In the face of all the trials and injustices which they had undergone, it is important to remember that the temperament of the South Americans was one which urged them strongly to remain loyal to the Mother Country.  Although it had now become evident that a rupture was inevitable, the colonists viewed the snapping of the ties which bound them to Spain with reluctance and unease.  As fate would have it, it was the situation in Europe which arose to solve the difficulty, and to remove the last doubt from the breasts of the South American patriots.  The news of catastrophe after catastrophe filtered slowly through from the peninsula to the colonies.  The Napoleonic armies had overrun the country; the Corsican’s talons were now fixed deeply in its soil, and the rightful Sovereign had abdicated while the throne was being seized upon by Joseph Buonaparte.  Then came the news of a Spanish junta, formed as a last resource to organize a defence of the harassed country; after this followed tidings of dissensions among the numbers of these defenders themselves, of the formation of other juntas, and, in fact, of the prevalence of complete desolation and catastrophe and of the wildest confusion.

In the midst of the reports and rumours, contradictions and confirmations which followed one another at as great a pace as the methods of communication of the period would allow, there came at last definite proofs of the chaos which reigned in Spain.  An envoy arrived in Buenos Aires, sent by Napoleon in his capacity of Lord of Spain, in order to announce the fact to the colonies, and to open up negotiations for future transactions.  Almost simultaneously arrived another envoy—­a special messenger this, sent from the Junta of Seville, who claimed that Spain still belonged to the Spaniards, and that the Junta of Seville represented Spain.

[Illustration:  BRITISH WARSHIPS UNDER ANSON’S COMMAND PLUNDERING PAYTA (NORTHERN PERU) IN 1741.]

In one direction the colonial authorities were enabled to act without hesitation.  Napoleon’s envoy was sent packing back in haste to where he had come from!  The messenger from the junta, on the other hand, was received with every consideration; but his presence failed to dispel the doubts from the minds of the South Americans.  For the downfall of Spain was now patent to all, as well as her impotence, not only to maintain communication with her colonies, but to move hand or foot to free herself from the grasp of the French.

The situation as it now presented itself would have been sufficiently bewildering even in the case of colonies who had enjoyed fair treatment on the part of the Madre Patria.  Amid the chaos which prevailed in Europe it was practically impossible to discover in whose hands the actual authority lay in Spain.  The Spanish King, his rival Prince, Joseph Buonaparte, the Junta of Seville—­all these reiterated their claims to the supreme authority.  The storm of contradictions and disclaimers ended by proving clearly to the colonists what was actually the case.  In Spain no single supreme authority existed.  This in consequence lay with themselves.