These men, instead of remaining to head the revolt, retired to the islands in the Caribbean sea, on which active measures being taken by the government the plot was discovered; several who were concerned in it were executed, and others banished. Previous to this, in 1781, some reforms and additional taxes which were introduced in New Granada created such dissatisfaction that 17,000 men collecting themselves together marched against the city of Santa Fé de Bogota exclaiming "Long live the King, but death to our bad governors," but this insurrection was soon quelled by politic measures. After the disturbances in 1797, the country was again tranquil, until the period when Napoleon Buonaparte, assuming upon the numerous victories which the French troops had gained, grasped at the sceptre of Europe. After subduing, in part, the mother country, and depriving the king of his liberty, he dispatched his emissaries in every direction to America; these men were, in general, of acknowledged talents, and endeavoured by every means in their power, under assumed characters, to widen the breach which had gradually been opening between Spain and her colonies. The Americans, instigated by such advisers, and finding themselves cut off from all communication with Spain, now intent solely on her own preservation, were dubious how to act; but the mass of the people resisted all idea of throwing off their allegiance, and would not consent to their country being under French controul. Accordingly, they established juntas in Caraccas, New Granada and Buenos Ayres, in imitation of similar acts on the part of their Spanish brethren. In Caraccas and other places, Ferdinand the Seventh was proclaimed with all due solemnity, and when it was announced in July 1808, that Joseph Buonaparte had usurped the throne of Spain, 10,000 of the inhabitants of Caraccas flew to arms, surrounded the palace of the captain-general, and demanded the proclamation of their sovereign; this he promised to do next day, but such was their ardour, that they proclaimed him immediately themselves. In Buenos Ayres, the viceroy, Liniers, receiving intelligence of the events in the peninsula, in July 1808, exhorted the people in the name of Buonaparte to remain quiet; but Xavier Elio, the governor of Monte Video, accused him of disloyalty, and separated his government from that of Buenos Ayres; and this officer afterwards ineffectually endeavoured to persuade that city to acknowledge the title of viceroy, which he had received from the mother country. In Mexico, the news of the Spanish affairs was not known, till the 29th July 1808, when a junta was immediately established; and the city of La Paz in Charcas, in the beginning of 1809, formed a similar junta for its government; but the viceroys of Buenos Ayres and Peru opposed this motion, and both sent armies to quell the insurrection, in which they were successful.