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Near the town and the suburb of Belgrano are a great many peach-tree plantations, the fruit of which is used for fattening pigs while the wood serves for roasting them. There is also some scrubby brushwood, and a few large native trees; but these are soon left behind, and are succeeded by far-spreading rich pasture land, and occasional lagunes.
The harassed statesmen of Argentina had, after consideration, decided that the best means of avoiding anarchy was to establish a monarchy. The emissaries of the New World offered the throne to Don Francisco Paulo, an adopted son of King Carlos IV. These negotiations and others which succeeded them broke down and Belgrano returned to Buenos Aires.
Hearing of the struggle for liberty in his native land, he resigned his commission and returned to America. He was almost unknown personally, but his reputation as a brave soldier and a skilful tactician procured for him immediate employment. San Martin was soon given the command of this army in the north, succeeding General Belgrano.
In the Memoirs of General Belgrano we read: "It grieved me to see my country subjugated in this manner, but I shall always admire the gallantry of the brave and honorable Beresford in so daring an enterprise." Beresford was, however, unable to hold his ground, for the Spaniards got together an army of 10,000 men, and re-took the city.
Bolivar, Sucre, Miranda, and their colleagues blew up the flames of strife and kept them alive in the north; Belgrano, San Martin, Guëmes, and their comrades maintained the fight in the River Plate Provinces; while the Chilean O'Higgins and his companions accompanied the great San Martin in his march from Argentina westwards over the Andes to Chile.
The Viceroy, de Cisneros, reluctant to oppose the now strongly expressed popular will, on May 25, 1810, resigned his office in the presence of an immense multitude. From this day the independence of Argentina is officially counted, for on the spot a junta was established. Its members were Saavedra, Belgrano, Alberdi, Castelli, Azcuenaga, Matheu, Larrea, Paso, and Moreno.
Belgrano, then in turn advanced and made once again for Salta. In the neighbourhood of this town the Argentine flags were carried into battle for the first time, and their presence was welcomed as a favourable omen, for the victory remained with the patriot forces.
The Royalists, flushed with victory, had recaptured the towns of Salta and Jujuy, and Belgrano retired for a while in the face of their advances. The forces under the Spanish General, Tristán, followed him. This was Belgrano's opportunity. Falling upon the Royalist army, he completely defeated it in a battle at Tucumán, and the Spaniards suffered a heavy loss in men and munitions of war.
Under circumstances like these, when the junta and its successor, the council of regency, refused to make substantial concessions to the colonies, both parties were inevitably drifting toward independence. In the phrase of Manuel Belgrano, one of the great leaders in the viceroyalty of La Plata, "our old King or none" became the watchword that gradually shaped the thoughts of Spanish Americans.
Cornelio de Saavedra, one of the patriot leaders in the capital, succeeded, however, in preventing an open rising, since this would undoubtedly have been premature. A secret society was now formed in Buenos Aires, counting in its ranks Belgrano, Nicolas Rodriguez Peña, Manuel Alberdi, Viamonte, Guido, and others.
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