When, moreover, after the rout of the Portuguese fleet by the Argentine Admiral Brown, and the series of victories that culminated in the battle of Ituzaingo, it became evident that the expulsion of the Portuguese from Uruguayan soil was now inevitable within a very short time, Lavalleja did not wait for any definite conclusion of peace. In October of 1827, when, as a matter of fact, the terms of an armistice were still in dispute, he deposed the national Junta, and without further ado declared himself Dictator of his country. This office he held until July of the following year, when he voluntarily resigned from the post. August witnessed a formal acknowledgment of the independence of Uruguay by both Argentina and Brazil, and in November a provisional Government was established. On May 1, 1829, the national authorities, amidst no little pomp and ceremony, made a formal entry into Montevideo, and Uruguay was at last definitely left to the care of its own rulers. CHAPTER VIII HISTORY--_continued_ Foreign war succeeded by internal chaos--Warriors as statesmen--The dictatorship of Lavalleja--His methods--The first open breach between Lavalleja and Rivera--A temporary reconciliation--Establishment of the Constitution of Uruguay--Lavalleja and Rivera candidates for the President's chair--Differences in the temperaments of the two--Rivera is elected first President of Uruguay--Jealousies and intrigue--Attack upon Rivera--Narrow escape of the President--Lavalleja's party temporarily occupy Montevideo--Defeat of the insurgent general--His flight into Brazil--Intervention of the Argentine Dictator Rosas--His support of Lavalleja--Combined forces beaten by Rivera--Lavalleja's second attempt proves unsuccessful--General Oribe succeeds Rivera as President--Lavalleja's party again in the ascendant--Rivera heads a revolution--Civil war--Intervention of France--Resignation of Oribe--Rivera elected President--His alliance with the French and Corrientines--Declaration of war against Rosas--Defeat of the latter--On the withdrawal of the French Rosas resumes the aggressive--Severe defeat of Rivera and his allies of the littoral provinces--Oribe besieges Montevideo--The services of Garibaldi--The Uruguayan forces decimated--Further incidents of the war--The power of Rosas broken by Brazil, Uruguay, and Entre-Rios. For the purpose of a self-contained romance with a popular ending, the adventures of the leaders of the thirty-three should end at the moment when the liberation of the Banda Oriental became a dawning certainty, but history has an unfortunate knack of continuing where fiction ceases. The fiercest enemy of a hero is longevity.