During these proceedings, Antequera and Juan de Mena, after five years confinement, had been tried at Lima, and found guilty of high treason. They were condemned to be beheaded ; but such was the general interest excited in favour of Antequera, that the viceroy, in order to prevent his rescue by the populace, ordered him to be shot on his way to the scaffold, on the 5th of July 1731. The news of his death produced a most violent sensation at Assumption. The city was filled with uproar and confusion. lie was canonized as a martyr of liberty, and a victim of oppression ; and no thing was heard but encomiums upon his conduct, and lamentations for his fate. For four yeaf.s the commune continued their dissensions, and resisted the Spanish authority : and it was not until the beginning of the year 1735, that order and tranquillity was restored to the dis tracted inhabitants of Assumption, by the wisdom and active exertions of Zabala, the governor of Buenos Ayres, who is said to have corrected the abuses, and restrained the enormities which had cr? pt into existence since the first revolt of Antequera, with a sedateness and dispatch which caused general astonishment.
The increasing prosperity of the Jesuits now began to attract the attention of the Spanish government. Be sides their settlements upon the Parana and the Ura guay, they had established reductions among the Chi quitos and the Moxos; and also several of the Pampas Indians had been united in a reduction called Concep tion, a little south-east of Buenos Ayres. The number and strength of these establishments rendered them objects of considerable apprehension to the Spanish co lonists, who, imagining that they beheld them advancing with a decided step to independent empire, were alarm ed at the stability and importance which they had ac quired. They were also exasperated at the subduction of so many tribes of Indians, who, they asserted,belonged to them by richt of conquest, and ought to have been divided in eneomiendas. Repeated attempts were con sequently made to ruin the Jesuits at the court of Ma drid. They were loaded with accusations and asper sions, and were solemnly charged with alienating the Indians from the crown of Spain. But many of these imputations having been found to be either groundless or exaggerated, they were confirmed by a royal decree, in 1745, in all their rights and immunities. The revolt of the Guarnus, however, which soon followed, greatly diminished the power of the Jesuits. By a treaty, en tered into at Madrid in 1750, seven of the Guarinis Reductions, situated on the eastern side of the Ura. guay, were ceded to Portugal in exchange for the colo ny of San Sacramento, and a right to the whole of the northern shore of the Rio de la Plata: The Guarinis, who had always borne an invincible hatred to their Bra zilian neighbours, were exasperated at this proceeding. They maintained, that, as their submission to Spain was merely voluntary, they could not be disposed of to any other power without their own consent, and immediate ly flew to arms in defence of their rights. For several years they resisted the united colonial troops of Portu gal and Spain; and, rather than submit, determined to 'abandon their country. They carried off all that they were able ; set fire to the remainder, and left nothing but a desert to their enemies. The Jesuits were suspected of having promoted and aided the opposition of the Guarinis ; and, though they openly disavowed the charge, they were unable to free themselves from the imputation. They did not, however, long survive this
dismemberment of their dominions. The expulsion of their order from Spain, in 1767, was immediately follow ed by the subversion of their empire in America. Their missions were converted into regular Spanish settle ments, called Presidencies ; and they were succeeded in their spiritual labours by the monks of St Francis, St Dominic, and the order of Mercy. We may form some estimate of the prosperity of these reductions, from the number of cattle which they possessed at the time of their annexation to the government of Paraguay, viz. 769,353 horned cattle, 94,933 horses, and 221,537 sheep.
The difficulties attending the direction of such an ex tensive viceroyalty as that of Peru, determined the Spa nish court to disjoin the provinces of Buenos Ayres, Paraguay, Tucuman, Los Charcas, and Cuyo, from that government, and to erect them into a separate viceroy alty, with Buenos Ayres for its capital. This arrange ment was soon found to be most conducive to the pros perity of the country, as well as to the advantage of the parent state ; for, except some partial insurrections among the Indians of Los Charcas, and the Guarinis presidencies, nothinn. of importance occurred to disturb the tranquillity of the colonists until I SO6, when a Bri tish squadron appeared in the mouth of the Rio do la Plata.
This expedition. under the command of Major-Gene ral Beresford and Sir l lome Popham, anchored off Point de Quilmes, about twelve miles from Buenos Ayres, on the 25th of June 1S06. The debarkation of the troops was effected in the course of the afternoon and night, without the Last opposition from the enemy, who, though stationed at the village of Reduction, only about two mites from the beach, remained quiet spectators of our operations. After a feeble resistance on the following day, they fled with precipitation, leaving behind them four field pieces, and one tumbril ; and, taking up a new position on the Rio Chuelo, nearly three miles from the city, attempted to oppose the passage of the British troops. A few discharges of artillery, however, and the determined appearance of our army, soon compelled them to disperse, when General Beresford entered the capital without opposition. The conquest of this hit portant settlement was thus effected with a very trifling loss,' and the captors were rewarded with a rich booty in specie and colonial produce.t Short lived, however, was our triumph ; for no sooner did the Spaniards dis cover the inconsiderable force which had possession of their capital, than they humediataly determined upon its recovery, and, before reinforcements should arrive from England, to expel from their country these daring intruders. A thousand regular troops from Monte Vi deo, under the command ol Colonel Linicrs, supported by armed mob, amounting to nearly 20,000 men, marched against the city. But the British troops, con sisting of only 1300 men, received them with such cool and determined resistance, that they were at first re pulsed and thrown into confusion. By repeated attacks, however, they prevailed. The British were at last over powered, and obliged to surrender, on the 12th of Au gust, with the loss of 114 men killed and wounded. Scarcely was the recapture accomplished, when suc cours arrived from the Cape of Good 1-lope; with which Sir Home Popham, after having made an abortive at tempt upon Monte Video, took possession of Maldonado, a strong position at the mouth of the La Plata.