HISTORY--_continued_
Founding of the city of Montevideo--Its first
inhabitants--Inducement offered to colonists--The early days of
the town--Successful rising of the Indians in the
neighbourhood--Victory of the natives--Montevideo saved by Jesuit
intervention--The Portuguese invade the northern provinces--The
first Governor of Montevideo--Treaties and territorial
cessions--Dissatisfaction of Jesuit Indians--Their defeat by
combined Spanish and Portuguese forces--Vicissitudes of
Colonia--The danger of hostile residents--A concentration camp of
the old days--Expulsion of the Jesuits--Some incidents of the
wars with the Portuguese--The foundation of urban centres--The
English occupy themselves with the whaling industry on the
coast--Discouragement of the enterprise by the King of Spain--A
corps of Blandengues is created--The British invasion--Political
effects of the occupation--The war of independence--Montevideo as
the seat of the Spanish viceroyalty--Commencement of the
agitation for freedom in Uruguay.
On the 24th of December, 1726, was founded the city proper of
Montevideo. Its inception was sufficiently modest. Indeed, the spot
commenced its urban existence on a human diet of seven families
translated from Buenos Aires for the purpose. A little later twenty
families were brought from the Canary Islands to add to the humble
population. It is not a little curious to read how, even in those
early days, the spirit of colonial enterprise was already manifest in
the way that is now considered most up-to-date. Intending immigrants
to Montevideo were each offered free transport from Buenos Aires,
plots in the city and holdings in the Campo, two hundred head of
cattle, one hundred sheep, and free cartage of building material. They
were offered, beyond, tools, agricultural implements, and a remission
of taxes for a certain period. The whole savours strongly of a modern
immigration department. In any case, the inducements offered were
considerable.
Two years after its foundation Montevideo received an important
reinforcement of citizens, when thirty families from the Canary
Islands and from Galicia were introduced into the place. Thus the
small town was already beginning to make its mark upon the surrounding
country, and at the end of 1728 it could count over two hundred
inhabitants, four hundred troops, and a thousand Indians employed
principally in the works of fortification. A couple of years later it
was deemed worthy of a corporation.
Nevertheless, in this very year the growing settlement all but came to
a bloody and untimely end. A rising of the Charrúa Indians in the
immediate neighbourhood of Montevideo resisted all the efforts made to
subdue it. Over one hundred Spaniards were slain and the royal forces
put to rout. The natives, drunk with success, were on the eve of
entering Montevideo and of slaughtering the inhabitants, when a Jesuit
missionary, Padre Herán, intervened, and prevailed on the Indians to
desist from their purpose.
Scarcely had this danger passed when another, and remoter, came into
being to take its place. The restless Portuguese having given peace to
the Banda Oriental for ten years, doubtless considered the period
unduly prolonged, and thus invaded the Rio Grande on the northern
frontier. Lavala's successor, Don Miguel de Salcedo, a ruler as
impotent as the first had been strong, contented himself with
besieging Colonia as a counter-stroke, while the Portuguese forces
were left free to complete the conquest of Rio Grande. This they
continued to hold, despite the terms of an armistice arranged in 1737
between Spain and Portugal.
For ten years after this no historical event of importance occurred to
disturb the progress of Uruguay. In 1747 a rising of the Indians was
utterly crushed at Queguay, and two years later Montevideo, now
acknowledged as a town of importance, was accorded a Governor of its
own. Don José Joaquin de Viana was the first appointed to the post.
His opinion of its urgency is evident from the fact that he only took
office in 1751.
By the treaty of 1750 King Ferdinand VI. of Spain ceded to Portugal
the northern stretches comprising the Jesuit Missions of Uruguay and
the present province of Rio Grande in exchange for Colonia. As a
stroke of commercial diplomacy the bargain was undoubtedly a failure,
since by its means Spain not only lost for ever two flourishing
provinces, but, in addition, the Jesuits and their Indians were
obliged to forsake the field of their labours, and to migrate in
search of fresh country.
This, however, was not the case with all alike. A large number of the
Indians, deeply attached to the neighbourhoods wherein lay their
homes, refused to follow the missionaries, and in the end resisted the
unwelcome decree. Pitted against the combined forces of Buenos Aires,
Uruguay, and Brazil, their cause had not a momentary chance of
success. After suffering various defeats, they were finally routed and
almost exterminated at Caaibate in 1756, when the native loss amounted
to 154 prisoners and 1,200 dead, at the very moderate Spanish cost of
4 dead and 41 wounded. The character of the action is sufficiently
evident from the butcher's bill. A certain number of the surviving
Indians were taken to Maldonado, and, settling there, formed the
nucleus of the present town.
In the meanwhile Colonia, whose inhabitants by this time must have
been rendered giddy by the continuous substitution of bunting, had
again passed into the possession of the Portuguese. The recurrence of
war between these and the Spaniards gave Pedro de Ceballos, an able
and energetic Governor of Buenos Aires, an opportunity to act. In 1762
he surprised Colonia, captured it, and was in the act of invading the
ceded territory of Rio Grande when the Treaty of Paris came
inopportunely into being to stay him in his path of conquest, and to
give back Colonia, that bone of contention, to the Portuguese once
more.
This occurred in 1763, and Ceballos was powerless to struggle further
against a fate that caused victory to be followed by the loss of
provinces. Nevertheless, he took various measures towards the
preservation of the remaining territory. One of the most important of
these was concerned with the numerous Portuguese families that were
settled along the eastern frontier of the country. Having reason to
believe that these were hatching further warlike schemes in
conjunction with the authorities across the border, Ceballos caused
them to be taken south, and to be collected together in a small
settlement in the neighbourhood of Maldonado, where they could remain
under the watchful eye of the Uruguayan officials.
In 1767 the expulsion of the Jesuits from South America by King Carlos
III. of Spain proved of no little moment to the Banda Oriental, since
many of the Indians, wandering shepherdless and at a loss, came
southwards, and became part and parcel of Uruguay. It was by means of
twelve of these Indian families that the city of Paysandú, amongst
several others, was founded, while the fields of Montevideo and
Maldonado derived many new cultivators from this source.
It was but a very few years later that the trouble with the Portuguese
broke out once again. Indeed, it would seem that indulgence in border
feud had now become an ineradicable habit on the part of both sides.
By the year 1774 the inhabitants of Brazil had once again passed over
the north-western frontier, and had spread themselves over the country
in such numbers as to render their presence a menace to Uruguay. In
order to remedy the situation, Vertiz, the Governor of Buenos Aires,
crossed from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, from which city he sallied
out northwards with an army of four thousand men. Meeting with the
Portuguese forces in the neighbourhood of the Santa Tecla range, he
routed them and pursued them as far as the River Yacuy, depriving them
of the lands they had usurped.
On the return of Vertiz to Buenos Aires, Portuguese aggression burst
forth once again. Advancing from the east this time, they were
repulsed in an attack on the town of San Pedro; but in 1776, returning
with an army of two thousand men, they captured the place and
possessed themselves of the district. The inevitable counter-stroke on
the part of the Spaniards was to follow. Indeed, the scale of the
struggle waxed steadily with the growth of the respective countries.
Brazil was already the seat of a viceroyalty, and immediately after
this last invasion the provinces of the River Plate were raised to the
same status. Ceballos, then on a visit to Spain, was created first
Viceroy, and was dispatched from Cadiz with a powerful fleet and with
over nine thousand troops to avenge the incursion.
[Illustration: RUINED COLONIA.]
[Illustration: ARTIGAS' MONUMENT.
To face p. 52.]
With such forces as these at his disposal the task of Ceballos was
an easy one. The Island of Santa Catalina was captured without a blow,
and that bone of contention, Colonia, surrendered perforce after a few
days of siege. Above its walls for the fifth time the flag of Spain
was hoisted afresh. On this occasion the ill-omened place was destined
to pay for the memories of the past, and its walls suffered in place
of the garrison. In order to remove temptation from the minds of the
northern enemy, Ceballos razed the elaborate fortifications to the
ground and destroyed the more pretentious houses, amongst these being
some of the best architectural specimens of the River Plate.
Having effected this, Ceballos was passing northwards with the
intention of bringing back the Rio Grande Province once more within
the fold of Buenos Aires, when his march was stopped by the news of
another of those treaties between the mother-countries that seemed to
materialise with unfailing regularity at moments so ill-timed for the
interests of the Spanish colonies. By the terms of this Spain was left
with the mines of Colonia, while the Island of Santa Catalina and the
greater part of Rio Grande were ceded definitely to Portugal.
After this ensued an exceptionally lengthy era of peace, which was
marked by the immigration of many families from Galicia and from the
Canary Islands, and by the foundation of numerous towns, amongst these
latter Canelones, Piedras, Rosario, Mercedes, Pando, Santa Lucia, San
José, and Minas. As to the capital itself, by the year 1788 Montevideo
had become a fairly important place, and could count a population of
6,695 Spaniards, 1,386 negro slaves, 562 liberated negroes, and 715
half-castes and Indians. A few years later the population was much
augmented by the introduction of important numbers of negro slaves, a
traffic that continued intermittently until 1825, when its
continuance was prohibited by law.
At the end of the century an industry was initiated that might have
led to important commercial results but for the action of the Spanish
home authorities. The waters off the coast of Maldonado had long been
famed as a whaling-ground, and at this period permission was given to
the Englishmen engaged in the traffic to found establishments both at
this place and at Punta de la Ballena. The result was a rapid but
fleeting prosperity at both these points, since after a while the
attitude of the Court of Spain changed. Fearful of the influence of
the English upon the Uruguayans, the authorities offered to the new
colonists the option of becoming Roman Catholics and of swearing
allegiance to the King of Spain, or of abandoning the settlement. The
latter alternative was chosen by the whalers, and Maldonado and Punta
de la Ballena, in consequence, sank back into the lethargy of
industrial torpor. The instance is only one of the many in which the
mother-country satisfied its conscience at the expense of its colony.
* * * * *
A corps of _Blandengues_, or Lancers, was formed in 1797, whose
duties, beyond their military performances, were varied to a degree.
Thus, in addition to the occasional brushes with the Indians that fell
to their lot, they were employed as excise officials against the
smugglers, as escorts of high officials, as ordinary police, and as
official messengers. The corps was composed of picked men, and in its
ranks served José Gervasio Artigas and José Rondeau, both bearers of
names that were destined to become famous in Uruguayan history.
This body of cavalry was destined to be employed on active service
very soon after its formation. In 1801 the Portuguese became active
once more, and the first year of the new century was marked by their
occupation of land in the north-west of the Banda Oriental. After
various actions, Rondeau, with a force of Blandengues and dragoons,
defeated the invaders and won back the greater part of the lost
territory.
In 1806 occurred the first of the British invasions which, although
materially fruitless in the end so far as our own country was
concerned, were destined to influence the minds of the colonials and
the future of the River Plate Provinces to a greater extent than is
generally realised. The circumstances of the invasion that won to the
British Crown for a very short while not only Montevideo, Maldonado,
Colonia, and numerous lesser Uruguayan towns, but Buenos Aires in
addition, afford bitter reading. Thanks to the colossal incapacity--to
give his conduct no harder name--of the British Commander-in-Chief,
General Whitlocke, the last troops of the British army of occupation
had sailed away northwards from Montevideo by the beginning of
September, 1807.
Although the matter ended for the British with the departure of the
troops from the River Plate, the aftermath of the event took very
definite shape in the Spanish colonies themselves. Not only had the
inhabitants of the provinces learned their own power, but--more
especially in the case of Montevideo--the seeds of commercial liberty
had been sown amongst the local merchants and traders by the English
men of business who had descended upon the place beneath the
protection of the army. That the final leave-taking between the
English and the Uruguayans should have been accompanied by actual
cordiality and regrets is surely an astonishing circumstance that
affords great credit to both sides. There can be no doubt, however,
that this mutual esteem was in the first place fostered by an
appreciation on the part of the residents of British laws and methods
of trading.
Whether the germs thus left behind would have fructified so rapidly
but for the chaotic condition of the mother-country is doubtful. As it
was, scarcely had the smoke of these actions cleared away when it
became necessary for the patriots of the River Plate Province to look
once again to their primings in view of still more vital occurrences.
* * * * *
I do not propose to tell here the full story of the rebellion of the
River Plate Provinces and of the revolution that ended in the complete
overthrow of Spanish power in South America, since I have already
roughly sketched these events elsewhere. So far as the main events are
concerned, the transition from the colonial stage to the condition of
independence was slower in the Banda Oriental than was the process
upon the eastern bank of the great river. In Julio of 1810, when the
Junta of Buenos Aires had already established itself to cast off the
yoke of Spain, Montevideo still remained faithful to the
mother-country, and rejected the advances of the Argentines.
Thus at the beginning of 1811 Montevideo found itself, if only for a
short while, the seat of the viceroyalty of the La Plata Provinces,
and from that point of vantage Elio, the Viceroy, declared war upon
Buenos Aires. Almost immediately, however, the spirit of independence
became manifest in Uruguay itself, and it is at this juncture that
occurs the name that has perhaps stamped itself most deeply of all
upon the history of the Banda Oriental.