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PONCE DE LEON

NOTE.--This book was first published in 1878, and has long been
out of print. The work has been recognized as the best and most
accurate description yet written of the British Invasion, and
the rise of the Argentine Republic.


PONCE DE LEON

The Rise of the Argentine Republic

by

AN ESTANCIERO


    BUENOS AIRES                 LONDON
MITCHELL'S BOOK STORE       T. WERNER LAURIE
  530 CANGALLO 578           CLIFFORD'S INN
                      1910


   Al Gran Pueblo Argentino iSalud!




CONTENTS

                                BOOK I

                   THE BABYHOOD OF A GREAT NATION

    CHAP.                                                           PAGE
         Prologue                                                     3
      I. Father and Son                                               5
     II. How Don Gregorio Lopez sought an Answer to the
         Question of the Day                                         11
    III. Concerning the danger of Friendship with an Enemy           20
     IV. Showing how a Patriot may also be a Traitor                 29
      V. Perdriel                                                    36
     VI. In which it appears that a lesson may be well taught
         and yet not learned                                         47
    VII. The 12th August, 1806                                       53


                                BOOK II

                     THE PROWESS OF A YOUNG GIANT

         Prologue                                                    61
      I. At the Quinta de Ponce                                      63
     II. The Yeomanry of Buenos Aires                                71
    III. Arming the Slaves                                           78
     IV. Standing alone                                              85
      V. An Evening in the month of June                             93
     VI. The Landing of the English                                 100
    VII. The Baptism of Fire                                        110
   VIII. Los Corrales de La Miserere                                117
     IX. The Night of Sorrow                                        121
      X. The Council of War                                         131
     XI. The Pathways of Death                                      141
    XII. The Afternoon of the 5th July                              152
   XIII. The Capitulation of the 6th July                           158
         Epilogue to Books I. and II.: The Monuments and the
         Rewards of Victory                                         162
         Appendix: The Court Martial                                163


                               BOOK III

                         THE UNKNOWN FUTURE

         Prologue                                                   167
      I. At the Quinta de Don Alfonso                               169
     II. The Episode of the fair Mauricia                           175
    III. Watch and Wait                                             187
     IV. The raising of the Veil                                    193
      V. To our Friends the English!                                202


                                BOOK IV

                         THE DAWN OF FREEDOM

             PART I.--THE BRIGHTENING OF THE EASTERN SKY

         Prologue                                                   213
      I. Magdalen                                                   215
     II. How Don Gregorio Lopez a second time sought an Answer
         to the Question of the Day                                 223
    III. Several ways of looking at one Question                    227
     IV. How the Spaniards also proposed to themselves a
         Question, and how Don Carlos Evana prepared an Answer      234
      V. How the Viceroy took Counsel with Don Roderigo             242
     VI. The Eve of a great Even      t                             249
    VII. The 1st January, 1809                                      258
   VIII. Evana's Dream                                              267
     IX. The Day after                                              273
      X. America for the Americans                                  279


                                BOOK V

                         THE DAWN OF FREEDOM

                PART II.--THE MISTS OF THE EARLY MORN

         Prologue                                                   287
      I. The two Viceroys                                           289
     II. The Tertulia at the House of my lady Josefina              298
    III. La Junta de los Comandantes                                307
     IV. How Don Carlos Evana attacked the Wild-duck, and
         routed them with great slaughter                           313
      V. How the Viceroy placed a sword in the hands of the
         enemies of Spain                                           323
     VI. iCaduco la Espana!                                         331


                                BOOK VI

                                LIBERTY

         Prologue                                                   347
      I. How the last Tie was broken                                349
     II. How Don Gregorio Lopez for the third time sought an
         Answer to the Question of the Day                          356
    III. The Opening of the month of May                            360
     IV. Dias de la Patria                                          367
      V. The 25th May, 1810                                         375
     VI. Lions in the Path                                          383
    VII. The first Fight in the War of Independence                 388
   VIII. How General Liniers lost an important Ally                 397
     IX. La Cabeza del Tigre                                        401
      X. Once more in the Porch together                            408


                          GENERAL EPILOGUE

      I. The Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires                            419
     II. The Year 1810                                              420
    III. Paraguay                                                   422
     IV. The Banda Oriental                                         422
      V. The Army of Upper Peru                                     424
     VI. The Sovereign People                                       427
    VII. The Congress of Tucuman                                    433
   VIII. Independence                                               434




BOOK I

THE BABYHOOD OF A GREAT NATION




PROLOGUE


The Argentine Republic drew her first faltering breath in a time of
universal tumult. Europe was in a blaze from the confines of Russia to
the Atlantic; the air reeked with blood, the demon of war strode
rough-shod over a whole continent, at each step crushing some ancient
nation to the dust. The peoples of Europe, down-trodden for ages, rose
in their misery and barbarism against their oppressors and wrote out
their certificate of Freedom in characters of blood; they asserted their
right to be men not slaves, and their voice as that of a mighty trumpet
reverberated throughout the earth. In the hearts of the Spanish Creoles
of America that voice found an echo.

       *       *       *       *       *

Spain arrogated to herself unlimited power over the nations she had
founded, witting not that they were nations. Though they were of her own
bone and her own blood, she knew them not as children, but as
bond-slaves, who existed to do her bidding.

       *       *       *       *       *

The voice of France in the first throes of her great agony sounded in
the ears of these bond-slaves, and in secret conclave they whispered one
to another, asking one another wistfully, whether they were men and not
slaves. To this whispered question for long there was no answer, for
Spain was to them as their mother.

       *       *       *       *       *

Can a mother sin in the eyes of her own child?




PONCE DE LEON




CHAPTER I

FATHER AND SON


"Thank God I am not a Spaniard."

"Marcelino! my son! what new heresy is this?"

"It is no new heresy at all, my mother; it is a fact. Thank God I am not
a Spaniard. I am an American, and the day will come when we Americans
will show the world that we are men and not slaves."

"Marcelino! Be comforted, my son; it is the fortune of war. You at any
rate did your duty, and did not fly till you were left alone. I should
have mourned for you if you had been killed. My heart would have been
desolate, my son, if I had lost you; now I have you yet, and I am proud
of you."

As the stately lady spoke thus, she laid her hands upon her son's
shoulder, while he sat gloomily on a low chair; and bending over him,
kissed him fondly on the cheek; then, still leaning on him, she raised
one hand to his head, running her taper fingers through the tangled
locks of curly black hair which covered it. As she thus caressed him,
the look of sullen gloom gradually vanished from his face; he looked up
at her with eyes the counterparts of her own in their lustrous
blackness, but differing from hers as those of an eager, passionate man
differ from those of a compassionate, tender-hearted woman.

"Mother," he said, raising his hand to his head, and taking her hand in
his own, "sit down and let us talk, for I am going."

"Going! at such a time as this!" answered she, drawing a stool towards
her, and seating herself on it beside him, still resting with one hand
upon his shoulder, and leaning upon him.

"Yes, mother, going. There will be no more fighting here now, our
citizens do not like that work, they told us so to-day pretty plainly
when we tried to make them stop and meet the English in the suburbs."

"Going! but where will you go?"

"Anywhere where I can be of more use than here. I cannot stop to see the
disgrace of my native city. To-morrow the English will march in