THE REVOLT OF THE MASSES 157
were refl ected in the terms that the rebel delegates
presented to the Spanish commissioners and that
the latter signed and later repudiated; these terms
included reduction of indigenous and mestizo trib-
ute and sales taxes, return of usurped land, abo-
lition of the new tax on tobacco, and preference
for creoles over Europeans in the fi lling of offi cial
posts.
An agreement reached on June 4, 1781, satis-
fi ed virtually all the demands of the rebels and was
sanctifi ed by the archbishop in a special religious
service. Secretly, however, the Spanish commis-
sioners signed another document declaring the
agreement void because it was obtained by force.
The jubilant insurgents scattered and returned to
their homes. Only José Antonio Galán, a young
mestizo peasant leader, maintained his small force
intact and sought to keep the revolt alive.
Having achieved their objective of disband-
ing the rebel army, the Spanish offi cials prepared
to crush the insurrection completely. The vice-
roy Manuel Antonio Flores openly repudiated the
agreement with the Comuneros. Following a pasto-
ral visit to the disaffected region by the archbishop,
who combined seductive promises of reform with
threats of eternal damnation for confi rmed rebels,
Spanish troops brought up from the coast moved
into the region and took large numbers of prison-
ers. The creole leaders of the revolt hastened to
atone for their political sins by collaborating with
the royalists. Galán, who had vainly urged a new
march on Bogotá, was seized by a renegade leader
and handed over to the Spaniards, who put him to
death by hanging on January 30, 1782. The revolt
of the Comuneros had ended.Go online for additional
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