at Arenal-Grande. The leader's name was Juan Antonino Lavalleja.

Lavalleja had, beforehand, engaged a proprietor of the country in the scheme, who was to have horses ready at the point of landing; therefore, the moment he stepped ashore, he sent off a message to this man; but the latter replied that all was discovered, the horses had been seized, and if he might offer an opinion, Lavalleja and his companions would return to Buenos Ayres as quickly as possible.

But Lavalleja replied that he had set out with an intention of going forward and not backward; consequently, he gave his rowers orders to return to Buenos Ayres without him, and, on the 19th of April, he and his thirty men took possession of the territory of Montevideo in the name of liberty. The next day, the little troop, which had made a razzia of horses, in which razzia, be it admitted, most of the proprietors had yielded their concurrence; the next day, the little troop, already on its march upon the capital, was met by a detachment of two hundred horse. Of these two hundred horse, forty were Brazilians, and a hundred and sixty Orientals. This troop was commanded by an old brother-in-arms of Lavalleja's, Colonel Julien Laguna. Lavalleja might have avoided the combat, but, on the contrary, he marched straight up to the two hundred horse. Only, before coming to blows, he demanded an interview with Laguna.

"What do you want, and what do you come to do in this country ?" asked Laguna, coming to meet him.

"I am come to deliver Montevideo from a foreign yoke," replied Lavalleja. "If you are for me, come with me- -if you are against me, surrender your arms, or prepare to fight."

"I don't know the meaning of the words, surrender your arms,” replied Laguna, "and I hope no one will ever teach it me."

Well, then, go and place yourself at the head of your men, and we shall see on which side God will be."

"I am going to do so," said Laguna, and rejoined his soldiers at a gallop.

But, at the same moment, Lavalleja unfurled the national flag, blue, white and red, like the French, and immediately the hundred and sixty Orientals passed over to his party. The forty Brazilians were made prisoners.

The march of Lavalleja upon Montevideo became from that time a triumphal march, the result of which was that the Oriental republic, proclaimed by the will and enthusiasm of a whole people, took rank among nations.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

ROSAS.

In the meanwhile, there was a name becoming great, which was one day destined to be the terror of the Argentine federation.

A short time after the revolution of 1810, a young man of about sixteen years of age, left Buenos Ayres, abandoning the city and gaining the open country. His countenance was troubled, and his step rapid. This young man was named Juan Manuel Rosas.

Why, when yet a boy, did this fugitive abandon the house in which he was born? Why, a man of the city, did he go to ask an asylum of the men of the mountains? It was because he who was, thereafter, to strike his country, had struck his mother, and the paternal malediction pursued him. This event, otherwise without importance, was soon lost in the noise made by the more serious events that were being accomplished, and whilst all the old companions of the fugitive were assembled under the standard of independence, to contend against the Spanish domination, he was lost in the pampas, gave himself up to the Gaucho life, adopted its costume and its manners, became one of the best of horsemen, and eminently skil

ful in the handling of the lasso and the bola, so that, on seeing him so adroit at these wild exercises, one who did not know him might have taken him not for a man of the city, but for a man of the country-not for a fugitive pueblero, but for a real Gaucho.

Rosas entered at first as a pedy, that is to say, a day labourer, in an estancia; then he became a capataz— Garibaldi has told us what that is-and then mayordomo, a title which explains itself. In this last quality, he overlooked the property of the powerful house of Anchocessa. With that, his fortune as a proprietor commenced. As it is our intention to make Rosas known under all his aspects, let us see, amidst the events which were being accomplished, what was the state of his mind. Rosas had been at Buenos Ayres during the prodigies given birth to by the revolution against Spain. Then, he who had the courage sought celebrity in the field of battle; he who had talent, education, and prudence, sought it in councils. Rosas was ambitious of celebrity, but what celebrity could he attain? What renown could he acquire, he who had neither courage for the battle-field, nor knowledge for councils? Every instant he heard some glorious name resound in his ears. As ministers, it was the names of Ravadavia and Pasos d'Aguero; as warriors, it was the names of St. Martin de Baléares, of Rodrigue and Las Heras.

And all these names, the fame of which came from the city, went to awaken the echoes of the solitudes ; all these names revived at the same time his hatred for that city which, having triumphs for others, had decreed nothing but exile for him. But, even at this period, Rosas was dreaming of the future, and whilst wandering among the pampas, confounded with Gauchos, was preparing it. He made himself the companion in want of the poor, flattering the prejudices of the man of the plains, exciting him against the citizen, revealing to him his strength, pointing out to him the superiority of his numbers, and trying to make him comprehend

1

that, as soon as she, in her turn, wished it, the country would be mistress of the city, which had so long been her queen.

In the meantime, years passed away, and 1820arrived.

It was then Rosas began to appear in the distant horizon of the pampas, supported by the influence which had subdued the inhabitants of the plains. We have seen what was going on at Montevideo; let us see what was passing at Buenos Ayres. The militia of Buenos Ayres was in insurrection against the Rodrigues Government. Then a regiment of the country militia, las colorados de las Conchas, the Reds of Conchas, entered the city on the 6th of October, 1820, having at their head a colonel to whom Buenos Ayres was known, and who was known at Buenos Ayres. That colonel was Rosas.

The next day the country militia and the city militia came to blows; only, on that day, the colonel was no longer at the head of his regiment. A violent tooth

ache, from which Rosas ceased to suffer as soon as the fight was over, had kept him, to his great regret, no doubt, out of the mêlée. And, why not? Was not Octavius ill of a fever on the day of the battle of Actium? Rosas had much of the Octavius in himonly, Octavius afterwards became Augustus, which, according to all probability, Rosas will never become.

The city

This entrance of Rosas into Buenos Ayres was the only warlike exploit in all his political life. insurgents were conquered. It was then Rivadavia, already long since celebrated, and named Minister of the Interior, placed him at the head of affairs. Rivadavia was one of those men of genius who rise to the surface of revolutions during the days of tempest. He had travelled for a long time in Europe. He possessed universal knowledge, and appeared inspired with the most ardent, and above all, with the most pure patriotism; only the sight of that European civilization which he had studied at Paris and London, had warped

his mind with regard to its application to a people who, not having ten centuries of social struggles behind it, did not march at the same pace as they did. He wished to accelerate the march of time, and do for America what Peter the Great had done for Russia; but not having the same means as Peter, he failed.

Perhaps, however, with a little more address mixed with his genius, Rivadavia might have succeeded; but he wounded men in their habits; certain habits are a nationality, others a pride. He laughed at the American costume; he manifested his repugnance for the chaquetta, his contempt for the chiripa, the waistcoat and the pipe of the man of the country; and as at the same time he did not conceal his preference for the coat and the great-coat, he became unpopular by degrees, and felt power steal away by the lower valves.

And yet what did he not give his country in exchange for the vestments he wished to deprive her of? His administration was the most prosperous Buenos Ayres ever had; he founded universities and lyceums; he introduced mutual instruction into schools. Under his administration learned men were induced to come from Europe; the arts were patronized and developed in short, Buenos Ayres acquired the name in the land of Columbus, of the Athens of South America.

We have already spoken of the war in Brazil which took place in 1826. To carry on this war, Buenos Ayres made gigantic sacrifices, exhausted its finances, and by that exertion weakened the springs of government. The finances exhausted, the springs of government weakened, revolutions re-commenced.

We have said that at Buenos Ayres, as at Montevideo, the country and the city were seldom in harmony of opinions, being never in harmony of interests. Buenos Ayres made a revolution. The country immediately arose en masse, marched towards the city, invaded it, and made their leader chief of the government.

That leader was Rosas ;-we close the parenthesis opened a few pages back.

L