigues of the Spaniards, and a new one created, entirely devoted to Spain. In Popayan, the governor called a public meeting of the most considerable persons in the province, which decided that it was expedient to establish a junta; but the governor, chagrined at their conduct, dissolved the assembly, and raised troops to attack the junta at Santa Fe.

The latter, however, aware of the hostile de

signs of the governor, and to check his career, had despatched Baraya with a body of troops to watch and oppose him. An action was fought about twelve miles from the town of Popayan, in the beginning of the year 1811, in which Tacon, the governor, was defeated. The regency of Spain, alarmed at the progress and diffusion of the disaffection, attempted to conciliate the inhabitants of New Granada by sending among them two of their countrymen, Don A. Villavicencio, and Don C. Montufar, as commissioners to support the authority of the regency; but they did not arrive until the revolution had progressed too far, and the public mind had become too deeply imbued with liberal sentiments to admit of their accomplishing the object of their mis

sion.

Montufar arrived at Quito a few days after the massacre of the inhabitants on the 2d of August, 1810, by the troops sent from Lima; which so exasperated the people, that, with no other weapons than knives and clubs, they attacked the soldiers with such fury as induced the Spanish authorities to order the troops to withdraw from the city, and to pass a decree of oblivion in favour of the inhabitants. Taking advantage of the fears of the Spanish authorities, Montufar prevailed on them to establish a junta for the province. This junta is the only one of which the regency of Spain approved.

In September, 1810, the junta of Carthagena issued a manifesto, setting forth the advantages which would result to New Granada, by a union of all the provinces in a federal government; and at the same time conceding that the provinces were absolved from their political connexion, and had a right to adopt what form of government they pleased; for as the cessions at Bayonne destroyed the compact between Spain and America, so the revolution at Santa Fe severed the bond of union which had bound together the provinces of New Granada. This reasoning, calculated to mislead, was carried still farther by the inhabitants of some of the departments, who supposed, that if the revolution had dissolved the political bands which united the provinces, it had also broken the ties which had connected together the different departments of the same province. Mompox, a department of Carthagena, adopting the fallacious and dangerous reasoning of the junta of the province, proceeded to form a junta for the department, and also to appoint deputies to the congress to be held at Santa Fe. The government of Carthagena, not willing to have their doctrine applied to their own province by its departments, sent a military force under Don N. Ayos, and compelled Mompox to return to her connexion with Carthagena.

Near the close of the year 1810, the junta of Caraccas sent an ambassador to the new government at Santa Fe, and an alliance VOL. II.

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was entered into between them for their mutual protection. In December, some of the deputies to the general congress had assembled at Santa Fe. Several deputies also arrived from departments, which, like Mompox, were disposed to be formed into separate provinces. This gave rise to a question which threatened to increase the existing difficulties, whether the deputies from the departments should be admitted to their seats in the congress. At length, by the influence of Don A. Narino, secretary to the congress, it was agreed to suspend the decision, to give time to bring about an accommodation of the dispute. The pretensions of the departments were finally silenced, and the congress, relieved from this difficulty, convened again. A confederacy, or compact, was formed by the representatives of Pamplona, Tunja, Neyva, Carthagena, and Antioquia, on the 27th of November, 1811, at Santa Fe de Bogota. The provinces retained the management of their local and internal concerns, and those of a general nature were confided to the federal congress. A supreme judicature was established to decide on questions growing out of the federal union, and the executive power, as well as the legislative, was intrusted to the congress.

The province of Cundinamarca disapproved of the articles of confederation, and refused to deliver up the mint, which it was required to do, by the stipulations made by the congress. An assembly of deputies of the province of Cundinamarca was convened by the junta of Santa Fe, its capital, to frame a constitution; and one being prepared, it was ratified on the 17th of April, 1812, by a convention called especially for that purpose. Thus the junta of Santa Fe, which gave the first impulse to the revolution in New Granada, by establishing a separate and opposing government for the province, were also the first to sow the seeds of dissension, which produced such bitter fruits. The constitution was a limited monarchy, acknowledging Ferdinand VII.; but providing, that during the captivity of the king, a president, two counsellors, senators, judges of a supreme court of judicature, and the members of a military board, should be elected by the electoral colleges once every three years. The president possessed the executive power, but was to act in concert with the two counsellors, and the legislative power was confided to the senators and members of the high court of justice.

After the defeat of Tacon, the royal governor of Popayan, he fled to Pastos, where, for the purpose of raising an army to oppose the troops of Santa Fe, he liberated the slaves, and formed them into soldiers for the purpose of enslaving his countrymen. This was the first instance of slaves being instigated to revolt against their masters since the commencement of the revolution. The forces he raised by these base means, were not sufficient,

however, to oppose the troops sent against him by the juntas of Quito and Popayan; and he was compelled to retreat to the south sea coast, near the port of San Buenaventura. Don N. Rodriguez having succeeded Baraya in the command of the army, pursued him closely, and completely defeated him at Isquande, near the close of the year 1811.

Don J. Lozano, president of the government of Cundinamarca, proposed to the provinces of New Granada to make a new division of their territory, the whole to form four parts, in each of which a subordinate republic was to be established, and these formed into a federal republic. This plan, he thought would give sufficient energy to the government to enable it to overcome the difficulties attending the establishment of their Independence. The plan was opposed by the junta of Carthagena, and also by the congress then in session, at the town of Ibagua, where it had removed from Santa Fe after Cundinamarca refused to enter into the confederacy. Lozano, resigning his situation as president, was succeeded by Don A. Narino, who was not in favour of the proposed federal government, but wished to establish one more energetic. In his project he was supported by the provinces of Mariquita, Neyva, and Socorro; Tunja was also inclined to favour his plan, when a body of the troops of Cundinamarca, under Baraya, stationed in the town of Tunja, declared against Narino, and in favour of the congress. This induced the congress immediately to remove to Tunja, and occasioned a civil war between the adherents of Narino and those of the congress, in the beginning of the year 1812. An action was fought at Paloblanco, in the province of Socorro, in which Narino's troops were defeated, and the agents of the congress, availing themselves of this success, persuaded Mariquita and Neyva to join the confederacy. The congress, in consequence, removed to the town of Neyva, in October, 1812. The army of the confederacy was again successful at Ventaquemada, which enabled the forces of the congress to besiege Santa Fe de Bogota, in December. Narino resigned the presidency before this event, but the legislative power refused to accept it; he proposed to the besiegers that he would quit New Granada, on condition that they would spare the lives and property of the inhabitants of the capital. This reasonable proposal was not acceded to; the besiegers, confident of success, insisted on the surrender of the capital at discretion, which being refused, they stormed the city, but were repulsed with great loss, and a large part of their army was dispersed. A single division, under the command of Girardot, reached Tunja. A monument of stone, called San Victorino, was erected in that part of the city where the action was fought, with inscriptions explanatory of the signal victory which saved

the capital. These civil dissensions, arming the patriots against each other, who were engaged in the same contest, and that, a contest for liberty, were equally injurious and disgraceful to their

cause.

The junta of Quito being threatened with hostilities from the royalists of the province of Cuenca, raised an army for its defence. The royal army of Cuenca was commanded by the bishop, and many of its officers were ecclesiastics, who carried black standards. To show that they felt the influence of the religion they professed, which teaches to "resist not evil," they assumed the name of the army of death. When the junta of the province of Quito was established in August, 1810, Ruiz de Castilla was named president; but when the regency of Spain approved of the junta, they appointed Molin to be its president. The junta refused to acknowledge him as president, and complained of his conduct to the Cortes of Spain. Placing himself at the head of the troops, which, after the massacre of the 2d of August, had retired from Quito to Guayaquil, he marched to attack Quito, and entered its territories, notwithstanding the Cortes had ordered him to desist from hostilities. He refused, however, to obey this order, on pretence that it had been obtained by false representations. Don C. Montufar commanded the troops of Quito, and was defeated by the royalists of Cuenca, which enabled the troops from Lima, under Montes, who had succeeded Molin in the command, to enter the town of Quito, on the 6th of November, 1812. The bloody Montes destroyed every thing before him; a scene of devastation and massacre was exhibited shocking to contemplate; one fifth of the inhabitants, who had remained to defend the city, were cruelly murdered; and, moreover, not satisfied with this slaughter, a detachment of his army was sent in pursuit of those who had fled from the town before its capture. And as if to show his triumphing in such vandalism, he gave an account of his bloody deeds, Limself, in a letter of the 11th of November, addressed to the governor of Guayaquil. After the capture of Quito, Montes relinquished the command of the army to Don N. Samano, a Spanish officer, who was stationed at Santa Fe when the revolution broke out. Samano marched towards Santa Fe, and on his way took the town of Popayan. Previous to this, Don J. Caycedo, president of the junta of Quito, had fallen into the hands of the royalists of Pastos, who had also defeated the troops of the province of Popayan, commanded by Macaulay, a citizen of the United States, who, with many of his officers, were made prisoners. Caycedo, Macaulay, and the other prisoners, were all put to death by the royalists.

Alarmed at the progress of the royal forces, which was every where marked with rapine and massacre, the government of Cun