Page:The History of San Martin (1893).djvu/345

Rh The Junta drew up a constitution, on the basis of a federal union of the various provinces. The sovereignty of King Ferdinand was recognised, and also the authority of the Regency of Cadiz, so long as it should exist. This was a compromise on all sides, and the Junta being overawed by the popular leaders, had no real power. Later on the Viceroy was deposed, and the Junta was instructed to govern in the name of the King in complete independence of any other authority in Spain. Two days afterwards Montufar and Villavicencio arrived as commissioners from Spain, but were powerless to do more than accept what was already done. Montufar, who was entrusted with a special mission to Quito, continued his journey to that city, where we shall presently find him at the head of the revolutionists.

Anarchy and reaction were not slow to follow on these hasty steps. Local jealousies, which had been kept in check by the colonial system; divergence of opinion between the leaders of the movement; the antagonistic interests of Americans and Spaniards, and the instincts of the masses who grouped themselves on geographical lines, all combined to bring on complications in which the strength of the country was wasted without any good result. The Junta sent a circular to the provinces inviting them to send deputies to a Congress. Nearly every province followed the example of the capital by appointing a Junta, but some of them refused to send deputies to a Congress, preferring to consider themselves independent republics.

Cartagena refused to acknowledge in any way the authority of the Junta of the capital, and invited the other provinces to send deputies to a Congress in that city. One province only acceded to this proposition, but it sufficed to prevent the assemblage of the Congress at Bogota, and postponed the formation of a central government, which was the urgent necessity of the moment.

The revolutionary leaders in the capital then tried a new plan. They formed the Province of Santa Fé, of