nored. Facundo then returned to Rioja, inimical to the Presidency, though not knowing what motive to give for this opposition, for he could not have explained it to himself.
"I am not a Federal," he always said, "I am not such a fool." "Do you know," he said once, to Don Dalmacio Velez, "why I went to war? For this," showing, as he spoke, an ounce of gold. This was not true.
At other times he said, "Carril, governor of San Juan, treated me very badly in paying no attention to my recommendation of Carita, and for this I put myself in opposition to the Congress." This also was false. His enemies said, that he owned many shares in the bank, and proposed to sell them to the national government for three hundred thousand dollars. Rivadavia rejected this proposition as a scandalous theft, and from that time Facundo enlisted among his enemies. This was true as a fact, but it was not his motive. It was believed that he yielded to the suggestions of Bustos and Ibarra in joining the opposition party; but there is a document which proves the contrary. In a letter which he wrote in 1832 to General Madrid, he said, "When I was invited by those two low fellows, Bustos and Ibarra, I did not consider them capable of making a successful opposition to that despot, President Don Bemadino Rivadavia, and refused to join them; but having been informed by Colonel Manuel del Castillo, aide-de-camp of Bustos, that you were engaged in this affair, and much interested in it, I did not hesitate a moment in deciding to join unconditionally; counting upon your sword alone for success . . . . What was my misfortune," etc.
