 Section 18 of the South American Republics, Volume 1, by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Piotr Natter. Part 3, Uruguay, Chapter 1, Introduction. The most fertile parts of the globe have always been fought for the most. Uruguay has been the Flanders of South America. Her admirable commercial position at the mouth of the river plate has made her capital one of the greatest imporiums on the continent. On the track of the world's commerce, open to the currents of intellectual and industrial life, which sweep from Europe into the luxuriant country of the southern half of South America, or around to the Pacific, her people have always been in the vanguard of Spanish-American civilization. Her productive, well-watered and gently rolling plains are well adapted for agriculture and unsurpassed for pastureage. Here the Indians struggled hardest to maintain themselves and longest resisted the Spanish conquest. From colonial times, Argentines have crowded in from the west, Brazilians from the north and Buenos Aires and Europeans from the coast until this favored spot has become the most thickly populated country of South America. The very strategic and industrial desirability of this region and the ease with which it can be invaded have made it the scene of constant armed conflicts. Uruguay has been the cockpit of the southern half of the continent and its people have been fighting continually through the 150 years during which the country has been inhabited. They fought for their independence against the Spaniards, then against Buenos Aires, then against the Brazilians, then against the Buenos Aires again and in the intervals they have fought pretty constantly among themselves. In colonial times Montevideo was Spain's chief fortress on this coast and that city has always been the favored refuge for the unsuccessful revolutionists and exiles from the neighboring states. The blood of the bravest and most turbulent Argentines and Rio Grandeza has constantly mixed with its population. By habit, tradition and inheritance the older generation of Uruguayans in both city and country are warlike. Though the military spirit had been vastly stimulated by peculiar political and racial circumstances, in later times commercialism has been nourished by geographical situation and the fertility of the soil and by European immigration. The interplay of these contending forces has been producing a marked people, a vigorous, turbulent race whose energies have apparently been chiefly employed in war but who have found times in the intervals of foreign and civil conflict to make their country one of the wealthiest and most industrially progressive countries in South America. They are like the Dutch in their turbulence and in their eagerness to make money and they are also like the Dutch in their determination to maintain at all hazards their separate national existence. Nevertheless the origin of Uruguay was artificial. The reason for the country's separation from Buenos Aires was that Brazil regarded it as unsafe to permit Argentina to spread north of the plate. The territory of Uruguay is that irregular polygon which is bounded on the south by the plate estuary, on the west by the Uruguay River, on the southeast by the Atlantic and on the northeast by the artificial line which separates it from Brazil. Though the most favored in soil, climate and geographical position it is the smallest country in South America, the area being only 73,000 square miles. In prehistoric days when a vast inland sea occupied what is now the Argentine Pampa Uruguay was the northern shore of the Great Strait which opened into the Pampian Sea. It is the southern extremity of the eastern continental uplift of South America. The last outlying ramparts of the Brasilia mountain system greatly eroded and planed down into low swelling masses, little elevated above the sea. Run southwest from Rio Grande into Uruguay dipping into the plate at the southern border. The north shore of the plate estuary is bold and not flat as is the opposite shore of Buenos Aires. There are however no mountains properly so cold in Uruguay and nearly the whole surface is a succession of gently undulating plains and broad ridges intersected by countless streams and covered for the most part with luxuriant pastures. The abundance of wood and water is an immense advantage to settlers whether pastoral or agricultural. The extreme southwestern corner near the mouth of the Uruguay river is alluvial. On the Atlantic coast there are level marshy plains due to the slow secular rising of the land and consequent barring of the ocean's bed. The country is easily penetrable in every part. There are no mountain ridges or dense forests to interrupt travel and most of the rivers are easily fordable. On the west the broad flood of the Uruguay river gives easy communication to the ocean while it affords protection against sudden invasion from the Argentine province of Entre Rios. The low and sandy foreshore of the Atlantic has no harbors but after rounding Cape Santa Maria and entering the estuary of the plate there are several bays which afford some shelter for shipping. Maldonado, Montevideo and Colonia are the principal ports but the extreme shallowness of the plate prevents them from being classed as first trade harbors for modern vessels. At Montevideo itself large modern steamers must anchor several miles out. Possibly the present territory of Uruguay was reached by the Portuguese navigator who reconnoitred the coast of Brazil in the first few years of the 16th century but they certainly made no settlements and left no clear record of their voyagings. In 1515 Juan Diaz de Soyes, grand pilot of Brazil was sent out by Charles V to reconnoiter the Brazilian coast in Spanish interests. He did not land on the shore of Brazil proper but kept on to the south until he reached Cape Santa Maria which marks the northern side of the entrance to the river plate. To his left hand stretched beyond the horizon a flood of yellow fresh water flowing gently over a shifting sandy bottom nowhere more than a few fathoms below the surface. It was evident that he was out of the ocean and sailing up a river of such magnitude as has never been dreamed of before. He followed along the coast, skirting the whole southern boundary of what is now the Republic of Uruguay and finally reached the head of the estuary. Directly from the north the Uruguay, a river five miles wide, clear and deep seemed a continuation of the plate but from the west the numerous channels of the Paraná Delta poured in an immense muddy discharge, double the volume of the wider river. At the junction was an island which Soyes named Martin García after his pilot. He resolved to take possession of the country in the name of the crown of Castile and to explore the coast. He disembarked with nine companions on the Uruguayan shore. Here the little party was unexpectedly attacked by Indians. Soyes and all his men but one were killed and the ships sailed back to Spain without their commander. Three years later Ferdinand Magellan on his epoch-making voyage around the world visited the coast of Uruguay. On the 15th of January 1520 he came in sight of a high hill overlooking a Commodius bay. This he called Montevideo, a name which has been extended to the city which long after grew up on the other side of the harbor. Magellan ascended the estuary hoping that he might find a passage through to the Pacific Ocean but after he had entered the Uruguay its clear water, rapid current and wand of tides convinced him that it was only an ordinary river and not a strait. Spain determined to take possession of the plate and in 1526 sent out an expedition for that purpose under Diago Garcia. At the same time Sebastian Cabot was preparing another expedition which was ordered to follow in Magellan's truck and to make observations of longitude on the Atlantic coast of South America and in the East Indies. Spain and Portugal had already begun to dispute about the correct location of the line which they had agreed should divide the world into a Spanish and a Portuguese hemisphere and which was believed to pass near the plate. Garcia was delayed on the coast of Brazil so Cabot reached the mouth of the estuary first. The latter had encountered bad weather and lost his best ship and when he sighted the coast of Uruguay his men were discouraged. They remained in the mouth of the river for some time and to their surprise a solitary Spaniard was encountered on the shore who proved to be the only survivor of the party that had gone ashore with Solis ten years before. Soon Cabot and his men heard tales of silver mines far up the river and of the existence of a great civilized empire on its remote headwaters. Silver ornaments were shown which had come down hand to hand from Peru to Bolivia. Cabot determined to abandon his commission to the Moluccas and to find the country when the silver came. Naturally his first effort was directed up the broad channel of the Uruguay but on ascending this river it was soon evident that the mines and civilized country he was seeking did not lie on its banks. Fifty miles up the river at San Salvador the Spaniards attempted to establish a little post which is sometimes referred to as their earliest settlement in Uruguay or Argentina. It was probably intended as a mere supply depot and point of refuge conveniently near the sea to aid the upriver expedition. However the warlike Indians of Uruguay soon left no trace of it. Cabot entered the Parana where he spent three years in an unsuccessful effort to reach Bolivia. He and Garcia sailed back to Spain without leaving even a settlement behind them but they were thoroughly convinced that an adequate expedition could find the silver country. The tribes who inhabited Uruguay were the fiercest Indians encountered by the conquerors of South America. For two centuries they succeeded in preventing the establishment of settlements in their territory and kept out Spanish intruders at the point of the sword. The Spaniards greatly coveted the north plank of the plate and made effort after effort to get a foothold there but these savages managed to maintain themselves for 150 years in the very face of Buenos Aires. The river shore itself was the last accessible and fertile region to be subjected to the whites. A century elapsed after the foundation of Buenos Aires before Colonia was occupied by the Portuguese and another 50 years went by before Montevideo had been settled and fortified. Uruguay in pre-Spanish times as well as since was a meeting ground for different peoples. One after another the Guarani tribes crowded into this favored region from the north and west and the old inhabitants had to fight and conquer or be thrust into the sea. The bravest, best armed and best organized tribes survived in the harsh struggle. Of the Indians inhabiting Uruguay when the Spaniards discovered the plate the principal ones were the Charruas. They occupied a zone extending around from the Atlantic along the plate and a short distance up the Uruguay. This strong and valiant race never submitted to the Spaniards and when at last they were defeated and crowded back from the coast well on in the 18th century they retired to the north and maintained their freedom for many years. They belonged to the great family of Tupiguaranis who occupied most of eastern South America at the white man's advent but they were more nomadic in their habits and had developed the art of war to greater perfection than the mother tribes of the more tropical parts of South America. In their fights against the Spaniards they sometimes gathered armies of several hundreds which fought with a rude sort of discipline forming in column and attacking in mass with clubs after discharging their arrows and stones. Possibly they learned some of their tactics from the white man but it is certain that before the invasion they had developed a tribal organization which enabled them to bring far larger bodies into the field than the tribes to the north and that soon after the arrival of the whites they learned the military uses of the horse. Personal bravery and fortitude were the virtuous most admired among the Chadluas and they chose their chiefs from those who had most distinguished themselves in battle. They did not practice cannibalism like their brothers Guaranis on the Brazilian coast. They killed defective children at birth. They were moderate in their eating, lived in huts and in winter covered themselves with the skins of animals. Altogether they seemed to have much resembled the more warlike tribes among the North American Indians and to have made the same effective resistance to the whites as did the Iroquois or Creeks. Such a fierce and indomitable people terrorized the Creels and settlement proceeded on lines of less resistance. The coast of Iroquois was long known as the abode of red demons who showed little mercy to the adventurous white who dared build a cabin on the shore or ride the planes in chains of cattle. The forts established from time to time by the Spanish authorities in the early days were invariably starved out and abandoned and the white men obtained a foothold after the Portuguese and Spanish governments had fortified towns with walls, ditches and artillery which could be supplied with provisions from the waterside and after Entrerrios had been overrun by the Gauchos. Warned by the experiences of Solis and Cabot on the north shore Mendoza, the first Adelantaro of the plate on his arrival in 1535 selected the south bank of the river as the site of the fortified port which he proposed to establish at the mouth of the Parana as a base for his projected expedition up the river. His effort failed completely. He abandoned Buenos Aires and the remnants of his expedition fled to Paraguay and founded Asuncion. In 1573, Zarate, the third Adelantaro made a serious effort to establish a post in Uruguay. He had 350 well-armed Spanish soldiers more than the number with which Pizarro had conquered the Empire of Peru but they were not enough to make any impression on the Charruas. A company of 40 men hunting wood was set upon and massacred and when the main body tried to avenge this defeat it too was driven back and only escaped to the island of Martin García after losing a hundred men. The survivors were rescued by Garay, the most expert and successful Indian fighter of the time. The experienced and farsighted officer wisely left the Charruas alone and devoted his efforts to the other side of the river where in 1580 he founded the city of Buenos Aires. Hernand Arias, the Creole governor of Buenos Aires who shares with Garay the honor of establishing the Spanish power in Argentina and who had already defeated the Pampa Indians from the Grand Chaco in the north to the Tandil Range in Buenos Aires province attempted in the early years of the 17th century to subdue the Charruas. He was embarked at the head of 500 men in the western part of Uruguay. Few details of the campaign which followed have been preserved but it is certain that the Spanish force was destroyed and that Hernand Arias himself barely escaped with his life. Thenceforth, for more than a century the Spaniards made no serious attempts to interfere with the Charruas. The coast of Uruguay was shunned by European ships and the interior remained absolutely unknown. It is probable, although not certain that the Jesuits on the upper Uruguay established some villages of peaceable Indians in the northwestern corner of Uruguay proper in the middle of the 17th century. A few Indians, it is certain, gathered under Jesuit control on an island in the lower Uruguay some 50 miles above Martin García about 1650. This was known as the Pueblo of Soriano and is often referred to by Uruguayan historians as the first permanent settlement in their country. However, no real progress was made towards getting possession of Uruguay. The Charruas proved refractory to Jesuit influence and only the milder Yarros and the tribes on the Brazilian border could be converted. The horses and cattle which the Spaniards had introduced multiplied into hundreds of thousands and roamed undisturbed over the rolling, grassy plains of Uruguay and occasionally parties of creoles would land on the shore of the plate and at the risk of their lives killed some steers and stripped them of their hides. As time went on the Indians became used to the white men and some trading sprang up but for a full century after Buenos Aires had been in existence Uruguay remained unsettled by civilized men. End of Section 18 Section 19 of the South American Republics Volume 1 by Thomas Claland Dawson This Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by Pietr Natar Part 3, Uruguay Chapter 2, Portuguese Aggressions and the Settlement of the Country In 1680 the governor of Rio de Janeiro sent some ships and the force of soldiers to the plate with orders to occupy a point on the north bank in the name of the King of Portugal Spain claimed that her dominions extended as far up the coast as the southern border of the present state of Sao Paolo and Portugal was equally stubborn in insisting that her rightful territory extended west and south as far as the mouth of the Uruguay Neither country had made any settlements in the disputed region and Portugal had determined to take advantage of the negligence of the Spanish government and be the first in the field To establish a post only 20 miles from the capital of the Spanish possessions and more than a thousand miles south of the last Portuguese town seemed an audacious step but its success would secure for Portugal the whole intermediate territory as well as give her a port which would ensure her merchants the command of the trade of the plate valley The Portuguese commander landed an opposed on the shore of the estuary directly opposite Buenos Aires and immediately began to throw up walls dig a ditch and lay out a town called Colonia When the news reached Buenos Aires the indignant governor raised a force of 260 Spaniards and 3000 Indians crossed the river and fell upon the little body of Portuguese in the midst of their delving and shoveling The attack was at first repulsed but later numbers were soon effective The enemy surrendered and the Spaniards threw down the walls and destroyed the beginnings of the town The Portuguese government protested claiming that the governor's action was a willful and inexcusable aggression against the forces of a friendly power operating in territory which had never been occupied by Spain The Madrid government disavowed the act and the Portuguese resumed possession of Colonia in 1683 They rebuilt its walls and made the place safe against the attacks of Indians At once it became a centre for contraband traffic The Spanish laws and colonial policy forbade vessels to land at Buenos Aires In defiance of the prohibition illegal trade had been carried on but the landing of vessels lying in the Buenos Aires roads was conducted at great risk Officials might order the seizure of the goods The enormous bribes had to be paid to functionaries Often the governor was the smuggler's partner but he was a partner who demanded an exorbitant share of the profit In Colonia however merchandise could be safely stored and embarked at leisure so the latter place rapidly absorbed the export trade and became an entrepôt for imported goods destined for sale in the valley of the plate and in Bolivia Spain had restored Colonia without a protest and without prejudice explicitly re-iterating her own claim to exclusive proprietorship of the north bank of the plate The diplomatists agreed that the question of right should remain open for determination at some future day but all Spanish subjects considered the existence of Colonia as a violation of Spanish soil and whenever a war broke out in Europe between the mother countries the Buenos Aires were in the habit of simply sending an expedition across the river to capture the Portuguese town Three times was it ranged from the Portuguese and three times was it restored on the conclusion of peace In 1705 Spain and Portugal being engaged in war the governor of Buenos Aires dislodged the Portuguese garrison from Colonia and the place remained in Spanish possession until after the conclusion of the peace of Utrecht the possession had last convinced the Spaniards that the settlement of the north bank was feasible By 1708 the Charroa raids had so far lost their terrors that the Jesuit mission at Soriana was safely removed from the island in the Uruguay river to the mainland opposite The trade in Uruguayan heights and horsehair increased and private expeditions henceforth frequently crossed the estuary It had long been known that the best harbors on the Uruguayan coast were at Montevideo and Maldonado were partially sheltered bays with water deep enough for the vessels of the 18th century were overlooked by beautiful and defensible townsites Montevideo is 100 miles east of Colonia and Maldonado another 100 miles farther on towards the Atlantic The advisability of seizing and fortifying one or both vessels was frequently mooted in Buenos Aires after the restoration of Colonia in 1716 Nothing however was done until 1723 when word came that the Portuguese had again anticipated the Spanish authorities and had occupied and began to fortify Montevideo for themselves The governor of Buenos Aires immediately sent an overwhelming force which compelled the Portuguese to retire This time neither the regulatory diplomacy nor official ineptitude prevented his doing the right thing to save Uruguay to the Spanish crown and the following year he finished the Portuguese walls at Montevideo and in 1726 the ground plan of a town was laid out and a few families were brought from Buenos Aires and the Canary Islands Within a few years there were a thousand people in the place and it had been surrounded with walls and defended by artillery Four years later Maldonado was established No serious trouble was experienced with the Indians at either place and the Spaniards began to spread their ranches over the neighboring southeastern part of Uruguay Almost simultaneously with this important event the creoles from Santa Fe province crossed over into the wide plains which lie between the Paraná and the Uruguay and defeated the Charroa tribes the Spanish out of that region for 150 years Soon the Gauchos were in possession of Entre Rios as far as the Uruguay the Charroas east of the Uruguay could not prevent the Gauchos from making their way across the river to build their cabins and ride the plains after cattle The settlement of western Uruguay began But except Colonia and Soriano no towns were founded The half Indian Gauchos became a nomadic life and needed and received little help from the authorities in their constant fights against the Indians Shortly after the foundation of Montevideo a Portuguese expedition tried to recover the place but it was found to be too strong to attack and the party resolved to establish town further up the coast 300 miles to the northwest is found the omnie opening into the great system of lagoons which stretches along the seaward side of Rio Grande do Sul and at that strategic point the Portuguese in 1735 built a fort and town By the middle of the 18th century the situation between Spain and Portugal in the whole region between the plate the Uruguay and the sea had become very strained Colonia was completely isolated and the Spaniards controlled all the rest of Uruguay's western and southern waterfront the Portuguese settlements in the seaward half of Rio Grande were prospering and multiplying soon to furnish thousands of Gauchos as ready as any who rode the Argentine Pampas to Salifur for war and plunder the territories which the Jesuits had held for more than a century on the east bank of the Upper Uruguay lay directly back of these Portuguese settlements and was more easily accessible then from Montevideo in 1750 Spain agreed to exchange the 7 missions for Colonia the Portuguese promptly took measures to secure the ceded territory attacked the Indian villages and massacred or drove off most of the inhabitants the Jesuits vigorously protested and outraged Spanish public opinion demanded the abrogation of the treaty so a few years later the desolated territory was restored the Spanish possession and Colonia remained Portuguese in 1762 Spain and Portugal were again engaged in war and the governor of Buenos Aires attacked Colonia with a force of 2700 men and 32 ships the fortifications were strong and the Portuguese offered a tenacious resistance after a well contested siege the place surrendered only to be given back to Portugal meanwhile troops had been sent up from Montevideo against Rio Grande and the Portuguese settlers driven back to the northeast corner of the state only to rise again when the Spanish troops were gone and to begin a guerrilla warfare which never ceased until they had regained their towns the 18th century had entered on its last quarter before the Spanish home government took any real steps to drive the Portuguese out of Colonia and to reclaim the disputed territory as far north as Sao Paulo the Atlantic slope of Spanish South America was erected into a viceroyalty and in 1777 the greatest fleet and army ever sent by Spain to America reached Buenos Aires under command of the new viceroy the Portuguese had no forces able to cope with his army and fleet and he carried all before him the island of Santa Catalina in the north of the disputed territory was captured, Colonia was taken and an army of 4000 men started on a triumphal march northwestward to sweep the Portuguese from the coast the Spaniards were at the gates of Rio Grande when news came that peace had been declared orders from home compelled the viceroy to stop his northward progress while the diplomats agreed on a division the Treaty of San Ildefonso in the main gave each country the territory its citizens actually occupied the seven missions remained Spanish and the Portuguese were deprived of the southern half of the Great Lagoon and of Colonia Santa Catalina was restored and the right of Portugal to the vast interior and to the regions of the Upper Paraná and Paraguay were confirmed Rio Grande remained Portuguese and Uruguay was assured of being then's fourth and forever Spanish in blood and speech end of section 19 section 20 of the South American Republic's Volume 1 by Thomas Clelland Dawson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Piotr Natter Part 3, Uruguay Chapter 3, The Revolution with the Treaty of San Ildefonso Uruguay began her real existence Montevideo was made the greatest fortress on the Atlantic coast commanded by its own military governor strongly garrisoned and provisioned and with over 100 cannon mounted on its walls the Charroas had long been driven back from the coast and as soon as the danger of Portuguese interference was over settlements spread rapidly along the whole southern border prior to 1777 there were only 5 towns in Uruguay but within the next 5 years the number tripled by the year 1810 there were 7500 people living in the city of Montevideo 7500 in its immediate district and 16,000 in the outlying settlements outside of Montevideo cattle herding was the sole business and the people were a hard-riding meat-eating bellicose race immediately to the northeast lived 50,000 Rio Grande dances of Portuguese blood and speech who in like surroundings had acquired the same pastoral and semi-nomadic habits as their Argentine and Uruguayan neighbors and who constantly made incursions over the Spanish border the Uruguayan gauchos retaliated and for nearly a century continuous partisan warfare went on for these half-savage cattle herders wrecked little of treaties or boundary lines the Spanish guerillas bore the name of Blandenques and in this school of arms the future generals of Uruguay's war of independence were trained most of the forays were only for the purpose of stealing cattle or burning cabins built in coveted regions nevertheless one of these expeditions changed the nationality of a territory larger than England in 1801 the Rio Grande dances conquered the seven missions thus doubling at a single stroke the area of their own state and reducing Uruguay to substantially its present dimensions at the seat of the largest Spanish garrison Montevideo naturally became the center of pro-Spanish feeling and influence in the plate and the home of families who boasted distinguished Castilian descent and conservative principles in the interior settlements Creole influences predominated and the population was substantially homogeneous with that of the Argentine provinces on the other side of the Uruguay river between the aristocratic Montevidians and the Gauchos of the country districts there was little sympathy in 1806 the English captured Buenos Aires and many Spanish officials and officers fled to Montevideo for refuge the garrison of Montevideo furnished troops and arms for the expedition which soon went across the plate and triumphantly recaptured Buenos Aires late that same year British troops from the Cape of Good Hope seized Maldonado harbor in eastern Uruguay as soon as reinforcements arrived a movement was made against Montevideo on the 14th of January 1807 the city was besieged by land and sea the attacking and defending forces were about equal in number although the British regulars were far superior in discipline and effectiveness to their opponents half of whom were militia a sortie in force was completely defeated with a loss of 1000 men and after 8 days of bombardment the British affected a breach in the wall and took the town by assault the Spaniards losing half their force and the remainder scattering a great fleet of merchant vessels had accompanied the British expedition and as soon as the town surrendered their goods were landed and the English traders took possession of the shops almost as completely as the British soldiers did of the fortifications Uruguay was opened up to freed trade the Gauchos were soon selling their hides and horse hair for higher prices than they had ever received and buying clothes, tools and the comforts and luxuries of civilized life at rates they had never dreamed possible a few months later the English attacked Buenos Aires but were overwhelmingly defeated and the British general found himself in such an awkward situation that in order to obtain permission to withdraw his army he had to agree to evacuate Montevideo the convention was carried out and the British soldiers left the plate forever but the British merchants remained behind although the English occupation of the city had lasted so short a time it created an unwanted animation in Montevideo by the establishment of a great number of mercantile and industrial houses from this time Montevideo's commerce assumed greater proportions and became a place of real commercial importance as well as a military post both city and country had tasted the delights of commercial freedom and material civilization had received its first great impulse Elio the Spanish military governor of Montevideo suspected the loyalty of Ligné, the Frenchman who, because he had led in the fighting against the English had been created viceroy at Buenos Aires Spanish affairs at home were in confusion and fast becoming worse confounded the old king had abdicated in favor of his son civil war had broken out on the peninsula the new king had been compelled by Napoleon to resign and Joseph Bonaparte was proclaimed monarch of Spain the Spanish nation refused to accept Joseph and a revolutionary government was set up in Seville Elio as a patriotic Spaniard promptly swore allegiance to this junta but the viceroy and the Buenos Aires Creoles hesitated as to their course of action the Montevidian governor and the Buenos Aires viceroy quarreled the former accused the latter of unfaithfulness to Spain and disavowed his authority and the latter retaliated by issuing a decree deposing Elio on receiving news of this act which was strictly legal under Spanish law the Montevideo Cabildo met in extraordinary session and appointed a junta which was to be dependent solely and directly upon the authority of the banished legitimate king and in no way upon Buenos Aires so long as Ligné remained viceroy thus early did Montevideo act independently of Buenos Aires although the sentiment of loyalty was much stronger in Montevideo than in Buenos Aires the English invasion was no sooner over than there became manifest something of the same profound division between Creoles and Spain 3 years however passed without disturbances and even when the news of the overthrow of the new Spanish viceroy by the populace of Buenos Aires on the 25th of May 1810 reached Montevideo the governor was able to prevent any revolutionary manifestations of sympathy on the 12th of July a small part of the garrison rose in a mutiny which was easily suppressed in March 1811 Elio returned to Montevideo with a commission as viceroy and bringing considerable reinforcements he declared war on Creole revolutionists at Buenos Aires and imprisoned the Montevidians suspected of Creole sympathies and revolutionary ideas among those who escaped to Buenos Aires was one destined to be the founder of Uruguayan nationality this was Jose Artigas then captain of Geria Cavalry although born in Montevideo he had lived the life of a gaucho from boyhood and since 1797 had been a leader of the gaucho bands who were continually fighting the Rio Grande Dances he happened to be in Colonia on the occasion of Elio's declaration of war against the Creoles and at once fled to Buenos Aires the junta there gave him a lieutenant colonel's commission and some substantial help the gauchos of the southeastern part of Uruguay had meanwhile risen against the Spanish governor and within a few weeks Artigas was back on Uruguayan soil at the head of a considerable force while all around him bands of gauchos under other chiefs were preparing to resist the Spaniards his bravery, energy and good luck in the fields and his ruthless maintenance of discipline gave him an ascendancy over all the others in April 1811 Belgrano the chief general of Buenos Aires arrived with reinforcements shortly after a Spanish detachment which had reached the western part of Uruguay was captured and the gaucho leaders advanced almost the walls of Montevideo a force of 1000 Spaniards started out to meet them and on the 18th of May met with complete defeat at the Battle of Las Piedras for this victory Artigas was promoted by the Buenos Aires junta and the greatest military figure on the Patriot side with a considerable army of gauchos from both banks of the Uruguay and of Patriots from Buenos Aires he began a siege of Montevideo the siege however did not last long the great expedition sent by the Patriots to Bolivia was overwhelmingly defeated in the Battle of Waki and the Buenos Aires junta horribly alarmed for their own safety ordered all the troops under their control to return and help defend that city at the same time a Portuguese army advanced from Brazil with their avowed purpose of saving Montevideo from being lost to Spain but really to take possession of Uruguay for King John's own benefit Artigas was compelled to retire to the Argentine and Uruguayan historians say that on his long retreat to the Uruguay river he was accompanied by practically the whole rural population of the country the semi-nomadic habits of the gauchos made such a migration easy and they quickly found new homes on the opposite shore in Entre Rios once it would be easy to return as soon as the Portuguese troops retired considerations of international politics and English pressure compelled King John to withdraw his troops from Uruguay in the middle of the year 1812 and the Buenos Aires government immediately began to assemble an army on the right bank of the Uruguay Artigas was still encamped with his Uruguayan forces in the same neighborhood and although he held an Argentine commission he was virtually independent the Argentine army under the command of José Rondo who in colonial days had been captain of guerrillas alongside Artigas advanced against Montevideo and on the last day of 1812 won the bloody battle of Cerrito inside of the city and shut the Spaniards up within its walls Artigas followed and assisted in the siege but he refused to unite his forces with those of Rondo until his own claims should be recognized and his demands complied with he assumed a dictatorship and sent delegates to Buenos Aires to advocate the formation of a federal republic of which Buenos Aires was to be simply one member Buenos Aires refused to receive his delegates and civil war broke out Rondo adhered to the Buenos Aires interest and after a year of disputes in the beginning of January 1814 Artigas withdrew his own followers from Montevideo leaving the partisans of Buenos Aires to continue the siege alone in May the celebrated Irish admiral William Brown destroyed the Spanish fleet which had hitherto dominated the plate Montevideo's communications with both land and sea were shut off and the fortress shortly afterwards surrendered to General Carlos Alvear the Argentine general who was then commanding the besieging forces meanwhile Artigas has retired to the west and the Gauchos, not only of western Uruguay but also of Entre Rios Corrientes, the missions and Santa Fe rallied around his standard independent chiefs in these various provinces had been resisting the efforts of Buenos Aires to reduce them to obedience Artigas was in a way recognized as their leader but only as the greatest among equals the conflict with the Buenos Aires party went on throughout the year 1814 and the Federalists continually gained ground in January 1815 Fructuoso Rivera, one of the Lutherans of Artigas defeated an Argentine force at the battle of Guayabos and the Buenos Aires junta was compelled to withdraw its troops from Montevideo however did not amount to a separation of Uruguay from the confederation it only marked a triumph of the provinces in their efforts to prevent Buenos Aires from establishing a centralized government Artigas had his friends in Entre Rios, Corrientes, the missions and Santa Fe and even as far as Cordoba and Francia, dictator of Paraguay was another of his allies in this struggle against Buenos Aires however he was nothing more than a military chief without the capacity or even the desire of uniting these vast territories under a rational and stable government at the very height of his power he made the fatal mistake of embroiling himself with Brazil in 1815 he invaded the territory of the seven missions which the Rio Grande denses had conquered 14 years before the Portuguese king retaliated by sending a well-equipped army of several thousand men and in October 1816 the forces of Artigas were overwhelmed and driven with great slaughter from the dispute territory Artigas made stupendous efforts to retrieve this loss but the four thousand men which he assembled to resist the Portuguese army which was now advancing upon Montevideo itself were defeated and scattered in January 1817 the Portuguese occupied Montevideo and Artigas and his lieutenants Vera, La Vejeja and Oribe each of whom later became a great figure in the civil wars retreated to the interior where they maintained themselves for two years after many defeats Artigas himself lost the support of the chiefs of Entre Rios and Santa Fe he was finally driven out of Uruguay and attempted to establish himself in the Argentine provinces only to be completely overwhelmed by his rivals on the 23rd of September 1820 he presented himself with 40 men all who remained faithful to him as the Paraguayan town of Candelaria on the Paraná begging hospitality of Francia Francia granted him asylum and this indomitable guerrilla chief who for 25 years had kept the soil of Uruguay and of the Argentine Mesopotamia soaked in blood spent the rest of his life peacefully cultivating his garden in the depths of the Paraguayan forests he died in 1850 at the age of 86 years six years later his remains were brought from Paraguay to Montevideo and interred in the national pantheon on the sarcophagus are engraved these words Artigas, founder of the Uruguayan nation end quote Rivera was the last Uruguayan chief to lay down his arms before the Portuguese when he surrendered early in 1820 most of the other leaders had already given up and accepted service in the Portuguese army of occupation in 1821 a Uruguayan congress selected for this purpose declared the country incorporated with the Portuguese dominions under the name of the Cisplatin province for five years Montevideo and the country remained quiet under the Portuguese dominion and Uruguay peacefully became a province of Brazil and the country declared her independence the most celebrated chiefs of the civil war were officers in the Brazilian army and few external signs of dissatisfaction were apparent underneath the surface however fermented a hatred of the foreign rule and the proud Creos only awaited an opportunity to revolt end of section 20 section 21 of the South American republics volume 1 by Thomas Cleland Dawson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Piotr Natter part 3 Uruguay chapter 4 independence and civil war in the beginning of 1825 a group of patriots met in Buenos Aires and planned an invasion of Uruguayan territory word was sent to different chiefs in the country districts and on the night of the 19th of April 33 adventurers with Lavaia had their head on the river in the extreme southwestern corner of the country no sooner had they landed than the country rose the troops sent from Montevideo to meet the band of revolutionists refused to fight and deserting the Brazilian banner joined their compatriots the revolutionists advanced east along the Negro and the Yi to Durasno 130 miles north of Montevideo where they found Rivera then general in the Brazilian service he promptly deserted and was at once associated with Lavaieja in the command Lavaieja advanced to the south calling the population to arms while the northern detachments rose in response to Rivera only 15 days after the 33 had crossed to Uruguay the flag of the revolution was floating over the Cerrito Hill in front of the Montevideo and Brazilian power was virtually confined to the walls of that city and Colonia the military chiefs formally declared Uruguay separated from Brazil and proclaimed its re-incorporation with the Argentine the number of Brazilians then in Uruguay was small and infantry could not be expected to do much fighting on the plains against Gaucho cavalry led by such experienced guerrilla fighters as Rivera and Lavaieja a division of Rio Grandeense cavalry under their own chiefs Bento Manuel and Bentogon Salves met the Uruguayans at Sarandí the two armies used substantially the same methods charging into each other sword in hand and carbine at shoulder the Brazilians were caught in a disadvantageous position and suffered a complete and bloody overthrow the result of this battle was to ensure to the revolutionists the continuation of their complete dominance in the country their cavalry bands roamed at will up to the very walls of Montevideo Buenos Aires received the news with extravagant demonstrations of joy and formal notice was given to Brazil that Uruguay would henceforth be recognized as an integral part of the Argentine Confederation the emperor promptly responded with a declaration of war his fleet blockaded Buenos Aires while he poured reinforcements into Montevideo and sent an army to invade northern Uruguay Argentine troops likewise swarmed across the Uruguay river into the country and the Brazilians could make little progress on sea they were not more successful and by the beginning of 1826 Admiral Brown was blockading Colonia and menacing the communications of Montevideo in August 1826 the famous Argentine general Carlos Alvear took command of the patriot forces jealousies and quarrels had mean time broken out between La Valleja and Rivera Alvear took the former's side and Rivera's partisans revolted but the arrival of more reinforcements for the Brazilians pushed up for the moment the interstine quarrels of the Spanish-Americans Alvear determined to carry the war into Brazil and early in January 1827 succeeded in passing between the northern and southern Brazilian armies and penetrated across the frontier to the northeast he had sucked Bajé the principal town of that region before the Brazilian general the Marquis of Barbacena was able to concentrate his forces and start in pursuit north towards the missions but he was in a hostile country where defeat meant total destruction though his army numbered 8000 men he had cut himself off from his base and an enemy in equal force was close at his heels he resolved to turn and give battle and on the 20th of February 1827 his army met that of Barbacena in the decisive battle of Itwithaingo which ended in the defeat of the Brazilians although Barbacena was able to withdraw his army without material loss and Alvear retired at once to Uruguayan soil the Brazilians were never afterwards able to undertake a vigorous offensive the result of that battle ensured that the north bank of the plate should remain Spanish in blood, language and government a few days before Itwithaingo Admiral Brown had won the great naval fight of Juncal at the mouth of the river Uruguay and thenceforth the Brazilian aid of Buenos Aires was entirely ineffective if it had not been for the civil disturbances in Argentina that paralysed the Buenos Aires government the Brazilians might have been swept out of Montevideo at the point of the sword and the Argentines might have undertaken the conquest of Rio Grande itself though considerable Argentine forces remained in Uruguay during 1827 and 1828 they put no vigor into their operations and on their part the Brazilians were able to do little more than hold Montevideo so Humpert was Rivadavia the president of Buenos Aires by revolts, uprisings and disorders throughout Argentina that he thought himself obliged to agree to abandon Uruguay public opinion in Argentina would not accept the treaty which he made he was deposed and a leader of the opposite party installed in power Rivera operating on his own account had undertaken a campaign against the western Rio Grande but so bitter was factional feeling that his rival, Lavayeja sent a force to pursue and fight him while the new Buenos Aires government was induced to sign a treaty of peace largely because Rivera's success against the Brazilians might make him strong enough to be dangerous both Brazil and Argentina were tired of this tedious expensive war and both governments had preoccupations within their own territories at the intervention of the British minister the terms were agreed upon Brazil and Argentina both gave up their claims to Uruguay the region was erected into an independent Republic and Brazil and Argentina pledged themselves to guarantee its independence during five years at that time Argentina was convulsed by the struggle between the Federalists and the Unitarians and the Uruguayans were also divided into two camps the followers of Lavayeja neither in Argentina nor in Uruguay were these divisions parties in any proper sense of that term they were military factions whose ambitious leaders seem to have always been willing to sacrifice the interests of the country at large to secure a partisan advantage the Argentine troops who returned home from the war against Brazil promptly plunged their country into the bloodiest civil war known in her history and Uruguay did not delay following the example the first chief magistrate of independent Uruguay was José Rondo an Uruguayan who had become one of the greatest Argentine generals however Lavayeja and Rivera were the real factors in the situation and Rondo's efforts to conciliate both at the same time failed constituent assembly which soon met and framed a paper constitution was controlled by Lavayeja's partisans Rondo was deposed and Lavayeja assumed the reins of power Rivera prepared to march on Montevideo and dispute the matter by arms but the representatives of Argentina and Brazil intervened and a compromise was effected Rivera got the best of the bargain being given command of the army and after the constitution had been declared on the 18th of July 1830 he became, as a matter of course the first president of Uruguay and of section 21 section 22 of the South American Republics volume 1 by Thomas Glelland Dawson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Piotr Natter part 3 Uruguay chapter 5 Civil War and Argentine Intervention except for an expedition against the remnants of the ones formidable Charrua Indians the first two years of independence passed in peace by the Russian of Artigas the country had prospered and its population had risen nearly 3 fold within 25 years in spite of the bloody fighting which occurred from 1811 to 1817 and from 1825 to 1828 the settlements had spread far back from the coast and many of the principal interior towns date from this period in 1832 the civil wars began again Lavayeja's partisans organized a conspiracy and a certain colonel Garthon took advantage of Rivera's absence from Montevideo to raise a mutiny in the garrison and to issue a pronunciamiento deposing the president the latter soon recovered the city and after two years of intermittent fighting the Lavayeja party was overthrown for the moment and Rivera finished his term in peace Manuel Oribe a chief of the anti-Rivera faction succeeded to the presidency by a compromise agreement but the breach between the two factions had really grown wider and their mutual hatred became irrepressibly bitter Oribe soon began to persecute his opponents meanwhile the five years had expired during which Uruguayan independence had been guaranteed by the treaty between Argentina and Brazil Argentina was free to solicit the re-incorporation of Uruguay into the confederation Rosas, the head of the federalist party had made himself master of Buenos Aires and his authority was recognized in most of the Argentine provinces although the Unitarians continued their ineffectual revolts the new Uruguayan president sympathized with the federalists while his rival Rivera could count on the Unitarians the plan of Rosas was to establish Oribe firmly in Uruguay and through his aid to incorporate that country with Argentina while the Unitarians were desperately anxious that Rivera should triumph knowing that Montevideo would be a base for the organization of their own forces for invasion of Buenos Aires and central Argentina then forward for many years Uruguay's history is inexplicably entwined with the story of the struggle between the two great Argentine factions the little country became the storm center of South American politics and the chief battlefield of the contending forces now for the first time we encounter references to Blancos and Colorados which remain to this day the names of Uruguayan political parties all the forces of the community lined up on either side and never have political parties fought more determinately and relentlessly the divisions between them entered into all social and business relations and even friendly intercourse between the members of the two factions was almost impossible men have often been more Blanco or Colorado than Uruguayan the old conservative residents Spanish families were the bases of the Blanco or Oribe party while the Colorados or partisans of Rivera were the progressive faction the latter attracted the Argentine refugees fleeing from the tyranny of Rosas and could count upon the support of resident Europeans and upon the sympathy of foreign governments the Rosas in Argentina and the Blanco in Uruguay represented the spirit of exclusivism and opposition to foreign influences after Oribe's accession to power Rivera hastened to raise a revolt in the western districts he obtained help from the Unitarians and his invasion was accompanied by many Argentine generals who had distinguished themselves in the wars against Rosas the Argentine dictator sent help to Oribe for two years the tide of battle set in favor of the Colorados and Unitarians Rivera had obtained so decided an advantage by 1838 that Oribe abandoned Montevideo and embarked for Buenos Aires followed by the chiefs of his party the Colorado chief now in control of Uruguay celebrated a formal alliance with the province of Corrientes then in revolt against Rosas and war was declared against latter a large Argentine army accompanied by many Blancos invaded Uruguay but was decisively defeated at the Battle of Cajuncha December 10, 1839 the interval of unquestioned Colorado supremacy which followed was one of the most flourishing periods in the history of Uruguay large numbers of the intellectual elite of Buenos Aires swarmed across the river Montevideo became the center of arts of Spanish America the civil wars of the last few years had not been severe and even during their continuance property had suffered little immigration from England, France and Italy began on a large scale and the population increased at the rate of 4% per annum in the year 1840 900 ocean-going ships entered the port of Montevideo more than 3000 houses were erected and great mid-curing establishments were inactive operations however, Rosas and the Blancos were only awaiting a good opportunity to attack in 1841, Oriba, in command of one of the Rosas' armies defeated the Argentine Unitarians under General Lavalle and marched into Entre Rios to suppress the insurrection in that province in January 1842 Rivera took an army of 3000 men to the rescue of the Argentine allies he crossed the river Uruguay and united his forces to those of General Paph but after a year's desperate fighting on Argentine soil he and the Unitarian general were overthrown and their armies completely destroyed in the battle of Arroya Grande the way was open to Montevideo the colorados and Argentine exiles shut themselves up in that city and the so-called nine-year siege began Rosas' power seemed overwhelming and although Rivera and other colorado chiefs at the head of scattered bands managed to make some headway in the outlying departments they were finally driven into Brazil while the unhappy country was given up to pillage and slaughter this Guerra Grande was the bloodiest, longest and most stubborn war ever fought on Uruguayan soil Montevideo seemed doomed to an early surrender an opportune intervention by France and England upset the plans of Rosas he had embroiled himself with the ministers of those powers by refusing to give satisfaction for certain alleged injuries to foreign merchants and naval officers and the dispute became so acrimonious that the European powers finally resorted to the most drastic coercive measures a French and later a British fleet blockaded Buenos Aires and drove Rosas' vessels from the plate under these circumstances it was impossible for him to land reinforcements on the Uruguayan shore in 1845 the European navies forced the passage at the head of the estuary into the Parana and Uruguay destroying the batteries which Rosas had erected there and opening up those rivers to foreign navigation thereafter troops could be sent from Argentina into Uruguay only by a long detour to the north in spite of this hampering of his military operations and the injury which the blockade caused to the commerce of Buenos Aires the Argentine dictator stubbornly refused to yield an inch to foreign pressure France and England were finally tired out, they raised the blockade Rosas regained his control of the plate and the early capture of Montevideo seemed certain just at this time however General Urquiza, governor of Entrellios and Rosas' best lieutenant and most successful general broke with his chief Entrellios became a virtually independent state and Rosas' efforts to reduce it were unavailing Urquiza's defection again rendered it impossible properly to reinforce Oribe's army the colorados of the interior plucked up courage and during four years no material progress was made on either side a tedious and exhausting partisan warfare went on in the interior guerrilla bands scoured the country in every direction inhabitants of the same town were arrayed against each other and surprises, treasons and massacres were almost daily occurrences one of the most successful leaders on the Colorado site was the famous Giuseppe Garibaldi the future liberator of Italy had made his debut as a revolutionist in the insurrection which broke out in 1835 in the Brazilian province of Rio Grande later he crossed the Uruguayan border and fought against Rosas for several years early in 1851 a grand combination to overthrow Rosas was made between Entrellios, Corrientes the Unitarians, the Colorados and Brazil the constant policy of the latter power had been to secure and maintain the independence of Uruguay and she welcomed the opportunity to open up the Paraná and Uruguay on whose headwaters she had great territories inaccessible except along those rivers Urquiza naturally became the general in chief of the alliance on the 18th of July he crossed the Uruguay followed by a large army from his own province a Brazilian army soon joined him and the Colorados flocked to his standard the Brazilian fleet came down the coast and controlled the estuary an overwhelming force advanced on Montevideo and the Blanco army found itself with a hostile city and fleet in front a superior army behind and deprived of the hope of receiving help from Buenos Aires the officers hastened to make terms with Urquiza whole divisions deserted and Oriba himself was obliged to surrender many of the soldiers who had been fighting in the Blanco ranks in Urquiza and the latter after a vain attempt to reconcile the Uruguayan factions among themselves marched his army back through Uruguay and Entre Rios crossed the Paraná and descending to Buenos Aires defeated the Ossas in the great battle of Montecaceros and of section 22 section 23 of the South American Republics, volume 1 by Thomas Clelland Dawson this Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by Piotr Natter part 3 Uruguay chapter 6 Colorados and Blancos the overthrow of Ossas and Oriba marked the end of the effort to reincorporate Uruguay with the Argentine confederation Uruguay was no longer in peril from foreign aggression but she was far from being united the Blancos had apparently been completely crushed but their wealth, prestige and numbers still made them formidable the seeds of division lay thickly in the soil of the national society and character sure to spring up and bear many crops of wars and pronunciamentos for the moment however the fierce Uruguayan partisans had had enough of fighting the Colorados were dominant and the Blancos disorganized and discouraged it seemed likely that Uruguay would enjoy a prolonged peace the wars which lasted almost continuously from 1843 to 1851 had interrupted immigration from Europe Unitarians had however crossed invultitudes from Buenos Aires and many of their families remained after the proclamation of peace to this day Montevideo is full of families descended from Buenos Aires refugees the same names constantly reoccur on both banks of the plate and the social ties uniting the two cities are intimate and the merits of cattle and sheep had suffered from the depredations of the armed more rotting bands which had scoured the country districts for 9 years but men's cruel destructiveness could not injure the magnificent Pashirich with which the nature have endowed the nation and animals quickly multiplied again by hundreds of thousands in 1860 the cattle in Uruguay numbered more than 5 millions the sheep 2 millions and nearly 1 million the population increased at the almost incredible rate of 9% per annum after the overthrow of Oriba in 1851 until civil war again broke out in 1863 during these years Colorado chiefs occupied the presidency sometimes succeeding one another sometimes by pronunciamento and sometimes by a form of election General Venancio Flores an able and truthless officer was the principal figure among the colorados in 1853 he was a member of a triumvirate which forced the legal president to withdraw and in 1854 he was himself raised to the presidency only to be obliged to resign the following year as as usual in South America the dominant party split into factions led by ambitious chiefs and lost popularity the Blancos as soon as they got into power obtained control of the senate and their prestige and wealth soon balanced the military force of their opponents in 1860 they finally prevailed and their leader, Berro became constitutional president of the republic the colorados however did not propose to submit must upon the Argentine frontier they held themselves ready to fall upon their successful opponents at the first opportunity Flores had been exiled to the Argentine army but in 1863 he obtained aid in Buenos Aires and disembarked upon the Uruguayan coast with a considerable force his partisans rose and he obtained possession of a large portion of the country and set up a government of his own for a year the contest went on with varying fortunes and then this fight between Blancos and colorados involved all the neighboring nations brought on the greatest war which has ever devastated South America and which resulted in the nearly complete destruction of the Paraguayan people the Unitarians then in power at Buenos Aires naturally sympathized with the leader of their own Colorado allies and were inclined to aid Flores's attempt to regain control of Montevideo Brazil favored his pretensions even more actively the Brazilians of Rio Grande owned most of the land cattle just over the Uruguayan border a third of all the rural properties in the Republic being taxed to them and complaints of extortion often came to the Rio government the Blanco president refused the satisfaction demanded and Brazil determined to enforce the claims of her citizens Flores was formally recognized as the legitimate ruler of the country and a fleet and army were sent to his assistance the dictator of Paraguay thought Brazil's intervention in Uruguay dangerous to the international equilibrium of South America he protested and when the Brazilian government persisted and sent its army over the border he began war the Brazilians advanced to Montevideo and their fleet came down the coast the city was blockaded by sea and besieged by land while the main body of the allies advanced against the town of Paisandu river where the Blancos had assembled in force the place was taken by assault and given up to a horrible pillage the recollection of which is still graven in the memory of the Uruguayans the Blanco party never recovered from the slaughter those in Montevideo saved themselves by surrendering the town without resistance Flores entered in triumph and the Blanco leaders fled into exile Flores was under obligation to lead the war against Paraguay and he absented himself for that purpose for nearly two years during which the country districts were somewhat disturbed in 1867 he returned and restored order with a strong hand this short lease of undisturbed power was employed in making many important improvements great public edifices were completed the telegraph cable was laid to Buenos Aires the building of railroads was begun and a new civil code adopted immigration was resumed on a large scale and the country felt the economic impulse that was already transforming the whole played valley although the country rapidly prospered under the military administration of Flores the feelings of the Blancos remained intensely bitter and on the 15th of February 1868 the Colorado president was assassinated in the streets of Montevideo Flores's death was the signal for the wholesale executions and for the outbreak of another long Blanco insurrection although the growth of wealth and population never been more rapid than at this very time the country was not free from civil disturbance until 1872 when an armistice was signed a year later troubles broke out again and the troops refused to march against the insurgents to the bitterness of party feeling and the official corruption which diminished the revenue and hampered commerce was added the embarrassment of the financial difficulties which followed the great panic of 1873 the public debt had doubled in the ten years between 1860 and 1870 and now reached the enormous figure of over 40 million dollars nearly 100 dollar for each inhabitant in the country one president after another was unable to maintain himself in the face of the financial and political difficulties of the situation but in 1876 General Lorenzo La Torre an intelligent and determined Colorado chief became dictator for economy's sake he reduced the number of army officers of whom there were over 1200 for 2000 privates he rooted out the worst frauds in the customs service and refunded the public debt compelling the foreign creditors of 12% interest at the same time he rigidly suppressed the disorders which had harassed the country since the murder of Flores the bands of morauders assassins and bandits who had exercised their nefarious occupations under cover of belonging to the insurrectionists were relentlessly pursued and brought to justice for the first time in years a traveler could traverse the country from end to end without arms like Flores La Torre often used brute force to secure peace and order and the Uruguayans were too turbulent to submit long to such dictation countless conspiracies were formed which were bloodily suppressed but public fear and dislike of La Torre grew continually more menacing in 1880 tired out with constant anxieties and grieved over what he considered the ingratitude of his countrymen La Torre resigned his office into exile. His successor Dr. Vidal held the presidency for only two years when he too was forced to resign the next president, Maximus Santos served his complete term of four full years ending in 1886 then Vidal managed to get back into power for a few months and was again replaced by Santos who in turn was succeeded by Tajes who governed the country until 1890 the ten years succeeding the resignation of La Torre was materially very prosperous the sheep industry developed tremendously the production of wheat was more than doubled immigration ran up to nearly 20,000 a year the population of the country reached 700,000 having increased from 400,000 in 12 years immigration had been so great that the number of the foreign born almost equaled the natives even when including in the latter those of foreign parentage in the mixture of nationalities the foundations have been laid for a race of unusual vigor and of pure Caucasian descent the bitterness of the old factional feeling largely died out during the disturbances which succeeded the murder of Flores the Blancos had suffered terrible losses in 1864 and the colorados had became far the more numerous party during La Torre's dictatorship the distinctions between the two were almost lost and the Blanco party, by that name at least ceased to be an active factor in politics new factions however took their place but the struggles for place and power lacked the conviction and ferocity of the old civil wars the Gaucho and Creole element although still politically dominant was diluted by the infiltration of a more industrially minded population the people were not so exclusively pastoral and had ceased to be so military in their tastes the foreign immigrants wanted peace a chance to sow their wheat and tend their sheep undisturbed and the Gaucho living on his horse feeding on beef alone and always ready to ride off to fight by the side of his favorite chief ceased in many of the departments to be the dominant factor politics became largely a game played by the ruling Spanish-American case and did not directly interfere with the material interests of the country and rarely affected the maintenance of law and order the prosperity of the 80s had been accompanied by an enormous increase in governmental expenditures and debt the economies so painfully enforced by La Torre's administration were abandoned nearly as much money was spent in 10 years as had been in the previous 50 years of the republic's existence the debt more than doubled and the deficit each year equaled 50% of the receipts the Buenos Aires panic of 1890 brought on grave commercial difficulties real estate dropped one half prices fell and as usual the people blamed the government political disturbances began with an attempt at a Blanco uprising in Montevideo in 1891 the clergy were active in implementing dissatisfaction but the trouble was suppressed for the time Herrera Iobes elected in 1890 served his term out but the government was getting deeper and deeper into the financial mire in spite of having cut down the rate of interest on the public debt 50% the murmurs of the public grew constantly more menacing against the taxation which had become so excessive that it almost threatened the destruction of the countries when the election came on in 1894 the outgoing president found that he had not control of congress the body which elects the president a deadlock ensued and the ballots were taken amid confusion and fears of intimidation aiaure the president's candidate dared not accept because of the threatening attitudes of the opposition finally Juan Idiarte Borda was declared elected and protests against dictation and terrorism the new president pledged himself to reform the finances and pursue a conciliatory policy towards the different factions but he was soon accused of extravagance and favoritism the Blancos had again become a formidable party after 20 years of eclipse and they believed that they were being deprived of their political rights by the Colorado president in 1896 the election of a congress completely under his control and early in 1897 seeing no hope of a constitutional change a blank o'connell named La Mas raised the standard of revolt assembled a force in the western provinces and gained a victory over the president's soldiers he marched east and joined Aparicio Sarraiva a chief belonging to a family celebrated in the military annals of Brazil a considerable force over the border the rebels soon had possession of the eastern departments and managed Montevideo while Borda borrowed money right and left and armed and drilled regiment after regiment to prosecute the war against them nevertheless the rebels maintained themselves and roamed the country at will they would listen to no terms that did not include Borda's resignation and it seemed as if the country was doomed to pass through another long and bloody civil war on the 25th of August 1897 President Borda was assassinated in the streets of Montevideo by a respectable grocer's clerk the vice president Juan L. Questas succeeded peacefully to the control of the government in Montevideo and at once entered into negotiations with the leaders of the insurrectionists in the departments terms were quickly agreed upon Questas conceded minority representation and electoral reform and in a very short time the rebels had laid down their arms the few months of war had cost Uruguay dear 13 million dollars had been spent by the government the collection of the revenue had been interrupted and internal transportation had been demoralized now however industry and commerce resumed their usual course and since president Questas's accession to power peace of the country had been undisturbed political manifestations have been confined to disputes in congress and the press they became so violent that in 1898 the president dissolved the chambers and declared himself dictator he reorganized the army on a basis which ensured that there would be no mutinies and at the same time pursued a policy of administrative reform which had done much to bring order out of the financial confusion the obligations of the government have been religiously performed and Uruguay's currency is on a gold basis in 1899 Questas was elected president according to the forms of the constitution he carried out the pledge he had given the Blancos not to interfere with the elections and in 1900 they made great gains and elected enough members to control the senate the political situation has therefore been somewhat strained but there seems to be no danger that the congressional opposition will try to interfere with the executive functions of the presidents the gallant and pagnacious little people will continue to play a role in South American affairs out of all proportion to the size of their country Uruguay seems certain to continue to be the political storm center of the Atlantic coast climate, soil and geographical position ensure a rapid increase in population and wealth while its political independence must continue to be an object of constant solicitude on the part of its gigantic neighbors Argentina and Brazil Montevideo is a formidable trade rival to Buenos Aires and must always be as it has so often been in the past the base for any attack at the heart of the Argentine Republic to the north nothing but an artificial boundary separates Uruguay from Rio Grande do Sul and the two regions are alike in everything except language should the Portuguese Americans again evince those tendencies towards expansion which distinguished them in the 17th and 18th centuries Uruguay would be the natural point of attack and if Brazil should ever divide into its component parts as it came so near doing in 1822 and again in 1837 Rio Grande and Uruguay might find it necessary to coalesce or possibly wars might ensue between them which would change the face of South America and not improbable alternative would be the establishment of a power on the north bank of the plate strong enough to hold its own and which might play the same role in the interaction of Spanish and Portuguese Americans as did Flanders between the Teutons and Latins in Europe End of section 23 section 24 of the South American Republics volume 1 by Thomas Cleland Dawson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain part 4 Brazil chapter 1 Portugal the motherland of Brazil is Portugal profound as where the changes incident to transplanting a people to a virgin continent notwithstanding Spanish dominion and Dutch conquests large as where the mixtures of Peru, Indian and alien blood in spite of independence and republicanism the language, customs, religion and laws of Brazil are today substantially like those of Portugal the parallel between the United States and Britain is not closer Brazil has diverged even less than her model her population may have a larger admixture of non-Portuguese blood than the North Americans have of non-British but politically there was less opportunity of emergence for Brazil was kept under much closer subordination the discovery of Brazil coincided with the destruction of popular liberties in the mother country thereafter the Portuguese government was a centralized despotism and its hand lay heavy on the Brazilian provinces they were forbidden intercourse with the rest of the world functionaries of every kind were continually imported the provinces never dreamed of a colonial government from the beginning the system was centralizing and stifling the North American colonies of England were left to grow up by themselves they were never under a colonial government properly so called a revolt followed the first serious attempt to subject them to a real colonial regime but the independence of Brazil came because liberties were finally granted not because they were threatened to be taken away but because of the knowledge growing continually more rigorous and which ceased only after the Portuguese monarch had fled from Lisbon and the colony had become greater than the mother country it is therefore in the little peninsula kingdom during the centuries before Cabral caught sight of the South American coast that we must look for the beginnings of Brazil Rome gave to Portugal laws, language, religion and architecture the forests of Germany modified institutions. The Saracens gave her the arts, navigation and material civilization her happy geographical position near the Straits of Gibraltar made her the meeting place for the Mahomedan and Christian religions of Levantain civilization with Teutonic barbarism and liberty the position also enabled the qualities of daring and enterprise and the scientific knowledge acquired in centuries of long conflicts and intercourse with the Moors to be turned to immediate advantage when the renaissance came. Portugal was the pioneer of Europe in discovery and colonization though Spain followed close after together they led in making Western European civilization dominant beyond seas. The nations who followed in their track have long since passed them but Portugal had once the opportunity of spreading her influence and institutions over half the planet Brazil she mixed success with the failure that was her fate elsewhere Brazil is today the nation which has inherited Roman civilization in the least modified form and is the country where the genuine Latin spirit has the best opportunity for growth and survival. The study of Portugal takes on a new dignity and importance when we reflect that she has given language, institutions and laws to half of South America and to a population that already numbers her own 4 to 1. She is entitled to the interest of the world if only because she has placed her indelible imprint on a region which is as large as Europe and as fertile as Java and which is destined within the next two centuries to support the largest population of any of the great political divisions of the globe. In the 12th century the coalescence of a fragment of the Kingdom of Leon with the Moorish territory near the mouth of the Tagus originated Portugal as a separate country. The race was very mixed. Its principal elements were the Leonese and the Mosa-Raps the latter being the Christians of Moorish Portugal left undisturbed from the Zygotic times by the tolerant Mohammedan conquerors. Each of these elements was in its turn of mixed origin. To the original Iberian population which has occupied the peninsula 2000 years before the Christian era had been successively added Phoenicians, Greeks, Celts, Ligurians, Cartaginians, Latins and in Roman times, Officials, Soldiers and Slaves from all over the empire including many Jews. The Long Roman Dominion welded all these together into a homogeneous mass. Later the Visigothic Conquest added a large Teutonic contingent which is especially evident in northern and Leonese Portugal. Still later the Saracens were married in considerable numbers with the Mosa-Raps of southern Portugal. After the formation of the modern Kingdom another element was added in the French, Provençals, Flemings and English who came in large numbers to aid in the final expulsion of the Moors. By the end of the 14th century the Portuguese had become a distinct nation. Racial and religious tolerance were more advanced than in the rest of Europe. Self-governing municipalities covered the greatest part of the country, each privileged within a definite territory. The nobles, prelates and monastic and military orders were still privileged and their property was not subject to tribute, but their power was not predominant. The king was chief of the army and the proprietor of a very considerable proportion of the land, but he was under constant pressure to grant it to the religious orders and to the nobles. The people were everywhere heavily taxed in the municipalities and crown lands by the king and on the estates of the privileged orders for the benefit of their great proprietors. The nobles were under no enforceable obligation to perform military service. A great general deliberative and representative assembly, the Cortes, had come into being when the monarchy was founded. It included representatives of the municipalities as well as nobles and clergy and its importance and vitality are shown by the fact that from 1250 to 1376 it met 25 times. By the latter date jurisprudence had become generalized and its administration had fallen into the hands of the crown. The nation had developed out of local and class privilege a reasonably consistent and uniform administration. The municipalities were the basis of the governmental structure and a rude but effective local self-government existed through their instrumentality. The norm for decentralization and organization had not been as in nearly all the rest of Europe the feudal system but the surviving fragments of the Roman structure. To the municipalities was largely due the astonishing vigor shown by the Portuguese people in the 15th and 16th centuries. The norm even survived the destruction of liberty and its influence can be seen in every step of the subsequent development of Portugal and also of Brazil. Portugal's heroic era began near the close of the 14th century. The great king John I, founder of the dynasty of Avish, secured Portugal forever from absorption by Spain when he won the battle of Aljubarota in 1385. This was the signal for a rapid transformation of the character and policies of the Portuguese people. The thirst for war and adventure grew. The old Portugal, laborious, agricultural, home-loving, conservative, was replaced by a new Portugal, adventurous, seafaring, eager, romantic, longing for conquest, glory and wealth, its eyes straining over the sea, the embodiment of the spirit of the Renaissance on its material side. The meeting of the Levant and the Baltic, the East and the West, Mohammedans and Christianity, the arts and knowledge of the old races with the energy of the new, had at last produced its perfect work. In 1415 an army was sent into Africa and Théuta was conquered. And there began that marvelous series of voyages which not only transformed Portugal into an empire but gave a new world to Europe and revolutionized the planet. Modern scientific navigation began with the sailors instructed in the school which was set up at Sagres by Thomas Henry, King John's son. Until then European nautical knowledge had been very meager. The compass served only to indicate direction, not distance or position, and did not suffice for the systematic navigation of the open Atlantic. The Portuguese first made that possible by using astronomical observations and inventing the quadrant and the astrolab. This knowledge once acquired was promptly applied to the work of navigation. Madeira was conquered in 1418, the canaries in 1427, the Azores in 1432. The first and last were colonized and rapidly became populous. To the west the explorers pushed no farther for the present, but to the south they reached Cape Blanco in 1441, Senegambia and Cape Verde in 1445 and the Cape Verde Islands in 1460. In 1469 they turned into the Gulf of Guinea and in 1471 were the first Europeans to cross the equator. Their search at first random now became definite. They believed it was only necessary to keep on and they would round the southern extremity of Africa and reach Abyssinia and India by sea, a hope which has became a certainty in 1487 when Bartholomew Diath finally reached the Cape of Good Hope. Meanwhile a political revolution had been going on. The strong kings of the line of Abyssinia had won for the crown a moral preponderance over the nobility and clergy. The latter resisted the royal encroachments, but the municipalities joined the monarchs in the struggle against them. The king who established centralized despotism, the Richelieu of Portugal was John II, the third of the Abyssin dynasty and who reigned from 1481 to 1495. Under his rule the whole military power was concentrated in the crown. The nobility became a class living at court. The king was the fountain of all honor and advancement. Local officers were replaced by officials appointed by and responsible to the central government. Piece by piece the independent functions of the municipalities were taken away. Concentration of powers in the hands of monarch and bureaucracy produced its inevitable effect. A short period of marvelous brilliancy in arms, statecraft, literature and the arts was followed by sudden decay. The self-governing municipalities had nurtured a multitude of men whom small power and responsibility fitted for great things. The nation turned eagerly to the work of exploration and conquest and persecuted it efficiently. Such a people would undertake conquest for their king rather than colonization on their own account. They would emigrate under military leadership and forms. Their colonies would tolerate a closer control by the mother country. They would seek to convert the aborigines and reduced them to slavery. Private initiative would be stifled and overshadowed by that of the government. Large proprietorship would be the rule. The colonies would be burdened with functionaries sent in successive swarms from home. Taxation would be excessive. The best talent would go into the bureau and not concern itself with industrial matters. Invention and originality would be discouraged. Agriculture would not be diversified nor manufacturers thrive. To this day a few staple crops predominate in Brazil. Small land ownership is the exception and the people show little aptitude for change when unfavorable circumstances make their crops unprofitable. Brazilian creoles have little taste for manual pursuits and not much more for commerce. Non-Portuguese immigration has supplied most of the labor. Foreigners have always conducted most of the trade. End of section 24. Section 25 of the South American Republics, volume 1 by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Piotr Natter. Part 4. Brazil Chapter 2. Discovery. On the 9th of March 1500 Pedro Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese nobleman from last year's birth, but not yet distinguished by any notable feats in war or seamanship, sailed from Lisbon for the East Indies. This expedition was sent out to continue the work begun by Vasco da Gama in the first all-sea voyage to India. It was an advance guard for the larger armament that two years later founded the Portuguese Empire on the coasts of India. Vasco da Gama himself wrote Cabral's sailing orders. The latter was instructed, after passing the Cape Verde Islands in 14 degrees south, to sail directly south, as long as the wind was favorable. If forced to change his course he was ordered to keep on the starboard tack, even though it led him southwest. When he reached the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, 34 degrees south he was to bear away to the east. These sailing instructions have been the subject of much attention. Many believe that their sole purpose was to enable Cabral to avoid the Guinea-Cons so annoying to sailing ships near the African coasts. Others contend that da Gama had seen signs of land to the west on his own voyage, and that its discovery was a real, though secondary, object of the expedition. In any event the Brazilian coast is too near the natural route around Africa to have escaped encounter and would fallibly have shortly been seen by someone else. 42 days after leaving Lisbon Cabral's fleet saw unmistakable signs of land being then in latitude 17 degrees south and longitude 36 degrees west. From Cape Verde Islands, just off the western points of Africa he had made 2300 miles and had come 500 miles to the west. The next day a mountain was sighted, which he called Pascoal because it was Easter week. This mountain is in the southern part of the state of Bahia, about 400 miles northeast of Rio and on a coast that to this day is sparsely inhabited and rarely visited. The following day the whole fleet came to an anchor a mile and a half from the shore and just north of the dangerous Abroyo's Reaves. This was the 23rd of April old style, which corresponds with the 3rd of May in the Gregorian calendar. The date is a national holiday in Brazil and the anniversary for the annual convening of Congress. Because no quadrupeds or large rivers were seen, Cabral thought he had discovered an island and named it the Island of the True Cross. The name has not survived except in poetry. He stopped 10 days on the coast, took formal possession and sent expeditions on shore, which entered into communication with the Indians who were seen in considerable numbers. It is characteristic that the first question asked of the Indians was if they knew what gold and silver were. They were peaceable and friendly and the old chronicle describes them as of dark reddish complexion with good features and muscular well-shaped bodies. They wore no clothes, their lower lips and cheeks were perforated to carry great ornaments of white bone and their hair was elaborately dressed and adorned with feathers. These were fair specimens of the Tupiguaranis, the largest of the four great families into which the Brazilian aborigines have been classified. The others are the Carips, the Arawax and the Botacudos. There are also traces of tribes which inhabited the country remote centuries ago. In caves in Minas Geres, skeletons have been found remarkably like those of the earliest Europeans. The theory is that those Indians came from Europe by land in that remote geological epoch when Scandinavia was joined to Greenland. Later came Mongoloids probably by way of the Belling Strait who appear largely to have exterminated their European predecessors and to have been the ancestors of the modern Indians. When America was discovered the four great families were spread in scattering and widely differing tribes over the whole of Brazil and the adjacent cities. Their state of culture varied from that of the most squalid tribes of Botacudos who had not even reached the Stone Age, lived in brush shelters, slept in the ashes of their fires, practiced promiscuous marriage and had no idea of religion except a fear of Malignan spirits up to Arawax who were cleanly had a well-defined tribal organization and built marvelous canoes. Or Tupis who cultivated the soil, built houses, used root machinery for making mandioc flower, spun cotton, wove cloth and were good potters. But the civilization of the best of them was stationary. No Brazilian tribe ever got beyond the condition where the struggle to obtain food was its sole preoccupation. No civilization like that of Mexico, Peru or Yucatan ever existed. Disaggregation, failure and obliteration were the rule. Organically unfitted to cope with their surroundings, they never devised a method of getting a good and permanent food supply. Defective nutrition subbed their powers to resist strains. Their muscular appearance was not accompanied by corresponding endurance. Their European taskmasters could never understand why they died from the effects of exertion to which a white man would easily have been equal. The vast majority had no regular agriculture and lived on the spontaneous products of the forests and the streams. Land game is not abandoned in the tropics and they had developed only few good food plants. What they did procure was spoiled by bad preparation. Such a people had no chance of successfully resisting the Portuguese invaders and their only hope of survival was in contact and admixture with the more vigorous white and black races. The Tupiguaranis occupied one fourth of Brazil, all of Paraguay and Uruguay and much of Bolivia and the Argentine and it is probable that the original seeds of this family were in the central table lands or in Paraguay. Old Tupi Indians spoke dialects of one language which the Jesuit missionaries soon reduced to grammatical and literary form and which became a lingua franca that was understood from the plate to the Amazon. Back of the coast Tupis were the Botacudos, the most degraded and intractable of Brazilian savages, remnants of whom still survive in their original seeds in Espírito Santo, Minas and São Paulo. The Carips with whom students of the history of the Caribbean Sea are familiar originated in the plains of the Goias and Mato Grosso and emigrated as far north as the Antilles. The Arauacs were most numerous in Guyana in the lower Amazon but were also spread over central Brazil. The Brazilian Indians did not survive the white men's coming to as large an extent as in Spanish America. The pure Indian is found in Brazil only in regions where the white man has not thought it worthwhile to take possession and the proportion of Indian blood is much smaller than in surrounding countries. In many localities evidences of Indian descent seem to be remarkable. Cabral's voyage was the real discovery of Brazil if we consider historical and political consequences. It was the first reported to Europe and the Portuguese crown immediately made formal claim to the territory. But as a matter of fact land which today is part of Brazil territory had been seen by Europeans before Cabral landed. In January 1500 Vincente Janes Pinzón commanded the Ninia on the first voyage of Columbus saw land in the neighborhood of Cape Sao Roque. Bound westward he bore a way to the west and north following the prevailing winds and currents as far as the Orange Cape the present extreme northern limits of Brazil. He was therefore the discoverer of the great estuary which forms the mouth of the Amazon. He named it the freshwater sea because the great river freshens far out of sight of land but he did not ascend nor even see the river proper. It is also claimed on good evidence that 6 months before Pinzón another Spanish navigator Alonso de Ojeda accompanied by Américo Vespucci had made the South American coast not far from Cape Sao Roque and that a month later still another Diego de Lepe did the same. None of these Spanish voyages produced any results. They reported until after the news of Cabral's discovery had been solemnly promulgated to the courts of Europe and were soon forgotten. The honor of making Brazil known to Europe belongs to Cabral just as certainly as that of discovering America does to Columbus. The Spanish voyages are interesting to antiquarians but neither day nor the Norwegian voyages of the 11th century were followed up or produced any permanent results. The news reached Portugal in the fall of 1500 and no time was lost in sending out a small fleet to a certain definitely the extent value and resources of the region. The Portuguese hoped to find a wealthy and civilized population like that of India rich and unwar like nations such as the Spaniards did encounter a few years later in Peru and Mexico. The exploring expedition was under the command of Amerigo Vespucci the greatest technical navigator of the age. He shaped his course so as to keep to the windward and south of the redoubtable promontory of Sao Roque which the clumsy ships of that day could not weather in the teeth of the trade winds and the equatorial current and turning to the south made a systematic examination of the coast nearly as far as the river plate employing five months in the task. Assuming the rivers, capes and harbors he saved his inventive faculty and gratified the popular religious sentiment by calling each one by the name of the saint on whose anniversary it was reached. Most of these names have survived for example the San Francisco the largest river between the Amazon and the plate is so called because Vespucci reached it on October the 1st 1501 which date is sacred to Saint Francis in the Roman calendar. Rio de Janeiro is so named because he saw the Great Bay whose entrance is narrower than many rivers on the New Year's Day 1501. He coasted along for 2000 miles looking eagerly for gold, silver, spices and civilized inhabitants. He was disappointed. The only thing found which seemed to have an immediate market value was Brazil wood a dye wood that had been used for centuries and was in great demand. Its color was a bright red hence its name which means wood the color of fire. It was found in such abundance that the world's supply has since been drawn from this coast and among sailors and merchants the country soon became known as the country of Brazil wood. The name almost immediately supplanted Santa Cruz. Vespucci saw that the country was fertile and the climate wasn't. This was not enough to satisfy his greedy employers. A government whose coffers were beginning to overflow with the profits of the Indian spice trade and the African mines was not inclined to pay much attention to a region without the precious metals and inhabited only by naked savages. The reports of the abundance of Brazil wood however induced private adventurers to go and cut that valuable commodity. The government declared it a Portuguese monopoly but the high price of the article made the trade so enormously profitable that ships of other nationalities, especially French could not be excluded. The coast soon became well known but the Portuguese government did not extend its explorations to the south. It was left to the Spaniards to find the passage into the Pacific Ocean and to explore the tributaries of the plate. The southern extension of the continent became and remains Spanish. No exact records exist of the earliest Portuguese explorations of the northern coast from Cape Sao Roque to the mouth of the Amazon. We only know that some Portuguese ships navigated those waters and that Spain never seriously disputed Portugal's title to that region. For 30 years Brazil remained unsettled, although the fleets going to the East Indies often stopped in its admirable harbors to refit and take water. Private adventurers came for Brazilwood and the French poached more and more frequently. Soon the latter began to establish little factories to which they returned here after year and got on good terms with the aborigines. It became evident that Portugal must establish fortified, self-sustaining posts if she expected to retain the territory. End of section 25