 Section 5 of the South American Republics, Volume 2, by Thomas Claland Dawson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Piotr Natter, Part 1, Peru, Chapter 5, The Wars of Independence. The storm soon to burst over South America was gathering, when Viceroy Abascal assumed the reigns of power in 1806. He made no pretensions to statesmanship, but it did not escape his shrewd soldier's eye and common sense that French revolutionary ideas would soon make trouble. Her very existence threatened in the titan conflict then devastating Europe, Spain could not be relied upon to spare any of her soldiers to guard her colonies. He must take care of himself. Wasting no time in seeking to propitiate the revolutionary elements, he quietly set to work to organize and arm an efficient army while vigilantly watching the course of events. Although less infected than any other province, being the one where the Spanish bureaucracy was most numerous and powerful, even in Peru Creole society was honeycombed with revolutionary sentiment. The plots to secure autonomy came to Abascal's notice and with the first overt act he pounced upon the plotters. Two republican visionaries named Ubaldo and Aguilar were the first martyrs for liberty. A few learned and respected professors in Lima dared to speculate on the future of America as affected by recent events in Europe, but the Viceroy summoned them to his presence and his stern warnings silenced them. Two young lawyers held evening parties where politics were discussed by the rising youth of the capital. One of the ringleaders was condemned to ten years imprisonment and the other sent to Spain, while several more were shipped off to Southern Chile. Although the liberals continued to meet and conspire and the priests were particularly active for the present, nothing definite came of all of this. Even the news of the deposition of the Spanish authorities at Quito, La Paz and Charcas in 1809 met with no response from the liberals at Lima. Abascal banished Riva Aguero, their leader, his expeditions quickly suppressed the insurrections in Bolivia and Ecuador, and he redoubled his exertions to strengthen his army, recruiting among the Indians and half-breeds and casting cannon. That his apprehensions were justified was proved by the events of the following year. In rapid succession Buenos Aires, northern New Granada, Caracas and Santiago installed revolutionary juntas in place of the Spanish governors. The flames of revolution spread rapidly from these centers. Soon the Spanish officials were overthrown throughout Argentina, Chile, New Granada and Venezuela. Bolivia and Ecuador were divided and only Peru remained steady. But Abascal, resolute and unshaken, sent his armies against the triumphant revolutionists. The story of these campaigns is elsewhere told, in connection with the countries where they were conducted. Though the Patriots won some important victories, the loyal arms steadily advanced. The redemption of Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia had been mainly achieved with the resources which Abascal had picked up in South America. Until 1813 the people of the peninsula were fighting desperately for national independence against the armies of the great Napoleon. No money or men could be spared for South America, and Abascal even managed to remit two million dollars to Spain in a single year, that of 1811. Two armies with which his generals won their early victories were recruited almost entirely from the native population of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. In this struggle between Spaniard and Creole, the sturdy Indian of the Plateau, who was dragged reluctant from his home, took no great interest. But any sympathy he felt was anti-Spanish. Nevertheless, so ingrained was the habit of Abidians, that when drilled and commanded by Spanish officers, the half-bleeds and Indians made excellent soldiers. During these six years, only one insurrection touched the territory of Peru proper. In 1814 the Indians of the Cusco region rose under the leadership of one of their own casiques. The whole population of this, the most southern province of Peru, seemed to have sympathized with the insurrection and the same feeling extended over the Bolivian border. When Pumacagua, the Indian leader, advanced into Bolivia, the people around La Paz joined him. But his army was an undisciplined, unarmed mob, only 800 of the 20,000 who followed him possessing baskets. The Spanish general, Ramirez, hastened up from southern Bolivia. The Indians retreated over the Cordillera to Arequipa, where they were followed by the Spaniards. When Ramirez approached, they again retired to the Bolivian Plateau, and the game of hide and seek ended with the horrible slaughter of Umaciri near Lake Titicaca. In 1816 Abascal thought that his work was virtually completed, and that he had earned the right to retire. Resistance was confined to Buenos Aires, to the thinly populated provinces of Tucumán and Cuyo, and to the banks of the Orinoco. The Argentine revolutionists were fighting among themselves, and that they must succumb before an advance in force from the Bolivian Plateau appeared certain. The last act of his administration was to send out a fleet that compelled for Argentine ships, which Admiral William Brown had brought around the Horn to withdraw to the Atlantic. He was succeeded by General Pethuela, a strategist of low mean abilities, who had borne a brilliant part in the Bolivian campaigns. The new viceroy straight away said about final preparations for a decisive advance across the Pampas to Buenos Aires. But like a thunderbolt from a clear sky came the news that San Martín had made a sudden descent on Chile and won the Battle of Chacabuca, annihilating the Spanish forces in that country. Pethuela saw himself obliged to begin a war to reduce Chile to obedience, and undertaking sure to be long and arduous, and in which he must encounter a general whose technical mastery of the profession had enabled him to create an army equal in discipline and effectiveness to any device Roy might hope to throw against him. Pethuela abandoned the idea of an immediate Argentine campaign, with maintaining a defensive attitude on the Bolivian frontier. He managed to repulse the armies which the Buenos Aires sent against Bolivia, but it was in vain that he poured into Chile all the troops he could possibly spare. They were overthrown and annihilated in the decisive battle of Maipo. The viceroy sent for help to Spain and New Granada, but Venezuela had risen in insurrection under Bolivar and Peth, and it was impossible to spare any considerable number of troops from the Caribbean. So long, however, as Spanish ships commanded the Pacific, Peru itself was safe from attack, and the viceroy could securely await the arrival of reinforcements, and then attack Chile where he chose. Happily for the cause of South American independence, the warship of the beginning of the 19th century was not the expensive, complicated, slow-built machine it has since become. San Martín subordinated everything to the creation of a fleet. He forced the Argentine and Chilean governments to furnish him money, and his agents hastened to Europe and North America to buy ships and engage British and American captains. The Spaniards had four frigates and 13 smaller ships, mounting in all 380 guns, while San Martín was able to improvise only three frigates and as many brigs, mounting about 180 cannon. This disparity of force was more than made up by the superior skill and experience of the foreign seamen. His admiral was Lord Cochrane, a scotchman of noble family but radical principles and adventurous disposition. A daring and reckless fighter, inventive and fertile in resources, he excelled in leading cutting out expeditions and surprises. His marvelous activity and the capture by Blanco and Calada of their largest frigate dismayed the Spanish captains. When Cochrane sailed up the coast, he found the Spaniards huddled under the guns of Cayao Castle. Returning to Valparaiso, he reported to San Martín that he could guarantee the unmolested transport of an army to any point on the Peruvian coast and again sailed away for Cayao. Though his attempt to destroy the Spaniards with fire ships and rockets was unsuccessful, he captured and sucked several towns and terrorized the Spanish authorities all along the coast. San Martín, after many disappointments and interruptions, succeeded in preparing an army of invasion. For ten years war had desolated every other part of Spanish South America, while Peru had remained untouched. At length the conflict was to be transferred to the very center of Spanish power. On September the 7th, 1820, Lord Cochrane's fleet dropped anchor in a bay near Pisco, 150 miles south of Lima. San Martín's army, numbering 4,500 Argentines and Chileans, disembarked without opposition and occupied the fertile vine-covered valleys. To undertake a campaign for the conquest of Peru with such a force seemed absurd. The viceroy's troops were five times as numerous. At Lima alone he had nearly 9,000 men, as many more were quartered at Cusco, Jauja and Arequipa, besides the 6,000 veterans who guarded the Bolivian frontier against an invasion from Buenos Aires. The contest was, however, really not so unequal as it appeared. The Spanish armies were made up of native Peruvians and Bolivians, with San Veresuelans, sympathizers with the Patriot cause swarmed in their ranks. Many were waiting an opportunity to desert. The viceroy had little control over his generals, and the arrival of the Argentine army stimulated the activity of the Patriot societies in the Peruvian cities. From Pisco San Martín detached a force of 1,200 men under the command of General Arenales, which ascended the Cordillera, roused the population of the plateaus immediately back of Lima, and defeated at the touchment under General O'Reilly near Cerro de Pasco. The Indians rose, but when the Spaniards came up in force Arenales retired to the coast, leaving his allies to be mercilessly slaughtered. Meanwhile San Martín, with the main body, had taken ship at Pisco, and sailing north landed at Huacho, 70 miles beyond the capital. These 3,000 men could not hope to succeed in a direct attack on the city, defended by thrice that number of disciplined troops. On the other hand, the Spanish army was shut off from the sea, its base was now far back in the interior, its line of communication might be cut at any moment by other expeditions like that of Arenales. Lima and the coast towns were decedently disaffected. General Martín's plan was to wait patiently until a rising should compel the Spaniards to retire to the interior, and then to organize the country, and gather an army for the final campaign on the Plateau. He kept therefore at a safe distance from the Spaniards, sent out the detachments, which scoured the country up to the walls of Lima, and entered into communication with the conspirators in the city. Outs of young enthusiasts hastened out to join him. Cochrane daringly cut out the frigate Esmeralda under the very guns of Cayao Castle, an expedition sent to Tacna on the extreme southern coast was enthusiastically received, and numerous desertions from the Spanish army culminated in a battalion of Venezuelans coming over in a body. The viceroy was sorely puzzled, he hesitated to send his army to attack San Martín, fearing an insurrection or surprise during his absence, and knowing that defeat meant irretrievable ruin. Really, only two courses of action lay open to the Spaniards, they must either fight San Martín, and the sooner the better, for he was becoming stronger every day, or they must abandon Lima and concentrate on their base in the mountains. The viceroy could not make up his mind to abandon the ancient capital, and he was reluctant to expose his family to the hardships of a guerrilla warfare in the mountains. San Martín drew closer and closer, the attitude of the Lima Liberals became more and more threatening, and still Pethuela made no move. News came of the revolution in Spain, and of the overthrow of absolutism, and all the principal commanders united in demanding his resignation. He had no alternative, and retired to Spain, while the generals selected one of their number, La Serna, to succeed him. The new viceroy entered into negotiations, looking into an amicable accommodation of the whole question at issue between Spain and her colonies. The Argentine was nothing loath, well knowing that every month strengthened the patriot feeling among the coast Peruvians, and brought him nearer his goal. San Martín proposed that South America become a constitutional monarchy, and accept a bourbon prince as its king in return for a recognition of its independence, a concession which even the revolutionary Spanish government could not confirm. The suggestion reflects little credit upon the political acumen of the great Argentine general. San Martín in fact seems never to have appreciated the motives and instincts which had pushed the creals into rebellion. The revolutionary movement in South America was, in its essence, separatist and republican. No monarch, whether the scion of a European house or a Bolivar trying to play the role of a Napoleon, could ever have kept the Spanish colonies together. The first six months of 1821 were consumed in these fruitless negotiations, and by this time the position of the Spaniards at Lima had become untenable. It was necessary for them to retire to the plateau, where the sturdy natives furnished a supply of excellent recruits, and the mines, fields and pastures would maintain an army. On July 6, 1821, La Serna evacuated the capital and retired to Jauja, leaving a well-provisioned garrison at Callal against the hoped for arrival of a fleet from Spain. Even then a dozen well-thought frigates might have undone all San Martín's work and changed the fate of South America. Three days later the Argentine general entered the city, and on the 28th of July 1821 Peru was proclaimed an independent republic with San Martín as temporary dictator under the title of protector. During the rest of the year he was occupied with trying to secure the adhesion of the whole coast, and made no effort to undertake the redemption of the interior. When the Frenchman Canterac, the most enterprising of the Spanish commanders, made a dissent on Lima, San Martín merely maintained the defense, being well assured that the enemy must soon retire on account of want of provisions. But he found himself hampered in consolidating coast Peru by the fact that he was a foreigner. The Peruvians were jealous and suspicious, and he feared that troops recruited among them might turn their arms against him, while his Argentine officers regarded the country as their own property and monopolized the positions of honor and profit to which the Peruvians thought themselves more justly entitled. Matters remained virtually at a standstill until the summer of 1822. San Martín had been unable to make his position stable enough to justify his devoting himself to military operations, nor had he succeeded in gathering and equipping an army with which he was willing to undertake a decisive campaign. Canterac even took the offensive, although he made no effort to re-occupy permanently the coast plain. Outside help was necessary, and San Martín, despairing of obtaining it from Chile or the Argentine, turned his eyes to the north. Bolivar's battles of Boyacá and Carabobo had redeemed Northern Granada and Venezuela in 1819 and 1821, and he was now advancing toward Quito to complete the expulsion of the Spaniards from that vice-royalty. With a force of Colombians, Sucre went to Guayaquil by sea and climbed to the Ecuador Plateau. Defeated and driven back on his first attempt, he was reinforced by a division sent by San Martín and renewed the effort with better success. Although Bolivar had in the meantime been checked in his southward march on Quito by the loyalists of southern Colombia, Sucre alone destroyed the Spanish army which had held Ecuador for so many years. The Battle of Pichincha, fought in May 1822, left Bolivar and Sucre free to employ their numerous and well-disciplined troops in completing the liberation of Peru and Bolivia. Bolivar joined his victorious lieutenant at Quito, incorporated Ecuador with his Republic of Colombia and proceeded overland to Guayaquil, where San Martín lost no time in going to meet him for a conference. The Argentine expected to find as unselfish a patriot as himself, but the liberator was not single-minded. He had formed plans for his own glory and aggrandizement to the accomplishment of which San Martín might be an obstacle. When the latter broached the subject of a joint campaign against the Spaniards in Peru and Bolivia, Bolivar gave him no satisfaction and evaded the Argentine's noble offer to serve in a subordinate capacity. The silent soldier made no protest and uttered no reproaches. Confiding not even in his closest friends, he calmly considered his plight on his way back to Lima. His situation in Peru, bad already, would be made ten times worse by Bolivar's intrigues. Seeing that he could be of no further service to the cause of South American independence, he formally resigned his authority to a national congress, deliberately sacrificing his own future for the cause he loved, but leaving behind him a name untarnished by any suspicion of self-seeking or personal ambition. Bolivar waited in vain for the expected invitation to come with his veterans. The leaders in Peru did not propose to geopart their own supremacy. They thought they were strong enough to whip the Spaniards by themselves and made great efforts to drill and equip an efficient army. By the end of the year, 4,000 men under the command of Alvarado were sent to the southern coast to make an attempt to reach Lake Titicaca and thereby get between the Spanish armies. It failed before the astonishing energy of the Spanish general Valdez, who by forced marches reached the pass which the Peruvians were trying to climb, and taking up a strong position beat them back with great slaughter. Alvarado retreated, but was caught by Valdez and completely routed, hardly a third of the army escaped to the seashore. The news of this defeat brought about a change of government at Lima. A revolution headed by the principal officers made Riva Agüero, the leader of the Peruvian Liberals president, while General Santa Cruz, a Bolivian, received chief command of the forces in place of Aledales. Word was sent to Bolivar that his offer of help would be accepted, and another Peruvian army was recruited. Before the 6,000 men promised by Bolivar had arrived, the Peruvians had regained confidence. With the aid of a London loan, the Patriots got 7,000 soldiers ready for service, and in May 1823 5,000 men under the command of Santa Cruz sailed from Cayao for southern Peru. This time they advanced so promptly that the Spanish generals could not get to the passes in time to dispute the way. Santa Cruz entered La Paz and defeated the first army which came against him, but the two bane Spanish bodies hastened up from Cusco and Charcas, outmaneuvered Santa Cruz, united their forces, and routed his army in a panic, not a fourth ever reaching the seaboard. Shortly after Santa Cruz's departure on this ill-fated expedition, Sucre arrived at Lima with the first installment of the promised Colombian auxiliaries. The Spanish general, Canterac, had concentrated a large army at Jauja and descended on the capital. Lima was denuded of Peruvian troops, the government helpless against the Spaniards or Sucre. The Colombian was made commander-in-chief and retiring to the fortifications of Cayao before Canterac's overwhelming numbers procured Riva Agüero's deposition and denomination of one of his own tools as nominal president, so he sent off an urgent message to Bolivar to come in person. Canterac, after holding Lima for a few weeks, went back to the mountains and Bolivar himself landed at Cayao on the 1st of September, almost at the very moment when Santa Cruz's army was getting involved in that snarl out of which it never extricated itself. The news of its destruction left Bolivar undisputed master of the situation and in February the submissive ramp of the Peruvian parliament conferred upon him an absolute dictatorship. He now devoted all the wonderful energy with which nature had endowed him to preparation for a campaign which he meant to be final and united 10,000 men under his command two-thirds of whom were Colombian veterans and the rest Peruvians, Argentines and Chileans who fought for the sheer love of fighting. His officers were the pick of South America, men who had proven their bravery and skill on all the hundred battlefields from Venezuela to Chile. With such a force he did not hesitate to attack the Spaniards, although the latter were nearly twice as numerous. Suddenly, however, his plans were seriously disturbed by a revolt at the Garrison in Cayao Castle, Argentines and Chileans who had not received their pay. The mutineers hoisted the Spanish flag and sent word to Cantarac that he might come in and take possession. This event produced a great sensation at Lima. Many citizens who distrusted Bolivar or were fearful of the final result vacillated in their allegiance. Even men who had been prominent liberals went over to the royalists. Bolivar abandoned the capital and removed his base of operations to Trujillo, 300 miles north. But discouragement gave place to confident enthusiasm when news came that the Spanish generals were fighting among themselves. Olanieta, the renegade Argentine who commanded in Bolivia, had quarrelled with La Serna whom he regarded as a pestilent liberal and an enemy of the absolute pretensions of the Spanish king. The viceroy sent Valdez against him and some hard fighting had taken place when the threat recital war was interrupted by the news of Bolivar's preparations. Though just recovering from a dangerous illness, Bolivar lost no time in taking advantage of Olanieta's revolt. His army numbered 9,000 men. It was well supplied with cavalry and the troops received their liberal pay punctually. The patriots advanced rapidly and unopposed over the maritime Cordillera which was covered by a cloud of Peruvian guerillas under whose protection sucres marked out the daily routes and brought in provisions. The city of Pasco, just south of that transverse range which forms the northern limit of the great Peruvian plateau, was reached and Bolivar's army hastened south along the western shore of the lake of Reyes to the marshy plains of Hunin at its southern end where he met Canterac herring up from Haoha with a slightly inferior force. When Bolivar called sight of the royalist army he held his infantry back in a defensible position and sent his cavalry toward the enemy. Canterac rushly charged in person at the head of all his cavalry but instead of the easy victory he expected his squadrons were thrown into some disorder when they encountered the Patriot Lancers. The latter however were compelled to retreat and fled into a defile followed by the royalists. The royalists did not notice that a Peruvian squadron had been drawn aside and scarcely were they in the defile, then they were charged from the rear. The fugitive Patriots in front rallied and the disordered and huddled royalists caught between two fires could make no effective resistance. They were quickly cut to pieces and driven from the field. The whole affair had not lasted three quarters of an hour. The numbers engaged did not much exceed two thousand. The royalist loss was only 250 yet this battle of Hunin produced almost decisive results. As the fugitive cavalry rode up to the protection of the masquettes of the infantry the latter retreated. Though Canterac was not pursued he did not stop in his precipitated flight until he had nearly reached Cusco five hundred miles away losing two thousand men by desertion on the road. Leaving Sucre in command of the army which now threatened Cusco itself Bolivar returned to Lima to look after his political interests, collect money and urge the sending of reinforcements from Colombia. Lacerna called in all his outlying divisions while Sucre confidently scattered his forces. He underestimated the strength of the royalists for to his consternation Lacerna suddenly broke out of Cusco at the head of ten thousand men and before Sucre could concentrate his opponent was threatening his rare and maneuvering to cut him off from his base. Happily the royalists were compelled to march in a semi-circle and Sucre by desperate exertions united his forces and cut along the radius coming inside of Lacerna just as the latter had succeeded in getting between him and the road to Hauha. Sucre's position was desperate. The valleys to the north were rising in favor of the royalists. A patriot column advancing from that direction to reinforce him was driven back. His provisions and ammunition were beginning to fail. Sucre's army was Lacerna's real objective. Even if he could shake off the pursuit another march to Lima would be as barren of result as Canterac's last descent and to leave the Colombian army at Guamanga would expose Cusco and Bolivia to invasion. During three days the opposing armies marched and counter-marched among the ravines on the west bank of the Pampas River and finally Sucre took the desperate resolution of crossing the deep gorge in which the river runs in order to reach the high grounds on the other side. He managed to get his main body over safely but the Spaniards fell upon his rearguard, killing four hundred men and capturing one of his two cannon. The two armies were now opposite each other on the high, narrow and broken plateau which lies between the eastern and central Cordilleras separated only by the gorge of the Pampas. They marched in plain sight of each other the royalists along the slopes of the central Cordillera while the patriots skirted the foothills of the eastern. Sucre hoped to outrun the enemy and reach the main road to Hauha but Lacerna again outflanked him. He offered battle but the viceroy had determined to engage under conditions where not a patriot could escape and by skillful maneuvers the royal army succeeded in getting into the protection of the eastern range at a point north of Sucre. Irretrievably cut off from the Hauha road convinced by his previous failures that he could not better his position by any further maneuvers the Colombian general resolved again to offer battle although this time upon a field chosen by Lacerna he seized marching and allowed the enemy to dispose their forces at will. On the 8th of September 1824 Lacerna's army numbering 8,500 men of whom only 500 were Spaniards camped on the high grounds overlooking the little plain of Ayacucho which sloped gently eastward to the little village of Kinoa. To the left the level ground was bounded up by a deep and precipitated ravine and on the right by a valley which though less difficult was impracticable for fighting. Sucre's army lay at the eastern extremity of the plain at the edge of the slope which rises from Kinoa. Behind was no cover to reform in if defeated. His forces were a little less than 6,000 and he had only one cannon against the enemy's 11 but three-fourths of his men were the pick of the Colombian veterans and the rest Peruvians of the highest spirit. Tired of interminable marching through the mountains isolated in a hostile region starvation staring them in the face confident of their superiority men to men to the royalists and led by fiery young generals. Sucre was only 31 and his chief lieutenant 25 they welcomed the opportunity to fight it out once and for all face to face and men to men. The morning sun of the ninth rose radiant behind the mountains where the Spaniards lay encamped. Sucre deployed his army in the open plain riding down the line exclaiming soldiers on your deeds this day depends the fate of South America while the Spanish columns descended in perfect order from the heights. La Serna realized that his men would not fight with the same spirit as the Patriots and that defeat might be followed by wholesale desertion but he counted on his artillery and the reserve he had left on the high ground as a sure refuge in case of a reverse. The story of the battle is soon told. The Patriots advanced to meet the Spanish attack masquetry volleys on both sides did terrific execution and the two armies met by a net in hand. On the left the Spanish columns were unable to make any impression on the Colombian infantry and while the conflict was still undecided the royalist cavalry rushly charged hoping to strike a deciding blow but they were met by a counter charge of the Patriot squadrons and rolled back in defeat. The whole left of the royalist army dispersed and such was the confusion that the impetuously pursuing Colombians reached the Spanish camp and spiked the artillery defeating on their way the enemy's center. In the meantime the Spanish right under Valdeth had outflanked the Peruvians who held that part of the line and driven them back but before he could reach the Patriot center the battle had been decided. Attacked by the victorious cavalry Valdeth's men were cut to pieces and by one o'clock in the afternoon the Spanish army except the reserve under Canterac had ceased to exist as an organized body. Of the royalists 1400 were dead and 700 wounded while the Patriots had lost 600 wounded and 300 dead. The viceroy was wounded and the prisoner his men deserting and dispersing by hundreds Canterac sued for terms and that afternoon 14 generals, 568 officers and 3200 privates became prisoners of war. Never was a victory more complete and decisive than Ayacucho. The war for independence was over only under Olanieta in far southern Bolivia and at Cayao Caso did a Spaniard remain under arms. Sucre marched to Cusco where he rested and refitted and then went on to Punto and La Paz. Olanieta's troops deserted as the Colombian approached and the last of the Spanish generals fell at the hands of his own men as he was bravely trying to suppress a mutiny. Cayao Caso held out for 13 months and with its surrender was hauled down the last Spanish ensign which floated on the South American mainland. End of section 5 Section 6 of the South American Republics Volume 2 by Thomas Clelland Dawson This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Piotr Natter. Part 1, Peru, Chapter 6 From Independence to the Chilean War If ever country began an independent existence without any basis for a strong, ordered and stable government that country was the Peru of 1826. The interior inhabited by Indians long held in subjection by the Spanish generals The long strip of coast divided by local and factional jealousies the nation had already miserably failed to unite in face of defeats suffered from the Spaniards or of the military preponderance first of the Argentines and then of the Colombians. In 1825 all thought of open resistance to Bolivar was manifest folly. Peru was his to do with as he pleased he went through the farce of summoning a congress and offering to resign his dictatorship but with thousands of Colombian troops encamped at Lima it was natural that he should be begged to retain the direction of affairs on his own terms. The quote unquote liberator devoted all his energies to laying the foundations for a great military confederation with himself as its life had. Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador were already united under the name of the United States of Colombia of which he was president. He hoped to make his tenure permanent by imposing an aristocratic and centralizing constitution providing for a life president. The submissive Peruvian congress agreed to adopt his system and the dictator set out on a triumphal tour to put it in application in Upper Peru. Travelling along the coast to Arequipa he crossed the Cordillera to La Paz and then proceeded over the Titicacan Plateau to Charcas and Potosí. There he created a new nation which in his honor was named Bolivia, wrote its constitution with his own hand and having installed Sucre as life president returned to Lima at the beginning of 1826. Apparently Bolivar's system was dominant from the Caribbean to the Argentine Pampas and he regarded himself as certain soon the virtual emperor of all South America. But the instinct of local pride was growing. The signs of Peru's wish to be rid of him could not be ignored and the new congress he had summoned was abruptly dismissed. In September the news of disturbances in Venezuela which foreshadowed the breaking up of Colombia made it necessary for Bolivar to hasten north. He left General Lara at Lima but that officer failed to keep the unruly mercenaries on whom his power depended in good humor. A mutiny broke out, Lara was arrested and deported and the mutineers entered into negotiations with the Peruvian leaders. The money demanded was soon raised and the Colombian soldiers shortly embarked leaving the field free for the local chiefs to fight among themselves for supreme power. General Santa Cruz, though by birth a Bolivian had great influence among the few Peruvian troops and tried to forestall his competitors by seizing the direction of affairs and summoning a congress. But General Lamar himself born at Cuenca in Ecuador was stronger. The latter secured the selection of his friends and when congress met he had a two-thirds majority and became president. So long as Sucre remained in control of Bolivia there could however be no certainty that Colombian rule might not be re-established but he was already in trouble on account of the mutiny's disposition of his troops. When the Peruvians sent against him a hastily gathered force he was compelled to withdraw. The Bolivarian constitution was abolished and Santa Cruz made himself supreme in Bolivia. Encouraged by this success Lamar determined to arrest Guayaquil and Cuenca from Colombia. Bolivar already furious over the defection of Peru and Bolivia made a formal declaration of war although he was too much occupied with his own troubles in New Granada and Venezuela to go in person to the frontier. General Flores, whom he had put in charge of Ecuador made preparations to resist Lamar. Sucre came to direct the operations. A Peruvian naval expedition captured Guayaquil and Lamar's main army of 4000 men occupied the province of Loha and penetrated within 40 miles of Cuenca only to be defeated. The Peruvian president signed a treaty giving up his conquests but he was no sooner safe in his own country than he repudiated it and refused to surrender Guayaquil. His defeat had, however, cost him his prestige at home and one of his generals, Gamarra, revolted and declared himself dictator. Gamarra had been chief of staff at Ayacucho. He was a good soldier but like most of his companions had no conception of constitutional government and thought the man whose bravery had redeemed Peru from the Spaniards Ipsofacto entitled to govern. Flores was the only method he knew to secure obedience and under his administration taxes were arbitrarily increased, citizens exiled without trial and the country virtually governed by martial law. Until the last year of his administration Gamarra held the country fairly quiet but as the end of his legal term in 1833 approached the question of the succession plunged Peru into an indescribable anarchy. Gamarra's enemies got control of the assembly called to frame a permanent constitution and legally named a president while Gamarra proclaimed one of his own partisans. Every military chief who could command the support of a few soldiers acted on his own responsibility. Victators and Suadizon presidents were put up and pulled down one after another in a bewildering succession. Obregoso, La Fuente, Vista Florida, Nieto, San Roman, Vidal, Gamarra, and Salaverre were each proclaimed supreme within the next year. Combinations of the different chiefs formed, dissolved and reformed with perplexing rapidity. Two bands would fight a bloody battle one day and the next would fall into each other's arms and swear eternal friendship. Salaverre, a chief only 30 years old and remarkable for his courage and energy, succeeded in establishing himself pretty firmly at Lima while Gamarra held Cusco. Obregoso, who had received a majority of votes in congress entered into negotiations with Santa Cruz, the strong dictator of Bolivia agreeing to everything to get help against Salaverre and Gamarra. The wily Bolivian had planned to divide Peru and unite the fragments with Bolivia into a confederation. At the head of 5000 men he advanced on Cusco and wiped out Gamarra. The fiery Salaverre did not wait to be trapped at Lima but left the capital with his whole force and hastened south. Not daring to attack Santa Cruz's vastly superior army he slipped around to Arequipa laying that unhappy town under contribution and impressing its citizens into his army. The Bolivians followed. He evacuated Arequipa and evaded them for a time but they finally caught him in a yet daring attempt to cut their line of communication. His army was dispersed and destroyed and he and his principal officers were taken prisoners and mercilessly shot. It seemed as if Peru might now under the strong rule of Santa Cruz enjoy the peace and order with which he had blessed Bolivia. The country was partitioned Obregoso becoming sub-president of North Peru, which included Lima and General Herrera of South Peru. Peru was proclaimed protector of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation and the new government formally inaugurated in the fall of 1836. He was an able and laborious administrator zealous for economy and purity in public affairs, a friend of orderly government, a ruler who knew how to organize an efficient army while maintaining it in due subordination. But from the beginning it was evident that he held supremacy pure. The Peruvian military classes so long and so absolutely dominant were unanimously against him and his methods. The mercantile, professional and monit classes were bound by a hundred ties to the officers and the agricultural peasantry composed of Indians and Negroes took no part in public affairs. Sooner or later he must have come again into conflict with man of the Gamarra Salaverre type but the immediate peril was from Peru whose power and energy great even then, but so far unknown and underestimated were thrown into the balance against him. The Civil War of 1831 had resulted in the defeat of the Chilean liberals and Freire, their leader had fled to Peru and there received aid and comfort. The Chilean remonstrances remained unnoticed and Santa Cruz's commercial policy was adverse. The defeated Peruvian generals swarmed into Chile and promised to aid an invasion. The Chilean aristocracy could not resist this temptation to make their country the dominant power on the pacific coast and without any warning their ships sailed up from Valparaiso and captured the Peruvian fleet at Callao. This left the way clear to land troops on the Bolivian or Peruvian coasts. The first expedition went against the province of Arequipa it landed without resistance and was climbed to the city while Santa Cruz's army maintained a defensive attitude. Lack of provisions soon compelled the Chilean general to promise that the war should not be renewed if he were allowed to depart. His government refused to ratify this agreement and sent another expedition to the neighborhood of Lima which was accompanied by Gamarra and a large number of Peruvian exiles. Obregoso declared his independence of Santa Cruz and gave to the Chileans on his own responsibility but was defeated and fled to Guayaquil. A year elapsed before Santa Cruz could march an adequate army to the neighborhood of Lima as he approached Gamarra and the Chileans evacuated the capital retiring up the coast wither the Bolivians followed. Repulsed in an attack on the rare guard of the fleeing allies and feeling that he could not rely upon the Peruvians in his army he took the defensive and posted his forces near the town of Yungay occupying a hill called the Sugarloaf. The allies stormed this hill by a brilliant assault in which they suffered greatly but their unexpected success completely demoralized Santa Cruz's army. His men scattered in all directions and though he escaped with his life his prestige was destroyed. Gamarra became president of Peru, Bolivia revolted and Santa Cruz made his way to the European exile. During two years Gamarra kept his turbulent rivals in check but he then rushly undertook a campaign against Bolivia giving as a pretext the refusal of its government to expel the old adherents of Santa Cruz. The Peruvian army advanced into Bolivian territory only to be overthrown in the bloody battle of Ingavi. Gamarra was killed and his best officers taken prisoners. The Bolivians made a counter invasion but a treaty of peace was soon signed. The removal of the common danger was the starting signal for a race to power among the Peruvian generals. Each of them had raised troops on his own account and now proposed to use them for his own benefit. They ignored the claims of Gamarra's constitutional successor. La Fuente, Vivanco and Vidal formed an alliance and proclaimed the latter dictator. Torico seized Lima and declared himself supreme chief. Vidal hastened down from Guamanga and defeated him. Then Vivanco rebelled against Vidal and in his turn descended on the capital. Twenty years of independence had brought Peru no nearer a stable government. Anarchy and civil war had been her lot and the situation seemed to grow more desperate year by year. The country's only hope was a man in whom military talent would be combined with such strength of will and pertinacy of purpose that he would crush out lesser despots and restore and maintain order by the strong hand. The Porfirio Diaz of Peru was at hand a little, quiet, rough and unpretentious soldier who for twenty years had been modestly doing his duty, observing events and slowly maturing in character. All Peruvians knew him as one of the heroes of Ayacuccio but none appreciated his latent possibilities and he had been passed by while his more showy companions of that historic day had pushed themselves to the front. Ramon Castilla had been a colonel on Gamarra Staff at Ayacuccio and was rewarded by being appointed prefect of his native province, Tarapaca, the most southern part of Peru. About 1830 he began to take part in the civil wars but he never started a revolution on his own account and seems to have chosen the side that best promised stability and respect for the constitution. To Obregoso Castilla was long faithful but abandoned him when he made alliance with the Bolivians. He went into exile when Santa Cruz was victorious and returned with Gamarra and the Chileans. At the Battle of Jungai he commanded the Peruvian contingent of the Allied cavalry and when Gamarra became president gave him his adhesion and was taken prisoner at the fatal battle of Ingavi where his chief was killed. Returning from captivity he found Peru torn to pieces by the armed rivalry of contending generals and Menendez the legal president a fugitive. Unhesitatingly he threw himself into the conflict against those whose claims rested on their own prunciamientos. Lending a Tarica with only five men his cool audacity saved his life in the first attack. His little band increased. Vivanko's partisans were confounded by the rapidity of his movements their opponents hastened to join him. Castilla obtained control of Arequipa and Cusco and finally in July 1844 completely overthrew Vivanko's army putting an end to the civil war. The first use he made of his victory was to declare a general amnesty the second to restore Menendez to the position of acting president the latter called a convention and ten months later Castilla was elected president of Peru without opposition. The country realized at once that it was in the hands of a master a man strong enough to be generous but with whom it was not safe to trifle. Almost instantaneously Connors felt the impulse which a short piece always gives. The turbulent military leaders found their occupation slipping away while the orderly elements of the community grew in power. At heart the vast majority of the people were law abiding and the class which promoted revolutions was numerically an insignificant number of the population but it was not alone Castilla's personal force of character his shrewdness as a politician his prestige as a general his popularity so nobly won by generosity and moderation which made his position secure and at the moment he assumed supreme power bountiful providence placed in his hands riches untold holding the strings of a purse into which poured the millions from the guano and nitrite deposits he could reward his friends keep his troops contented by regular pay relieve agriculture of taxation place the disordered finances on a sound footing and promote the general prosperity by works of public utility Europe suddenly realized the value of the Burt manure found on the desert islands of the Peruvian coast and soon hundreds of ships were coming annually to load the precious fertilizer instead of squandering this very gift on the enrichment of his creatures or on the creation of a vast, useless and wasteful swarm of his holders the hardest of all temptations for a South American politician to resist Castilla paid interest on the foreign debts that Peru had incurred during the War of Independence and refunded it with the accrued interest that already amounted to more than the principal the internal debt was also consolidated care being taken to admit no fictitious claims telegraphs and railways were constructed steam vessels added to the navy and all legitimate branches of the administration adequately provided for but the moment Castilla's strong hand was removed extravagance and corruption grew to alarming proportions under General Echenique, his successor public offices and pensions were multiplied concessions were granted not to promote honestly new industries but to favor it to be sold for what they would bring and finally a measure was rushed through congress to extend the time fixed by Castilla for presenting claims to be funded in the internal debt it was openly charged that the ministerial ring had arranged to put themselves on the role of national creditors public opinion was scandalized and the discontent and jealousy soon showed itself in the open revolt the first insurrection was suppressed but in the beginning of 1854 Castilla decided to put himself at the head of the movement against Echenique though the government regulars were better armed and provided than the militia which rallied around Castilla the latter advanced from one position to another and finally over through the president in the decisive battle of La Palma Echenique fled the country and Castilla assumed the reins of power once more not to lay them down until 1862 when he voluntarily retired to private life his second administration was as orderly as his first except for a local insurrection at Arequipa he was not however so successful in restraining the predatory disposition of the Peruvian politicians and was unable to restore the administration to its old economical basis the 18 years of almost uninterrupted peace which elapsed between the beginnings of Castilla's first administration and his retirement changed the face of Peru a generation has grown up to whom the early years of independence were only a tradition war, age, banishment discouragement had thinned the ranks of the Ayacucho veterans and the days were gone when one of them had merely to issue a pronunciamento to be forthwith hailed as president dictator, supreme chief protector, regenerator by a turbulent soldiery and a fickle ambitious creel aristocracy Peru's subsequent troubles have been financial, not military in 1860 the constitution which still governs the country was adopted framed under Castilla's influence it retains the centralized system of provincial government through prefects appointed from Lima and gives the executive preponderant powers although it is liberal and humane in its guarantees to the citizens slavery and Indian tribute which continued to exist until 1855 are forbidden forced recruiting, the scourge of old revolutionary days is a crime that those who can read and write who own property or pay taxes are entitled to vote Castilla was succeeded by his old friend and companion in arms General San Roman a straightforward soldier who resembled his chief in his unquestioning obedience to lawful authority but whose unfortunate death six months after his inauguration prevented him from demonstrating whether he possessed the same statesman like qualities but his death peacefully took his place Castilla had encouraged foreign immigration into the coast valleys so admirably adapted to cotton and sugar but where labor was scarce Chinese coolies had come in large numbers and the flattering offers had also attracted some Europeans among the latter were 70 Basque families who shortly claimed that they were badly treated making a protest against a breach of contract committed by the proprietor of the estate on which they were working they were attacked and some of them killed the criminals escaped punishment and the Spanish government made an international question of the affair finally demanding an apology and three millions of dollars as indemnity this being refused Spain broke off diplomatic relations and sent a powerful fleet which seized the Chinchaguano Islands two weeks alone to bid defiance to the Spanish ships Pethet temporized meanwhile asking Chile for help and hoping for the early arrival of warships ordered in Europe but the Spaniards pressed him so hard that he thought himself forced to yield to their demands he concluded an agreement derogatory to the national honor and a terrific outburst of public indignation followed Prado, prefect of Arequipa made preparations to march on Lima and depose the Lanemos president the Chileans who had meantime determined to join in resistance to Spanish aggression supported the insurrection the terrible old Castilla went himself to the presidential mansion and gave Pethet a sound rating the latter gave in and offered his resignation Prado became supreme chief issued a declaration of war against Spain and signed a treaty of alliance with Chile during the absence of the Spanish fleet the batteries at Cayao were heavily reinforced and an immense force of volunteers flocked to manned guns while the Spanish ships appeared and gallantly running into range opened fire on the 2nd of May 1866 they were met by determined resistance though the Peruvians suffered most severely 2000 being killed and wounded their opponents were unable to effect a landing or obtain the slightest concession so badly damaged that they abandoned further hostilities Prado now found that the unconstitutional character of his position had only temporarily been ignored when he attempted to hold the power against General Canseco 2nd vice president who was Pethet's lawful successor Castilla now over 70 years old landed in his native province determined to unseat him but the enfeebled frame of the aged warrior was unable to withstand fatigues and he died of exposure on the march Canseco however roused Arequipa Prado failed to take the place by assault and gave up further opposition meanwhile Colonel Balta had headed a formidable insurrection in the north and though Canseco was allowed to fill out his legal term Balta's friends controlled the Electoral College and he was inaugurated president in August 1868 with his accession Peru entered definitely upon a new era the race for fortune absorbed the energies of the ruling class cane and cotton planting nitrite mining railroad building under foreign direction opened up vistas of profit without labor social and civil intrigue replaced fighting and pronunciamientos Castilla's liberal refunding of the old debt the scrupulous regularity with which international obligations had been met and the immense and increasing revenue from nitrite and guano gave Peru credit in the money markets of Europe Balta and his advisors were full of schemes for the material progress of the country and their own enrichment. A great railway system was projected and more than 2000 miles constructed at a cost of near 4 million pounds enormous sums were spent on portworks, expensive mowls and piers built in the way flushed roadsteads which are Peru's only harbors. For the first time serious efforts were made to explore and develop the forested plain east of the Andes the city of Iquitos was built at the head of deep water navigation on the Amazon office holders multiplied and new parks and public buildings embellished the cities English capitalists eagerly took the bonds which the Peruvian government previously issued and the foreign debt increased from 5 million sterling to 49 millions before the end of Balta's term a sum upon which two-thirds of the gross revenue would hardly suffice to pay interest. Such a debt was truly stupendous for a country most of whose population of scant two millions and a health was poor, non-commercial non-industrial and without other resources than erud agriculture. Leaving out the proceeds of the guano monopoly and the nitrite royalties the total revenues could not pay the interest. Don Manuel Prado Peru's first civilian president had already been constitutionally selected as Balta's successor and the latter was within a few days of the end of his term when a terrible catastrophe happened. Among the poor relations whom the luckless president had preferred to positions in the army were four brothers named Gutierrez, the sons of a muleteer near Arequipa. Suddenly one brother appeared at the head of his battalion and took possession of the great square in the center of the capital, while another forced his way into the president's study Revolver in hand arrested the chief of state and locked him up. Warned in time the president elect escaped on board a man of war and the eldest Gutierrez was proclaimed supreme chief. The people of Lima soon recovered from their stupefaction and a scene of terrific street fighting followed. One of the conspirators was shot by the mob as he went to the railway station on his way to Callao. His brothers retaliated by murdering the captive president but they soon fell before the rifles of the populace. Their bodies were hung up in the cathedral by the infuriated people while the president elect returned and assumed his functions. Pardo's four years were one continual struggle against impending bankruptcy. Though he brought some order into public accounts, it was only by all sorts of expedience that he managed to keep up interest payments. He easily suppressed an insurrection led by Pierolla in 1874. His intellectual and moral force united about him the educated and property holding classes in a party which survives to this day and he left the reputation of having been the best president who ever ruled Peru. However no efforts could avail more than merely to put off the evil day of reckoning. The rapid exhaustion of the Guano deposits precipitated the disaster. Payment of interest was suspended in 1876 and the same year Pardo turned over the government to General Prado with the currency at 50% discount and Peruvian bonds selling in London at 12. End of Section 6 Section 7 of the South American Republic's Volume 2 by Thomas Clelland Dawson This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Piotr Natter Part 1, Peru, Chapter 7 The Chilean War and the Latter-day Peru The nitrate region extends along the narrow desert coast of the Pacific for 350 miles. Peru owned the northern 150 and prior to 1866 Bolivia claimed the reminder. After the discovery of the precious mineral, the industrious and energetic Chileans crowded up the coast while the Bolivians were shut in behind their high Andes. Chile insisted that her true boundary lay as far north as the 23rd degree and took vigorous measures to safeguard the interests of the Chilean nitrate companies. In 1866, Bolivia reluctantly made a treaty by which the 24th degree was agreed upon as the formal boundary. Although the Chilean miners were allowed to continue their operations in the productive region north of that line, and their taxes were not to be increased without their government's consent. This treaty gave rise to constant disputes and as the nitrate, silver and copper business of the neutral zone became more profitable, the Bolivian government pressed harder for a larger revenue. The Peruvian government had planned to secure a control of the output by the state purchase and operation of nitrate properties. And such a trust would prove ineffective unless the Bolivian government had a free hand with the Chilean companies. In 1872, Peru and Bolivia made a secret treaty of alliance. Its provisions soon became public and Chile not unreasonably believed to be aimed especially at her miners operating on Bolivian soil. She promptly began purchasing iron clads. It was a favorite saying of old Marshal Castilla that when Chile bought one battleship, Peru should buy two. And the Lima government was too poor to follow the good advice. And the fatal year of 1879 found her naval force inferior to that of her rival. At this juncture the Bolivian Congress voted not to ratify that treaty negotiated with Chile four years before and passed a law imposing heavy taxes on the nitrate business. The Chilean companies protested and resisted. Their government backed them up and sent a fleet to protect their interests. Enraged at the seizure of her ports, Bolivia declared war in March 1879. Peru could not be expected to remain quiet. Not only was she bound by the agreement of the Treaty of Alliance, but she had an imperative selfish interest in preventing the disputed nitrite territory from falling into Chile's hands. She began to gather an army on the southern frontier, but she was ill-prepared for war and Chile knew it. Her offers of arbitration were promptly rejected. The Chilean government had determined to strike both allies at the same time and presented an ultimatum demanding that Peru eliminate the secret treaty, cease war-like preparations and remain neutral in the war with Bolivia. Failing immediate and categorical compliance, war was declared in April. What had proven true in the times of Pizarro, San Martín and Santa Cruz was still true. The successful invasion or defense of Peru depended on the control of the Pacific. Whichever power should obtain enable preponderance would surely get the nitrate territory, a rainless, cropless region where an army must be sustained by supplies brought by sea and then could attack the other at its capital. Chile had two new iron clads the Cochrane and the Blanco besides two good cruisers and several gunboats. The two Peruvian iron clads, the Huascar and the Independencia were older though their speed was superior. The Chileans opened the war on the ocean by blockading the Peruvian ports in the extreme south. But Miguel Grau, the able seaman and intrepid fighter who commanded the Peruvian fleet at once attacked the Chilean cruisers which were lying off Iquique. The Huascar rammed and sank the Esmeralda but while his other iron clad was pursuing the Covaronga she ran upon the rocks and was lost. This was in reality a death blow to Peru but the Gallant Grau devotedly determined to see what his single ship rapidly manoeuvred could do to make un-save the embarkation of a Chilean army. For four months he terrorized the coast from Antofagasta to Valparaiso. Chile could not take a step until she had disposed of Grau and his dreaded Huascar. The blockade of Iquique was abandoned as useless. The iron clads ordered back to Valparaiso to be cleaned and repaired so that they might get the Huascar in speed. New officers were put in command and on October 1st the Chilean fleet set sail from Valparaiso on a systematic chase for the Peruvian iron clad. On reaching Antofagasta it was divided into two squadrons the Cochrane leading one and the Blanco the other and they immediately began patrolling the coast. The Huascar, accompanied by a consort the Union was cruising in the neighborhood on the 8th of October the 1st Chilean division sighted her. Grau fled and was gradually drawing away from his pursuers when, to his horror three columns of smoke appeared on the horizon directly forward. He was caught between the two Chilean squadrons. The Union had speed enough to slip by the enemy but the Huascar was too slow. Grau's only chance was to close with the Cochrane before the Blanco could come up a stern and he went straight for the former. At half past nine the Huascar fired the first shot the distance being about 3,000 yards. It fell short and only the fourth shot took effect. The Cochrane then replied and though the practice on both sides was wild the two ships soon came so close that the machine guns were brought into effective play. A shot disabled the Huascar's turret and in desperation Grau tried repeatedly to ram but was foiled by the quick turns which the Cochrane's twin screws enabled her to make. Just half an hour after the action began a shell struck her conning tower blowing the heroic Peruvian into atoms. A few minutes later the Blanco came up and added her missiles to the storm of shots which the Cochrane and the smaller consorts were pouring upon the doomed Huascar. Nevertheless no one thought of striking. Hardly had Grau been blown to pieces then the executive officers had his head taken clean off by a shell from the Blanco and the officer next in seniority was severely wounded. A few moments later the lieutenant who succeeded to the command was killed and his successor in turn was wounded before the end of the action. When the ship finally struck an hour and a half after the first shot was fired one of the juniors was in command and 64 of the complement of 193 officers and men lay killed or wounded on the deck. The Chileans were now in absolute control of the sea and could land an army when and where they pleased. The Bolivian sea coast inhabited almost exclusively by Chilean miners and inaccessible overland from Bolivia proper had fallen into Chile's hands at the opening of the war but Grau's success in immobilizing the Chilean navy had been taken advantage of by the Peruvians to ship 9000 troops to their own nitrate province where they could conveniently attack the Chileans who occupied the Bolivian territory to their south or defend their own most valuable piece of property. But although this army was in Peruvian territory the naval victory of the Chileans isolated it almost completely. A hundred miles of rough rainless desert intercepted by deep ravines dispersed to the coast separated it from Tacna where fertile valleys begin and communication with the rest of Peru becomes possible. By the end of October the Chilean army embarked at Antofagasta 10,000 strong and well provided with cavalry and the most modern artillery. Of Iquique and Pisagua the two principal ports of the Peruvian nitrate country the latter which lies 40 miles north of the former was chosen as the less likely defended in force. Only a thousand men were found who in spite of a gallant resistance from their two small batteries and the rifle pits were unable to prevent the landing of the Chileans protected by a tremendous fire from the fleet. Driven from the town the Peruvians could not even hold the top of the precipitous bluff until the arrival of reinforcement from Iquique. The Chileans relentlessly pushed their advantage and soon were in the direction of the railroad for 50 miles into the interior and had 6000 men entrenched on a hill called San Francisco. Abundantly supplied with provisions and water they could afford to wait while the allies cut off from communications must either attack at once or abandon the province. The Peruvian general chose the former alternative but his troops arrived in front of San Francisco exhausted and thirsty after a 20 miles march across the dry desert. Only a small part of the army took part in the assault and it was easily repulsed. Discortant the allies fell back to the foot of the giant range which inexorably barred their way to the east and after a few days of suffering from hunger and thirst took their way north among the barren foothills. The enemy sent a detachment to harass their march but they turned on their pursuers and defeated them and reached Takna province hungry, rugged, half armed and generally demoralized. Not only was the great nitrate province the treasury of Peru irretrievably lost but every point on the coast including Lima itself laid open to attack. President Prado left the army at Takna, went to Lima and then sailed for Europe announcing that he was going to buy iron clads. Hardly was he on board ship when a revolution broke out in the capital and the restless Pirola who had headed the latest attempts at insurrection declared himself supreme chief. The Bolivians also deposed their unsuccessful president. Peru's revolutionary government rushed into power on a wave of wounded national pride embodied the more than Spanish hotness of the Creole aristocracy and refused all concessions. The allies still had a large army at Takna but too demoralized to make a creditable resistance although it was cut off from easy communication with the rest of Peru and Bolivia and stood badly in need of arms, clothing and ammunition. The Chilean ships blockaded Areca, the Takna port but the fast union again showed her heels to the enemy's whole fleet, ran the blockade and landed stores which put the allied army on a fighting footing. Late in February 1880 the Chileans disembarked a fine army of 14,000 men at a seaport 60 miles north of the allies' main position and lost no time in occupying the interior as far as Moquegua at the foot of the Andes. Their first object was to cut the allied armies off from any communication with their respective countries. A small Peruvian force made an attempt to hold Torata a point strategically important because it commanded the entrance into the Andes from Bolivia and Peru, but was unsuccessful. The allied armies were now bottled up in a little valley where provisions would surely shortly fail. The Chileans advanced south across the desert upon Takna and the allies took a strong defensive position on a ridge flanked by steep ravines with a sloping places in front. Vastly superior in artillery though only slightly outnumbering the allies, the Chileans thought themselves justified by assaulting the position. They opened the battle by a cannonade in which their magnificent group guns did terrific execution and under cover of the fire the infantry advanced in four columns of 2400 men each. Approaching the trenches they were met by a storm of rifle bullets through which they charged bayonet in hand. Meanwhile the allies on the crest of the sandhills suffered terribly from the plunging artillery fire. The Chileans holding the weakest part of the line bore the brunt of the attack. Once the Chileans wavered but a supporting cavalry charge quickly drove back the advancing enemy and after two hours of desperate fighting the sturdy Bolivian Indians gave way their position was carried and the allied army fled all along the line. Though the Chileans had lost over 2000 the losses of the allies were greater no way of retreat lay open they scattered in confusion and their army virtually ceased to exist. A couple of thousand Peruvians held out in Arica for a month deliberately devoting themselves to certain death but the place was carried by an assault in which quarter was neither given nor asked. Peru now lay helpless at the mercy of the Chilean armies and fleet the ports were blockaded and bombarded while expeditions ravaged the fertile coast valleys. Nevertheless the Peruvians would not yield the United States offered her mediation and plenty potentiaries met to see if terms of peace could be arranged. Chile demanded the formal session of the nitrite territory and an indemnity the Peruvians refused such hard terms hoping against hope for foreign intervention this passive obstinacy enraged the Chilean government and after a delay of several months it was determined to capture the capital and dictate terms at Lima. Late in December 1880 a splendidly equipped army of 26,000 men landed a short distance south of Lima and marched on the city. Only a few fragments of the Peruvian regular army had survived the defeats in the south but the population rallied elmas to resist the invaders. At Churrios a few miles south of Lima the militia waited behind a distantly constructed line of defense. The assault of the Chilean regulars was irresistible 4,000 Peruvians perished and as many more were taken prisoners. The survivors fell back on a second line of defense only 6 miles from Lima and were there defeated in a second battle in which 2,000 were killed and wounded. The Chilean losses in the two fights reached 5,000. On the following day the mayor of Lima formally surrendered the city and on the 17th of January the Chilean army took possession. The helpless citizens were required to make up a contribution of a million dollars a month. The customs duties were confiscated and the Chileans violated all the rules of civilized warfare by wantonly destroying the great and valuable public library the best in South America. Pierola escaped to Guamanga but succeeded in rallying no forces. He gave it up and went to Europe. It became necessary to organize a government which could treat for peace. The citizens of Lima with the consent of Chile made García Calderón provisional president but when the discussion of terms began the Chileans repeated their demand for the unconditional session of the nitrate territory and Calderón did not dare assent. The enemy sent him prisoner to Santiago while Iglesias in northern departments, Cáceres in the center and Carrillo in the south each kept up an independent resistance with a few militia. The Chileans made no serious attempt to conquer the interior contending themselves with pocketing the Peruvian customs revenues. This situation lasted two years and a half until Iglesias came to the conclusion that peace could only be obtained by complete submission. Cáceres was, however, resolved to further resistance and quarrelling with Iglesias advanced into the latter's territory. He was intercepted by a Chilean expedition and his forces destroyed. This left Iglesias a clear field. He declared himself president and entered into negotiations with the Chileans arranging a treaty of peace which was signed on the 20th of October 1883. Five days later the Peruvian flag was once more hoisted in the capital. Sporadic risings against Iglesias were easily suppressed by Chilean bayonets. 4,000 men remained to see that the treaty was ratified and the convention finally ratified it in March. Its provisions differed little from the demands made by Chile three years before. The money indemnity was waived and half the guano proceeds were left to Peru's creditors. On the other hand the provinces of Tacna and Arica were to be held by Chile for 10 years and at the end of that time a popular vote would decide who should retain them the losing country receiving 10 million dollars from the other. Better far for the interest of permanent peace had the fate of the provinces been definitely determined. Chile and Peru have never been able to agree upon the terms under which the plebiscite should be conducted. The former still retains the provinces and the latter still agitates for their recovery. No sooner had the Chilean army left than Cáceres began a civil war to oust Iglesias. For 18 months the fighting continued with varying fortunes but in December 1885 Cáceres surprised Lima when, undefended, Iglesias resigned, a general amnesty was proclaimed and peace was restored to the destructed country. A junta assumed power followed Cáceres was chosen president and in the middle of 1886 he entered upon the dreary task of reorganizing Peru. The treasury was empty the population had been decimated by a horribly destructive war during four years. The flourishing coast valleys with dark cotton and sugar plantations had been laid under contribution. The mines had ceased to be worked the guano and nitrate prevenues were gone, the country was waited down with a debt which could never be paid and foreign creditors pressed for a settlement utterly beyond the abilities of the impoverished country. Rigid economies were enforced in all departments of the administration but the most that could be hoped was to meet ordinary expenditure. Peru had nothing to offer towards the immense foreign debt except her railways and the British creditors finally agreed to the grace contract by which she was released from all responsibility for a sum amounting to over 50 million sterling in return for the session of the state railways, the payment of 80,000 pounds annually and certain rights to the guano deposits, mines and public lands. British pressure induced Chile to give up a large proportion of the guano proceeds and in 1890 the contract was ratified and the quote-unquote Peruvian corporation took over the vast properties conceded. Though disputes have arisen from time to time the corporation has made some progress in extending lines to open up the mineral wealth on the plateau and a successful beginning has been made towards the exploration of the rubber forests of the Amazon plain. It cannot be doubted that the industrial development of Peru must be greatly aided by the existence of this gigantic private enterprise which will apply the energy and economy characteristic of individual enterprise to undertakings governmental in magnitude. Cáceres made no change in the centralized system of government by prefects and the administrative fabric survived substantially untouched the horrors of the Chilean war and the fighting between rival chiefs. Liberal tendencies were shown in efforts to place the Indians on an equal political footing with the Peruvians of Spanish descent although naturally the Creole aristocracy still dominates by reason of its intelligence. Considerable dissatisfaction was felt with Cáceres' management of finances but in 1890 he was succeeded by his friend Colonel Bermudez who continued his policy. Unfortunately for the peace of the country the latter died in 1893 his legal successor was Solar, first vice president but an intrigue in the cabinet prevented the latter's peaceable recognition. Cáceres' influence was dominant in the administration and assemblance of an election recalled him to power. General Pirola who had led two unsuccessful insurrections those of 1874 and 1878 and who had got power in 1880 only to lose it after the fall of Lima saw his opportunity. Solar joined forces with him and revolt broke out against Cáceres. The latter had completely lost the popularity won as the most determined champion of the national rights against Chilean aggression his administration was bad the public employees were unpaid the meager resources of the country were wasted on his favorites though his troops were at first successful against Pirolas and Solar's heisty levies the revolution recovered from each defeat until finally the insurrectionists entered Lima itself. The enemies of Cáceres within the town rose and for two days its streets were the scene of bloody barricade fighting rarely does a civilized city pass through such a frightful experience as Lima on the 18th of July 1895 there had been no time to extinguish the street lamps and all night long the bands of revolutionists advanced fighting by the lights which brightly the carnage except were extinguished by rifle balls though his forces were gradually driven back Cáceres stubbornly refused to resign and at last only yielded to the urgent representations of the foreign ministers leaving power in the hands of a junta with his withdrawal peace was restored except for the resistance which his partisans kept up for a short time in Arequipa and this peace has never since been disturbed the junta served until an election could be held in which Piero was chosen president by an overwhelming and really popular majority in 1899 he was succeeded by Romana an engineer who had been a member of the outgoing ministry and he in his turn had as successor Señor Candano who took his seat in 1903 historically the new president represents the old aristocratic party founded by Pardo a party which had been pushed to one side in the financial confusion which preceded and the civil disorders which succeeded the terrible Chilean war by the more radical and the democratic elements known as Piero Listas and constitutionalists the return to a participation in affairs of elements which includes so large a proportion of the intelligence, self-respect and wealth of the nation is one of the most hopeful signs the Peruvian aristocracy has learned its lesson in the hard school of adversity and devised with the commercial classes in sober, serious attention to industrial and governmental matters each division of the people seems to wish to bear its share in the financial, political and moral regeneration of their country Peruvian politics are conducted in family economic and social questions are discussed and settled amicably and do not as in Europe and North America form the basis for the organization of political parties though the country is steadfastly catholic, clericalism is not as in Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia regarded as a menace by those who hold liberal views and the provinces have never made any insistent demand for a larger share of autonomy as in Argentina and Colombia as a rule the elections are free and translate the popular will Peru has long since passed the stage of Provenciamentos and military government since Castilla's time the successful revolutions have been few and have always been undertaken for the maintenance of the regular constitutional order, not its overthrow or have been inspired by national feeling when the Fatherland was in danger End of section 7 Section 8 of the South American Republics, volume 2 by Thomas Clelland Dawson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Piotr Natter, Part 2 Chile, Chapter 1 The Spanish Conquest About a century before Pizarro landed, Tupacupanqui the greatest of all Inca conquerors crossed the rough mountains bleak plateaus and waterless deserts which lie between the southern part of Bolivia and the irrigable valleys of northern Chile and rapidly overran the coast for 600 miles as one goes south the plain broadens the short rivers flowing from the mountains grow larger the rainfall and the area available for cultivation increase and from Santiago a wide valley the heart of Chile stretches between the Andes and the coast range as far south as the River Maule the limit of Tupac's conquests irrigation is necessary for crops and all these valleys dwelled various tribes whose system of agriculture and civilization was similar to that of the Incas only the southern peoples inhabiting the rainy and forested regions beyond the Maule refused to submit Huayna Capac, Tupac's son was once obliged to undertake a campaign to consolidate the Inca power but Chile north of the Maule became thoroughly attached to the Cusco dynasty little resistance was encountered when Almagro invaded this country just after Pizarro's entry into the Peruvian capital he advanced as far as the Maule finding everywhere a population probably as dense as that of the present day agriculture was highly developed the people were clothed in substantial manufacturing, they mined copper tin and lead and possessed excellent arms and tools the tribes all spoke the same language but each enjoyed a degree of autonomy under its own chiefs their habits were democratic, they loved freedom and independence the Inca socialistic system did not prevail and each farmer owned his own field and could transmit it to his children the race was large and vigorous the selected survivors from among immigrants who had been greatly improved by countless generations of struggle in the more rigorous climates as one approached the cold and rainy mountains of southern Chile their characteristics became more pronounced and south of the Maule warlike half savage tribes proudly maintained their independence Almagro's sole preoccupation was gold but he vainly searched the valleys as far as the southern boundary of the Inca empire here he encountered serious resistance from the independent tribes and though victorious in his fights concluded that it was not worth while remaining in such a cold and gold less country he abandoned Chile and returned to Peru there to meet his death at Pizarro's hands Pizarro soon took measures to extend the Spanish conquest to all parts of the Inca empire and for Chile he selected his quarter master Pedro de Valdivia an active and experienced soldier late in 1540 the summer season in those latitudes Valdivia with 200 Spaniards and a large number of Indian auxiliaries crossed the Andes and arrived at Copiapo the northern most inhabited valley like Almagro he met no opposition as he pushed his way south for 450 miles arriving at the great valley of Chile in that favored region he founded the city of Santiago which has ever since remained the capital and most important place in the country the people of the neighborhood attacked the settlement and burned half the houses but they were soon decisively defeated nevertheless the invaders position was critical many of them wished to return a mutiny was on the point of breaking out but at this juncture the fortunate discovery of valuable gold mines near Santiago hushed all talk of abandoning the country firmly established at Santiago Valdivia next turned his attention to the northern provinces and founded a city at Coquimbo about 250 miles north of the capital which became the center of Spanish power in that region in 1545 he advanced into the country south of Santiago where the Promoqueans welcomed him as an ally against their hereditary foes the Araucanians a fierce and powerful confederacy dwelling beyond the river Biobio which flows into the Pacific in latitude 37 degrees by the following year Spanish influence was dominant north of that river Valdivia with many of his men temporarily returned to Peru to aid in the suppression of Gonzalo's revolt but as soon as civil war was over he came back to Chile with his title of governor confirmed by vice regal authority he had found Lima's warning with hungry adventurers who eagerly followed him hoping for grants of land and Indian slaves or to make their fortunes in mining with their help the conquest and settlement of all Chile as far south as the Maula was effectually completed the land was apportioned among the Cavaliers of feudal Baron and in effect creating a landed aristocracy which has continued to rule the country to the present day the process of incorporation did not stop at the Maula but included the Promoqueans and most of the other tribes between that river and the Biobio beyond the latter stretched the Araucanian territory for 200 miles and Valdivia now undertook the conquest of the southern forests where the Inca arms had never been able to penetrate his first step was to found Concepción near the mouth of the Biobio the neighboring territory belonged to allies of the Confederacy and the Araucanians felt great alarm at such an aggression the Grand Council was summoned composed of the head chiefs of the four nations and the chiefs called Ulmens of the provinces and tribes into which these nations were divided and subdivided in accordance with immemorial custom the deliberations lasted three days and the humblest warrior was permitted to give his opinion before war was voted once the determination reached and a general, or toki, elected each soldier put on his leather quiras picked up his heavy work club and 4,000 strong the tribesmen solid forth to attack the Spaniards musket rivoli and cavalry charge compelled the Araucanians to retreat after a hotly contested combat which lasted several hours these Indians strong and sturdy dwellers in an invigorating climate were more formidable foes than the Spaniards had yet encountered in South America though amazed at the deadly effect of the strange weapons which the invaders used they were not demoralized like the Saracens they believed that death in battle was a passport to paradise war was their principal business and the young were trained up to the trade of arms at close quarters they were almost irresistible their clubs and spears wielded with reckless bravery matched the swords of the Spaniards and as soon as they learned how to take advantage of cover in approaching an enemy provided with firearms the result of a battle between them and the Castilians became doubtful during the year 1551 Valivia occupied himself in fortifying Concepcion and making preparations for an invasion of Araucania heavy reinforcements came and he advanced in countering at first no serious opposition he founded the city of Imperial 150 miles south of Concepcion and then pushed a hundred miles farther on where he established a seaport calling it by his own name returning north in 1553 on his way he built several forts in the Araucanian territory and at Santiago found a fresh body of troops and what was even more important a supply of horses 200 men were dispatched across the Andes to begin the conquest of what is now known as the province of Mendoza in the Argentine Republic fencing that he had practically completed the Subjection of Chile and sent a messenger to Spain to sue for the title of Marquise and the perpetual governorship and fitted out an exploring expedition to the Straits of Magellan in the vain hope of opening up direct sea communication with the mother country the Araucanians had however not relaxed their determination to rid themselves of the white invaders news came that the Confederacy had put up an army of 10,000 men in the field the outlying forts had been stormed Valdivia at once advanced from Concepción at the head of his forces, numbering 200 Spaniards and 500 Indian auxiliaries 100 miles south of the city he came in sight of the Araucanian army for some time the Indian commander maneuvered cautiously endeavoring to draw the Spaniards into a position where he could charge without suffering too much from the dreaded artillery finally battle was joined and despite the destructive fire the Indians managed to come to close quarters as soon as these fierce warriors reached the enemy's line all was up with the invaders the Spanish army was literally annihilated Valdivia himself fled but was pursued and quickly captured brought before the Indian general he begged for his life agreeing to quit Chile with all the Spaniards the Indians were cut short by the war-club of an old chief standing near the Spanish settlers south of Concepción fled for refuge to the ports of imperial and Valdivia abandoning the other towns and forts a young chief named Lautaro who had been captured and baptized years before by Valdivia but who had escaped to his own people led a considerable army to the Viovio destroyed an expedition sent against him which drove the enemy out of Concepción if the Indians had understood the art of besieging fortified places Imperial and Valdivia and probably Santiago itself would now have fallen and the Spaniards would have been expelled from the southern and better half of Chile Lautaro led north 2000 Arocanians ravaged the lands of the Promocians beyond the Maula and penetrated to the neighborhood of the capital repeated expeditions sent against him were defeated the dismayed Spaniards urgently called for help from Peru and recalled the adventurers from Argentina happily the civilized tribes of northern and central Chile remained faithful and the bulk of the Arocanian forces was occupied besieging Valdivia and imperial a fruitless undertaking so long as provisions could be thrown in by sea worst of all for the Indians smallpox broke out among them at last the Spaniards surprised Lautaro's encampment near Santiago the Arocanian leader fell dead pierced by a dart and his companions fought like wild beasts until every man was slain this victory secured the safety of Santiago and the Arocanians retired behind the Biobio meanwhile Mendoza the great pacificator and organizer had come out to Lima to take the responsibility turbulent adventurers swarmed into Peru whom he thought could be better employed elsewhere southern Chile seemed just the place for these reckless, needy Cavaliers who were so anxious to carve out thieves for themselves early in 1557 García de Mendoza son of the viceroy was appointed captain general and enjoined to reduce the Arocanians to obedience he came accompanied by 10 ships with a considerable force of Spaniards still larger forces were on their way over land from Peru cautiously landing troops and artillery at the deserted city of Concepción he had finished his defenses before the Confederacy could mobilize its army though the Arocanians attacked with desperate fury their charges were beaten back by the artillery fire reforming on the other side of the Biobio the Indians waited until Mendoza who had meanwhile received a large reinforcement of cavalry advanced in the battle which followed they were defeated but they had learned a lesson of prudence and they fought in front of forests into whose depths the Spanish cavalry could not pursue retreating slowly they again gave battle and though again defeated inflicted great losses on the Spanish infantry Mendoza hanged his prisoners and once more advanced to the place where Valdivia had met his death here he founded a fortified town naming it Cagnete after the hereditary title of his family leaving it heavily garrisoned he went on to imperial for provisions in his absence the Indians unsuccessfully tried to carry Cagnete by assault and seeing the hopelessness of aggressive movements they withdrew to the wooded districts and mountains abandoning the open country the sea coasts to the Spaniards Mendoza pushed on beyond the southern limits of the Araucanian territory and discovered and explored the populace archipelago of Chiloé on his way back he founded on the mainland a hundred miles south of Valdivia the city of Osorno the Araucanians were now shut in between the Andes and a semi-circle of towns and forts it seemed as if their final subjection would only be a question of time Mendoza returned to Santiago leaving a lieutenant to undertake a campaign of rites and surprises a few of the Araucanians remained in the field and it was not until their veteran chief Kaupolican was betrayed and pitilessly shot to death with arrows that the whole confederacy again flew to arms under the command of his son marching on Concepción the Indians cut to pieces with the British force of 500 men and then another and blockaded the city from the landside the Spaniards holding the sea had no difficulty in pouring in reinforcements from Peru and Valparaiso and the Indian army finally retreated at Quipago between Concepción and Cagnete it was defeated and nearly annihilated its most celebrated chiefs and heroes perishing in the slaughter once more the Araucanians retired to their forests and mountains while the Spaniards rebuilt and improved the line of fortifications and took possession of the valuable gold mines of Villarica but they could make no further impression on these indomitable Indians for 40 years the war continued sometimes active sometimes desultery and with constantly varying fortunes year after year the Spaniards poured in reinforcements and their expeditions more than once ravaged the remotest parts of the Araucanian territory but as soon as the armies retired the unflagging Indians would return to the attack cutting off isolated bands of settlers and surprising forts and towns about 1593 the able chieftain Payamachu was toky of the Confederacy the incessant wars against the Araucanians had made the province such a continual drain on the Peruvian treasury that Mendoza who had been promoted to the Vice Regal throne determined to end this impossible situation in one way or another a general was sent to Chile with full powers either to treat or fight but the haughty and intractable Indians rejected with scorn his overtures for peace he then fortified the line of the Biobio and erected new fortresses to serve as bases for a campaign of extermination to be undertaken as soon as reinforcements arrived these came slowly and the Indians themselves took the offensive considerable bands invading the Spanish settlements storming some forts and blockading others the Spanish general exerted himself to concentrate his scattered forces but while making a hasty journey accompanied only by a small escort from Imperial towards Concepción he was surprised and killed by a band of Indians 48 hours later not only the whole of Araucania but also the provinces south of Valdivia rose in arms all the Spanish towns south of Biobio, Osorno, Valdivia, Villarica, Imperial, Cagnete, Angol, Coya and Arauco were simultaneously besieged Payamachu crossed the river and burned first Concepción and Dencián a town 100 miles north of the Araucan and boundary ravaging the country to the river Maula alarmed for the safety of Santiago the Lima viceroy sent a new governor with a well equipped army but it was as much as he could do to force the Indians back into their own territory the Indian general suddenly assaulted the city of Valdivia carried it by storm slaughtered or captured the inhabitants and seized 2 millions of booty with many arms and cannon Villarica and Imperial managed to hold out for 3 years but finally they with Osorno were reduced by starvation when Payamachu died in 1603 the Spaniards had no foothold on the mainland south of the Biobio except the Valdivia citadel 2 or 3 years later the government made a last effort to reduce the Araucanians an army of 3000 Spaniards besides a large contingent of natives advanced across the Biobio to such an overwhelming force the Araucanians dared not offer open battle but they hang on its flanks skirmishing and harassing and the host was compelled to return without having accomplished anything decisive from the protection of the force on the Biobio the Spanish general sent expeditions to lay waste to the Indian country but these smaller bodies were roughly handled and the first period of Araucanian wars was closed with the nearly complete destruction of the Spanish forces operating in southern Chile the authorities at Lima and Madrid gave it up as a bad job then forward the Biobio remained the southern boundary of the Spanish possessions an army of 2000 men and a line of forts guarded the frontier and though hostilities were frequent for centuries no real progress was made toward depriving the Araucanians of their independence in the progress of time the slow infiltration of Spanish blood and Spanish customs modified their characteristics but it was not until 1882 that they became real subjects of the Chilean government end of section 8 section 9 of the South American Republics volume 2 by Thomas Clelland Dawson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Piotr Natter part 2, Chile chapter 2, the colonial period the Araucanian wars made Chile a school of arms for all South America the appointment to its captaincy general was eagerly sought by ambitious soldiers and the place, especially after the 17th century was a stepping stone to the magnificent and lucrative position of viceroy at Lima preoccupied with the southern wars passing most of their time on the frontiers the governors paid little attention to central and northern Chile the Indians peacefully cultivated the great estates of their feudal masters and although the mining industry was considerable it never threatened the extinction of the neighboring population the few towns were mere villages built of one story such covered houses commerce was insignificant portable wealth small money almost unknown however the landed proprietors of Chile mostly lived upon their estates and came into more intimate contact with their Indian tenants than in the richer and more tropical provinces a circumstance which has had a profound effect upon the character and racial composition of the modern Chilean although unsuccessful in Araucania the governors prospered in their efforts to extend the Spanish domination east of the Andes and before the end of the 16th century the fertile valleys of the province of Cuyo, Mendoza, San Juan and San Luis as far as the central desert which separates them from the grass covered pampas of Buenos Aires were incorporated with Chile at the same time the green and populous island of Chiloé the Ireland of the Pacific was added to the captaincy general the first commerce were adventurous soldiers looking for sudden riches but Chile furnished these gentlemen small returns for hard knocks the reasons which led the Spanish government to discourage immigration to Peru Bolivia and Ecuador did not apply to Chile and when early in the 17th century the Madrid authorities abandoned the useless and expensive efforts to conquer Araucania they permitted a considerable number of real colonists a heavy immigration followed composed mostly of Basques and Aragonese hardy and industrious settlers 50 farmers and merchants these people were no mere army of occupation a privileged class living parasitically upon the Indians they set about developing the real resources of the country and their blood mixing into the fine and strong aboriginal strain vastly improved it the lower classes in Chile are industrious, enduring and brave and though at times they show a touch of that primitive ferocity characteristic of young peoples they innate energy and great physical strength have been of incalculable value to the nation little worth detailing is recorded in the annals of Chile during the 17th and 18th centuries for many years the Araucanians refused to make any treaty with the Spaniards the chronicles are filled with accounts of the incursions made by the Indians into Spanish territory often successful, more often repulsed with sieges, ambushes tales of reckless valor and unspeakable cruelty sometimes the Europeans carried the war over the Biobio and during the 10 years prior to 1640 they were so successful in carrying fire, slaughter and pillage to the homes of the Araucanians that the latter finally consented to an armistice and a formal treaty of peace the Spanish governor went to the plain of Quilin escorted by more than 10,000 persons and the Araucanian general appeared in state at the head of all the Tokis, Ullmans and chief warriors of the Confederacy into the open space between the high contracting parties was led a Yama for sacrifice whose sprinkled blood remained a pledge that the historic Biobio would henceforth be respected by both nations as the boundary and that the Araucanians would never permit colonists of third nations upon their shores English and Dutch Buccaneers the Indians faithfully adhered to this pact of friendship and refused to furnish the Dutch with provisions when the latter took possession of Valdivia in 1643 but in 1655 the cupidity of Spanish officers caused trouble and war devastated both sides of the border for the next 10 years in 1665 a new treaty identical in terms was negotiated which continued in force until 1722 however Spanish priests pushed their evangelizing among the Indians and officers called Capitanos de los Amigos appointed to guard the interests of the missionaries assumed authority highly offensive to the Araucanians the great council was summoned a general selected and the missionaries expelled when the Spanish governor marched to the frontier with 5000 men the Indians offered battle but the coloniards dared not accept the former continued firm in their demands and peace was only re-established by abolishing the obnoxious officials meanwhile nothing of moment had disturbed this low and even current of colonial progress in northern and central Chile the country was poor its exports small and its imports smaller great fortunes were not accumulated as in other South American countries though the national life rested on a broader, surer basis the wheat and cattle the fruits and poultry introduced by the Spaniards raised the standard of alimentation and the vitality of the people while the continual admixture of Spanish blood augmented individual initiative and intelligence the towns at first grew very slowly Santiago itself had only 8000 inhabitants at the end of the 17th century while the other so called cities Coquimbo, Castro, Valparaiso, Chian, Concepción and Valdivia were in fact little more than villages the rural districts were populous for the soil was fertile the climate healthful and the means of a simple subsistence abounded imported vices and diseases and the oppressions suffered at the hands of the first Spanish proprietors had somewhat thinned out the native population but these losses were largely made up by a rapid increase of the element which boasted wide descent and in the latter part of the 18th century Spanish Chile was more densely populated than the Atlantic seaboard of North America Spanish legislation gave a monopoly of South American commerce to a favored ring of merchants at Cadiz forbidding any communication with Chile except by the circuitous Istvian root Frades were enormous profits and taxes exorbitant and in spite of the repressive measures of the Spanish authorities smuggling was carried on by way of the route over the Andes to Buenos Aires and Colonia the war of the Spanish succession following the death of the last of the descendants of Charles V disorganized Spanish administration and during the confusion of the first few years of the 18th century illicit trading increased the pace of the 14th and deceiting of a French prince on the throne of Madrid resulted in a temporary permission to French ships to trade with South America for a time French manufacturers were brought directly to Chile by way of Cape Horn the customs receipts hitherto merely nominal rapidly increased and although the license was soon revoked at the demand of the Cadiz monopolists a permanent impetus had been given to commerce improving conditions gave a fresh start to immigration and the comparatively rational policy of the Bourbon dynasty removed many of the more crying abuses of colonial administration a little before the middle of the 18th century Governor Manso with the approval of Madrid founded a dozen cities scattered through all the provinces as far south as the Biobio and settlements spread to the frontier of Araucania Manso's successor, Rosas even more diligent in establishing new towns and received the title of Con de Depoblaciones he founded the University of San Felipe at Santiago and stimulated commerce by opening a mint in his administration occurred the great earthquake of 1751 which engulfed and destroyed Concepción by a tremendous wave from the sea and inflicted great damage upon Santiago and many other towns these convulsions are very frequent in Chile and in early times people supposed that it was not safe to build houses of more than one story it has since been ascertained that two-story edifices are as secure as lower ones and Chilean cities contain many handsome buildings Rosas's successor was Don Manuel Amat under his administration the erection of new cities continued and he is remembered as the captain general who helped suppress the robbers and bandits who had infested the country vigilance committees were organized volunteer patrols guarded the city streets and country roads and the coast militia fought the pirates who infested the seashore Chile in the middle of the 18th century presents the characteristics of a frontier country a rapid founding of towns disorders and lawlessness effectively suppressed by lynch law and a childish country acquired wealth the encroachments upon the Araucanians finally grew irksome to those indomitable and intractable savages what the Spanish armies and priests had failed in the settlers who poured into the fertile plains and valleys of southern Chile seemed about to achieve the next captain general even tried to incorporate the independent tribes into the Spanish system but when he attempted to gather them into towns the spirit which had animated their forefathers proved too strong a war broke out which lasted several years and ended only when the Spanish government renewed the treaties guaranteeing them practical independence and allowing them to keep an ambassador at Santiago just about this time the trans and the unprovince of Cuyo was separated from Chile and transferred to the newly created Buenos Aires vice royalty taken purely for reasons of administrative convenience this measure resulted in shutting off Chile from expansion over the vast plains of the plate valley confining her between the Andes and the sea and ultimately securing to the Argentine a territorial and numerical preponderance among Spanish-American republics. End of section 9