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signal for an insurrection on the ist of January 1809, by forming a popular com- 

 motion in favour of the establishment of a Junta ; but this movement had only the 

 effect of causing the banishment of its leaders, who were overpowered by the 

 troops in the interest of the Viceroy, and by the preponderance of the magistrates, 

 who were afraid of losing their posts. 



It is worthy of note, that this conspiracy was entirely the work of European 

 Spaniards, all the Creoles siding with the party in power ; and that the spirit of 

 the latter was even so much averse from any proceeding repugnant to their scrupulous 

 fidelity to the mother-country, that they rejected all the suggestions used by the 

 metropolitans to incite them to this act of rebellion, which failed because they re- 

 fused to co-operate. But although these seditious tumults were ineffectual, they 

 brought to light a truth, which has proved very bitter to the Old Spaniards, namely, 

 that the real strength of the country existed in the natives. At the same time, 

 there arose between them a spirit of hatred and enmity so violent, as to be irre- 

 concileable. The Viceroy, who owed his safety to the bayonets of the native 

 troops, took care to flatter their patriotism, by congratulating them on their ac- 

 knowledged superiority over their enemies ; thus following the maxim of dividing 

 in order to rule, he added fuel to a fire which had been already kindled to an in- 

 extinguishable degree. 



"While the Europeans of the colony, by their imprudent measures, were daily 

 giving fresh motives for disgust to the natives, and temptations to devise means for 

 eternally avoiding them, the metropolis was not more cautious in managing the 

 intricate interefts of the colonies, and in preventing that frequent collision which 

 was detrimental to her own. The Central Junta was recognized and sworn to in 

 Buenos Ayres with general enthusiasm ; and the first act in which that body ma^ 

 nifested its sovereignty, was the mission of a new Viceroy in lieu of Liniers, who 

 was to be sent under arrest to Spain. The dispute between the Creoles and the 

 Europeans was decided entirely in favour of the latter ; the prisons in which the 

 insurgents had been seven months confined, were opened ; and, in order that no 

 doubt should remain as to the spirit of the decisions of the mother-country, Elio 

 was raised to an employ, which gave him immediate authority over the troops, 

 Nevertheless, the natives manifested a fresh proof of their ready deference to the 

 will of their Trans- Atlantic lords, and admitted, without repugnance, the Viceroy 

 Cisneros, who arrived among them in the beginning of the month of August 

 1809 ; but they resisted the promotion of Elio to the ofBce of Inspector-general j 

 and the commandants of the different corps employed their influence to procure «i 

 relaxation of the orders respecting the transportation of Liniers, which was cpn* 



9 



