should negotiate the acquiescence of the other American governments.
Meantime commercial relations were re-established with Spain, contraband of war being excepted. But it was an illusion on the part of Rivadavia to hope that the question with Spain could be settled by any other mode than by arms.
There was yet a further stipulation. As France had voted 20 millions of dollars in aid of the restoration of absolutism in Spain, in agreement with the Holy Alliance, from which England was already separated, the Government of Buenos Ayres was authorized to negotiate for an equal sum among the States of America "to uphold the representative system in Spain." Don Felix Alzaga was, with this object, appointed plenipotentiary to the Governments of Chile, Peru, and Columbia. At the same time General Las Heras was sent as a commissioner to the Royalist authorities in Peru, to arrange an armistice with them, in conjunction with General Arenales, who was at that time in command on the northern frontier.
Buenos Ayres, in spite of the dangers which surrounded her, thus performed her duty to her sister States, boldly confronting the alliance of the absolute kings, and thereby gained the goodwill of England; but the convention was rejected in Chile through the intervention of the Columbian minister. Alzaga then went on to Peru and presented it to both Presidents, to Torre-Tagle and to Riva-Agüero. The first made use of it to open a traitorous correspondence with the Royalists, the other used it as a plea for arranging an armistice of his own, and for sending back the Columbian auxiliaries; but, strange to say, it was accepted by Bolivar as a way out of his difficulties, he merely stipulating that it should, first of all, be ratified by the Spaniards. His object was to gain time for the arrival of reinforcements from Columbia.
At the beginning of 1824 the situation of the Patriots in Peru was very precarious. The Royalists had 18,000 men, flushed with recent victories; the Patriots had only half
