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When Beresford refused to proclaim the independence of the province, or to give any assurance for their future independence, the inhabitants, who had now learned how insignificant the invading force really was, began to prepare for resistance. A leader was readily found in the person of Jacques Liniers, a Frenchman, who had been for thirty years in the service of Spain.
But finally, owing to the bad generalship and incompetency of Whitelocke, his troops got into such a muddle that half the force was captured or disabled. On July 6, Liniers decided to send a flag of truce with the proposal to surrender all the English prisoners, including those taken with Beresford, provided Whitelocke would evacuate the territory of Buenos Aires.
The people of Buenos Aires, therefore, deposed him and chose Liniers in his place. During the fall other English reinforcements arrived, and in January, 1807, Montevideo was taken by assault. As soon as the defeat of Beresford was known, General Whitelocke was sent to take command of the united English forces of the Plate, now some twelve thousand in number. He arrived in the spring.
For the mild, although repressive viceregal sway is substituted that of a swarm of military chieftains, who, fighting as patriots against Liniers and his ill-fated troops, as rivals with each other, or as montanero-freebooters against all combined, swept the plains with their harrying lancers from the seacoast to the base of the Cordillera.
A French naval officer in the service of the Spanish, Don Santiago Liniers, organized an army of relief at Montevideo, to which all the South American volunteers, officers and troops, flocked. The local forces, now powerfully recruited, crossed the River Plate, attacked Buenos Aires, and won the city back for the Spanish Crown on August 12.
The patriots now made their first important move. A force of 1,200 volunteers, commanded by Ocampo and Balcarce, marched against Córdoba, where Liniers and Concha were in command of the Royalist forces. These latter were defeated and their leaders executed. Flushed by its success, the Argentine army then invaded Peru.
One of Liniers' associates, Alzaga, insisted that the terms of surrender should include Montevideo. This demand seemed preposterous, but the clause was finally inserted, and to their surprise agreed to, so complete was the demoralization of the English. On July 7 the terms of capitulation were signed.
The party in favour of this increased rapidly in strength, and shortly afterwards the Viceroy, Liniers, resigned. Although he had to a certain extent the support of the patriot party, his position in the face of the complicated situation had become extremely difficult. He was succeeded on July 30, 1809, by Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros. The latter lost no time in giving proof of liberal intentions.
Among these was Liniers, who in the last days of the Spanish régime had gathered together a local force on the River Plate, and had dislodged the British forces from Buenos Aires. This, however, did not prevent his execution by the patriots soon after the outbreak of the war.
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