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guerrilla activities in the sierra, but the Creole aristocracy of Lima,
on whom the Argentine general had relied for some demonstration of
support, did nothing. Rather than confront San Martín in battle, the
Spanish forces proceeded to negotiate. Finally, in 1821, they evacuated
Lima and relocated to the highlands as San Martín entered Lima. The
Creoles professed to be pleased but were also dismayed that the ban-
dits and brigands, many of them free blacks and runaway slaves who
had made travel outside the capital so perilous, were now joining San
Martín's patriot troops.
Bolívar in Peru
In the absence of a united Creole government, San Martín had to accept
political leadership. The citizens of Lima may have been motivated
more by public security than by making sacrifices for the liberation of
Peru. They developed a widespread fear of the troops of San Martín.
According to an English observer, “It was not only of the slaves and of
the mob that people were afraid, but with more reason of the multitude
of armed Indians surrounding the city, who, although under the orders
of San Martín's officers, were savage and undisciplined troops” (Lynch
1987, 68). It was not lost on the local landowners that their own con-
trol of the slaves was undermined by the fact that many of San Martín's
troops were former African slaves as well as free blacks. Moreover, San
Martín levied special taxes to support his troops, which made him
unpopular with the residents of Lima, the
limeños.
San Martín's problems were numerous. The general hesitated to risk
his army in confronting the enemy, who could gather twice the num-
ber of troops as he could. He was also receiving little assistance from
the Peruvians. Moreover, as provisional governor, he alienated many
Peruvian Creoles by enlisting their slaves into military service, decree-
ing a law that freed the children born to slaves, and outlawing Indian
tribute and forced labor. The Creoles would not rise to his revolu-
tion, and by 1822, San Martín was ready to look for another solution.
The arrival of General Simón Bolívar, fresh from liberating Colombia,
Venezuela, and Ecuador, gave him the opportunity. In February 1822,
San Martín sailed to interview Bolívar in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
While a stalemate confronted San Martín in Peru, Simón Bolívar
was completing a series of stunning victories against royalist forces
in northern South America. Bolívar had suffered all the vicissitudes
of the independence movement. In his native Venezuela, he had been
defeated in 1812 when the first patriot rebellion succumbed to internal
dissent, not unlike that of distant Buenos Aires. Similar movements by
