THE RE VOL UTIONAR V PERIOD 1 93 patriots and liberators, but even patriots may feel some degree of jealousy and a spirit of rivalry. While San Martin was absent on this diplomatic mis- sion, the people of Lima forcibly deposed Monteagudo. The wily minister, fearing the vengeance of the people, hastened aboard a vessel and was conveyed to Panama. The supreme delegate, Torre Tagle, who conducted the affairs of the government in the absence of San Mar- tin, supplied the place of Monteaguda with a tempo- rary junta ; this body immediately summoned a national congress, taking advantage, perhaps, of San Martin's absence. At any rate, the protector was deeply cha- grined when he returned from the north and found a congress holding secret sessions at the capital. Sur- rounded by difficulties, with a rival at the north, dis- affection among the patriots and intrigues among the royalists, San Martin, on the 20th of September, 1822, resigned his authority in an able and patriotic address. He perceived that his day was a thing of the past in Peru, and was politic enough to lay down his authority in time. He returned to Buenos Ayres, stopping a short time at Valparaiso. In 1823, he sailed for Eng- land. He died at Boulogne on the 17th of August, 1850, aged seventy-two years. Peru's subsequent efforts to maintain her independence were not success- ful until General Bolivar achieved that result in the bat- tle of Xauxa, August 6th, 1824, and finally, in the de- cisive battle of Ayacucho, December gth, 1824. 13
