ALVAREZ. 



391 



quering, would have been, of course, wor- 

 thy of admiration : but that they should 

 perse veringly quarrel about forms of go- 

 vernment before they were certain, or even 

 could form any decided opinion, whether 

 they would be enabled to have any govern- 

 ment whatever of their own, presents, on 

 the part of some of the patriot chiefs, a 

 species of folly which, perhaps, can only be 

 paralleled by the conduct of the Spaniards 

 themselves. 



Don Bernardo Alvarez, who had succeed- 

 ed Narino as President of Cundinamarca, 

 persisted, notwithstanding the critical cir- 

 cumstances in which all were placed, in re- 

 fusing to enter into the general confedera- 

 tion ; and he thus impeded the execution of 

 the measures, which were adopting for the 

 defence of the country. Alvarez, at length, 

 (there being every reason to believe that 

 the people of the province were, generally, 



