SOUTH AMERICA, 



read.'^ He has about him a small body of men, who 

 are considered regular soldiers, but his chief force con- 

 sists of the herdsmen of the plains; its numbers, there- 

 fore, extremely fluctuating, as it cannot be kept long 

 together. His followers are greatly attached to him. 

 His fame and superior intellect, commands their re- 

 spect, at the same time that he indulges them in a cer- 

 tain kind of familiarity, which wins their affections.* 

 A few simple words, liberty, country, tyrants, &c. to 

 which each one attaches his own meaning, serve as 

 the ostensible bond of their union, which in reality 

 arises from, "their predisposition to an unrestrained 

 roving life.'' His authority is perfectly absolute, 

 and without the slightest control; he sentences to 

 death, and orders to execution, with as little formality 

 as a dey of Algiers. He is under the guidance of an 

 apostate priest, of the name of Monterosa, who acts 

 as his secretary, and writes his proclamations and let- 

 ters; for although Artigas has not a bad head, he is by 

 no means good at inditing. Monterosa professes to 

 be in the literal sense, a follower of the political doc- 

 trines of Paine; t and prefers the constitution of Mas- 

 sachusetts as the most democratic, without seeming to 

 know that the manners and habits of a people are 

 very important considerations. The men bearing 

 arms under Artigas, probably amount to six or 

 eight thousand, but the number at any time imbodied 

 is much less; the want of commissaries and regular 

 supplies, rendering it impossible to keep them to- 



* They address him by the familiar name of pepe^ which may be 

 translated daddy. 



t Paine's Common Sense, and the American constitutions, have 

 been widely circulated in every part of South America. 

 VOL. I, 81 



