Page:The History of San Martin (1893).djvu/349

Rh the 11th December, the citizens of Quito deposed Ruiz de Castillo from his post as President of the Junta, summoned a Congress, and declared Quito to be an independent State. Ruiz retired to a convent, from which he was dragged by a mob and brutally murdered.

In the following year Marshal Montes arrived from Peru to take command of the Royalist forces, and on the 2nd September, 1812, defeated the Patriots at Mocha, giving no quarter. Montufar raised a new army, and took up a position on some precipices which covered the road to the capital, but Montes, marching for nine days by a circuitous route over the rugged slopes of Chimborazo, gained his rear and obliged him to retreat.

The Patriots then fortified the city of Quito, and declared they would hold out to the last extremity, but it was taken by assault on the 3rd November. Montufar retired northwards with the remnant of his force, but was pursued by Colonel Samano, who beat him twice and captured all his guns. Samano following out his instructions, shot all superior officers who fell into his hands, and, going on to Pasto where the prisoners of Popayán were confined, he shot one in every five of the officers and one in every ten of the soldiers, the victims being chosen by lot. Caicedo and Macaulay were among them. Thus was crushed the second revolution in Quito.

While the reaction closed in upon New Granada, the interior of the country was a prey to anarchy. Federalism struggled against centralization, Cundinamarca against the provinces, Nariño against Congress, till all was chaos. Nariño pursued his policy of centralization by sending troops into the districts around the capital and annexing them to what he called "the legal province." Congress protested from its retreat at Ibague. Baraya, with the district of Tunja, pronounced in favour of Congress, and defeated a force sent by Nariño to reduce the Province of Socorro. Nariño was forced to come to terms, and resigned, but was reinstated by the citizens of the capital,