The later years of Artigas present the strangest contrast to his early life. Received and sheltered after some hesitation by Francia, the dreaded tyrant of Paraguay, he was first allotted a dwelling in the north of the country, and was afterwards permitted to dwell in the neighbourhood of Asuncion, the capital. Here he lived in complete retirement and peace until his death occurred, at the advanced age of eighty-three. Both his time and the small pension allowed him by the Paraguayan Government were spent in relieving the wants of his neighbours, by whom he was regarded with affection and veneration. The keynote to the true Artigas undoubtedly lies in these last years, when in humble tranquillity he had leisure at length to practise the benevolence and charity that he had so often preached from a corpse-surrounded pulpit. Difficult as it is to withdraw the personality of Artigas from the sea of blood that flooded his age, he was surely a product of an anarchical period rather than of anarchy itself. CHAPTER VII HISTORY The Spanish colonies as nations--The first-fruits of freedom--Uruguay beneath the heel of Portugal--The advent of a second liberator--Juan Antonio Lavalleja--The forming of the league of the "thirty-three"--Opening of the campaign--The patriot force--Rank and its distribution--The crossing of the River Plate--Commencement of operations in Uruguay--A first success--Spread of the movement--Rivera embraces the patriot cause--The march upon Montevideo--A daring siege--How the army of occupation was deceived--Timely reinforcements--Lavalleja establishes an independent government--Incident at the opening of the Senate--Argentina comes to the assistance of Uruguay--Beginning of the rivalry between Rivera and Lavalleja--Dissension in the Uruguayan army--Temporary disgrace of Rivera--His acquittal--Lavalleja declares himself dictator--Uruguay's independence acknowledged by Argentina and Brazil--The national authorities enter Montevideo. The end of the year 1824 witnessed the extinction of the last vestige of the power of Spain in South America. With one solitary exception, each former Spanish colony had now raised itself to the status of a nation. It is true that in the majority of cases the inhabitants of these countries suffered not only the wildest of anarchy, but in addition a degree of despotism that had been unknown during the Spanish régime, for all the selfishness of the Peninsula Government. Yet since the flock of tyrants that rose up, each like a grim phoenix, from the ashes of the Spanish Dominion were conceived of the tortured countries themselves, the South Americans took such small comfort as they might from a dim reflection that in their own hands lay the possibility of the improvement in the rulers born from their own bone.