would counter the Montevidean propaganda and turn the international opinion to his side. Durán de Mareuil, representative of French business in Buenos Aires, was among the signatories. He wrote a document requesting the end of the blockade, which included Rosas's demands. Those demands were the inclusion of Oribe in the negotiations, disarm of Montevideo, return of Colonia, Martín García and the captured navy, departure from the internal rivers, acknowledgement of the sovereignty of Argentina and an indemnization. As expected, it was rejected in Montevideo, so Mareuil moved to Paris to give it directly to the French government. Uruguay river The Anglo-French navy navigated the internal Uruguay river by mid August, led by Lainé and Inglefield. They announced that they would block any ports supporting Oribe, and remove the people in them with gunshots. In response, the ports were closed to any communication with the Anglo-French navy. Lainé and Inglefield moved to Colonia del Sacramento, with Giuseppe Garibaldi and his legion of Italian volunteers. They had a total of 28 ships, whereas Jaime Montoro, colonel defending the city had only 300 soldiers and eight small cannons. The Italian legion disembarked in the city and pillaged it. José Luis Bustamante blamed Garibaldi for it, while Garibaldi would attribute it to a lack of military discipline among his Legion. He would write in his memoirs that "the repression of disorder was difficult, considering that Colonia had plenty of resources, and specially of spirituous liquids that increased the desires of the virtuous pillagers". Even the local church was sacked, and the drunk Italians spent the night in it. The navy moved then to Martín García, 550 French troops defeating the 125-strong army detachment under Colonel Geronimo Costa stationed there. The flag of Argentina was removed, and replaced with the flag of Uruguay. The Argentine soldiers were removed, and the island was left abandoned. The ship moved then into the Uruguay river. The pillage of Gualeguaychú was even worse than in Colonia, to the point that Bustamante wrote to Rivera worried about Garibaldi, fearing that his actions would discredit the whole operation. Garibaldi described that "The city of Gualeguaychú drove us to conquest by being a real emporium of wealth, capable to dress our ragged soldiers and supply us with harnesses. We acquired many and very good horses in Gualeguaychú, the clothes needed to dress all the people, the harnesses of cavalry and some money