The Spanish Government is entitled to the praise of having done its

utmost to protect the native populations. In the early days of the

conquest, Queen Isabella watched over their interests with a special

concern for their conversion to the true faith. As years passed, and

the gigantic dimensions of the evil which had fallen on the Indians

became apparent, her successors attempted, by incessant legislation,

to stay the progress of the ruin which was desolating a continent.

None of the other European Powers manifested so sincere a purpose to

promote the welfare of a conquered people. The rulers of Spain were

continually enacting laws which erred only in being more just and wise

than the country in its disordered condition was able to receive. They

continually sought to protect the Indians by regulations extending to

the minutest detail, and conceived in a spirit of thoughtful and even

tender kindness.[31] In all that the Government did or endeavoured to

do it received eager support from the Church, whose record throughout

this terrible history is full of wise foresight and noble courage

in warning and rebuking powerful evil-doers. The Popes themselves

interposed their authority to save the Indians. Las Casas, when he

became a bishop, ordered his clergy to withhold absolution from men

who held Indians as slaves. [Sidenote: 1520 A.D.] Once the King’s

Preachers, of whom there were eight, presented themselves suddenly

before the Council of the Indies and sternly denounced the wrongs

inflicted upon the natives, whereby, said they, the Christian religion

was defamed and the Crown disgraced. Gradually efforts such as these

sufficed to mitigate the sorrows of the Indians; but for many years

their influence was scarcely perceived. The spirit of the conquerors

was too high for submission to any limitation of prerogatives which

they had gained through perils so great; their hearts were too fierce,

their orthodoxy too strict to admit any concern for the sufferings

of unbelievers. They were followed by swarms of adventurers--brave,

greedy, lawless. Success--unlooked for and dazzling--attended the

search for gold. Conquest followed conquest with a rapidity which

left hopelessly in arrear the efforts of Spain to supply government

for the enormous dependencies suddenly thrown upon her care. Every

little native community was given over to the tender mercies of a

man who regarded human suffering with unconcern; who was animated

by a consuming hunger for gold, and who knew that Indian labour

would procure for him the gold which he sought. In course of years,

the persistent efforts of the Government and the Church bridled the

measureless and merciless rapacity of the Spanish colonists. But this

restraint was not established till ruin which could never be retrieved

had fallen on the Indians; till millions had perished, and the spirit

of the survivors was utterly broken.

* * * * *

When the English began to colonize the northern continent of America,

their infant settlements enjoyed at the hands of the mother country

a beneficent neglect.[32] The early colonists came out in little

groups--obscure men fleeing from oppression, or seeking in a new world

an enlargement of the meagre fortune which they had been able to

find at home. They gained their scanty livelihood by cultivating the

soil. The native population lived mainly by the chase, and possessed

nothing of which they could be plundered. The insignificance of these

communities sufficed to avert from them the notice of the monarchs

whose dominions they had quitted. And thus they escaped the calamity

of institutions imposed upon them by ignorance and selfishness; they

secured the inestimable advantage of institutions which grew out

of their own requirements and were moulded according to their own

character and habits.

In the unhappy experience of Spanish America all these conditions

were reversed. There were countries in which the precious metals

abounded, and many of whose products could be procured without labour

and converted readily into money. There was a vast native population

in whose hands much gold and silver had accumulated, and from whom,

therefore, a rich spoil could be easily wrung. There were powerful

monarchies, the romantic circumstances of whose conquest drew the

attention of the civilized world. Spain, marvelling much at her own

good fortune, hastened to bind these magnificent possessions closely

and inseparably to herself.

The territories which England gained in America were regarded as

the property of the English nation, for whose advantage they were

administered. Spanish America was the property of the Spanish Crown.

The gift of the Pope was a gift, not to the Spanish nation, but to

Ferdinand and Isabella and their successors. The Government of England

never attempted to make gain of her colonies; on the contrary, large

sums were lavished on these possessions, and the Government sought no

advantage but the gain which colonial trade yielded to the nation.

The Sovereigns of Spain sought direct and immediate profit from their

colonies. The lands and all the people who inhabited them were their

own; theirs necessarily were the products of these lands. No Spaniard

might set foot on American soil without a license from the House

of Trade. No foreigner was suffered to go, on any terms whatever.

Even Spanish subjects of Jewish or Moorish blood were excluded. The

Sovereigns claimed as their own two-thirds[33] of all the gold and

silver which were obtained, and one-tenth of all other commodities.

They established an absolute monopoly in pearls and dye-woods. They

levied heavy duties on all articles which were imported into the

colonies. They levied a tax on _pulque_--the intoxicant from which

the Indians drew a feeble solace for their miseries. They sold for a

good price a Papal Bull, which conveyed the right to eat meat on days

when ecclesiastical law restricted the faithful to meaner fare. Acting

rigorously according to financial methods such as these, the Spanish

Crown drew from the colonies a revenue which largely exceeded the

expenses of the colonial administration.

The results of the first two voyages of Columbus disappointed public

expectation, and the interest which his discovery had awakened almost

ceased. But when the admiral, after his third voyage, sent home

pearls and gold and glowing accounts of the treasures which he had

at last found, boundless possibilities of sudden wealth presented

themselves, and the adventurous youth of Spain hastened to embrace the

unprecedented opportunity. The old and rich fitted out ships and loaded

them with the inexpensive trifles which savages love; the young and

poor sought, under any conditions, the boon of conveyance to the golden

world where wealth could be gained without labour: the King granted

licenses to such adventurers, and without sharing in their risks and

outlays secured to himself a large portion of their profits. So great

was the emigration, that in a few years Spain could with difficulty

obtain men to supply the waste of her European wars, and found herself

in possession of enormous territories and a numerous population for

which methods of government and of trade had to be provided.

The government which was established had the simplicity of a pure

despotism. [Sidenote: 1511 A.D.] The King established a Council which

exercised absolute authority over the new possessions, and continued

in its functions so long as South America accepted government from

Spain. This body framed all the laws and regulations according to

which the affairs of the colonies were guided; nominated to all

offices; controlled the proceedings of all officials. Two Viceroys[34]

were appointed, who maintained regal state, and wielded the supreme

authority with which the King invested them.

The early colonial policy of all European nations was based on the idea

that foreign settlements existed, not for their own benefit, but for

the benefit of the nation to which they belonged. Under this belief,

colonists were fettered with numerous restrictions which hindered their

own prosperity in order to promote that of the mother country. Spain

carried this mistaken and injurious policy to an extreme of which

there is nowhere else any example. The colonies were jealously limited

in regard to their dealings with one another, and were absolutely

forbidden to have commercial intercourse with foreign nations. All

the surplus products of their soil and of their mines must be sent to

Spain; their clothing, their furniture, their arms, their ornaments

must be supplied wholly by Spain. No ship of their own might share in

the gains of this lucrative traffic, which was strictly reserved for

the ships of Spain. Ship-building was discouraged, lest the colonists

should aspire to the possession of a fleet. If a foreign vessel

presumed to enter a colonial port, the disloyal colonist who traded

with her incurred the penalties of death and confiscation of goods. The

colonists were not suffered to cultivate any product which it suited

the mother country to supply. The olive and the vine flourished in

Peru; Puerto Rico yielded pepper; in Chili there was abundance of hemp

and flax. All these were suppressed that the Spanish growers might

escape competition. That the trade of the colonies might be more

carefully guarded and its revenues more completely gathered in, it was

confined to one Spanish port. No ship trading with the colonies might

enter or depart elsewhere than at Seville, and afterwards at Cadiz.

For two centuries the interests of the colonies and of Spain herself

languished under this senseless tyranny.

Those cities which were endowed with a monopoly of colonial trade

enjoyed an exceptional prosperity. Seville attracted to herself a large

mercantile community and a flourishing manufacture of such articles as

the colonists required. She became populous and rich, and her merchants

affected a princely splendour. And well they might. The internal

communications of Spain were, as they always have been, extremely

defective, and the gains of the new traffic were necessarily reaped in

an eminent degree by the districts which lay around the shipping port.

Once in the year, for nearly two hundred years, there sailed from

the harbour of Seville or of Cadiz the fleets which maintained the

commercial relations of Spain with her American dependencies. One

was destined for the southern colonies, the other for Mexico and the

north. They were guarded by a great force of war-ships. Every detail

as to cargo and time of sailing was regulated by Government authority;

no space was left in this sadly over-governed country for free

individual action. In no year did the tonnage of the merchant-ships

exceed twenty-seven thousand tons. The traffic was thus inconsiderable

in amount; but it was of high importance in respect of the enormous

profits which the merchants were enabled by their monopoly to exact.

The southern branch of the expedition steered for Carthagena, and

thence to Puerto Bello; the ships destined for the north sought

Vera Cruz. To the points at which they were expected to call there

converged, by mountain-track and by river, innumerable mules and boats

laden with the products of the country. A fair was opened, and for a

period of forty days an energetic exchange of commodities went on. When

all was concluded, the colonial purchasers carried into the interior

the European articles which they had acquired. The gold and silver and

pearls, and whatever else the colonies supplied, having been embarked,

the ships met at the Havana and took their homeward voyage, under the

jealous watch of the armed vessels which escorted them hither.

The treasure-ships of Spain carried vast amounts of gold and silver;

and when Spain was involved in war, they were eagerly sought after

by her enemies. Many a bloody sea-fight has been fought around these

precious vessels; and many a galleon whose freight was urgently

required in impoverished Spain found in the Thames an unwelcome

termination to her voyage. [Sidenote: 1804 A.D.] On one occasion

England, in her haste not waiting even to declare war, possessed

herself of three ships containing gold and silver to the value of two

million sterling, the property of a nation with which she was still at

peace.

But her hostile neighbours were not the only foes who lay in wait

to seize the remittances of Spain. During the seventeenth century,

European adventurers--English, French, and Dutch--flocked to the West

Indies. At first they meditated nothing worse than smuggling; but they

quickly gave preference to piracy, as an occupation more lucrative and

more fully in accord with the spirit of adventure which animated them.

They sailed in swift ships, strongly manned and armed; they recreated

themselves by hunting wild cattle, whose flesh they smoked over their

_boucanes_ or wood-fires--drawing from this practice the name of

Buccaneer, under which they made themselves so terrible. They lurked

in thousands among the intricacies of the West India islands, ready

to spring upon Spanish ships; they landed occasionally to besiege a

fortified or to plunder and burn a defenceless Spanish town. In time,

the European Governments, which once encouraged, now sought to suppress

them. This proved a task of so much difficulty that it is scarcely

sixty years since the last of the dreaded West India pirates was

hanged.

Spain sought to preserve the dependence of her American possessions by

the studied promotion of disunion among her subjects. The Spaniard who

went out from the mother country was taught to stand apart from the

Spaniard who had been born in the colonies. To the former nearly all

official positions were assigned. The dependencies were governed by Old

Spaniards; all lucrative offices in the Church were occupied by the

same class. They looked with some measure of contempt upon Spaniards

who were not born in Spain; and they were requited with the jealousy

and dislike of their injured brethren. There were laws carefully framed

to hold the negro and the Indian races apart from each other. The

unwise Sovereigns of Spain regarded with approval the deep alienations

which their policy created, and rejoiced to have rendered impossible

any extensive combination against their authority.

The supreme desire which animated Spain in all her dealings with her

colonies was the acquisition of gold and silver, and there fell on her

in a short time the curse of granted prayers. The foundations of her

colonial history were laid in a destruction of innocent human life

wholly without parallel; influences originating with the colonies

hastened the decline of her power and the debasement of her people.

But gold and silver were gained in amounts of which the world had

never dreamed before. The mines of Hispaniola were speedily exhausted

and abandoned. But soon after the conquest the vast mineral wealth of

Peru was disclosed. An Indian hurrying up a mountain in pursuit of a

strayed llama, caught hold of a bush to save himself from falling. The

bush yielded to his grasp, and he found attached to its roots a mass

of silver. All around, the mountains were rich in silver. The rumoured

wealth of Potosi attracted multitudes of the adventurous and the poor,

and the lonely mountain became quickly the home of a large population.

A city which numbered ultimately one hundred and fifty thousand souls

arose at an elevation of thirteen thousand feet above sea-level:

several thousand mines were opened by the eager crowds who hastened

to the spot. A little later the yet more wonderful opulence of Mexico

was discovered. During the whole period of Spanish dominion over the

New World the production of the precious metals, especially of silver,

continued to increase, until at length it reached the large annual

aggregate of ten million sterling. Two centuries and a half passed

in the interval between the discovery of the Western mines and the

overthrow of Spanish authority. During that period there was drawn from

the mines of the New World a value of fifteen hundred or two thousand

million sterling.

When this flood of wealth began to pour in upon the country, Spain

stood at the highest pitch of her strength. The divisions which

for many centuries had enfeebled her were now removed, and Spain

was united under one strong monarchy. Her people, trained for many

generations in perpetual war with their Moorish invaders, were robust,

patient, enduring, regardless of danger. Their industrial condition

was scarcely inferior to that of any country in Europe. Barcelona

produced manufactures of steel and glass which rivalled those of

Venice. The looms of Toledo, occupied with silk and woollen fabrics,

gave employment to ten thousand workmen; Granada and Valencia sent

forth silks and velvets; Segovia manufactured arms and fine cloths;

around Seville, while she was still the only port of shipment for the

New World, there were sixteen thousand looms. So active was the demand

which Spanish manufacturers enjoyed, that at one time the orders held

by them could not have been executed under a period of six years. Spain

had a thousand merchant ships--certainly the largest mercantile marine

in Europe. Her soil was carefully cultivated, and many districts which

are now arid and barren wastes yielded then luxuriant harvests.

But Spain proved herself unworthy of the unparalleled opportunities

which had been granted to her. Her Kings turned the national attention

to military glory, and consumed the lives and the substance of

the people in aggressive wars upon neighbouring States. Her Church

suppressed freedom of thought, and thus, step by step, weakened

and debased the national intellect. [Sidenote: 1492 A.D.] The Jews

were expelled from Spain, and the country never recovered from the

wound which the loss of her most industrious citizens inflicted.

The easily-gained treasure of the New World fired the minds of

the people with a restless ambition, which did not harmonize with

patient industry. The waste of life in war, and the eager rush to

the marvellous gold-fields of America, left Spain insufficiently

supplied with population to maintain the industrial position which

she had reached. Her manufactures began to decay, until early in the

seventeenth century the sixteen thousand looms of Seville had sunk to

four hundred. Agriculture shared the fall of the sister industries; and

ere long Spain was able with difficulty to support her own diminished

population. Her navy, once the terror of Europe, was ruined. Her

merchant ships became the prey of enemies whose strength had grown

as hers had decayed. The traders of England and Holland, setting at

defiance the laws which she was no longer able to enforce, supplied her

colonies with manufactures which she in her decline was no longer able

to produce.

The North American possessions of England became an inestimable

blessing to England and to the human family, because they were the

slow gains of patient industry. Their ownership was secured not by the

sword, but by the plough. Nothing was done for them by fortune; the

history of their growth is a record of labour, undismayed, unwearied,

incessant. Every new settler, every acre redeemed from the wilderness,

contributed to the vast aggregate of wealth and power which has been

built up slowly, but upon foundations which are indestructible.

The success of Spain was the demoralizing success of the fortunate

gambler. Within the lifetime of a single generation ten or twelve

million of Spaniards came into possession of advantages such as had

never before been bestowed upon any people. A vast region, ten times

larger than their own country, glowing with the opulence of tropical

vegetation, fell easily into their hands. Products of field and of

forest which were eagerly desired in Europe were at their call in

boundless quantity. A constant and lucrative market was opened for

their own productions. Millions of submissive labourers spared them

the necessity of personal effort. All that nations strive for as

their chief good--territorial greatness, power, wealth, ample scope

for commercial enterprise--became suddenly the coveted possession of

Spain. But these splendours served only to illustrate her incapacity,

to hasten her ruin, to shed a light by which the world could watch

her swift descent to the nether gloom of idleness, depopulation,

insolvency, contempt.

CHAPTER IV.

REVOLUTION.

For three hundred years Spain governed the rich possessions which she

had so easily won. At the close of that period the population was

about sixteen million--a number very much smaller than the conquerors

found on island and continent. The increase of three centuries had not

repaired the waste of thirty years. Of the sixteen million two were

Spaniards; the remainder were Indians, negroes, or persons of mixed

descent.

Spain ruled in a spirit of blind selfishness. Her aim was to wring from

her tributary provinces the largest possible advantage to herself.

Her administration was conducted by men sent out from Spain for that

purpose, and no man was eligible for office unless he could prove his

descent from ancestors of unblemished orthodoxy. It was held that

men circumstanced as these were must remain for ever true to the

pleasant system of which they formed part, and were in no danger of

becoming tainted with colonial sympathies. This expectation was not

disappointed. During all the years of her sordid and unintelligent

rule, the servants of Spain were scarcely ever tempted, by any concern

for the welfare of the colonists, to deviate from the traditional

policy of the parent State. Corruption fostered by a system of

government which inculcated the wisdom of a rapid fortune and an early

return to Spain was excessive and audacious. Those Spaniards who had

made their home in the colonies were admitted to no share in the

administration. Many of them had amassed great wealth; but yielding to

the influences of an enervating climate and a repressive Government,

they had become a luxurious, languid class, devoid of enterprise or

intelligence.

In course of years the poor remnants of the native population which

had been bestowed, for a certain number of lives, upon the conquerors,

reverted to the Crown, and their annual tribute formed a considerable

branch of revenue.[35] The Indians had been long recognized by the law

as freemen, but they were still in the remoter districts subjected to

compulsory service on the fields and in the mines. They were no longer,

however, exposed to the unrestrained brutality of a race which they

were too feeble to resist. Officers were appointed in every district

to inquire into their grievances and protect them from wrong. In their

villages they were governed by their own chiefs, who were salaried

by the Spanish Government; and they lived in tolerable contentment,

avoiding, so far as that was possible, the unequal companionship which

had brought misery so great upon their race.

In the early years of the conquest, negroes were imported from Africa

on the suggestion of Las Casas,[36] and for the purpose of staying the

destruction of the native population. Negro labour was soon found to be

indispensable, and the importation of slaves became a lucrative trade.

The demand was large and constant; for the negroes perished so rapidly

in their merciless bondage that in some of the islands one negro in

every six died annually. France enjoyed for many years the advantage

of supplying these victims. [Sidenote: 1713 A.D.] But England having

been victorious over Spain in a great war, wrung from her the guilty

privilege of procuring for her the slaves who were to toil and die in

her cruel service. After the Treaty of Utrecht, the Spanish colonists

were forbidden to purchase negroes excepting from English vessels.

Down to the period of the conquest the Indians had utterly failed to

establish dominion over the lower animals. Excepting in Peru, there

was almost no attempt made to domesticate, and in Peru it extended

no higher than to the sheep. There was no horse on the continent;

there were no cattle. It was the fatal disadvantage of being without

mounted soldiers which made the subjugation of the Indians so easy.

The Spaniards introduced the horse as the chief instrument of their

success in war. From time to time as riders were killed in battle,

or died smitten by disease, their neglected horses escaped into the

wilderness. [Sidenote: 1548 A.D.] Fifty years after the discovery of

the New World a Spaniard introduced cattle. On the boundless plains

of the southern continent the increase of both races was enormous. In

course of years countless millions of horses and of cattle wandered

masterless among the luxuriant vegetation of the pampas. Their presence

introduced an element which was wanting before in the population.

The pastoral natives of the pampas, to whose ancestors the horse was

unknown, have become the best horsemen in the world. They may almost be

said to live in the saddle. They support themselves mainly by hunting

and slaughtering wild cattle. The submissiveness of their fathers has

passed away. They are rude, passionate, fierce; and, as the Spaniards

found to their cost, they furnish an effective and formidable cavalry

for the purposes of war. A few thousands of such horsemen would have

rendered Spanish conquest impossible, and given a widely different

course to the history of the continent.

In spite of the indolence of the colonial Spaniards and the mischievous

restrictions imposed by the mother country, the trade of the colonies

had largely increased. Especially was this the case when certain

ameliorations, which even Spain could no longer withhold, were

introduced. [Sidenote: 1748 A.D.] The annual fleet was discontinued;

single trading ships registered for that purpose sailed as their

owners found encouragement to send them. [Sidenote: 1765 A.D.] By

successive steps the trade of the islands was opened to all Spaniards

trading from the principal Spanish ports; the continental colonies were

permitted to trade freely with one another, and [Sidenote: 1774 A.D.]

a few years later they were permitted to trade with the islands. These

tardy concessions to the growing enlightenment of mankind resulted in

immediate expansion, and increased the colonial traffic to dimensions

of vast importance. [Sidenote: 1809 A.D.] At the time when the colonies

raised the standard of revolt their annual purchases from Spain

amounted to fifteen million sterling, and the annual exports of their

own products amounted to eighteen million. The colonial revenue was

in a position so flourishing that, after providing for all expenses

on a scale of profuse and corrupt extravagance, Spain found that her

American colonies yielded her a net annual profit of two million

sterling.

The Spaniards, although, as one of the results of their prolonged

religious war against the Moorish invaders, they had fallen under a

debasing subserviency to their priests, cherished a hereditary love of

civil liberty. The Visigoths, from whom they sprang, brought with them

into Spain an elective monarchy, a large measure of personal freedom,

and even the germs of a representative system. During the war of

independence the cities enjoyed the privilege of self-government, and

were represented in the national councils. [Sidenote: 1504 A.D.] Queen

Isabella, in her will, spoke of “the free consent of the people” as

being essential to the lawfulness of taxation. A few years afterwards,

the King’s Preachers, in their noble pleading for the Indians, assert

that “a King’s title depends upon his rendering service to his people,

or being chosen by them.” Three centuries later, the Spaniards gave

unexpected evidence that their inherited love of democracy had not been

extinguished by ages of blind superstition and despotism. [Sidenote:

1812 A.D.] While Europe still accepted the practice and even the

theory of personal government, there issued from the Spanish people

a democratic constitution, which served as a rallying cry to the

nations of Southern Europe in their early struggles for liberty and

representation.

The successful assertion of their independence by the thirteen English

colonies of the northern continent appealed to the slumbering democracy

of the Spanish colonists, and increased the general discontent with the

political system under which they lived. [Sidenote: 1780 A.D.] A revolt

in Peru gave to Spain a warning which she was not sufficiently wise to

understand. The revolt was suppressed. Its leader, after he had been

compelled to witness the death by burning of his wife and children,

was himself torn to pieces by wild horses in the great square of Lima.

The Spanish Government, satisfied with its triumph, made no effort to

remove the grievances which estranged its subjects and threatened the

overthrow of its colonial empire.

For thirty years more, although discontent continued to increase, the

languid tranquillity of the Spanish colonies was undisturbed. But

there had now arisen in Europe a power which was destined to shatter

the decaying political systems of the Old World, and whose influences,

undiminished by distance, were to introduce changes equally vast upon

the institutions of the New World. Napoleon had cast greedy eyes upon

the colonial dominion of Spain, and coveted, for the lavish expenditure

which he maintained, the treasure yielded by the mines of Peru and

Mexico. [Sidenote: 1808 A.D.] He placed his brother on the throne of

Spain; he attempted to gain over the Viceroys to his side. Spain was

now a dependency of France. The colonists might have continued for

many years longer in subjection to Spain, but they utterly refused

to transfer their allegiance to her conqueror. With one accord they

rejected the authority of France; and, having no rightful monarch to

serve, they set up government for themselves. At first they did not

claim to be independent, but continued to avow loyalty to the dethroned

King, and even sent money to strengthen the patriot cause. But meantime

they tasted the sweetness of liberty. Four years later the usurpers

were cast out, and the old King was brought back to Madrid. Spain

sought to replace her yoke upon the emancipated colonies, making it

plain that she had no thought of lightening their burdens or widening

their liberties. The time had passed when it was possible for Spanish

despotism to regain its footing on American soil. Many of the provinces

had already claimed their independence, and the others were prepared

for the same decisive step. The ascendency of Europe over the American

continent had ceased. But Spain followed England in her attempt to

compel the allegiance of subjects whose affection she had forfeited. In

her deep poverty and exhaustion she entered upon a costly war, which,

after inflicting for sixteen years vast evils on both the Old World and

the New, terminated in her ignominious defeat.

The provinces which bordered on the Gulf of Mexico had a larger

intercourse with Europe than their sister States, and were the first to

become imbued with the liberal ideas which were now gaining prevalence

among the European people. They had constant communication with the

West India islands, on one of which they had long been familiar with

the mild rule of England, while on another they had seen a free Negro

State arise and vindicate its liberties against the power of France.

[Sidenote: 1797 A.D.] The island of Trinidad, lying near their shores,

had been conquered by England, who used her new possession as a centre

from which revolutionary impulses could be conveniently diffused among

the subjects of her enemy. Bordering thus upon territories where

freedom was enjoyed, the Colombian provinces learned more quickly than

the remoter colonies to hate the despotism of Spain, and were first to

enter the path which led to independence.

[Sidenote: 1810 A.D.] Seven of these northern provinces formed

themselves into a union, which they styled the Confederation of

Venezuela. They did not yet assert independence of Spain. But they

abolished the tax which had been levied from the Indians; they declared

commerce to be free; they gathered up the Spanish Governor and his

councillors, and, having put them on board ship, sent them decisively

out of the country. Only one step remained, and it was speedily taken.

Next year Venezuela declared her independence, and prepared as she best

might to assert it in arms against the forces of Spain.

One of the fathers of South American independence was Francis Miranda.

He was a native of Caraccas, and now a man in middle life. In his

youth he had fought under the French for the independence of the

English colonies on the Northern Continent. When he had seen the

victorious close of that war he returned to Venezuela, carrying with

him sympathies which made it impossible to bear in quietness the

despotism of Spain. A few years later Miranda offered his sword to

the young French republic, and took part in some of her battles. But

he lost the favour of the new rulers of France, and betook himself to

England, where he sought to gain English countenance to the efforts of

the Venezuelan patriots. He mustered a force of five hundred English

and Americans, and he expected that his countrymen would flock to

his standard. But his countrymen were not yet prepared for action

so decisive, and his efforts proved for the time abortive. It was

this man who laid the foundations of independence, but he himself

was not permitted to see the triumph of the great cause. [Sidenote:

1812 A.D.] The patriot arms had made some progress, and high hopes

were entertained; but the province was smitten by an earthquake,

which overthrew several towns and destroyed twenty thousand lives.

The priests interpreted this calamity as the judgment of Heaven upon

rebellion, and the credulous people accepted their teaching. The cause

of independence, thus supernaturally discredited, was for the time

abandoned. Miranda himself fell into the hands of his enemies, and

perished in a Spanish dungeon.

His lieutenant, Don Simon Bolivar, was the destined vindicator of the

liberties of the South American Continent. Bolivar was still a young

man; his birth was noble; his disposition was ardent and enterprising;

among military leaders he claims a high place. His love of liberty,

enkindled by the great deliverance which the United States and France

had lately achieved, was the grand animating impulse of his life. But

his heart was unsoftened by civilizing influences. Under his savage

guidance, the story of the war of independence becomes a record not

only of battles ably and bravely fought, but of ruthless massacres

habitually perpetrated.

For ten years the war, with varying fortune, held on its destructive

course. Spain, blindly tenacious of the rich possessions which were

passing from her grasp, continued to squander the substance of her

people in vain efforts to reconquer the empire with which Columbus and

Cortes and Pizarro had crowned her, and which her own incapacity had

destroyed. She was utterly wasted by the prolonged war which Napoleon

had forced upon her. She was miserably poor. Her unpaid soldiers,

inspired by revolutionary sympathies, rose in mutiny against the

service to which they were destined. But still Spain maintained the

hopeless and desolating strife.

When the terrors of the earthquake had passed away, the patriots threw

themselves once more into the contest, with energy which made their

final success sure. On both sides a savage and ferocious cruelty was

constantly practised. The Royalists slaughtered as rebels the prisoners

who fell into their hands. Bolivar announced that “the chief purpose

of the war was to destroy in Venezuela the cursed race of Spaniards.”

Soldiers who presented a certain number of Spanish heads were raised to

the rank of officers. The decree of extirpation was enforced against

multitudes of unoffending Spaniards--even against men in helpless age,

so infirm that they could not stand to receive the fatal bullet, and

were therefore placed in chairs and thus executed. In South America, as

in France, the revolt against the cruel despotism of ages was itself

without restraint of pity or remorse. The severity which despotism

calmly imposes, under due form of law, is in the fulness of time

responded to by the passionate and savage outburst of the sufferers’

rage. It is lamentable that it should be so; but while tyrant and

victim remain, Nature’s stern method of deliverance must be accepted.

When Miranda first sought the help of England, he received a certain

amount of encouragement. Englishmen served in the ranks of his first

army, and English money contributed to their equipment. [Sidenote: 1810

A.D.] A little later England was in league with Spain for the overthrow

of Napoleon, and her Government frowned upon “any attempt to dismember

the Spanish monarchy.” But when the purposes of this union were served,

the inalienable sympathy of the British people with men struggling for

liberty asserted itself openly and energetically. [Sidenote: 1819-20

A.D.] Ample loans were made to the insurgent Governments; recruiting

stations were established in the chief towns of England; many veterans

who had fought under Wellington offered to the patriot cause the

invaluable aid of their disciplined and experienced courage.

Thus reinforced, Bolivar was able to press hard upon the discouraged

Royalists. The protracted struggle was about to close. [Sidenote: June,

1821 A.D.] Four thousand Spaniards, unable now to meet their enemies

in the field, lay in a strong position near Carabobo. Bolivar with a

force of eight thousand watched during many days for an opportunity to

attack. Of his troops twelve hundred were British veterans. Bolivar

succeeded at length in placing his forces on the flank of the enemy and

compelling him to accept battle. The Spaniards at the outset gained

important advantage, and broke the first line of the assailants.

Unaware of the presence of British auxiliaries, they advanced as to

assured victory. But when they saw, through the smoke of battle, the

advancing ranks and levelled bayonets of the British, and heard the

loud and defiant cheers of men confident in their own superior prowess,

their hearts failed them and they fled. The victory of Carabobo closed

the war in the northern provinces. Henceforth the liberty of Venezuela

was secure.

* * * * *

The revolutionary movement which originated on the shores of the Gulf

of Mexico extended itself quickly into all the continental possessions

of Spanish America. The overthrow of government in Spain imposed upon

every province the necessity of determining for itself the political

system under which its affairs should be conducted. The course pursued

in all was substantially identical. There came first the establishment

of a native government, administered in the King’s name. Gradually

this insincere acceptance of an abhorred yoke was discarded, and the

colonies were unanimous in their resolution to become independent. In

each there was a Royalist element which struggled bravely and bitterly

to uphold the ancient rule of the mother country, with all its pleasant

abuses and unfathomable evils. In each it was the care of Spain to

strengthen the Royalists and maintain the contest. During many years

Spanish America was the theatre of universal civil war. Evils of

appalling magnitude flowed from the prolonged and envenomed strife.

Population sunk in many localities to little more than one-half of what

it had formerly been. The scanty agriculture of the continent became

yet more insignificant. Commerce lost more than one-half its accustomed

volume. The supply of gold and silver well-nigh ceased. In some years

it fell to one-tenth, and during the whole revolutionary period it was

less than one-third of what it had been in quieter times. Never before

had war inflicted greater miseries upon its victims or extended its

devastations over a wider field.

Peru was the last stronghold of Spanish authority. Spain put forth her

utmost effort to maintain her hold upon the mineral treasures which

were almost essential to her existence. The desire for independence was

less enthusiastic here than in the other provinces; the insurrectionary

movement was more fitful and more easily suppressed. When independence

had triumphed everywhere besides, the Peruvian republic was struggling,

hopelessly, for existence. The Spaniards had possessed themselves

of the capital; a reactionary impulse had spread itself among the

soldiers, and numerous desertions had weakened and discouraged the

patriot ranks. The cause of liberty seemed almost lost in Peru; the

old despotism which had been cast out of the other provinces seemed

to regain its power over the land of the Incas, and threatened to

establish itself there as a standing menace to the liberty and peace of

the continent.

[Sidenote: 1820 A.D.] But at this juncture circumstances occurred in

Europe whose influences reinforced the patriot cause and led to its

early and decisive victory. A revolutionary movement had broken out in

Spain, and attained strength so formidable that the Bourbon King was

forced to accept universal suffrage. The restored monarchy of France

sent an army into Spain to suppress these disorders and re-establish

the accustomed despotism. The expedition, led by a French prince,

achieved a success which was regarded as brilliant, and which naturally

gained for France a large increase of influence in the affairs of the

Peninsula. England, not delivered even by Waterloo from her hereditary

jealousy of France, regarded this gain with displeasure. Mr. Canning,

who then directed the foreign policy of England, resolved that since

France now predominated over Spain, it should be over Spain shorn of

her American possessions. As he grandly boasted, he “called the New

World into existence to redress the balance of the Old.” [Sidenote:

1823 A.D.] In simple prose, he acknowledged the independence of the

revolted Spanish provinces, and entered into relations with them by

means of consuls. As a consequence of this recognition, large supplies

of money and of arms were received by the insurgents, and many veteran

British and French soldiers joined their ranks.

[Sidenote: 1823 A.D.] These reinforcements made it possible for Bolivar

to equip a strong force and hasten to the support of the sinking

republic of Peru. He arrived at Lima with an army of ten thousand men,

many of whom had gained their knowledge of war under Napoleon and

Wellington. Here he made his preparations for the arduous undertaking

of carrying his army across the Andes. When Pizarro entered upon the

same enterprise, he marched across a plain made fertile by the industry

of the people; among the mountains his progress was aided by the

great roads of the barbarians and the frequent magazines and places

of shelter which they had providently erected. But three centuries of

Spanish dominion had effaced the works of the Incas, and had carried

the land, by great strides, back towards desolation. The roads and

the canals for irrigation had fallen into decay; the fruitful plain

was now an arid and sterile wilderness. Bolivar had to make roads, to

build sheds, to lay up stores of food along his line of march, before

he could venture to set out. The toil of the ascent was extreme, and

the men suffered much from the cold into which they advanced. The

Royalists did not wait for their descent, but met them among the

mountains at an elevation of twelve thousand feet above sea-level.

During many months there was fighting without decisive result. At

length the armies met for a conflict which it was now perceived must

be final. [Sidenote: Dec. 9, 1824 A.D.] On the plain of Ayacucho,

twelve thousand Royalists encountered the Republican army, numbering

now scarcely more than one-half the opposing forces. The outnumbered

Independents fought bravely, but the fortune of war seemed to declare

against them, and they were being driven from the field with a defeat

which must soon have become a rout. At that perilous moment an English

general commanding the Republican cavalry struck with all his force

on the flank of the victorious but disordered Spaniards. The charge

could not be resisted. The Spaniards fled from the field, leaving their

artillery and many prisoners, among whom was the Viceroy. A final and

decisive victory had been gained. The war ceased; Peru and Chili were

given over by treaty to the friends of liberty, and the authority which

Spain had so vilely abused had no longer a foothold on the soil of the

great South American Continent.

* * * * *

The process by which Spain was stripped of her American possessions,

and of which we have now seen the close, had begun within a hundred

years after the conquest. When she ceased to obtain gold and silver

from the islands of the Gulf of Mexico, Spain ceased to concern

herself about these portions of her empire. The other nations of

Europe, guided by a wiser estimate, sought to possess themselves of

the neglected islands. Soon after the death of Queen Elizabeth, the

English established themselves on Barbadoes, and began industriously

to cultivate tobacco, indigo, and the sugar-cane. A little later,

the French formed settlements on Martinique and Guadaloupe, as the

English did on St. Christopher, and held them against all the efforts

of Spain. Oliver Cromwell seized Jamaica, and peopled the island with

“idle and disaffected” persons, who were sent out with slight regard to

their own wishes.[37] The buccaneers formed many settlements, which

were assailed but could not be extirpated. [Sidenote: 1665 to 1671

A.D.] One of these, on the island of St. Domingo, was taken under the

protection of France. The Danes possessed themselves of St. Thomas.

During the ceaseless wars of the eighteenth century France and England

competed keenly for dominion in the Gulf of Mexico, and the maritime

supremacy of England gave her decisive advantage in the contest. Few

wars closed without a new cession of colonial lands by France or by

Spain to England. [Sidenote: 1763 A.D.] On the Northern Continent,

Florida was added to the English possessions. The vast territory

known as Mississippi passed into the hands of the United States. The

revolutionary movement of the nineteenth century wrenched from Spain

all the rich provinces which she owned on the Southern Continent, and

the battle of Ayacucho left her with only an inconsiderable fragment

of those boundless possessions which, by a strange fortune, had fallen

into her unworthy hands.

Only Cuba and Puerto Rico remain, to preserve the humiliating memory

of a magnificent colonial dominion gained and held without difficulty;

governed in shameless selfishness; lost by utter incapacity. Puerto

Rico is an inconsiderable island, scarcely larger than the largest of

our English counties, lying off the northern shores of the continent.

It holds a population of six or seven hundred thousand persons,

one-half of whom are slaves.[38] Its people occupy themselves in the

cultivation of sugar and tobacco, and are still governed by Spain

according to the traditions which guided her policy during the darkest

period of her colonial history.

Cuba is the noblest of all the islands which Columbus found in the

West. It lies in the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, where Yucatan on

the Southern Continent draws towards Florida on the Northern to form

the seaward boundaries of the Gulf. Its area is about one-half that of

Great Britain. Its population is one million four hundred thousand,[39]

of whom one-fourth are slaves. The rich soil yields two and even three

crops of corn annually; the perpetual summer of its genial climate

clothes in blossom throughout the whole year the aromatic plants and

trees which beautify its plains. The sugar-cane, whose cultivation is

the leading industry of the island, is a source of vast wealth. To the

extent of one-half its area the island is covered with dense forests

of valuable timber still untouched by the axe. The orange tree, the

citron, the pomegranate yield, spontaneously, their rich harvest of

precious fruits.

But the bounty of Nature has been neutralized by the unworthiness of

man. The blight of Spanish government has fallen heavily on this lovely

island. When the other American possessions of Spain threw aside the

yoke, the leading Cubans assembled and swore solemnly to maintain for

ever the authority of the parent State. They still plume themselves on

their loyalty, and speak fondly of Cuba as “the ever-faithful isle.”

But neither the obedience of Cuba nor the rebellion of the other

colonies moved the blind rulers of Spain to mitigate the evils which

their authority inflicted. The ancient system was enforced on Cuba

when she became the sole care of Spain precisely as it had been when

she was still a member of a great colonial dominion. All offices were

still occupied by natives of Spain; all Spaniards born in Cuba were

still regarded with contempt by their haughty countrymen from beyond

the sea. Governors still exercised a purely despotic authority; the

home Government still claimed a large gain from the colonial revenue;

all religions but one were still excluded. The loss of a continent had

taught no lesson to incapable Spain.

After the successful assertion of independence by the continental

States, frequent insurrections testified to the presence of a liberal

spirit in Cuba. These were suppressed without difficulty, but not

without much needless cruelty. [Sidenote: 1868 A.D.] At length there

burst out an insurrection which surpassed all the others in dimensions

and duration. It continued to rage during eight years; it cost Spain

one hundred and fifty thousand of her best soldiers; nearly one-half

the sugar plantations of the island were destroyed; population

decreased; trade decayed; poverty and famine scourged the unhappy

island.

[Sidenote: 1876 A.D.] Spain was able at length to crush out the

rebellion and maintain her grasp over this poor remnant of her American

empire. Cuba emerged from those miserable years in a state of utter

exhaustion. Many of her people had perished by famine or by the sword;

many others had fled from a land blighted by a government which they

were not able either to reject or to endure. Spain sought to make Cuba

defray the costs of her own subjugation, and taxation became enormous.

The expenditure of Cuba is at the rate of fifteen pounds for each of

the population, or six times the rate of that of Great Britain. Only

three-fourths of the total sum can be wrung from the impoverished

people, even by a severity of taxation which is steadily crushing out

the agriculture of the island; and a large annual deficit is rapidly

increasing the public debt.[40] Already that debt has been trebled

by the rebellion and its consequences. None of the devices to which

distressed States are accustomed to resort have been omitted, and an

inconvertible currency, so large as to be hopelessly unmanageable,

presses heavily upon the sinking industries of Cuba.[41]

Spain is the largest producer and the smallest consumer of sugar. A

Spaniard uses only one-sixth of the quantity of sugar which is used

by an Englishman. Spain has made the article high-priced, in utter

disregard of colonial interests, for the purpose of cherishing her home

production. The sugar of Cuba, loaded with heavy taxes before shipment,

and further discouraged in the markets of Spain by excessive import

duties, is unable to support those iniquitously imposed burdens, and

this great industry is falling into ruin.

There are sixteen thousand Government servants in Cuba--nearly all

Spaniards; all underpaid; all permitted to make livings or fortunes by

such means as present themselves. They maintain themselves, and many

of them grow rich, by corruption, which there is no public opinion

to rebuke. The ignorance of the people is unsurpassed--not more than

one-tenth of their number having received any education at all. A few

poor newspapers, living under a strict censorship, supply the literary

wants of Havana, a city of two hundred and thirty thousand souls. No

religious teaching, excepting that which the Church of Rome supplies,

is permitted within the island. Justice is administered according to

the irresponsible pleasure of ignorant Spanish officials, incessantly

eager to be bribed. Slavery lingers in Cuba after its rejection by all

American and European States, and is here characterized by special

brutalities. Recent English travellers have witnessed the flogging of

young slave-women, from whose arms lately-born children were removed in

order that the torture might be inflicted.

* * * * *

The States of the Spanish mainland suffered deeply in their struggle

against the power of the mother country, but they gained the ample

compensation of independence. Unhappy Cuba endured miseries no less

extreme, but she found no deliverance. The solace of freedom has been

withheld; the abhorred and withering despotism survives to blight the

years that are to come as it has blighted those that are past.

CHAPTER V.

INDEPENDENCE.

When the thirteen English colonies of the Northern Continent gained

their independence, they entered upon a political condition for which

their qualities of mind and their experience amply fitted them. They

were reasonably well educated; indeed there was scarcely any other

population which, in this respect, enjoyed advantages so great. They

were men of a race which had for centuries been accustomed to exercise

authority in the direction of its own public affairs. Since they became

colonists they and their fathers had enjoyed in an eminent degree the

privilege of self-government. The transition by which they passed into

sovereign States demanded no fitness beyond that which they inherited

from many generations of ancestors and developed in the ordinary

conduct of their municipal and national interests.

With the Spanish settlements on the Southern Continent it was

altogether different. The people were entirely without education; the

printing-press was not to be found anywhere on the continent excepting

in two or three large cities. They were of many and hostile races.

There were Spaniards--European and native. There were Indians, classed

as civilized, half-civilized, and wild. There were Negroes; there were

races formed by the union of the others. The European Spaniards alone

had any experience in the art of government, and they were driven

from the continent with all possible speed. The others were wholly

unpractised in the management of their own national concerns. Spanish

officials supplied, according to their own despotic pleasure, the

regulation which they deemed needful; and the colonists had not even

the opportunity of watching and discussing the measures which were

adopted.

No people ever took up the work of self-government under a heavier

burden of disadvantage and disqualification. It is not surprising that

their success thus far has been so imperfect. Nor is their future to

be despaired of because their past is so full of wasted effort, of

incessant revolution, of blood lavishly shed in civil strife which

seemed to have no rational object and no solid result. Mankind must

be satisfied if, beneath these confusions and miseries, there can be

traced some evidences of progress towards that better political and

industrial condition which self-government has never ultimately failed

to gain.

The early legislation of the South American States expressed genuine

sympathy with the cause of liberty, and an unselfish desire that its

blessings should be enjoyed by all. Slavery was abolished, and for many

years the absence of that evil institution from the emancipated Spanish

settlements was a standing rebuke to the unscrupulous greed which still

maintained it among the more enlightened inhabitants of the Northern

Continent. Constitutions were adopted which evinced a just regard to

the rights of all, combined, unhappily, with an utter disregard to

the fitness of the population for the exercise of these rights.[42]

Universal suffrage and equal electoral districts were established, and

votes were taken by the ballot. Orders of nobility were abolished, and

some unjust laws which still retain their place in the statute-book

of England, as the laws of entail and primogeniture. Entire religious

liberty was decreed, and it was not long till the interference of the

Pope in such ecclesiastical concerns as the appointment of bishops

was resented and repelled. The punishment of death for political

offences was abolished. In course of time an educational system,

free and compulsory, was set up in some of the States. The people of

South America had been animated in their pursuit of independence by

the example of the United States and of France, and they sought to

frame their political institutions according to the models which these

countries supplied.

The institutions which were then set up remain in their great outlines

unchanged. But the wisdom and moderation which are essential to

self-government are not suddenly bestowed by Heaven; they are the

slowly accumulated gains of long experience. There did not exist

among the South Americans that reverential submission to majorities

which self-governing nations gradually acquire. Here, as elsewhere,

two opposing parties speedily revealed themselves. One was zealously

liberal and reforming--seeking progress and desiring in each country

a federation of States as opposed to a strong centralized Government;

the other preferred centralization and a maintenance of existing

conditions. Among a people so utterly unpractised in political life no

method of settling these differences other than the sword suggested

itself. During half a century the continent has been devastated

by perpetual wars around questions which, among nations of larger

experience, would have merely formed the theme of peaceful controversy.

And in a large number of instances the original grounds of contest were

forgotten--exchanged for an ignoble personal struggle to gain or to

hold the advantages of power.

The South American States perceived the desirableness of a popularly

chosen Legislature, but their political knowledge carried them no

further. They consented to an autocratic Executive. They placed

Dictators in supreme authority. Theirs was the idea which Napoleon in

modern times originated and which his nephew developed--the idea of a

despotism based on universal suffrage. They intrusted their liberties

to a selfish oligarchy. When the struggle for independence was

victoriously closed, they had still to conquer their freedom, and the

contest has been more prolonged and bloody than that which they waged

against the tyranny of Spain.

* * * * *

The three northern States of VENEZUELA, NEW GRANADA, and ECUADOR began

their independent career by forming themselves into a great federal

Republic. Their possessions extended over an area six times larger than

that of France; thinly peopled by men of diverse races; severed by

mountains well-nigh impassable, without connection of road or navigated

river. The task of government under these circumstances was manifestly

desperate. But hopes were high in that early morning of liberty.

[Sidenote: 1821 A.D.] With a constitution closely resembling that of

the United States, and with Bolivar the liberator of a continent as

President, the Republic of Colombia entered proudly upon the fulfilment

of its destiny. Five years after, the union which had been found

impossible was dissolved. Bolivar, the great and patriotic soldier,

proved himself an incapable and despotic statesman. He became Dictator

of New Granada, which he ruled according to his arbitrary pleasure.

[Sidenote: 1830 A.D.] The outraged people delivered themselves by a

bloody but successful revolt from a yoke scarcely more tolerable than

that of Spain; and the man to whom the continent owed its independence

died broken-hearted, by what seemed to him the ingratitude of his

countrymen.

Incessant strife now raged between the party of the priests and

soldiers on the one hand and that of the people on the other. During

a period of seventeen years the country endured a government of

clerical ascendency and brute force. But during these years the numbers

and political influence of the artisan class in towns had largely

increased; and the far-reaching influences of the revolutions in

Europe roused the energies of the people. [Sidenote: 1848 A.D.] They

were able to wring from the Government large promises of reform,

and a decree for the expulsion of the Jesuits. Some years followed,

darkened by incessant revolts and the alternating victory and defeat

of the opposing parties. [Sidenote: 1854 A.D.] At length the Liberals

took the field with a “regenerating army” of twenty thousand men, and

were utterly defeated. The Conservatives were now in the ascendant.

But the tenacious Liberals, refusing to accept defeat, maintained for

seven years a war in which, after a hundred battles, they were at

length decisively victorious. [Sidenote: 1861 A.D.] There have been

revolutions since that time, and short-lived Conservative triumphs, but

the Liberal ascendency has never been very seriously shaken.

[Sidenote: 1826 to 1847 A.D.] Venezuela spent twenty tranquil years

under the military despotism of General Paez--one of Bolivar’s

companions-in-arms. But at the end of that period there arose a

cry for reform. Even the Indians and the men of mixed race sought

eagerly for the correction of the abuses which the ruling party

maintained. [Sidenote: 1849 A.D.] General Paez was banished from the

country. [Sidenote: 1863 1868 1870 A.D.] For some years he troubled

the Republic by armed attempts to regain his lost authority, but the

power of Liberalism could not be shaken. Once a sudden Conservative

uprising gained a short-lived triumph. But a spirited Liberal--Guzman

Blanco--drove the enemy forth and became President of the Republic--an

office which he held for eight years. During the period of his rule

there was no more than one revolutionary movement of importance.

[Sidenote: 1872 A.D.] That revolt was closed by a desperate battle, in

which the strength of the Conservative party was utterly broken.[43]

Under the judicious rule of President Blanco, Venezuela has enjoyed

what to a South American Republic must seem profound tranquillity.

Priestly power has received great discouragement. The convents and

monasteries have been suppressed; civil marriage has been established;

subjection to Rome has been disavowed.[44] A compulsory system of

national education has been established--not too soon, for only one

Venezuelan in ten can read or write. Some beginning has been made in

developing the vast mineral resources of the country. Numerous roads,

canals, and aqueducts have been constructed. Population has increased,

and the trade of the republic, although not yet considerable, grows

from year to year. The industrious habits of the people draw no

reinforcement from necessity; for in that rich soil and genial climate

the labour of a single month will maintain a family in comfort for a

whole year. Nevertheless, the people are fairly industrious; and they

are honest, cheerful, and hospitable. The tendency to redress political

wrongs by violence seems to lose its power as these wrongs diminish

in number and intensity; and the prospect of a peaceful future, with

growing intelligence and increase of industrial well-being, steadily

improves.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1822 A.D.] When the MEXICANS gained their independence, they

raised to the throne a popular young officer, whom they styled the

Emperor Augustine First. They were then a people utterly priest-ridden

and fanatical; and the clergy whom they superstitiously revered were

a corrupt and debased class. The reformers had avowed the opinion

that the Church was the origin of most of the evils which afflicted

the country. The Emperor, while he offered equal civil rights to all

the inhabitants of Mexico, sought to gain the clergy to his cause by

guaranteeing the existence of the Catholic Church. But a monarchy

proved to be impossible, and in less than a year a republican uprising,

headed by Santa Anna, forced the Emperor to resign. [Sidenote: 1824

A.D.] A Federal Republic was then organized, with a constitution based

on that of the great Republic whose territories adjoined those of

Mexico.

For the next thirty years Santa Anna is the prominent figure in

Mexican politics. He was a tall thin man, with sun-browned face, black

curling hair, and dark vehement eye. He possessed no statesmanship,

and his generalship never justified the confidence with which it was

regarded by his countrymen. But he was full of reckless bravery and

dash, and if his leading was faulty, his personal bearing in all his

numerous battles was irreproachable. His popularity ebbed and flowed

with the exigencies of the time. [Sidenote: 1828-39 A.D.] He repelled

an invasion by Spain and an invasion by France, and these triumphs

raised him to the highest pinnacle of public favour. Then his power

decayed, and he was forced to flee from the country. When new dangers

threatened the unstable nation, he was recalled from his banishment,

and placed in supreme command. At one period one of his legs, which

had been shattered in battle, was interred with solemn funeral service

and glowing patriot oratory. A little later the ill-fated limb was

disinterred, and kicked about the streets of Mexico with every

contumelious accompaniment. His public life was closed by a hasty

flight to Havana--the second movement of that description which it was

his lot to execute.

Santa Anna sought the favour of the people by the grant of extremely

democratic constitutions, but throughout his whole career he remained

the willing tool of the clerical party. The Mexican clergy were

possessed of vast wealth and vast influence. Fully one-half the land

of the country belonged to them, and a large portion of the remainder

was mortgaged to them. Their spiritual prerogatives were held to exempt

them from taxation, and thus the whole weight of national burden fell

upon the smaller division of national property. It was the concern of

this powerful interest to maintain its own unjust privileges and to

repress the growth of liberal sentiments among the people. So long as

they were able to command the service of Santa Anna, they were able

to frustrate the general wish, and guide the policy of the country

according to their ignorant and tyrannical pleasure.

But they had not been able to shut out from the democracy of the towns,

or from the Indians in their country villages, the political ideas to

which the French Revolution of 1848 gave so large prevalence in Europe.

The influence of the United States, which the ruling party strove

to exclude, continued to gain in power. A radical party arose which

assailed the privileges of the clergy. In course of years the growing

demand for reform overcame the stubborn priestly defence of abuses,

and the Mexicans took a large step towards the vindication of their

liberties.

The leader in this revolution was Benito Juarez, a Toltec Indian; one

of that despised race which the Aztecs subdued centuries before the

Spanish invasion. This man had imbibed the liberal and progressive

ideas which now prevailed in all civilized countries; and his personal

ability and skill in the management of affairs gained for him the

opportunity of conferring upon Mexico the fullest measure of political

blessing which she had ever received. [Sidenote: 1855 A.D.] The

Liberals were now a majority in Congress, and the gigantic work of

reformation began. The first step was to declare the subjection of the

clergy to civil law. Two years later came the abolition of clerical

privileges, liberty of religion, a free press, a reduced tariff, the

opening of the country to immigration, the beginning of commercial

relations with the United States. The Pope, with hearty good-will,

cursed all who favoured such legislation; the Archbishop of Mexico

added his excommunication of all who rendered obedience to it. What

was still more to the purpose, the clerical party rose in civil war

to crush this aggressive liberalism, or, in their own language, to

“regenerate” Mexico. Juarez and his Government were driven for a time

from the capital, and withdrew to Vera Cruz. But this retreat did not

arrest the flow of Liberal measures. [Sidenote: 1859 A.D.] From Vera

Cruz, Juarez was able to promulgate his Laws of Reform, suppressing

monastic orders, establishing civil marriage, claiming for the nation

the monstrously overgrown possessions of the Church,[45] giving fuller

scope to many of the reforming laws enacted two years before. Next year

the Liberals triumphed over their enemies, and the Government returned

to its proper home, in the city of Mexico.

But the resources of the defeated Clericals were not yet exhausted.

Their aims concurred with an ambition which at that time animated the

restless mind of the Emperor Napoleon III. The Emperor claimed to be

the head of the Latin races, whose position on the American Continent

seemed to be endangered by their own dissensions, as well as by the

rapid expansion of the Anglo-Saxons. The Mexican clergy, supported by

the Court of Rome, gave encouragement to his idle dream. An expedition

was prepared, in which England and Spain took reluctant and hesitating

part, and from which they quickly withdrew.

[Sidenote: 1863 A.D.] A French army entered the capital of Mexico.

Juarez and his Government withdrew to maintain a patriot war, in which

the mass of the people zealously upheld them. An Austrian prince sat

upon the throne of Mexico without support, excepting that which the

clerical party of Mexico and the bayonets of France supplied. A few

years earlier or later these things dared not have been done; but when

the French troops entered Mexican territory, the United States waged,

not yet with clear prospect of success, a struggle on the results of

which depended their own existence as a nation. They had no thought to

give to the concerns of other American States, and they wisely suffered

the Empire of Mexico to run its sad and foolish course. [Sidenote:

1865 A.D.] But now the Southern revolt was quelled, and the Government

of Washington, having at its call a million of veteran soldiers,

intimated to Napoleon that the further stay of his troops on the

American Continent had become impossible. The Emperor waited no second

summons. [Sidenote: 1866 A.D.] When the French were gone, the patriot

armies swept over the country, and this deplorable attempt to set up

imperialism came to an ignominious close. [Sidenote: 1867 A.D.] The

Emperor Maximilian fell into the hands of his enemies, and was put to

death according to the terms of a decree which his own Government had

framed.

Juarez was again elected President, and returned with his Congress to

the city of Mexico. During his whole term of office he had to maintain

the Liberal cause in arms against the tenacious priesthood and its

followers. [Sidenote: 1872 A.D.] When he died, a Liberal President was

chosen to succeed him. The war has never ceased, and the clerical party

has occasionally gained important advantages. It is evident, however,

that its power is being gradually exhausted, and that the final triumph

of Liberalism is not now remote. For sixty years Mexico has been

the opprobrium of Christendom. It is possible now to entertain the

hope that ere many years pass, this unhappy country, purged of those

clerical and military elements which have been her curse, will begin

to take her fitting place among peaceable, industrious, and prosperous

States.

The area of Mexico is six times larger than that of Great Britain and

Ireland. Her population is between nine and ten million. Two-thirds

of these are pure Indians, the descendants of the men on whom the

thunderbolt of Spanish invasion fell nearly four hundred years ago.

Two and a half million are of mixed origin; five hundred thousand

are pure European. At the time of the conquest there were among the

Mexicans thirty different races and languages, and these distinctions

still survive. The Indians have regained the cheerfulness which was

crushed out of their dispositions by Spanish cruelty, and under due

superintendence they make excellent artisans and servants. The work of

the country is performed by them; and as their ambition has not been

awakened and their wants are few, labour is cheap. It is only recently

that anything at all has been done for their education, and they are

still profoundly ignorant.[46] But they furnish abundant evidence

of high capability. The race from which President Juarez sprang may

reasonably hope that, after all its miseries, a creditable future is in

store.

The whites are the aristocracy of the country; the mixed breeds are its

turbulent element. They are ordinarily quiet and indolent, but they are

easily inflamed to revolt. To a large extent the constant revolutionary

movements which waste the country have been sustained by them.

The reforming laws of Juarez have been well enforced in the great

centres of population. No monk or nun, nor any Jesuit is tolerated;

no priest is to be seen in the streets in the garb of his office;

reformatories and schools are being established; the youth of Mexico

are being rescued from the priest, and made over to the schoolmaster.

In the remote provinces the execution of the law is extremely

imperfect. There the clerical party is still powerful, and forbidden

taxes are still levied in defiance of law. The subordinate officers

of Government are inordinately corrupt. Import duties are excessive,

and the temptations to evasion are irresistible. The officers of the

custom-house habitually conspire with merchants to defraud the revenue,

and share with them the unlawful gain. The financial condition of the

country is lamentable. Only a small portion of the public debt is

recognized by the Government, and upon that portion no interest is

paid. Expenditure constantly exceeds revenue. Ordinarily the cost of

civil war absorbs more than one-half the national income; frequently it

absorbs the whole.

The country is surpassingly rich, but its progress is hindered by

insufficient means of communication. The most urgent requirement of

this inland region was that it should be brought within easy reach

of the sea-coast. The pressure of this necessity led, so long ago as

in 1852, to the attempted construction of a railway from the city

of Mexico to Vera Cruz. But the works were stopped by the habitual

national convulsions; and when Maximilian ascended the throne, he

found nothing accomplished excepting a few miles at either end of

the projected line. While he reigned, the works were carried on, and

they were stopped when his fall drew near. They were resumed by the

Liberal Government, but the progress of any useful work is slow in a

country tormented by incessant revolution. It was seven years more till

the railway was completed for the whole distance of two hundred and

sixty-three miles. Besides this line, there are no more than three or

four hundred miles of railway yet opened in Mexico.

The silver-mines of Mexico, which ceased to produce during the war of

independence, have resumed their former importance. They now yield

silver to the annual value of three million sterling. Besides the

export of this commodity, Mexico exports two million annually of

cochineal, indigo, hides, and mahogany. Her entire imports do not

amount to more than five and a half million. Her foreign commerce, to

the extent of two-thirds its value, is transacted with her once hated

neighbour the United States.

If Mexico has been the least fortunate of all the Spanish provinces of

America, CHILI furnishes the best example of a well-ordered, settled,

and prosperous State. Its area is only one-fifth and its population

one-fourth that of Mexico, but its foreign commerce is nearly one-half

larger.[47] For this commerce its situation is peculiarly favourable.

Chili, a long and narrow country, lies on the Pacific, with which it

communicates by upwards of fifty sea-ports. It is therefore only in

small measure dependent for its progress upon railways and navigable

rivers.

For sixteen years after throwing off the Spanish yoke,[48] Chili

was governed, despotically, without a constitution. During those

years constant disorders prevailed. At length the general wish of

the nation was gratified. [Sidenote: 1833 A.D.] A constitution was

promulgated, under which the franchise was bestowed on every married

man of twenty-one years, and on every unmarried man of twenty-five

who was able to read and write. With this constitution the people

have been satisfied. The government has been throughout in the hands

of a moderate Conservative party, which has directed public affairs

with firmness and wisdom, and has manifested zeal in the correction

of abuses. Opposing parties have not in Chili, as in the neighbouring

States, wasted the country by their fierce contentions for ascendency.

In the exercise of a wise but rare moderation, the views of either

party have been modified by those of the other. A method of government

has thus been reached which men of all shades of opinion have been able

to accept, and under which the prosperous development of the country

has advanced with surprising rapidity.

During the last thirty years the population of Chili has quadrupled,

and her revenue has increased still more largely. Immigration from

Europe, especially from Germany, has been successfully promoted.

Formerly almost all land was held by large owners. This pernicious

system has been in great measure destroyed. Estates have been

subdivided, and the system of small proprietorship is now widely

prevalent. The public debt of Chili is twelve million sterling; but as

she, unlike her sister republics, meets her obligations punctually,

her name stands high on the Stock Exchanges of Europe. The education

of her people receives a fair measure of attention. Of her revenue of

three and a half million, she expends a quarter million upon schools--a

proportion not equalled in Europe. But this liberal expenditure is

recent, and has not yet had time to produce its proper results. Only

one in twenty-four of the population attends school; only one in seven

can read. Even in the cities the proportion is no greater than one in

four.

* * * * *

The neighbouring State of PERU has an area four times that of Chili,

but her population is scarcely larger. And while Chili has a very

inconsiderable proportion of Indians, it is estimated that fifty-seven

per cent. of the Peruvian population are of the aboriginal races,

and twenty-three per cent. are of mixed origin. The remainder are

native Spaniards, Negroes, Chinese, with a very few Germans and

Italians. From a nation so composed, a wise management of public

affairs can scarcely be hoped for. The government of Peru has been,

since the era of independence, a reproach to humanity. Elsewhere

on the continent there has been the hopeful spectacle of a people

imperfectly enlightened, but animated by a sincere love of liberty, and

struggling against tremendous obstacles towards a happier political

situation. The incessant strifes which have devastated Peru have no

such justification. They have no political significance at all; they do

not originate in any regard to national interests. Turbulent military

chiefs have, in constant succession and with shameless selfishness,

contended for power and plunder. A debased and slothful people, wholly

devoid of political intelligence, have become the senseless weapons

with which these ignoble strifes have been waged. The vast wealth with

which Nature has endowed the land has lain undeveloped; the labour,

with which the country is so inadequately supplied, has been absorbed

by the wars of a vulgar and profligate ambition: Peru remains almost

worthless to the human family.

Spain took courage, from the disorders of Peru, to meditate the

restoration of her lost colonial empire. She attacked Peru; but her

fleet was utterly defeated, after a severe engagement. [Sidenote:

1866 A.D.] This victory roused the spirit of the Peruvian people,

and for a short space it seemed as if impulses had been communicated

which would open an era of progress. For some years real industrial

advance was made. But the fair prospect was quickly marred. Two

Presidents, who manifested a patriotic desire to begin the work of

reform, were murdered. An insane war against Chili was begun. Chili

had imposed certain duties on products imported from Bolivia; and

Peru, disapproving of these duties, went to war to avenge or annul the

proceeding. The fortune of that war has been decisively against the

aggressor. Chili has proved not merely equal to the task of holding

her own; she has defeated her enemy in many battles; she has seized

portions of her territory; she has captured her most powerful iron-clad

ship of war. The progress of Peru has utterly ceased. [Sidenote: 1880

A.D.] Her finances are in the wildest disorder. Her paper currency

is worth no more than one-tenth its nominal value. Her ports are

blockaded; her commerce is well-nigh abolished. But her misguided

rulers will listen to no suggestion of peace, and seem resolved to

maintain this discreditable contest to the extremity of prostration and

misery.

Peru is believed to extract silver from her mines to the annual

value of a million sterling; an amount somewhat smaller than these

mines yielded down to the war of independence. Peru exports chiefly

articles which can be obtained without labour or thought. The guano,

heaped in millions of tons on the islands which stud her coasts, was

sold to European speculators, and carried away by European ships. But

these vast stores seem to approach exhaustion. Fortunately for this

spendthrift Government, discovery was made some years ago of large

deposits of nitrate of soda, from the sale of which an important

revenue is gained.

For Peru, lying chiefly between lofty mountain ranges remote from the

sea, railway communication is of prime importance. In the time of one

of her best Presidents there was devised a scheme of singular boldness;

and by the help of borrowed money, on which no interest is paid, it

has been partially executed. A railway line, setting out from Lima, on

the Pacific, crosses the barren plain which adjoins the coast, climbs

the western range of the Andes to a height of nearly sixteen thousand

feet, and traverses the table-land which lies between the great lines

of mountain. When completed, it will reach some of the tributaries of

the Amazon, at points where these become navigable--thus connecting the

Pacific with the Atlantic where the continent is at the broadest. There

are, in all, about fourteen hundred miles of railway open for traffic

in Peru, three-fourths of which are Government works.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1811 A.D.] PARAGUAY, a State with an area nearly twice

that of England, and a population of a million and a half, had the

good fortune to assume her independence without any resistance from

the mother country, and therefore without requiring to undergo the

sacrifices of war. For nearly thirty years she was ruled by a despotism

not less absolute than that of Spain. Dr. Francia became Dictator for

life. He had been educated as a theologian, and was a silent, stern,

relentless man, who inspired his people with such fear that even after

his death they scarcely ventured to pronounce his name. Francia did

something to develop the resources of the State. But progress was slow,

for the Dictator permitted no intercourse with other nations. Paraguay

was to supply all her own wants--depending for nothing on the outside

world. Whosoever came within her borders must remain; he who obtained

permission to go out might not return. [Sidenote: 1840 A.D.] When this

strange ruler died his power fell to Carlos Lopez, who maintained for

twenty-two years a despotism not less absolute, but guided by a policy

greatly more enlightened. He encouraged intercourse with foreigners;

he constructed roads and railways; he cared for education; he created

defences and a revenue. [Sidenote: 1862 A.D.] Before he died he

bequeathed his authority to his son.

This new ruler had been sent, when a young man, to Europe to acquire

the ideas which animated the enlightened Powers of the Old World. He

arrived at the time of the Crimean War, to find a love of glory and

of empire occupying the public mind of England and of France. He was

not able to withstand the malign influence. He went home resolved to

emulate the career of the Emperor Napoleon. He, too, would become a

conqueror; he, too, would found an empire. He occupied himself in

forming a large army, in accumulating military stores. [Sidenote: 1865

A.D.] When the death of his father raised him to absolute authority,

he lost no time in attacking Brazil, which he had marked as his

first victim. The Argentine Republic and Uruguay made common cause

with Brazil against a disturber of the peace, in whose ambition they

recognized a common danger.

The war continued for five years. It brought upon Paraguay calamities

more appalling than have fallen in modern times on any State. Her

territory was occupied by a victorious foe, and one-half of it was

taken away from her for ever. Her debt had swelled to an amount which

utterly precluded hope of payment.[49] Her population had sunk from a

million and a half to two hundred and twenty thousand. Of these it was

estimated that four-fifths were females. War and its attendant miseries

had almost annihilated the adult male population.[50] Paraguay yielded

herself as the base instrument of an insane ambition, and she was

destroyed.

* * * * *

BUENOS AYRES, a city founded during the early years of the conquest,

was the seat of one of the vice-royalties by which the Spaniards

conducted the government of the continent. It stands on the right

bank of the river Plate, not far from the ocean. The Plate and its

tributary rivers flow through vast treeless plains, where myriads of

horses and cattle roam at will among grass which attains a height

equal to their own. When the dominion of Spain ceased, Buenos Ayres

naturally assumed a preponderating influence in the new Government. The

provinces which had composed the old vice-royalty formed themselves

into a Confederation, with a constitution modelled on that of the

United States. Buenos Ayres was the only port of shipment for the

inland provinces. Her commercial importance as well as her metropolitan

dignity soon aroused jealousies which could not be allayed. Within a

few years the Confederation was repudiated by nearly all its members,

and for some time each of the provinces governed itself independently

of the others.

[Sidenote: 1821 A.D.] The next experiment was a representative Republic

under President-General Rivadavia, with Buenos Ayres as the seat of

Government. Rivadavia was a man of enlightened views. He encouraged

immigration, established liberty of religion, took some steps to

educate the people, entered into commercial treaties with foreign

powers. [Sidenote: 1827 A.D.] But his liberal policy was regarded

unfavourably by a people not sufficiently wise to comprehend it; and he

resigned his office after having held it for six years.

The influence of Buenos Ayres now waned, and the provinces of the

interior gained what the capital lost. These provinces were occupied

by a half-savage race of mixed origin, who lived by the capture and

slaughter of wild cattle. These fierce hunters were trained to the

saddle almost from infancy, and lived on horseback. Excellence in

horsemanship was a sufficient passport to their favour. [Sidenote:

1829 A.D.] The government of the country now fell into the hands of

General Rosas, a Gaucho chief, whose feats in the saddle have probably

never been equalled by the most accomplished of circus-riders.[51] For

twenty-three years this man--cruel, treacherous, but full of rugged

vigour--maintained over the fourteen provinces a despotism which soon

lapsed into an absolute reign of terror. One of the methods of this

wretched man’s government was the systematic employment of a gang

of assassins, who murdered according to his orders, and under whose

knives many thousands of innocent persons perished. His troops overran

the neighbouring province of Uruguay; but Monte Video, the capital of

that State, was successfully held against him, chiefly by the skill

and courage of Garibaldi. France and England declared war against the

tyrant, and for several years vainly blockaded the city of Buenos

Ayres. At length (1848) a determined rebellion broke out and raged

for four years. [Sidenote: 1852 A.D.] A great battle was fought; the

army of Rosas was scattered; the capital, wild with joy, received the

thrilling news that the tyrant had fled[52] and that the country was

free.

The twenty-three years of despotism had done nothing to solve the

political problems which still demanded solution at the hands of the

Argentine people. The tedious and painful work had now to be resumed.

The province of Buenos Ayres declared itself out of the Confederation,

and entered upon a separate career. The single State was wisely

governed, and made rapid progress in all the elements of prosperity. In

especial it copied the New England common-school system. The thirteen

States from which it had severed itself strove to repress or to rival

its increasing greatness. But their utmost efforts could scarcely avert

decay. [Sidenote: 1859 A.D.] They declared war, in the barbarous hope

of crushing their too prosperous neighbour. Buenos Ayres was strong

enough to inflict defeat upon her assailants. [Sidenote: 1861 A.D.] She

now, on her own terms, reëntered the Confederation, of which her chief

city became once more the capital.

[Sidenote: 1865 A.D.] The career of the reconstructed Confederation

has not been, thus far, a wholly peaceful one. There has been a

lengthened war with Paraguay. There was a Gaucho revolt, which it was

not hard to suppress. [Sidenote: 1870-72 A.D.] The important province

of Entre Rios rose in arms, and was brought back to her duty after

two years of war. Still later (1874) a rebellion broke out on the

election of a new President. But the energy which formerly inspired

revolutionary movements seems to decay, and this latest disorder was

trampled out in a campaign of no greater duration than seventy-six

days. A milder temper now prevails, especially in the cities of the

Confederation. There are still divisions of opinion. One party is eager

to promote a consolidated and effectively national life; another would

maintain and enhance provincial separations; a third--the party of

disorder, whose strength is being sapped by the growing prosperity of

the country--seeks to foment revolutionary movements in the hope of

advantage, or in sheer restlessness of spirit. But these antagonisms

have in large measure lost the envenomed character which they once

bore. The only habitual disturbers of the national tranquillity are

the Indians, who are suffered to hold possession of almost one-half

the Argentine territory, and against whom murderous frontier wars are

incessantly waged.

It is, however, obvious that the union of the fourteen provinces rests

upon no satisfactory or permanent basis, and that the final adjustment

can scarcely be effected otherwise than by the customary method

of force. The province of Buenos Ayres, although it contains only

one-fourth of the population, contains three-fourths of the wealth,[53]

and bears fully nine-tenths of the taxation of the confederate

provinces. The other thirteen provinces have absolute control over the

government; and the expenditure has largely increased, as it needs

must when the persons who enjoy the privilege of expending funds are

exempt from the burden of providing them. This arrangement is highly

and not unreasonably displeasing to the rich province of Buenos Ayres;

and it seems probable that the people of this province will sooner or

later force their way out of a Confederation whose burdens and whose

advantages are so unequally distributed.

The fourteen provinces of the Argentine Confederation cover an area

of 515,700 square miles, and are thus almost equal to six countries

as large as Great Britain. The population which occupies this huge

territory numbers only two million. Every variety of temperature

prevails within their borders. In South Patagonia the cold is nearly

as intense as that of Labrador. Southern Buenos Ayres has the climate

of England; farther north the delicious climate of the south of France

and the north of Italy is enjoyed. Yet farther north comes the fierce

heat of the tropics. Westward, on the slopes of the Andes, little rain

falls; eastward, toward the sea, the rainfall is excessive.

The Argentine States have promoted immigration so successfully that

they have received in some years accessions to their numbers of from

sixty to ninety thousand persons--British, Italian, French, German,

and Swiss. They have thus the presence of a large European element,

which gives energy to every liberal and progressive impulse. The

great city of Buenos Ayres is, to the extent of half its population

(of 220,000), a city of Europeans. In most of the other cities this

European element is present and influential. Far in the interior are

many little colonies composed of Europeans, settled on lands bestowed

by Government, engaged in sheep or cattle farming, growing rich by the

rapid increase of their herds on that fertile soil. Full religious

liberty is enjoyed, and all the various shades of Protestantism are

represented in the chapels of Buenos Ayres or in the rural colonies

of the interior. Two thousand five hundred miles of railway are in

operation; direct telegraphic communication with England is enjoyed;

the provinces are being drawn more closely together by the construction

of roads and bridges; the vast river systems of the Confederation

are traversed by multitudes of steamers. The people have entered,

seemingly, with earnestness on the task of developing the illimitable

resources of the great territory which Providence has committed to

their care.

* * * * *

Our survey of South American history since the era of Independence

discloses much that is lamentable. It discloses nothing, however, that

is fitted to surprise, and little that is fitted to discourage. We see

priest-directed and therefore utterly ignorant people throwing aside

the yoke of an abhorred tyranny. We see them assume the function of

self-government without a single qualification for the task. We see

them become the prey of lawless and turbulent chiefs, of a selfish

military and priestly oligarchy. We watch their struggles as they grope

in blind fury, but still under the guidance of a healthy instinct,

after the freedom of which they have been defrauded. At length we are

permitted to mark, with rejoicing, that they begin to emerge from the

unprecedented difficulties by which they have been beset. The path by

which they must gain the position of orderly and prosperous States is

yet long and toilsome. It is now, however, at least possible to believe

that they have entered upon it.

* * * * *

[The disturbed condition of the Western States continues without

abatement, and without prospect of settlement. Both Peru and Bolivia

are practically at the mercy of Chili. The war is over, but peace is

made impossible by the anarchy that prevails in the vanquished States.

The President of Peru is a fugitive. The President of Bolivia has

absconded. There is no settled government in either country with which

the Chilians can safely make terms. What seems most certain is, that

the provinces which yield most abundantly that nitrate of soda about

the export of which the war originated will be permanently annexed

to Chili. Indeed, these districts are now administered by Chilian

functionaries.

The Conservative counter-revolution in Mexico, under Diaz, lasted till

1880, when General Gonzalez was elected President. An insurrection in

the capital had to be suppressed before his installation could take

place.

In Buenos Ayres, nationalism has had a further struggle with

provincialism, and another triumph over it. In August 1880 the national

troops forcibly entered the Provincial Assembly, and ejected the

deputies at the point of the sword. A few days afterwards, General

Roca, the new President, entered the capital.--ED.]

CHAPTER VI.

THE CHURCH OF ROME IN SPANISH AMERICA.

At the time when the discovery and possession of the New World occupied

the Spaniards, the Church of Rome exercised over that people an

influence which had no parallel elsewhere in all her wide dominion.

A religious war of nearly eight centuries had at length closed

victoriously. Twenty generations of Spaniards had spent their lives

under the power of a burning desire to expel unbelievers from the soil

of Spain, and win triumphs for the true faith. The ministers of that

religion, for which they were willing to lay down their lives, gained

their boundless reverence. To the ordinary Spaniard religion had yet

no association with morals; it exercised no control over conduct. It

was a collection of beliefs; above all it was an unreasoning loyalty to

a certain ecclesiastical organization. To extend the authority of the

Church, and, if it had been possible, to exterminate all her enemies,

formed now the grand animating motives of the Spanish nation.

No Spaniard of them all was more powerfully influenced by these motives

than the good Queen Isabella. At the bidding of her confessor she set

up the Inquisition, for the destruction of heretics; she consented to

the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and the virtual confiscation of

their property. She gave encouragement to the enterprise of Columbus,

in the hope of extending the empire of the Church over benighted

nations. The King himself stated, in later years, that the conversion

of Indians was the chief purpose of the conquest. The Queen sent

missionaries to begin this great work so soon as she heard of the

discovery. In all her official correspondence her chief concern is

avowedly for the spiritual interests of her new subjects. Columbus

tells, in regard to his second voyage, that he was sent “to see the way

that should be taken to convert the Indians to our holy faith.” He was

instructed “to labour in all possible ways to bring the dwellers in the

Indies to a knowledge of the holy Catholic faith.” Twelve ecclesiastics

were sent with him to share in these pious toils. A little later, when

the overthrow of Columbus was sought by his enemies, one of their most

deadly weapons was the charge that he did not baptize Indians, because

he desired slaves rather than Christians.

Favoured thus by the general sentiment of the mother country,

the Church quickly overspread the colonies and appropriated no

inconsiderable share of their wealth. Within four years there were

monasteries already established.[54] Within one hundred years there

were twelve hundred nunneries and monasteries. There was a full

equipment of patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, prebends, abbots,

chaplains, as well as parish priests. There were monks of every

variety--Franciscans, Dominicans, Jeronymites, Fathers of Mercy,

Augustines, Jesuits. In Lima it was alleged that the convents covered

more ground than all the rest of the city. [Sidenote: 1644 A.D.]

From Mexico there came a petition to the King praying that no new

monasteries should be allowed, as these institutions, if suffered

to increase, would soon absorb the whole property of the country.

Wherever the Spaniards went they hastened to erect churches. While the

conquest of Peru was yet incomplete, there was a church in Caxamalco

to which the devout Spaniards assigned a liberal share of the gold of

which they so villanously plundered the unhappy Inca. The magnificence

of churches and convents became in course of years so dazzling that the

European mind, it was said, could form no conception of it. The tithes,

which had been vested in the Crown, were almost wholly made over to

the Church. The free-will offerings of a superstitious people, with an

exceptionally large volume of personal iniquity to expiate, swelled out

to a huge aggregate. The wealth of the Church continued to grow till,

as we have seen, in Mexico she possessed one-half of all the land in

the province.

Among the multitudes of ecclesiastics who hastened to these new fields

of enterprise and emolument there were very many whose characters were

debased, whose lives were scandalous. Very soon after the settlement

the profligacy of churchmen attracted general remark. Living often in

secluded positions without the control or observation of superiors,

they gave free scope to evil dispositions, and occupied themselves with

the pursuits of avarice or of licentiousness.

But we should grievously wrong the Church of Rome were we to suppose

that all her ministers in the New World were of this unworthy

description. The sudden knowledge of many millions of heathens, whose

existence had been previously unsuspected, awakened in the monasteries

of Spain a strong impulse towards missionary effort. To men who were

lingering out their idle days in the profitless repose of a religious

seclusion there opened now boundless possibilities of ennobling

usefulness. Among them were many whose singleness of purpose, whose

utter crucifixion of self, whose heroic daring and endurance would have

done honour to the purest Church. Especially was this true concerning

the Jesuits. This dreaded and upon the whole pernicious Order was

distinguished, in its earlier days, as well for the sagacity and

administrative ability of its members as for their absorbing devotion

to the interests of the faith.

The Indians accepted with perfect readiness the new religion which

their conquerors offered. The monks who went among them speedily

acquired commanding influence. The Franciscans who went out on

the invitation of Cortes reported that they found the Mexicans a

gentle people, given somewhat to lying and drunkenness and needing

restraint, but well disposed to religion, and confessing so well that

it was not necessary to ask them questions. The children about the

monastery already knew much, and taught others who were less happily

circumstanced; they sang well and accompanied the organ competently.

This gentle people loved the holy men who, clothed plainly and living

on the humblest fare, laboured without ceasing to do them good. They

willingly submitted to baptism to please their teachers. Indeed,

the only limit to the increase of baptized persons was the physical

capability of the missionaries. One father baptized till he was

unable any longer to lift his arms. Of another it was asserted that

he had administered this sacrament to four hundred thousand converts.

[Sidenote: 1531 A.D.] Ten years after the fall of Mexico, the bishop

reported that in his diocese there were now a million of baptized

persons; that five hundred temples and twenty thousand idols had

been destroyed; that in their room were now churches, oratories, and

hermitages; that whereas there were formerly offered up every year to

idols twenty thousand hearts of young men and young women, the hearts

of Mexican youth were now offered up with innumerable sacrifices of

praise to the Most High God.

Among many races of Indians there had existed from time immemorial

a marvellous fondness for the confession of sin. Under all grave

attacks of illness they hastened to confess old sins to any one who

would listen to their tale. When they encountered a panther in the

wilderness, they began, under the influence of some unexplained

superstition, to disclose their iniquities to the savage beast. A

people so inclined welcomed a religion which offered them free access

to the enjoyment of their cherished privilege. They manifested, in

regard to this ordinance of the Church, “a dove-like simplicity,

an incredible fervour.” Oral confession was to these simple souls

an insufficient relief. They brought to the confessor a pictorial

representation of the special transgressions which burdened them.

Later, when many of them had learned to write, they bore with them

elaborate catalogues of their evil doings.

The monks attempted to bestow upon the children under their care

the elements of a simple education. To each monastery a school was

attached. Peter of Ghent, a Flemish lay-brother of noble devotedness,

caused the erection of a large building, in which he taught six hundred

Mexican children to read, to write, and to sing.[55] This good man knew

the Mexican language well, and could preach when need was. He spent

fifty toilsome years in labours for the instruction of the conquered

people; and there were many of his brethren equally diligent.

But among the teeming millions of South America, these efforts, so

admirable in quality, were wholly insignificant in amount. They were

thwarted, too, by the murderous cruelty which the Spaniards exercised,

and the people remained utterly uninstructed. The conversion of the

country made progress so rapid that in a few years the native religions

disappeared, and the Indians seemed universally to have accepted

Christianity. But the change rested in large measure upon fear of

their tyrants, or love to their teachers, or the authority of chiefs

who had deemed it expedient to adopt the faith of men who were always

victorious in battle. It was only in a few instances the result of

intelligent conviction. The priests baptized readily all natives who

would permit the ceremony, because that was a sure provision for their

eternal welfare. But the opinion was entertained from an early period

that the natives were incapable of comprehending the first principles

of the faith. Acting under this belief, a council of Lima decreed

their exclusion from the sacrament of the Eucharist. Down to the close

of Spanish dominion few Indians were allowed to communicate, or to

become members of any religious order, or to be ordained as priests.

Underneath the profession of Christianity the Indians have always

retained a secret love for the pagan faith of their fathers, and still

secretly practise its rites.[56]

The monks were throughout the warm friends and protectors of the

Indians. At a very early period the Dominicans preached against

Indian slavery “with very piercing and terrible words.” They refused

to confess men who were cruel to Indians--a privation which was

severely felt; for to the Spaniard of that day, with his over-burdened

conscience, confession was a necessary of life. [Sidenote: 1537 A.D.]

The Pope himself pronounced the doom of excommunication against all who

reduced Indians to slavery or deprived them of their goods. We have

seen how nobly and how vainly the good Las Casas interposed in defence

of the Indians. The efforts of the well-meaning fathers were, in almost

every direction, unsuccessful. But this failure resulted from no

deficiency either in zeal or in discretion. The record of the Church of

Rome is darkened by manifold offences against the welfare of the human

family; but she is able to recall with just pride the heroic efforts

which her sons put forth on behalf of the deeply-wronged native races.