orm of government under the circumstances. Bolivar held fast to the
idea of a centralized or unitary republic, in which actual power should
be exercised by a life president and an hereditary senate until the
people, represented in a lower house, should have gained a sufficient
amount of political experience.

When San Martin returned to Lima he found affairs in a worse state than
ever. The tyrannical conduct of the officer he had left in charge had
provoked an uprising that made his position insupportable. Conscious
that his mission had come to an end and certain that, unless he gave
way, a collision with Bolivar was inevitable, San Martin resolved to
sacrifice himself lest harm befall the common cause in which both had
done such yeoman service. Accordingly he resigned his power into the
hands of a constituent congress and left the country. But when he found
that no happier fortune awaited him in Chile and in his own native
land, San Martin decided to abandon Spanish America forever and go into
selfimposed exile. Broken in health and spirit, he took up his residence
in France, a recipient of bounty from a Spaniard who had once been his
comrade in arms.

Meanwhile in the Mexican part of the viceroyalty of New Spain the cry
of independence raised by Morelos and his bands of Indian followers had
been stifled by the capture and execution of the leader. But the cause
of independence was not dead even if its achievement was to be entrusted
to other hands. Eager to emulate the example of their brethren in South
America, small parties of Spaniards and Creoles fought to overturn
the despotic rule of Ferdinand VII, only to encounter defeat from the
royalists. Then came the Revolution of 1820 in the mother country.
Forthwith demands were heard for a recognition of the liberal regime.
Fearful of being displaced from power, the viceroy with the support of
the clergy and aristocracy ordered Agustin de Iturbide, a Creole
officer who had been an active royalist, to quell an insurrection in the
southern part of the country.

The choice of this soldier was unfortunate. Personally ambitious and
cherishing in secret the thought of independence, Iturbide, faithless
to his trust, entered into negotiations with the insurgents which
culminated February 24, 1821, in what was called the "Plan of Iguala."
It contained three main provisions, or "guarantees," as they were
termed: the maintenance of the Catholic religion to the exclusion of
all o