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 THE RE VOL UTIONARY PERIOD 135 colonies of La Plata being then at war with Brazil over boundaries. General Belgrano, after being driven from Salta, obtained a signal victory over Tristan, the royalist general of Peru in Tucuman, September 24th, 1812. Discussions in forming a congress followed, which retarded the independent movement ; but a gen- eral meeting of the inhabitants of Buenos Ayres con- fided the government to a junta composed of three leading citizens, Pena, Passo and Jonte. San Martin, in February, 1813, defeated the royalists at San Lorenzo, and on the 20th, Belgrano defeated the Peruvian forces assembled at Salta after a four hours battle, taking Tristan prisoner with all his army. On the 31st of the following January, a congress {consttiuyente') assembled in Buenos Ayres, which de- clared the independence of the provinces of La Plata. The junta was changed to a supreme executive board, consisting of Pena, Perez and Jonte. Several liberal measures were adopted, including the emancipation of slaves. But the independence of the La Plata provinces had not yet been satisfactorily achieved, owing principally to internal dissensions. A conspiracy was formed at Montevideo, instigated by royalist Spaniards of Buenos Ayres. A battle was fought at Vilcapugio, in which Belgrano was defeated by the royalist forces of Peru under Pezuela, and a little later the patriots were com- pletely routed, so that the royalists of Peru were now masters of Upper Peru, Jujuy and Salta. The situation of Buenos Ayres was now critical, threatened as it was on the side of Peru by a victori- ous royalist army and on the side of Montevideo by an opposing Portuguese-Brazilian army. The congress in December, therefore, decided to do away with the triangular junta and to vest the executive power in, a