From the end of the year 1808, till the beginning of 1810, the Central Junta held rule. It wall, how ever, found tribe unfit for the government of the pe ninsula, and utterly incapable of directing the more distant affairs of the colonies. They knew some heats existed there, if not discontents ; and, instead of a practical investigation, to which, indeed, they were incompetent, they issued abstract declarations of equality, which were of no other use but to be brought forward at a future time, in opposition to themselves or their successors ; or as furnishing sti mulants to the Negroes and Indians to rise against both the Europeans and the Creoles. This declare.
don of equality, whatever was meant by it by the Junta, was by no means acceptable in America. The Spaniards and the Creoles, though most viru lently opposed to each other, were equally opposed to a decree which, if interpreted according to the letter, gave equal rights and equal power to the de graded castes as to their own class. Even those of the mixed races, who approached nearest to the whites, felt indignant that those a little darker than themselves should be advanced to an equal rank.
Whilst these feelings were rankling in the minds of all parties in America, when no authority from Europe expressed any opinion, but a wish for re mittances, and when no party in America was suffi ciently cool to suggest practical remedies, the intel ligence arrived that all was lost in Spain, that the French had overran the whole Peninsula, and all au thorities there had at length submitted. Such were the exaggerated reports which generally prevailed, and remained long uncantradicted by any authority. The port of Cadiz, the only one remaining to the fragment of the government, was shut, to prevent premature intelligence ; and, from this precaution, every report reached America with additions of disasters, acquired at every stage in its circuitous route. It is not, then, wonderful that, throughout Ameriea, the impression became general that they must henceforward depend on themselves alone, and endeavour to adopt such measures as should most effectually prevent them from falling under the do minion of the French ruler of In Mexico and in Peru, the Europeans were sufficiently powerful, or had sufficient influence, to cause a suspension of independent measures ; but, in every other part, assemblies actuated by fear, by fury, and by love of novelty, met and tumul tuously chose delegates, who assumed the sove reign power, but exercised it in the name of Fer dinand. When these assemblies met, they had no previously settled principles, and no practical plans. They soon became involved in difficulties, and dif ferent parties had recourse to arms. The opinions and feelings of some towns in each province differed from others ; and military invasions of each other were adopted, to settle the points in dispute. The whole of the provinces were in arms, and had as sumed a semi-independence, before a new lacii Cadiz was announced to them as the acknowledged legal government of the small portion of Spain which yet remained unsubdued by the French.
Previously to the entering of the French troops into Andalusia, and the dispersion of the Central Junta, the heats which prevailed in South America had been smothered ; but the intelligence of that transaction caused the flame instantly to burst forth, and with perhaps more fervour, from having been long suppressed. This irruption took place in Ja nuary 1810. Caraccas, as the nearest place to Eu rope, first received the intelligence. It had been al most the only portion of South America which had held much communication with England, and with the United States of America. It had, from that communication, imbibed a more free spirit, and had among its inhabitants more men who had speculated on political subjects. In April 1810, the occupation of Andalusia was known in Caraccas, and immedi ately turbulent assemblages were convened in the capital, who, with little care in the selection, ap. pointed a junta to " preserve," as they stated, "the province for their king, to protect the Catholic faith, to repel all the projects of the French Emper.
or, and to preserve an asylum for such Spaniards as should prefer freedom in America to the slavery and irreligion which France dispersed in Europe." This Junta was composed almost wholly of Creoles ; and, as soon as they were installed, and in possession of undefined power, they seized the viceroy and the judges of the royal audience ; and, without trial, and with little ceremony, transported them to the United States. With a haste characteristic of such assemblies, they instantly decreed the abolition of the most efficient taxes, and thus destroyed the whole. revenue, whilst they increased the expend'. tune, by arming the population, and left themselves no resource but confiscation and proscription, to which they speedily had recourse. Though the Junta of the capital thus assumed sovereign and in dependent power, and acted upon that assumption as far as they could in their decrees, yet several of the provinces refused to submit to the overbearing authority of the capital. Cumana, the second city in wealth and population, chose a Junta for itself, and refined to act with the capital, except upon terms of equality ; whilst Maracaybo, Valencia, and Coro, refused to join them, and resolved to maintain their connection and dependence with the regency and Cortes at Cadiz. Armies were formed, and marched to attack those who were un willing to enter into a revolution. The measures of the Junta of Caraccas being taken with more vio lence than judgment, all failed, and their armies were defeated and dispersed. Whilst the turbulent spirits of the city of Caraccas were ,thus plunging the pro. vince into all the miseries of a civil war, they took great pains to excite similar movements in New Granada. The inhabitants of that country were less disposed to insurrection ; and it was not till three months after the revolution in Caraccas, that any similar movement took place in Santa F6 de Bogota, the capital of New Granada. In July, a public meeting appointed a Junta of its most re spectable Creole inhabitants. This body, when they met, acknowledged the authority of the regency of Cadiz, chose the Viceroy as the president of their body, and confirmed the authority of the Audience, and the other magistrates. After a short time, how ever, the turbulent people, instigated by the emissa ries from Caraccas, caused a commotion. The pre tence for this was, that a plot was discovered for the destruction of liberty. The populace overawed the newly-installed Junta, who, with little inquiry, and no trials, decreed the banishment of the Viceroy, the Audience, and the other magistrates. The authority of the regency of Cadiz was then disavowed, and the various provinces of the viceroyalty were invited to send deputies to the capital, to unite in a general sys tem. Tunja, Pamplona, Casanare, Choco, Antioquis, Socorro Neyva, and Mariquita, joined in the project, and sent their deputies, whilst Santa Marta positive ly refused. Popayan, torn by internal factions, yielded a qualified consent; and several towns, es pecially San Gil, Carthagena, Giron, and Mompox, formed petty states in their respective districts, in dependent alike of Spain and of the junta of the ca pital. An insurrection had broken out in Quito. Some troops from Lima had suppressed it; but, as the inhabitants were averse to the superiority of Li ma, the viceroy acquiesced in the establishment of a junta, which acknowledged obedience to the regen cy of Cadiz, and preserved the tranquillity of that important portion of the country, whilst the more northern parts were suffering all the horrors which a revolution can inflict, when a rude and ferocious populace are the principal actors. Quito was not doomed, like Caraccas and Santa Fe, to have all its magistrates transported by the decision of the popu lace; and, therefore, a degree of order has been con tinued, which now gives it a prosperity, far superior to that of the districts which were at once deprived of all the authorities to which they had been accus tomed to look up.