MEXICO. 101 in his government he recognized no authority superior to his own they, therefore, regarded the abohtion of offices, inseparably connected, in their minds, with the abuses, the existence of which was admitted, as a first step towards im- provement, and this step they determined to take themselves, when they found the Mother country resolved to retain to the last every attribute of her former power. Such was the state of affairs at the commencement of 1810 : I have quoted documents of a later date, in order the better to illustrate it ; and they render sufficiently intelligible the unanimity which characterized the first proceedings of the Creole Insurgents. Throughout the whole Continent of Ame- rica, the same causes were every where in operation ; and, with little or no difference in point of time, they every where produced the same effects : in Caracas, Buenos Ayres, Bo- gota, Carthagena, Chile, Upper Peru, and Mexico, by one simultaneous movement, the people deposed the European Authorities, and transferred the reins of Government to Juntas, composed almost exclusively of Native Americans.-f- These Juntas assumed the title of " Guardians and Pre- servers of the Rights of Ferdinand VII."" | In some, Euro- peans were at first admitted : in others, the Viceroy himself, (where not personally obnoxious,) was invited to preside. || In all, the most amicable sentiments towards Spain were ex-
- Fide Observations of Junta of Caracas, on the above Circular, dated
aOth May, 1810. f The revolution of Caracas took place on the 19th of Ajml, 1810; that of Buenos Ayres, 2.5th May ; of New Grenada, 3d July; of Bogota, 20th July; of Carthagena, 18th August; of Chile, 18th September; of M exico, I6th September. — Fide " Representation of American Deputies to the Cortes," dated 1st August, 18 M. Appendix. • X Junta Conservadora, or Cuerpo Conservador, de los Derechos del Senor Don Fernando 7"°. II As at Buenos Ayres, where the Congress was convoked, and a Pro- visional Government formed, at the suggestion of the Viceroy, Don Bal- tasar Hidalgo de Cisneros. — Vide}^s Proclamation of 18th May, 1810.
