Now that Bolivar was overthrown and Sucre murdered on a lonely mountain road by hired assassins, the sentiment of loyalty to their old chiefs tardily revived among the fickle Colombian regulars. They received Flores's declaration of independence with indignation; an insurrection broke out among the garrison at Guayaquil; and the veterans marched to the plateau. Flores had no force capable of making headway against them, and was compelled to negotiate a treaty, agreeing to support Bolivar in case the latter should remain in South America. On the other hand, the troops consented to recognise Flores if Bolivar should go into exile. Hardly had the treaty been signed than word was received of the lonely death of the great Venezuelan at Santa Marta. Most of the veterans took service under Flores, and he pursued the recalcitrants with relentless and bloody severity. Pasto and Popayan, composing the province of Cauca, the northern division of the old Quito presidency, wavered as to whether they would cast their lot with Ecuador or New Granada. The government at Bogota sent an army into the disputed territory, and Flores tried to organise a force large enough to beat it, but he was hampered by mutinies, conspiracies, and poverty, and after a year of expensive though nearly bloodless operations withdrew and consented to a treaty by which Ecuador gave up all claim to Pasto and Popayan, losing a third of the territory and population of the old presidency of Quito. [Illustration: COSTUMES OF NATIVES NEAR QUITO.] Flores, however, managed to hold Guayaquil and Cuenca as well as Quito and must therefore be regarded as the founder of Ecuador, though his reactionary, absolute, and violent government was hated by all that was young, intelligent, and liberal in the country. The Indian peasants groaned under the burden of taxes imposed to subsidise a horde of functionaries. Finances were in deplorable confusion; the public debts left unpaid; population decreased, especially in the Andean region; agriculture, industry, and commerce remained stationary, except in the cacao districts on the coast. The lower classes had a hard struggle for bare existence, and the parasitical ruling race was solely pre-occupied with political war and intrigue. But it cannot fairly be said that Flores or any other one man was responsible. The lamentable condition of affairs resulted inevitably from the long struggle with Spain and from the situation, character, and ideals of the people. But such a janizary system of government was too burdensome, unwieldy, and wasteful not to fall by its own weight sooner or later. The people were simply unable to pay the taxes which Flores levied vainly trying to satisfy his troops. Mutinies broke out among the latter, and the liberals were encouraged to organise.