LETTERS ON PARAGUAY:
comprising an Account of
a Four Years' Residence
in that Republic, under the Government of the Dictator Francia, by J.P.
and W.P. Robertson. In three volumes, London: John Murray, Albemarle
Street, 1839 (Vol. I second
edition), 1838 (Vol. II).
LETTER I.
To J—— G——, Esq.
General Remarks—Revolt of Spanish America—Colonial Policy
of Spain—Accounts from South America— Lord
Viscount
Beresford—Origin of Enthusiasm about the Country—Reaction. London, 1838
"The numerous works on South America which, within the
last few years,
have issued from the press; the various histories, journals, travels,
and residencies already before the public, have so attenuated the whole
subject, that in writing anything more on it, we are certainly bound to
consider whether we can offer anything new, on topics now so familiar
to almost every class of readers.
We have endeavoured to consider this point; and when we reflect that
the letters which follow, though now edited anew, were substantially
written at the periods to which they refer, and from actual observation
of the facts which they record; if we can add, that they form only a
part of the many documents collected, and of letters written, during a
residence of nearly twenty-five years in Buenos Ayres, Paraguay,
Chile,
and Peru; and if we consider finally, that an intercourse with those
countries has been kept up by us since we left them; we think it will
not be strange if our communications contain something relative to
South America, that has escaped the notice of hurried journalists,
casual visitants, and galloping travellers." (1-2)
"From 1809 till 1822-3, South America
was open, in most
parts, to our commerce; and the information received during that
period, being
chiefly from mercantile men, many of whom had been successful, was
highly
coloured. it not only left, but encouraged parties here to generalize
this
partial success to any extent they pleased. Hence arose an inference of
a
certain universality of wealth; and a prospect dawned upon the minds of
men of
an almost unlimited sphere for the commercial enterprise of Great
Britain.
But it is to Mr. Canning's
foreign
policy, as connected directly with Spain and
Portugal, and through them
with "Spain and the Indies," that the
great bewilderment of this country (for it can be called nothing short
of
that), in regard to South America, is to be attributed.
That ardent statesman already
determined on the vast project of calling
(to use his own words in Parliament) "A NEW WORLD INTO
EXISTENCE,"
sent out diplomatic agents to all parts, to report on the general
circumstances
of that new world.
With the highest deference and
respect for those gentlemen, be it yet
permitted
to state, that tinctured (and how should it have been otherwise?) with
Foreign
Secretary's enthusiasm on so alluring a subject, they went forth
disposed
to report favourably. It was
required also that they should report quickly.
The growing importance of events in the south of Europe demanded this.
The
result was, that the diplomatists, on arrival at the various parts of
South
America, naturally threw themselves on the best-informed merchants for
information. But, beside that it was the interest of those merchants to
magnify
the commercial importance of the country, the very fact of Mr.
Canning's
sending out consuls-general to make treaties of alliance with new
Republics,
fanned in this country the ardent expectations of men already
sufficiently
sanguine. The consequence was, that the reports, although more or less
tinged
with the glow, as well of the great minister who had originated these
measures,
as of his diplomatic agents, and of the merchants by whose assistance
the
documents were framed, were extremely well received at home. The full
recognition by England of many of the Republics followed; and Mr.
Canning,
coming down to Parliament, triumphantly met the fears of those who
dreaded a
continental war, in consequence of the embroiled state of France and
Spain, by
an eloquent speech, in which, if we recollect well, there as a passage
to the
effect that it was long since Spain hat ceased to be formidable in herself: that
it was Spain with the Indies
that had been formidable power; that the Indies
were now lost to her; and that, by recognition of Republics which had de
facto achieved their independence, we had counteracted all
preponderating
influence on the part of the absolute governments of Europe—we had
"called into existence a new world."
This was in the year 1823-4. The
lamentable not to say ruinous results of the
confidence thus established, and of the hopes thus excited, are too
fresh in
the memory of the thousands who have suffered by their connexion with
Spanish
America. Loans were furnished to every one of the independent
governments;
millions were shipped to enable them to work in their mines; emigration
sent
forth her labourers to people the wastes of the new world; manufactures
were
shipped far beyond the amount required for the consumption of the
country; and
we were ere long taught, by a sad experience, that the whole fabric of
these
vast undertakings was reared on a foundation inadequate to support so
great a
superstructure. In 1825 it began to totter; and in 1826-7 it came down
with a
crash which laid many prostrate under its ruins, and more of less
injured
every individual connected with the country. Nor was this, though the
consequence most to be lamented, by any means the only consequence of our overweening
confidence in the infant governments.
Nurtured by these very acts into a
feeling of importance beyond that to which
they were naturally entitled, they have been led too often into a
belief
that
latent views of commercial or more sordid aggrandizement lay hidden
under the
outward show of a liberal and confiding policy; and they have thus not
only
held as less sacred than they ought to have done the obligations they
have
contracted; but they have adopted, in many cases, a narrow and
fluctuating
course of legislation, too much akin to that of Old Spain. Their
injudicious
and ill-timed laws have often hampered commerce, and retarded the
progress of
the public welfare of every section of Spanish America.
Yours, faithfully,
The
Authors." (10-14)
LETTER II.
To J—— G——, Esq.
Was the Declaration of Independence premature?—Solution
of the Query —State of Old Spain — Government of the Colonies —
Military Force of Spain in South America
London, 1838
"It may be asked, and, after what we have said in our last letter, it
naturally will be asked, were
the declarations of independence, then, made by the late Spanish
provinces, premature?
In reply to this question, it may be stated, that if by "premature" be
meant premature in respect of their
moral and political capacity to govern their vast country on sound
principles of political economy, their declarations of
independence certainly appear to involve this charge: for it is a
matter of notoriety, that they are, after more than twenty-five years
of revolution, very little advanced in the science of government, and
nearly as far removed now as they ever wer from political stability.
But if by "premature" be meant only premature in respect to their physical capacity to maintain the independence which they
at first achieved, then it is certain that their
revolution was not premature;
for they have preserved free from all external control, the country
they wrested from hands of Old Spain, till the latter is now
reluctantly forced upon a consideration of the expediency of
recognising the independence of her late colonies, and no longer dreams
of ever repossessing herself of them.
Can it be alleged that upon the whole, then, they have been losers,
rather than gainers by their Revolution? We think quite the reverse.
For one ship that entered their deserted ports, under the colonial
restrictions, twenty now sail into them from all quarters of the globe.
For one newspaper then published, there are now in circulation four or
five. Books of every kind are imported. Foreigners freely take up their
abode in the country. Better houses, better furniture, are seen
everywhere. The natives, guided by the example of foreigners, live not
only better than before, but have acquired habits of greatly-increased
domestic comfort and convenience. In two or three of the republics, the
Protestant religion is tolerated. The undue influence of the priests,
if not entirely undermined, is in many places greatly diminished, and
in
some nearly overthrown. The authority of the pope is not only
practically disavowed, but a legate, sent some time ago from Rome to
Chile, met with a very cold reception, and with an order for his
instantaneous return to that Italy from whence he came. In these, and
in many other respects, the Americans have gained by their Revolution.
They have gained, too, as a consequence of it, in their trade, and
pecuniary transactions with England: for, to say nothing of the large
sums received by them in loans, for working of mines, &c., for
which
little or nothing has been as yet returned; we very much question
whether the merchandise sent to South America has, on the whole,
produced to the shippers of it from this country, an adequate profit;
while it is incontestable that a greatly-increased export trade, at
much enhanced prices, has augmented in all parts of Spanish America the
capital and means of its inhabitants.
What may, however, be truly said of the South Americans is, that they
have not only failed to derive the benefit to have been expected from
their Revolution, under rectitude and prudence of conduct, but hat they
have obstructed such benefit by protracted civil commotions on the one
hand, and by a want of capacity, and sometimes, unfortunately, of
integrity, in the public administration of their affairs, on the other.
Hence, a check to the influx of foreign population, and to the increase
of their own; hence agriculture has languished, and commerce been
shackled by improvident laws; and hence smuggling, that fertile source
of evil, while it has worked out all its demoralizing effects, has at
the same time greatly diminished the revenue. Hence also education has
been neglected, and the vices springing from ignorance left unchecked;
hence factions have been multiplied, and Justice herself has not always
been able to resist the influence of political excitement, and the
temptations to individual venality. Hence, in short, a narrow foreign
policy, and an unhappy domestic one, have too much pervaded the
different states of the ex-colonial possessions of Spain." (15-18)
LETTER IV.
To J—— G——, Esq.
Spanish Population of South America—South American Nobility
—South American Education —the Clergy —the Lawyers —
the Landed Proprietors of Chile and Peru —Estancias,
or Cattle Farms—Estancieros, or Landed Proprietors of Buenos
Ayres—Chacareros, Farmers or Yeomen—General Remarks
"In the first place, it is to be
observed, that those who emigrated from Old Spain to settle in the
colonies, were generally men of neither family, fortune, nor education
at home. Storekeepers from Galicia, small merchants and publicans from
Cataluña, clerks and attorneys from Biscay, and sailors,
drudges, and mechanics from Andalusia, made up the mass of the old
Spanish population. It was only the Viceroy, his staff, and more
immediate dependents, the members of the audiencia, or judges, the
employés of the public offices, and officers of the navy, who
hat any pretensions either to gentlemanlike deportment or tolerable
education. Liberality of feeling, extension of view, or anything
approaching the philosophic and enlightened principle, not having been
taught, even to their betters, in their own country, could not be
imported by them into the new one they adopted. All the natives of Old
Spain were emphatically and indiscriminately denominated by the South
Americans, "Godos," or "Goths."
[...]
For the education of the sons of these different classes of inhabitants
of the Spanish colonies, there were distributed over the continent
several colleges founded by the Jesuits, and universities almost
entirely under the direction of the priests. In Cordoba, there was one
more celebrated university than the rest,—a sort of South
American Salamanca;—in Lima there was another. Cuzco, Chuquisaca, and
Santa Fé de Bogotá were seats of learning of almost equal
note. To these resorted all the youth from the different and far
distant towns and villages of the continent, for such education as the
universities afforded; and they returned to the places of their
nativity, and to their own families, what they were made by the course
of instruction to which in the mean time they had been subjected,
The branches taught were Literae Humaniores,—the theology
of the Roman Catholic church,—the philosophy of the schools,—logic,
upon the strictest models of syllogistic precision, the code of Roman
Law, with all the minutiae of Spanish jurisprudence. The universities
only professed, in fact, to make theologians and lawyers. The
profession of medicine was in the hands of here and there a better sort
of quack from Old Spain, who, mounted on his mule, with a peak saddle
and silver bridle, looked down with disdain upon the crowd of
mulatto practitioners, who drew teeth, let blood, and dealt in simples.
Surgery was almost unknown; and the sciences of chemistry, mathematics,
and natural philosophy, as taught in these enlightened days, were
altogether proscribed. They were considered not as useless merely, but
as dangerous to the state. Not content with having its subjects thus
closely pent up within the confines of ignorance and superstition, the
court readily concurred with the inquisition in framing progressively
enlarged lists, which it was ever issuing, of prohibited books. Locke,
Milton, Montesquieu, and all their heretical followers, it is well
known, were included in those lists; so that knowledge, even with all
the allay of the schools, and all the trash of councils, was literally
weighed out to the Americans in grains and scruples.
[...]
The estanciero, or landed and cattle proprietor, feeling his
inferiority, and taking his station in society accordingly, had his
solace and his recreation in his own solitary avocations, and in the
occasional society of those of his own class, with whom he could
expatiate upon fat herds of cattle,—fine years for pasture,
—horses more fleet than the ostrich or the deer,—the
dexterity of those who could best, from the saddle, throw their noose,
or laso, over the horse of a wild bull,—or of him who could
make the nicest pair of boots from the skin stripped off the legs of a potro, or wild colt.
A good, substantial, roughly-finished house in town, with very little
furniture in it; a large, sleek, fat horse on which to ride;—a
poncho or loose amplitude of camlet stuff, with a hole in the centre of
it for his head and falling from his shoulders over his body;—large
silver spurs, and the head-piece of his bridle heavily overlaid with
the same metal;—a coarse that fastened with black leather
thongs under his chin; —a tinger-box, steel, and flint,
with which to light his cigar; —a knife in his girdle, and
a swarthy page behind him, with the unroasted ribs of a fat cow, for
provision, under his saddle; —constituted the most solid
comfort, and met the most luxurious aspirations of the estanciero, or
Buenos Ayres country gentleman. When, thus equipped and provided, he
could take to the plains, and see a large herd of cattle grazing on one
place, —and in another hear them lowing in the distance;
and when he could look round for uninterrupted miles upon rich
pastures, all his own—his joy was full; his ambition
satisfied; and he was willing at once to forget, and to forego, the
tasteless enjoyments and cumbrous distinctions of artificial society.
Thus lived,—and thus was the country gentleman of the River Plate
educated, before the Revolution. He is now greatly improved in
manners,—fortune,—and mode of life;—and he is rising gradually, but
surely, to that influence to which a greatly increased and increasing
value of property naturally leads." (41-58)
LETTER VI.
To J——
G——, Esq.
NO LONGER INTRODUCTORY.
Retrospective
Glance—Comparison between North and South
America—Plan of the Work—Capture of Buenos Ayres—
Anticipated Results—Consequences of the Capture—Em-
barkation for the River Plate—Arrival there—Bombardment
of Montevideo—Capture of the Town—Symptoms of Con-
fidence in the People—Motley Inhabitants—Expectations
excited
London, 1838
"In
1805-6, news reached England of the expedition to which we have already
referred, under Viscount Beresford, having sailed up the River Plate,
and most valiantly attacked and
taken the town of Buenos Ayres.
The victory, however surprising in itself, was as nothing, compared
with the results anticipated from it by this country. The people were
represented as not only satisfied with their conquerors, but as
tractable, amiable, lively, and engaging. The River Plate, discharging
itself into the sea by a mouth nearly 150 miles wide, and navigable for
2000 miles into the interior of the country, was described as a mighty
inlet to the millions of our commerce. Peru and her mines were held
forth to us as open through this channel: we were told that the
tropical regions of Paraguay were approachable by ships; that thousands
upon thousands of cattle were grazing in the verdant plains; and that
the price of a bullock was four shillings, while that of a horse was
half the sum. The natives, it was said, would give uncounted gold for
our manufactures, while their warehouses were as well stocked with
produce, as their coffers filled with the precious metals. The women
were said to be all beautiful, and the men all handsome, and athletic.
Such was
the description received here of the New Arcadia, of which
Lord Beresford had achieved the most incredible conquest. British
commerce, ever on the wing for foreign lands, soon unfurled
the sails of her floating ships for South America. The rich, the poor,
the needy, the speculative, and the ambitious, all looked to the making
or mending of their fortunes in those favoured regions. Government was
busy equipping, for the extension and security of the newly-acquired
territory, and for the protection of her subjects and their property, a
second expedition, under the command of Sir
Samuel Auchmuty.
Like
other ardent young men, I became anxious to visit a land described
in such glowing colours. I sailed accordingly from Greenock, in
December 1806, in a fine ship called the Enterprise, commanded by
Captain Graham.
The
monotony of a sea-voyage is so well understood, that I shall pass
over mine in very few words. We had the usual winter storms in the
Channel: the ever-paid penalty of a tossing in the Bay of Biscay:
sultry weather in crossing the line, and great rejoicings when, after
three months of pure sea and sky, we got soundings at the mouth of the
River Plate. As we gaily sped our course in now inland waters, and
hoped next day to take up our domicile in Buenos Ayres, we were hailed
by a British ship of war; and alas for the dissipation of the golden
dreams which we had been dreaming all the passage out!
Captain
Graham, having been ordered on board of the frigate, returned
with dismay depicted in his countenance, to tell us that the Spaniards
had regained possession of Buenos Ayres, and made the gallant General
Beresford and his army prisoners.
Our
captain next informed us, that the second expedition, under Sir
Samuel Auchmuty, was now investing Montevideo, and that, with the
exception of the country immediately around the town, there was no
footing for British subjects on the whole continent of Spanish America.
We were ordered to proceed to the roadstead of the besieged city, and
there to place ourselves under the orders of the English admiral.
Down at
one fell swoop tumbled all the castles in the air which had
been built to a fantastic height by the large group of passengers on
board of the Enterprise. Those who had yesterday shaken hands, in
mutual congratulation upon the fortunes they were to make, walked up
and down the deck to-day under evident symptoms of dependency and gloom.
We soon
took our station off Montevideo among hundreds of ships
similarly situated with our own. We were within hearing of the
cannons'
roar, and within sight of the batteries that were pouring their deadly
shot and shell into the houses of the affrighted inhabitants.
Montevideo
is a town strongly and regularly fortified. In the harbour,
busy boats were to be seen playing from ship to ship; brigs of war were
running close under the walls, and bombarding the citadel from the sea;
the guns were levelled with deadly aim at the part of the fortification
selected for the breach; and the mortar was discharging, in fatal
curve, the destructive bomb. Thousands of spectators from the ships
were tracing, in breathless anxiety, the impression made by every shell
upon the town, and every ball upon the breach. The frequent sorties made by the Spanish troops,
gave an animating, but nervous interest to the scene.
One
morning, at length, before the dawn of day, that part of the wall,
in which was the "imminent deadly breach," was enveloped, as seen from
the shipping, in one mighty spread of conflagration. The roaring of
cannon was incessant, and the atmosphere was one dense mass of smoke
impregnated with the smell of gunpowder. We perceived, by aid of the
night-glass, and of the luminous flashes from the guns, that a deadly
struggle was going forward on the walls. Anon there was an awful pause,
a deep and solemn gloom. The work of carnage was drowing to a close;
and presently the dawn of day exhibited to us the British ensign
unfurled, and proudly floating upon the battlements. A simultaneous
shout of triumph burst from the whole fleet, and thousands who had been
yesterday held in suspense between doubt and fear, gave once more
unbounded scope to a sanguine anticipation of the happy and prosperous
result of their enterprise.
We
landed that day, and found our troops in complete possession of the
place. What a spectacle of desolation and woe presented itself to our
eyes at every step! The carnage had been terrible, in proportion to the
bravery displayed by the Spaniards, and to the gallant, irresistible
daring by which their masses were overwhelmed, and their guns silenced
by the English.
[...]
How all the foreign troops, merchants, and adventurers of every
description got accommodation in the town, it is not easy to say. They
located themselves in every nook and corner of it; so that it soon had
more the appearance of an English colony than of a Spanish settlement.
The number of inhabitants, at the time of its capture, was about ten
thousands: a mixed breed of natives of Old Spain, of the offspring of
these, called creoles, and of a proportionally large mixture of blacks
and mulattoes, mostly slaves. To this population there was an
accession, on the capture of the town, of about six thousand English
subjects, of whom four thousand were military, two thousand merchants,
traders, adventurers; and a dubious crew which could scarcely pass
muster, even under the latter designation.
Hundreds
of British ships were lying in the harbour. Buenos Ayres was
still in possession of the Spaniards; but confident hopes were
entertained that, when it should be heard at home that Montevideo was
taken, a force would be sent out sufficient for the capture of the
capital of so magnificent country. You may guess with what anxiety
we all looked forward to such a consummation; and with what elated hope
we anticipated that the treasures of the towns, and the flocks and
herds of the plains, were soon to come into our possession. We expected
also that in a few months the countries of Chile, Peru, and Paraguay
would be thrown open to our unbounded commerce.
In my
next letter I shall speak more at large of the natives, and
especially of a very admirable part of them,—the women. I
never saw any females more graceful and pretty than they are. One might
apply to almost every one of them the quotation from Milton:
"Grace
was in all her steps, heav'n in her eye,
In ev'ry gesture dignity and love"
Yours, &c.
JPR. (93-103)
LETTER VII.
To J—— G——, Esq.
London, 1838
I had
now, at Montevideo (1807),
entered upon the bustle of active life. During our voyage, I made
myself pretty well master of the principles of the Spanish language;
and my hourly intercourse with the natives of Montevideo, I soon
acquired tolerable fluency in speaking it. As this facility increased,
I naturally drew off from the society of my own countrymen, that I
might commingle more with the Spaniards. Though in an enemy's country,
and a fortified town,—under martial law withal,—hostility
of feeling between the natives and the English was so far subsiding,
that some of the principal families of the place recommenced their
tertulias.
I was
invited to many of these evening parties, and found them an
entertaining mélange
of music, dancing, coffee-drinking, card-playing, laughter, and
conversation. While the young parties were waltzing and courting in the
middle of the room, the old ones, seated in a row, upon what is called
the estrada, were chatting
away with all the esprit and
vivacity of youth. The estrada is a part of the floor raised at one end
of the room, covered with fine straw mats in summer, and with rich and
beautiful skins in winter.
The
gentlemen were grouped in different parts of the room, some at
cards, some talking, others joking with the ladies; while the more
youthful part of them were alternately seated by the piano, in
admiration of the singer, or tripping it on the fantastic toe with very
graceful partners. Every step, and figure, and pirouette, appeared to
me charming. Every lady that I saw in Montevideo, waltzed and moved
through the intricate, yet elegant mazes of the country dance with
grace inimitable, because the result of natural ease and refinement.
Then they were so kind in their endeavours to correct the little
blunders in Spanish of foreigners, without laughing at them, that they
taught by example, at once good feeling, and good manners. There is no
ceremony whatever at the tertulia. Having once got an invitation to the
house ("Señor Don Juan," for instance, "esta es su casa," "this
is your house"), I could visit and leave it at all hours of the day,
and just as it suited myself. At the evening parties which I have
described, persons once invited came in with a simple salutation to the
lady of the house, and departed in the same way." (104-106)
LETTER VIII.
To J—— G——, Esq.
News of General Whitelock's
Expedition—English Militia—Whitelock's arrival—He sails for Buenos
Ayres—Inauspicious March from Ensenada—Panic of the Buenos Ayres
Army—Whitelock's Defeat.
London, 1838
About the time at which
the events recorded in my last letter took place, official accounts
were received from England that a formidable expedition was fitting out
for the River Plate; that General Whitelock [sic] was to be the
commander of it; that its arrival might be looked for in a month; and
that it was immediately to proceed up the river, and take possession of
Buenos Ayres.
When it became known at Montevideo that most of the regular force of
the garrison would be required to co-operate in the intended attack on
the capital, the English merchants and subjects of every description
were called upon to embody themselves into a corps of militia. In the
absence of the greater part of the regular troops, the newly-raised
corps was to keep guard and co-operate with the two battalions of the
line which were to be left to garrison the place.
It was curious,— quite a sight,— to witness the
drilling of this awkward squad of militia.
[...]
At length, Whitelock arrived, with a gorgeous suite of aides-de-camp,
adjutants, commissaries, and other officers of a military
cortège. Sir Samuel Auchmuty was not only superseded in his
command, but eclipsed in his establishment by the now absolute General.
he brought with him eight thousand men, the flower of transports,
protected by noble ships of war. He established a magnificent military
court at the government-house, and magniloquently declared that he
would instantly proceed against Buenos Ayres, and either take or level
it with the ground, within a month from the time of his departure from
Montevideo. We all hoped that the capital might be taken, for we could
not see what we should gain by its being destroyed.
Whitelock ordered three thousand men of the Montevideo garrison to
follow him. Colonel Brown of the 40th regiment was left in command
there; and the merchants were told once more that within a month they
should be at liberty to proceed to Buenos Ayres. The new General hat
the reputation of being a haughty and reserved man; but it was hoped,
notwithstanding, that he would prove himself equal to the fulfilment of
the hight duties to which he had been appointed by the Duke
of York.
Shortly afterwards, General Whitelock sailed with an army of which any
commander might well have been proud, and with a fleet in every well
provisioned and equipped. To the eight thousand men lately arrived,
there were added three thousand of the veteran troops which had taken
Montevideo. Sir Samuel Auchmuty, Colonel Pack, General Gower, General
Crawford, and many other brave and distinguished officers. were under
General Whitelock's command; and as the place had been taken not many
months before by General Beresford with fifteen hundred men, there was
not a shadow of doubt entertained of its at once surrendering to
General Whitelock at the head of eleven thousand.
You may conceive with what exhilarated spirits and elapsed hopes
everybody began to pack up for Buenos Ayres. The ships all bent their
sails; the merchants all gave up their premises in Montevideo; and this
town, like a house when inhabitants are quitting it, had already quite
a comfortless and deserted appearance. For myself, however, I scarcely
knew whether to rejoice at my intended departure, or bewail it.
I was getting so entirely at home at M. Godefroy's, that I began to
fear I might "go farthter and fare worse." I conned over the old and
homely proverb, that "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush;"— which
the Spaniards render, by-the-by, more poetically than we do, by "Mas
vale pajaro en mano, que buytre volando:" "better a little bird in the
hand, than a vulture on the wing."
Shortly after the sailing of the expedition, a brig of war arrived from
the scene of action, and brought intelligence of a landing having been
effected by the British army at Ensenada.
This place is distant from Buenos Ayres about thirty-six miles; and
from it (Ensenada) the formidable force of General Whitelock
immediately began its march. The landing at such a spot struck
everybody, acquainted with the local,
as rather an inauspicious commencement of operations. Military men
said, that in the first place there was no necessity for it; and that a
landing might have been effected as well within five miles as fifty of
Buenos Ayres, seeing there was no regular force that could have impeded
such landing with any hope or chance of success.
In the second place, Ensenada being situated in low, marshy ground,
there were interposed between it and Buenos Ayres immense bogs and
lakes. Through these the army had inevitably to march in order to reach
the capital.
Lastly, no communication could be kept up, on the line of march,
between the naval and land forces; so that the army had to encumber
itself in addition to its heavy baggage and artillery train, with the
immense load of provisions necessary for the subsistence of eleven
thousand men during a march of six or eight days.
At length the expected despatches arrived; and I could scarcely credit
the account which my eyes saw and ears heard, and that now my pen is
constrained to record, of the total defeat of General Whitelock's
expedition. Onward it marched from the ill-fated Ensenada. Lakes,
marshes, hunger, thirst, weariness, cold and fatigue, while they
subjected the gallant army of an infatuated chief to almost every
privation which the human frame could endure, opposed no effectual
barrier against the order to advance. For hours together were the men
up to their middle in water; their provisions were both wet and scanty;
their heavy artillery was often swamped in the marshes; the cold was
intense; shelter there was none; an ill-arranged commissariat left the
men with an insufficient supply of wine and spirits to minister
alleviation to their unprecedented fatigue; the horses on the route of
march were driven away; the cattle too; not an inhabitant was to be
found; and only here and there, at intervals of five to six miles, a
wretched hut, abandoned by its yet more wretched owners, was to
be
seen. Still the British army, led on and encouraged by officers who
might well be classed as the bravest of the brave, hied onward; and in
a few days it arrived within four miles of the destined scene of
operations.
At this time the regular troops and militia of Buenos Ayres marched
out, in the direction of a small river, the Riachuelo, which they
crossed at a bridge called the Puente de
Baracas, that is, the Bridge of Hide-warehouses.
No sooner, however, did those men see the brigades and columns of the
British army, and the train of its artillery moving towards them in
dense and unbroken masses, than they scampered off in precipitate
flight, not only to the town,
but through the town, leaving
it for a whole day literally defenceless. Had the English general marched on, he would have taken Buenos
Ayres without firing a gun or losing a man. A complete panic seem to
have seized the Spanish troops at sight of our
red-coats; and all the efforts of their brave commander, the Viceroy
Liniers, were ineffectual to regulate their retreat, or, more
properly speaking, to stay their flight.
But General Whitelock did not
march on: he made an ominous, a most unintelligible, and ruinous halt;
and to this halt, not less than to his subsequent mode of attack upon
the town, is to be attributed the defeat of his brave army; the loss of
nearly three thousand of the most intrepid of his men; the abandonment
of Buenos Ayres; the restitution to Spain of Montevideo; and such
disgrace to gallant soldiers, as could only have been brought upon them
by a general the most inert, self-willed, capricious,—combined, withal,
the apparently opposite qualities of rashness and cowardice,—that ever
took the field.
When Colonel Brown communicated to the English residents at Montevideo
the disastrous results of General Whitelock's short campaign, a tear
stood in his manly eye; and when he informed us that the capitulation
by which the English army was to be "permitted" to evacuate Buenos
Ayres, contained also a clause for the abandonment, within two months,
of Montevideo, the soldier could proceed no farther. He quitted, in the
greatest agitation, the room in which he had been compelled to announce
at once the defeat and humiliation of the brave army of which he was
himself one of the brightest ornaments.
In my next letter, you shall have a few of the details by which this
unlooked-for catastrophe was brought upon us; sending us all, as a
necessary result, to that point which, when our countrymen have once
left home, they so generally dislike,— "back again."
Yours, &c.
J.P.R." (113-123)
LETTER IX.
To J—— G——, Esq.
Causes of the
defeat at Buenos Ayres—The Capitulation—General
Whitelock's callousness—Departure of the English from the
Country—Transition from Land to Sea—Reflections.
London, 1838
"Buenos Ayres is a very large town, of which the streets
intersect each other at right angles, some of them being more than
three miles long, in a straight line.
The
British general ordered his columns to advance along those streets,
to given points of junction and rendezvous, and without firing a shot at the
people on the house-tops, or elsewhere. The flints were in some cases
taken out of the soldiers' muskets,
You need
hardly be told what followed. The brave troops, disciplined to
strict obedience marched along those pathways of death, without
offering the slightest resistance. The ranks were thinned by the
sharpshooters from the azoteas, or house-tops, with such fatal
rapidity, that not only were the streets, at every step they took,
strewed with slain and wounded, but when they hat in some instances
attained, and in others nearly so, their appointed places of
rendezvous, they were so reduced, by the incessant firing upon them
from the house-tops, as to be obliged to take shelter in the nearest
churches or convents. Still, General Whitelock hat a corps of reserve
of five thousand men, who hat not yet come into action; and with them
he might, even at the eleventh hour, have achieved the work of
conquest. But, panic-struck by the death, desolation, and confusion to
which his own wretched plan of operation had inevitable led, he lost
all self-possession, energy, and courage. He capitulated,—on
condition of being allowed to retire with his yet but half-vanquished
army; and he agreed not only to abandon all farther attack on Buenos
Ayres, but to sail within two months, with his whole force, from the
River Plate. "Put in," said Alzaga,
the Alcalde de primer voto, or mayor, who was a party to the drawing up
of the terms of capitulation, "put in, that he shall also evacuate
Montevideo." "Oh," said the viceroy, Liniers, "that is out of question;
it would spoil the whole matter." "Let
us put it down," replied the resolute and influential citizen;
"it can be easily taken out, if objected to." It was put down, and it was not objected to. The bewildered
Whitelock conceded all; and in a few days afterwards we
beheld to our dismay, in Montevideo, the transports and ships of war,
which, one little month before, had conveyed our noble army to
anticipated triumph, returning with that army defeated, and its general
irretrievable disgraced. The hospitals were once more filled with the
sick, wounded, and dying. Three thousand gallant fellows had attested
by their death their dauntless courage in the streets of Buenos Ayres;
and yet General Whitelock— himself the sole cause of the
unpardonable catastrophe—strutted on the azotea of the
government house, or rode through the streets of Montevideo, the only
unconcerned individual, to all appearance, in the midst of the shame
and disgrace which he had brought upon the arms of Great Britain.
To have
seen him at the moment when the garrison was about to be delivered up
to General
Elio, you might have supposed him, from his air, a Willington or a
Wolfe. It was impossible, from any outward demonstration, to fancy him
a man conscious of the appalling and criminal loss of life which his
dogged stupidity had brought upon an army which, under better
management, might have conquered and kept one-half of the New World.
With the outmost unconcern, he saw us quit a soil which, but for his
folly and madness, might have been ours for generations yet unborn
What was
greatly to be admire, in this terrible reverse, was the unassuming
deportment, indeed the increased deference, of the Spaniards towards
the English. They never alluded to the subject of Whitelock's defeat;
and when they spoke of our departure, it was ever with an expression of
regret that they were about to lose many personal friends. Such conduct
I could not but think very demonstrative of courtesy and good feeling;
magnanimous almost in a people now triumphant over their recent
invaders.
In
lingered in the town till the last moment, and then, with a heavy
heart, bade adieu to M. Godefroy and his family. The parting was
more like that of a son from father and mother, and of a brother
from sisters, than of a foreigner and an enemy from people whose
acquaintance he had not enjoyed above five months.
I had
the mortification, too, to see the Spanish colours flying on the
citadel, and at the government house. Elio and his staff had already
received the key of that place; the last English stragglers were
hurrying to their boats; and in a few days the whole fleet, consisting
of two hundred and fifty ships, sailed out of the River Plate.
The disastrous manner in which we were thus driven from the country
was, as you may conceive, the more keenly felt that such a result was
not only unexpected, but the very reverse of what even the least
sanguine calculation had anticipated.
[...]
Yet, in alleviation of these more sombre musing, it was cheering to
reflect that whatever may be the causes of quarrel, and whatsoever the
ravages of war, between nation and nation, they cannot stop that
current of the milk of human kindness which circulates, in greater or
less abundance, in the breast of every individual of the family of man.
Endued with the same nature, created with the same propensities,
influenced by like motives, and animated by like passions, man
everywhere recognises man; the general principles of humanity are
developed in all the various circumstances in which he is placed; while
in all the different climes which he inhabits, under every modification
of national character, still a feeling common to humanity prevails.
So to
me, a protestant, the right hand of fellowship had been held out by a
catholic; one of a nation of invaders, I was individually cherished as
a friend by those invaded; far distant from my own family, I was
received in Montevideo into the bosom of many families to whom, a few
months before, I had been totally unknown; and my youth and
inexperience, which, in another country, might have exposed me to
worldly artifice and trickery, were there my best passports to pleasing
society. They were my chief claim to hospitality and kindness.
I was
truly glad when we sailed into Kinsale harbour, after a tedious passage
of fourteen weeks, during four of which we had been on short allowance
of provisions and water.
That
nothing might be wanting to complete the mistakes of the
disastrous River Plate expedition, the transports had taken in their
water too near the mouth of the river; so that it was brackish and
putrid, long before the fleet reached Ireland; and the use of it had
caused the death, from dysentery, of many of the troops.
Yours, &c.
J.P.R."
(126-133)
LETTER XL.
To J—— G——, Esq.
Dismemberment of the
Provinces of Rio
de la Plata—General Artigas—Journey to Santa Fé—The Major of
Blandengues—Thistles—Journey continued—Arrival at Santa
Fé—Artigueños—Smoking—More of Candioti.
London, 1838
"The dismemberment of
the
provinces of Rio de la Plata as constituted by Old Spain, began with
Paraguay. But that territory could at no time be said to have formed a
portion of the "United
Provinces," as created by the patriots. It never gave in its
adhesion to them, but established, on the ruins of the power of Spain,
an independent government of its own.
The first great intestine feud was raised by General
Artigas, the most extraordinary man, after Francia, that figures in
the annals of the republic of River Plate.
Artigas came of a respectable family; but was, in
his
habits, only a better sort of Gaucho, of the Banda Oriental. He was
wholly uneducated, and, if I mistake not, learned only at a late period
of his life, to read and write. But he was bold, sagacious, daring,
restless, and unprincipled. In all athletic exercises, and in every
Gaucho acquirement, he stood unrivalled, and commanded at once the fear
and the admiration of the surrounding country population. He acquired
an immense influence over the Gauchos; and his turbulent spirit,
disdaining the peaceful labours of the field, drew about him a number
of the most desperate and resolute of those men, of whom he assumed the
lead, and in command of whom he took to the trade of a contrabandista,
or smuggler.
He would march with his band by the most rugged roads, and through
apparently impenetrable woods, into the adjoining territory of Brazil,
and thence bring his contraband goods and stolen herds, to dispose of
them in the Banda Oriental. This was under the rule of Old Spain. Every
effort of the Governor of Montevideo to ut the bold smuggler and his
band down, was not only unavailing, but always ended in the defeat of
the forces sent against him. The country even then belonged to Artigas.
He would meet, engage, and rout the king's troops; till at length, his
very name carried terror with it. But he was strict disciplinarian;
respected the property of those who did not interfere with him, and
only attacked those who presumed, or dared to throw impediments in the
way of his illegal traffic. He was the Robin Hood of South America.
The governor of Montevideo finding Artiga's power constantly on the
increase, at length sought his friendship in the king's name. Artigas,
tired of his marauding life, listened to the overtures made to him. A
treaty was formed; and, as a consequence of it, he rode into Montevideo
with the king's commission of Captain of Blandengues, or mounted
militia of the country. His band of contrabandistas became his
soldiers;
and he thenceforward kept the whole country districts of the province
in an order and tranquillity which they had seldom before enjoyed.
In this situation did the revolution in Buenos Ayres find Artigas; and
in 1811 or 1812, he deserted from the king's service in the Banda
Oriental, and joined the patriots. He was considered to be a great
accession to the cause; and when Montevideo in 1813 was besieged by
Buenos Ayres force, under the command of General
Alvear, Artigas served under him with the rank of Colonel.
A new and wider field now opened itself up to the view of this
ambitious and unprincipled chief. His haughty and overbearing spirit
could no longer brook an inferior command under a Buenos Ayres General,
and in the face of his own paysanos,
on whom, since the King of Spain's authority was disputed, he began to
look as his own legitimate subjects. Besides, the more polished and
civilized of the Buenos Ayres chiefs looked down upon him as on a
semi-barbarian, and treated him without the respect which he considered
due to his rank. So he hated them all. He tampered with the troops
under his command. They were all Orientales [Natives of the province of
Montevideo, called the Banda Oriental,
or East side (of the Plata)], and adhered to him to a man. He laid his
plan with his usual sagacity: he silently abandoned the siege during a
dark night, with his eight hundred men; and whe it was reported to
General Alvear in the morning, Artigas was many leagues off with what
he now called "his army." This was at the close of 1813." (179-182)
Last update: November 30, 2019
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