It is a curious fact, that the importance of these great events was not, at first, felt in the Peninsula; or if felt, was, at least, greatly underrated. So little was the character of the Creoles known, and so high the opinion entertained of the superior resources of Spain, that neither the Regency, nor the Cortes, which met, (as I have already stated,) in September, 1810, would ever take the subject into serious consideration.
The First thought to quell the spirit of insurrection in Vĕnĕzuelā, (where the flame first broke out,) by sending there a Royal Commissary, (Don Antonio Ignacio Cŏrtăvărrīă,) armed with extravagant powers,[1] whom the Junta of Caracas, of course, refused to receive; and the Second[2] passed days and weeks in discussing the mode in which the Americans were to be represented in the National assembly, and fixed it, at last, upon a basis to which the Colonists refused their assent. The whole coast of Vĕnĕzuelā was subsequently declared to be in a state of blockade,[3] without a single ship of war
- ↑ His commission empowered him "to assume the Regal power in its fullest extent:—to remove, suspend, or dismiss the Authorities of every rank and class; to pardon or punish the guilty, at pleasure; to make use of the monies belonging to the Royal Treasury; and to give orders, which were to be obeyed as emanating directly from the King's own person.—Vide Commission, dated 1st August, 1810
- ↑ Vide Sessions of Cortes, of 9th, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 16th January, 1811.
- ↑ Decrees of Regency, of 21st August, 1810.
