226

POLITICAL EVENTS

CHAP. XXV.

invasion of Spain by the French . When the in-telligence of the capture of the royal family andthe transactions at Bayonne reached that country,the Viceroy Iturrigaray seems to have acted anindecisive part, as if balancing in his mind whetherto yield to the power Buonaparte had assumedover all the Spanish dominions, or to acknowledgeand obey the newly created Junta of Seville, whohad claimed similar power. The old Spaniards inthe capital composed a faction which had been thechief instrument of each successive viceroy incontinuing the authority of Spain . They seizedthe viceroy, and under the pretence of an accusa-tion of heresy, committed him to the prison of theinquisition, and from thence transferred him toSpain , where, though imprisoned for some years,his conduct was never investigated.

In the course of three centuries the mass ofenergetic inhabitants had become composed of thenatives of the soil, but descended from Spanish ancestors. They were treated by the Europeans,who exercised political and judicial power, andwere the richest part of the population, as an in-ferior class. Among these, called the Creoles ,discontent was generated and rapidly extended;and as the great body of the Indians were easilyinfluenced by them through the priests, a changewas operated which quickly converted the languid,simple, and superstitious natives into furious, vin-dictive, and unfeeling revolutionists. A feeble