Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

tion is still very widely at work among the New Granadians; and he writes to the Spanish war-minister, on the 7th of March, 1816, in terms which indicate the depth of his fears for the future condition of their country. The successes of Bolivar in Venezuela, in the end of that year, and more lately, must of necessity have tended very much to keep alive the spark of disaffection; and it seems probable, that should Morillo find it necessary to withdraw any considerable portion of his army for the purpose of strengthening the hands of the royalists in Venezuela, a renewal of open revolt would be the immediate consequence of that measure in New Granada.

In the great region of La Plata, the success of the revolution seems to have been far less chequered with adversity. Here, indeed, as in New Granada, the patriots have had many dissentions among themselves, and these have retarded and interrupted the progress of their general emancipation. The Junta of Buenos Ayres assumed the reins of government about the same time when similar measures were adopted in Venezuela and New Granada; but it was not till June, 1816, that they issued a formal proclamation of independence. After a long struggle with the royalist troops under Liniers, the ex-viceroy, and other commanders, and undergoing, in the course of this long struggle, many remarkable vicissitudes of for. tune, with regard to which we have little access to particular information, the Junta of Buenos Ayres has now obtained an apparently firm and decided authority over all the provinces on the river of La Plata, excepting only the city and territory of Monte Video, which are governed by a Junta of their own, in strict alliance with that of Buenos Ayres, and a few places on the west bank of the river, which have been seized since the commence

ment of the revolution by the government of Brazil. Artigas, the general of Monte Video, appears to watch the Portuguese, and to have checked every attempt which they have made towards the extension of their dominion in his neighbourhood. The army of Buenos Ayres, in the meantime, their own country being considered in perfect security, have passed the mountains into Chili, and lent powerful assistance to the independent party in that district.

Chili, like Buenos Ayres, had a junta and an independent government so early as 1810; but the royalists from Peru having invaded its territory in great force, the authority of Ferdinand had been fairly re-established, when the arrival of the troops from La Plata encouraged the people to rise once more upon the Spaniards. These were unable to resist such a combination, and entirely evacuated the country. Throughout Chili the independent government is now universally recognised, and the most per fect tranquillity prevails. The strength of the country, protected, on almost every side, by the impassable Andes, is such, that any invasion by land could not fail to be repulsed. According to the last intelligence, the combined ar mies of Buenos Ayres and Chili had marched after the royalists into Peru, and driven them as far as Potosi.

In New Spain, that mighty viceroyalty, which, including within its bounds, besides several minor districts, the two rich and populous captain-generalships of Mexico and Yucatan, the revolu tionary war has subsisted as long, and been diversified with as unexpected reverses, as in any other of the Transatlantic dominions of the Spanish crown. In the year 1808, when the internal dissentions of the mother coun try became known, the viceroy, Iturigarray, was requested to assemble a Junta, who might take into their own

hands the supreme government of the country. The viceroy appeared inclined to favour the views of those who made this request, and was supposed to be on the point of complying with their wishes, when the Spaniards in his capital entered his palace by night, and sent him prisoner to Spain. The removal of this officer checked for a time, but did not extinguish, the hopes of the Americans; and the cruel deportment of his successor, Venegas, serving to inflame the minds of the people, an alarming insurrection at last took place in 1810. The leader of this revolution was one Hidalgo, a priest ; man possessed of many re markable talents,-above all, of the power to excite boundless enthusiasm, by an artful mixture of religion and politics in his addresses to the people. His chief officers were priests, like himself. They immediately formed a Junta, and declared Hidalgo captain. general. Beginning at the town of Dolores, where Hidalgo had his residence, the army, under the command of this man, began a march towards the capital of Mexico, in which, for some months, he persisted triumph. antly, repelling and defeating every royalist force that was sent against him, and taking possession, in his progress, of several of the greatest cities in the new world. The viceroy, how. ever, having persuaded the archbishop of Mexico to excommunicate Hidalgo, this, in some degree, shook the superstitious spirits of his followers. He advanced, notwithstanding, to the gates of Mexico, and there was every reason to suppose that his entrance there would have been hailed with exclamations of joy by the greater part of the inhabitants; but suddenly, whether from unwillingness to expose the city to the hazards of a resolute defence, or damped by some symptoms of dissention in his army, he turned round, and commenced a

retreat almost as rapid as his advance had been. In an action which occurred about the end of the year, he was taken prisoner; and, immediately afterwards, he was executed by order of Venegas. Morelos, another priest, who had received from Hidalgo the rank of field-marshal, now assumed the command; and, for several years, the war was maintained between him and the royalists, under Venegas and Calleja, with the utmost fury, and with very various success. But Morelos at last shared the fate of Hidalgo; and after the loss of him, the cause of the Junta seems to have been rapidly and uniformly on the decline. Latterly, moreover, the cruel Venegas having been recalled, Apodacha, a man of mild and conciliating character, has been sent out as viceroy; and the wisdom of this nomination has been abundantly proved by the event. Adopting, in every particular, the most popular measures, the viceroy has succeeded, in a great measure, in reconciling a people tired of wars to the authority of Ferdinand. In one department (that of the Provincias Internas), the insurgents still hold out in considerable force; and in June, 1816, they received a strong accession by the arrival of General Mina, (the well-known guerilla chief) who brought with him a large supply of arms, and a considerable number of experienced officers, from Europe. Nevertheless, it would seem that the royalists continue to gain ground, and that, in the words of a dispatch from the viceroy, "there appears no immediate prospect of these provinces renouncing their allegiance to Spain."

But these very words of the viceroy, communicating the intelligence of his success, prove how cold are his expectations with regard to its ulterior and more important consequences. The Spaniards themselves, in spite of that obstinate and stubborn resolution

which forms the chief ingredient in their character, cannot any longer conceal from themselves, that whatever advantages they may gain can only be temporary ones, and that the cause in which they are engaged is one that, in the end, must fail. To reduce these mighty kingdoms to their former state of subjection, after they have supported for eight years a war for independence, is an attempt which would probably be too much for any European power, but which is utterly and manifestly absurd in the case of a power so reduced in all its energies as Spain. For a few years, indeed, she may continue to send armies and generals to America, and these, like the army which sailed under Morillo, may obtain, for a time, no inconsiderable success. They may capture cities, and scatter armies; but the strength of their adversaries does not lie in fortresses, and of men they have no want. The superiority of European tactics will soon cease to be observed in the history of these American wars; for the South Americans must learn, as already the North Americans have learned, to be as good soldiers as those with whom it is their business to fight. The war, besides, must come to depend less and less upon the character of particular troops; for, in its essence, it is a national war, and the whole population must, in the end, become an armed population. Mountains, rivers, deserts, and immense distances every means of natural strength is in the hands of the Americans. Their antagonists can never, in regard to numbers, be any other than a drop in the bucket, when compared with them; for they are only what a population of ten millions can spare, and send across the Atlantic, to subdue a population nearly twice as great. The population of the South American provinces, too, is destined to multiply itself to an extent, wherewith the mo

ther country, were she doubly larger than she is, could have no expectation of coping. The mother country, moreover, is torn and lacerated by domestic factions; her revenue does not suffice even for her domestic expenditure, to say nothing of immense expeditions to the new world. But above all, the Spanish Americans have perpetually before their eyes the freedom of the United States on the one hand, and Brazil flourishing under a resident king on the other. With these objects at hand to stimulate their ardour, it is scarcely possible that the people of New Granada, La Plata, and Mexico, can for a moment permit themselves to sit down in contented submission. Nor even if they should, would Spain be long a gainer by their pusillanimity. Were a far wiser prince than Ferdinand at this moment recognized as the indisputed lord of all the provinces which he has lost, we are persuaded he would find it utterly impossible to oppose any enduring barrier to that stream of events which seems to carry America irresistibly into independence of Europe.

What England in vain attempted in the plenitude of her vigour, it is not to be believed that Spain can do in the midst of that decline which is equally discernible over every department of her resources. It matters not whether she continue to combat the insurgents in every state, or, concentrating all her power, endeavour to rescue at least one of her old possessions from their hands. Should she abandon all but Mexico, the army of South America would soon do for Mexico what that of Buenos Ayres has already done for Chili.

Without professing to entertain any very extravagant notion of the Abbé de Pradt in his general character of a political prophet, we cannot help thinking that the views he has embraced concerning the future destinies of Ame

rica, seem, on the whole, to be supported by a larger and firmer basis of undeniable facts, than were ever before piled together to sustain a prospective and predictive theory. His work on "America, and on the Colonies," is highly deserving of more serious consideration than as yet it seems to

have obtained. The pretending and gasconading character of his style should not be allowed too deeply to prejudice us against a writer, who has undoubtedly as much acuteness, and at least as much eloquence, as any of his contemporaries.

CHAP. XIII.

West Indies.-Disturbances in Jamaica and Barbadoes.-Different Representations given of the Causes of these Tumults in the British Parliament.-Mr Wilberforce's Motion concerning a Slave Registry Bill-abandoned for the present.-East Indies.-Second Campaign in Nepaul.-Battle of Muckwampore.-Capture of Hurrykurpore.-Peace concluded.-Cessions to the British.-Proceedings in Cutch. Disturbances at Barreilly.Inroad of the Pindarees.-Java is delivered up to the Dutch.

In the same hemisphere, meantime, our own more scattered possessions continued to be visited with many symptoms of that general spirit of colonial commotion, to which allusion has already been made in treating of the more terrible convulsions which have so long agitated the more extensive and important provinces of Spain. In Jamaica, an insurrection of negroes occurred at the opening of the year, which promised to be of long and serious endurance at its commencement, but which the vigilance of the Duke of Manchester happily suppressed in the course of a few days. A far more extensive and alarming tumult took place in Barbadoes on Easter Monday. In that island, however, the level cha. racter of the country, and the much greater admixture of white inhabitants, presented facilities of repressing the commotion, infinitely superior to what almost any other of our insular colonies could have afforded. For three days, nevertheless, the insurgent slaves not only made head against all the troops which the governor could bring into the field, but devastated at their

VOL. IX. PART I

pleasure an extent of country much wider than these at first conceived to be in any danger from their violence. On the evening of the third day, the ringleader, or captain of the whole, was defeated in a village where he had posted the prime and flower of his adherents; he was surrounded and taken, and executed on the morrow; but before his death, he made such disclosures as enabled the king's authorities to cut off all communication among the remainder of the negroes, and so to prevent the farther progress, and not improbable completion, of a plot, which, according to the account given of it by this desperate chief, exceeded, in the boldness of its preconcerted atrocities, every thing which has yet occurred in the history of these ferocious savages.

The notice of parliament was immediately directed to the subject of these disturbances by the old and honoured champion of negro emancipation, Mr Wilberforce. This gentleman made a long and energetic speech, in which he expressed his conviction, that a very great share of the unhappy tu

K

« PoprzedniaDalej »