HISTORY
The Spanish colonies as nations--The first-fruits of
freedom--Uruguay beneath the heel of Portugal--The advent of a
second liberator--Juan Antonio Lavalleja--The forming of the
league of the "thirty-three"--Opening of the campaign--The
patriot force--Rank and its distribution--The crossing of the
River Plate--Commencement of operations in Uruguay--A first
success--Spread of the movement--Rivera embraces the patriot
cause--The march upon Montevideo--A daring siege--How the army of
occupation was deceived--Timely reinforcements--Lavalleja
establishes an independent government--Incident at the opening of
the Senate--Argentina comes to the assistance of
Uruguay--Beginning of the rivalry between Rivera and
Lavalleja--Dissension in the Uruguayan army--Temporary disgrace
of Rivera--His acquittal--Lavalleja declares himself
dictator--Uruguay's independence acknowledged by Argentina and
Brazil--The national authorities enter Montevideo.
The end of the year 1824 witnessed the extinction of the last vestige
of the power of Spain in South America. With one solitary exception,
each former Spanish colony had now raised itself to the status of a
nation. It is true that in the majority of cases the inhabitants of
these countries suffered not only the wildest of anarchy, but in
addition a degree of despotism that had been unknown during the
Spanish régime, for all the selfishness of the Peninsula Government.
Yet since the flock of tyrants that rose up, each like a grim phoenix,
from the ashes of the Spanish Dominion were conceived of the tortured
countries themselves, the South Americans took such small comfort as
they might from a dim reflection that in their own hands lay the
possibility of the improvement in the rulers born from their own bone.
Of these States thus freed from any other despotism but of their own
making Uruguay formed the sole exception. For years she had remained
beneath the heel of Portugal, writhing uneasily, but unable to remove
the weight of the foreign occupation. When the time came for the full
independence of the rest, however, Uruguay's longing to acquire their
State was no longer to be repressed, even at the cost of the expulsion
of the second European power that had fixed upon the land.
The man whose name stands out as the liberator of Uruguay for the
second time is Juan Antonio Lavalleja. Ceding place only to Artigas as
a national hero, Lavalleja had fought in many actions against the
Spaniards, and had distinguished himself not a little in the original
revolutionary wars. Alternate military and civil occupations have
nearly always fallen to the lot of South American public men, and
Lavalleja formed no exception to the rule. At the time when the
victory of Ayacucho in Peru crowned the entire campaign against the
Spaniards he held the comparatively humble and prosaic post of manager
of a meat-curing factory in the neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.
The rejoicings that the victory of Ayacucho aroused in the capital of
Argentina stirred to the depth both Lavalleja and a company of
fellow-exiles from the Banda Oriental. A meeting of these patriots was
held on the spot, the result of which was an enthusiastic
determination to place their own country upon the same footing as the
rest. Doubtless many hundreds of similar gatherings had already been
effected--and concluded by vapourings of thin air. But the spirit of
these men who had thus come together was of another kind. Having sworn
solemnly to free their country, action followed hotfoot on the heels
of words. A couple of their number were sent at once to Uruguay to
prepare the minds of a trusted few, while the rest made preparations
for the expedition that was to follow.
The mission of the two deputies proved successful. They returned to
Buenos Aires, the bearers of many promises of support and
co-operation. Nothing now remained but to take the first irrevocable
step in the campaign that was to bloom out from this very humble seed.
"Treinta y Tres" has now developed into a proper name in the Banda
Oriental; for the number of men who started out from Buenos Aires for
the sake of Uruguay was thirty-three. The name has now been locally
immortalised. Among the infinite variety of objects that it endows may
be counted a province, a town, innumerable plazas and streets, and a
brand of cigarettes.
There is certainly nothing that is intrinsically humorous in the
adventures of these noble men who set out for their patriotic purpose
in the face of such terrible risks. Yet as a specimen of the
constitution of the armies of the South American factions at this
period a survey of the grades held by the small gathering is
illuminating. In the first place the diminutive expedition had for its
Commander-in-Chief Colonel Juan Antonio Lavalleja, who had beneath him
three majors and four captains. These in turn were supported by three
lieutenants, an ensign, a sergeant, a corporal, and a guide. The
remaining eighteen constituted the rank and file of the force--in
fact, the Army proper.
The little expedition so overwhelmingly officered set out from Buenos
Aires, proceeding northward along the Argentine shore. Reaching a
point where the river had become comparatively narrow, they embarked
in small boats, and launched out on the Uruguay at dead of night. A
gale obliged them to seek refuge on a friendly island, and caused a
day's delay. But the next evening they embarked once more, and reached
in safety the beach of La Agraciada on their native shore. There they
unfurled their chosen tricoloured banner, and swore once again to
attain liberty or death.
The expedition was now actually on the scene of its mission, and
shortly after daybreak it began its march to the north. During the
course of a few hours they collected _en route_ reinforcements of
forty able-bodied and armed Orientales.
Proceeding steadily onwards, the gallant little army, officers and
all, found itself in the neighbourhood of the small town of Dolores,
better known formerly as San Salvador. This was held by a garrison of
eighty men in the service of Brazil. Determined to inflict a first
decisive blow, Lavalleja led his men onwards to the attack. The moment
chanced to be especially propitious, since the officers and principal
men in the town had attended a dance on the previous night. So great
had been the delights of the _baile_ that the principal men had found
it necessary to continue their repose long into the morning--a
circumstance that is not unknown even to this day.
Had it not been for an error on the part of the patriot guide the town
would undoubtedly have been captured by surprise and taken almost
without a blow. As it was, the official chanced to mistake the
situation of a ford in an intervening small river. This necessitated a
lengthy march along the banks ere a place suitable for the passage was
found, and the presence of the small company with the tricoloured
flag was discovered with amazement by the inhabitants.
Thus ere Lavalleja's expedition had succeeded in crossing the stream
there had been moments of wild bustle in Dolores. Officers sprang out
of bed to gird on their swords in haste; soldiers ran to assemble with
uniforms even more than usually awry, while the municipal officers
doubtless ran to and fro in aimless confusion. Nevertheless by the
time that the turmoil was at an end the garrison had had an
opportunity to muster, and to sally out against the advancing band
that had not yet gained the town.
Since the Portuguese forces were under the command of an Oriental,
Colonel Julián Laguna, a parley took place ere the two forces met. In
the end, Laguna deciding to remain staunch to the foreign cause, the
thirty-three and their allies charged, routing the enemy completely.
Thus in the course of their first victory they won not only the town
of Dolores itself, but a number of Uruguayan volunteers who joined
them from out of the beaten force.
The thirty-three with their companions, delaying a very short while in
the captured town, continued their march. A more pressing danger now
menaced them. General Rivera, the Oriental who, having so
distinguished himself in the former wars against the Portuguese, had
entered the latter service when the Uruguayan cause became lost, was
sent out with a force of seventy men to annihilate the daring
aggressors. Here, again, when numbers and rank are compared, it will
be seen that the regular forces of the country were more or less on a
par with the thirty-three in their generosity in the matter of titles.
Nevertheless, however it was commanded, the thirty-three were destined
to gain yet further support from the force detached against them. On
his near approach to the devoted band, Rivera's patriotic instincts
overcame all other considerations. At a meeting contrived between him
and Lavalleja the pair embraced, and Rivera forsook the Brazilian
service on the spot to join the cause of his country. The addition to
their ranks of the famous fighter and his men was naturally greeted
with enthusiasm by the patriots, who advanced filled with renewed
confidence. On the other hand, the news of the defection created no
little consternation among the Brazilians, who set a price upon the
heads of both Rivera and Lavalleja, valuing the former at five hundred
dollars more than the fifteen hundred offered for Lavalleja, although
the latter remained the actual commander of the expedition.
The thirty-three had now abandoned their cautious north-west fringing
of the coast. With their numbers increasing as they went, they struck
for the south-east, making boldly for Montevideo itself, and defeating
the various Portuguese forces that strove to oppose them.
Arrived at length at San José, some three score miles distant from
Montevideo, Lavalleja determined on an especially daring move that
proved his appreciation of the value of prestige. From there he sent
all his prisoners with a strong guard under Rivera to Durazno, and at
Canelones, farther on, he detached another party to obtain recruits
from the neighbourhood of Maldonado. He himself, accompanied now by no
more than a hundred men, continued in supreme unconcern his march to
Montevideo. Arriving upon the outskirts of the spot, he encamped on
the Cerrito de la Victoria, whence, employing a colossal piece of
bluff, he set himself to besiege the city.
It is surely not often that a hundred men have sat down to invest a
fortified town garrisoned by nearly two thousand soldiers. Yet it was
in the amazing effrontery of the proceeding that success lay. On the
very next day a strong force of the enemy, numbering over fifteen
hundred men with four guns, sallied out from Montevideo. The hundred
besiegers must doubtless have thought that all was lost; but,
continuing the grim farce to the end, they opened fire to the best of
their ability upon the advancing columns. The result more than
fulfilled their most sanguine expectations. Convinced that the furious
fusillade emanated from a powerful army, the Portuguese columns
retired into the town, while the hundred men sat down again to
continue the siege of Montevideo.
But their number did not now long remain at this ridiculously
inadequate total. By twos and tens and even by hundreds the Orientales
escaped from the city, flocking to the tricolour banner until the
patriot army had swollen to a degree that rendered it formidable in
fact as well as in fancy. So successful, moreover, had proved Rivera's
mission in the Campo that in a few days almost the whole of Uruguay
was in arms against the enemy's forces in its midst.
The work of the thirty-three had been extraordinarily rapid. So
successful, indeed, had been the campaign that, in the place of
disputing against another's authority, the moment had arrived for
setting up their own, against which it should be treason to contend.
In order to effect this Lavalleja withdrew personally from the siege
of Montevideo, and established an independent government at the town
of Florida to the north of the capital. Moved by a truly lofty sense
of patriotism, he handed over his leadership to the new authorities,
who responded by creating him General-in-Chief of the Army of
Liberation, and by endowing Rivera with the rank of Inspector-General.
On this occasion the titles conveyed some material significance,
since the Uruguayan Army now amounted to two thousand five hundred men.
The opening of this new Senate was attended by a dramatic incident. In
order to be present at the assembly it was necessary for Lavalleja to
leave the front of hostilities and to ride through rain and mud to
Florida.
Ere entering the Hall of Assembly he was met by several ladies,
amongst whom was the wife of Rivera, who begged him to change his
dripping costume before he proceeded with the official business.
"Thank you, señoras," replied Lavalleja, "I will attend to that as
soon as our country has its government." Within a few minutes the
consummation had been achieved, and Lavalleja was in dry clothes. The
story affords only one more instance of the numerous inevitable
satellites that attend the passage of a notable name through the ages;
but here the ingenuous simplicity of the tale is almost sufficient in
itself to vouch for its truth. At this point, properly speaking, ends
the story of the thirty-three. Beneath the national edifice that they
had built up the minor members of the devoted band had already become
lost to view. The control of affairs was now vested in a Senate and
Corporations, and Argentina, hastening to recognise the existence of
the independent Government, sent her armies to its assistance,
stipulating that in exchange for the alliance Uruguay should become
one of the provinces of the River Plate.
With the survival of the first perils, moreover, the cohesion of the
leaders of the famous thirty-three passed away. During the course of
the final battles against the Portuguese a rivalry sprang into
existence between Lavalleja and Rivera that gradually deepened into a
jealous antagonism that has left its mark of bitterness upon the
country to this day.
With the growing certainty of the success of the cause, and,
consequently, of the honours and power in store for the chosen few
among the patriot ranks dissension and suspicion became rampant. One
of the more immediate outcomes of this regrettable state was the
falling under suspicion of Rivera. Accused of opening up negotiations
with the Portuguese, he was sent to Buenos Aires for trial. Acquitted
by President Rivadavia of traitorous intent, he was, nevertheless,
held in prison owing to his outspoken federal views, which were in
direct opposition to the unitarian doctrines of Argentina. After a
while, however, he escaped from captivity, and, collecting an army,
completely re-established his reputation by invading and conquering
the Misiones districts that were then in the power of the Portuguese.
Although the territory was in the end ceded back again, the invasion
was of material effect in concluding the war.
When, moreover, after the rout of the Portuguese fleet by the
Argentine Admiral Brown, and the series of victories that culminated
in the battle of Ituzaingo, it became evident that the expulsion of
the Portuguese from Uruguayan soil was now inevitable within a very
short time, Lavalleja did not wait for any definite conclusion of
peace. In October of 1827, when, as a matter of fact, the terms of an
armistice were still in dispute, he deposed the national Junta, and
without further ado declared himself Dictator of his country. This
office he held until July of the following year, when he voluntarily
resigned from the post.
August witnessed a formal acknowledgment of the independence of
Uruguay by both Argentina and Brazil, and in November a provisional
Government was established. On May 1, 1829, the national authorities,
amidst no little pomp and ceremony, made a formal entry into
Montevideo, and Uruguay was at last definitely left to the care of its
own rulers.