 Section 14 of the South American Republics, Volume 2, by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Piotr Natter, Part 3, Bolivia, Chapter 1, The Conquest and the Mines. Between latitudes 14 and a half, and 23 and a half, the mighty Andean chain is massed into a plateau 500 miles wide, over 12,000 feet high, and interspersed with a complex system of mountains and ridges, parallel, transverse, and interlaced. Geographers estimate that this central portion of the Andean system contains nearly 500,000 cubic miles of matter, above sea level, and that it would cover the entire area of South America to an average depth of 400 feet. The great ranges which stretch north to the Caribbean and south to Cape Horn are mere arms of this massive elevation of the earth, the highest and largest in the New World. Within a few miles of the coast rises a lofty and continuous range of mountains which can be scaled only over a few passes, none of which fall far below 14,000 feet. From the top, a vast plateau stretches to the lofty chain which forms the inland rim of the Andean Massive. This plateau is Bolivia. The northern portion forms the Titicaca basin, the whole of which was formerly covered by an immense freshwater sea, fed by the snows of the surrounding mountains and draining southeast into the plate valley. Now, however, the rainfall has so decreased that the Great Lake is shrunk to a mere tithe of its original dimensions, and none of its waters escape out of the dry plateau. In its southern part, the plateau is bifurcated by a high central ridge which divides southern Bolivia into two portions, the western of which, called the Puna, is too high, cold and dry for cultivation. To the east, the plains are lower and moister, sloping very gradually toward the east until they plunge off abruptly into the great central valley of South America. The northern part of the Titicaca basin was the cradle of civilization in South America. On the shores of the lake are ruins of great buildings erected by arrays who occupied this plateau, unknown centuries before the rise of the Inca power. One doorway exists in an almost perfect state of preservation, carved out of a single block of stone seven feet high and twice as long, covered with figures elaborately sculpted in high relief, while dozens of heroic statues and walls containing hewn stones 12 yards long remain to attest to the skill of the old workmen. Bolivian history emerges from the realm of conjecture with the invasion of the Incas, a warlike and civilized tribe who inhabited the slightly lower plateaus and valleys northeast of the Titicaca basin. The ancient Titicacan civilization had long since fallen from its high estate, and the Inca armies easily overcame the resistance of the scattered shepherd tribes. The conquered Abori genes were incorporated with the Incas and Quechua became the principal, although not the only language. The colonies of the dominant race spread south and east over the massive into the fertile regions of Jungas, Cochabamba, and Charcas. Bolivia became one of the principal seats of the Inca power. There they built their most magnificent palaces. In the northern mountains they found the copper for their tools and weapons, and the gold which they used to ornament their temples. Over the higher plains roamed flocks of lianas and vicunias. The slightly lower parts of the plateau produced potatoes and quinoa, and the warmer valleys, maize, cocoa, and cotton. The broad lake, the rivers, and the roads over the comparatively level country favored intercommunication and social and industrial consolidation. In the terrible civil war which broke out about 1525 between Atahualpa and Huascar, Bolivia suffered less than the Peruvian and Ecuadorian provinces, but thousands of her sons were drafted into the armies, which Huascar successively launched against Kizkiz and the horde of northern tribes which relentlessly marched from Quito to Cusco, and after five years of slaughter captured the southern capital and the legitimate emperor. But before Kizkiz had had time to pursue his conquering way into Bolivia, news came that Pizarro had imprisoned and murdered Atahualpa, and that the Spaniards were on their way to Cusco to give battle to Kizkiz and restore the legitimate succession. The northern Indians were defeated, and at the close of 1533 Pizarro entered Cusco in triumph, riding at the side of Huascar's air. The people of southern Peru, Bolivia, Tucumán, and Chile regarded the Spaniards as deliverers and allies. Within a few months after the occupation of Cusco, the strangers rode out of the city along the splendid stone-flagged Inca roads, crossed the transverse range into the Titicacabezan, and followed southeast to the extremity of the plateau, encountering little resistance and regarded as ambassadors from the Inca Empire. They found the country teeming with a docile and prosperous population, and the mountains on its borders were reported to abound in silver, gold and copper. Almagro, Pizarro's partner and associate, to whose share had fallen the southern half of the empire, resolved not only to take possession of Bolivia, but also to conquer the great province which the Indians told him lay far to the south, infertile valleys on the western side of the Andes, and hard by the Pacific Ocean. In 1535 Almagro marched from Cusco with 500 Spaniards and 10,000 Indians, the latter under the command of a brother of the emperor. After crossing the Titicacabezan, he surmounted the difficulties of the Blic and Isipuna, the snowy Passes and the Atacama Desert, and descended finally into Chile. But he found the people poor and warlike, and encountered little gold. Returning in 1538 to make war on Pizarro, he was defeated and died strangled in prison by his relentless rival. Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro, Francisco's brothers, became dominant on the Titicacan Plateau and began establishing great feudal lordships, dividing the country among their followers and exacting tribute and forced labor from the Indians. In 1540 the great Marquis himself visited Charcas, the southern capital and the only large Indian city in Bolivia. Late that same year his water master, Pedro de Valdivia, led another expedition along the route over the Bolivian Plateau into northern Chile. Meanwhile the Spaniards were diligently searching Bolivia for the Indian gold mines. Though the Incas were known to have extracted immense quantities of the metal from the placers around Lake Titicaca, the surface deposits had been pretty well exhausted and the Spaniards were disappointed. Silver, however, existed in abundance and the strangers began to work the mines shortly after they reached the Plateau. About 1545 the great deposits of Potosí were discovered on a bleak mountainside 400 miles southeast of Titicaca and near Charcas in the regions where Gonzalo Pizarro possessed immense estates. At that time Gonzalo was virtually independent monarch of the whole Inca Empire having headed a successful revolt against the viceroy sent out to reorganize the country and put a stop to Indian slavery. But he did not long enjoy his riches, for in 1548 he risked his all in a hopeless battle with a new Spanish governor and ended his stormy life on the scaffold. The discovery of Potosí revolutionized Upper Peru, as Bolivia was then called. It is probable that the high and inaccessible Plateau would have largely escaped Spanish settlement if it had not been for the marvelous riches now offered to Spanish cupidity. Pizarro's original followers came as conquerors and not as settlers. They overran a great and civilized empire whose revenues they proposed to absorb and whose inhabitants they subjected to tribute. But after they had obtained all the gold accumulated in the hands of the Indians there would have been little to have induced them to remain in Bolivia. But as soon as the unprecedented extent of the silver deposit at Potosí was recognized Bolivia became the greatest source of that metal in the known world and the most important province of the transatlantic dominions of the Castilian king. That one mountain has produced two billion ounces of silver even by the early rude processes which the Spaniards found in use among the Indians 70 million ounces were taken out in the first 30 years and the discovery of Quicksilver in Peru with the invention of the copper panamalgamation process in 1575 quadrupled the output. A great mining camp sprang up on the Potosí mountain side. Royal officials, contractors and merchants flocked to this Eldorado. The mountain roads to Lima swarmed with mule trains carrying down silver and painfully toiling back again laden with supplies. The roots of the Bolivian Plateau became the greatest arteries of travel in Spanish America. The year of Gonzalo's execution the city of La Paz was founded in a valley lying in the open plains just south of Lake Titicaca and soon became a great emporium of Spanish trade. On the fertile plateau to the east of Potosí the city of Charcas flourished and was made the political and ecclesiastical capital of Upper Peru Potosí being too high for Europeans. Soon other great mines were found among which those of Oruro on the southeastern edge of the Titicaca basin proved especially rich. Nearly 10,000 abandoned silver mines testify to the activity of the Spaniards in hunting the precious metal and the total production of silver in Bolivia during the colonial period exceeded 3 billion ounces. To work these mines the Spaniards ruthlessly impressed the helpless Indians. Each village was required to furnish a certain number of laborers annually. Lots were drawn as if for a prescription and the unhappy creatures who drew the bad numbers went off to meet a certain death in the dark wet pits and galleries bidding goodbye to their wives and children like men stepping on the scaffold. The destruction of life was frightful. The official returns made by the officials charged with the impressment demonstrating that in the neighborhood of Potosí the Indian population fell within a hundred years to a tenth of its original numbers. The influx of Spanish adventurers and officials also stimulated the extension of the system of agricultural incomeiendas. That is the grants of large tracts of land with the privilege of enslaving the Indian occupants. Sheep were introduced from Spain within twenty years of the conquest and immense herds belonging to the Spanish proprietors and tended by Indian slaves soon covered the vast pasture grounds which are found even on the higher and colder portions of the plateau. Horses had come with the first conquerors and the breeding of mules flourished especially in Cochabamba the great agricultural center which was founded in 1573 as well as in Charcas and the far southern districts of Tucumán. Cattle spread quickly over these same regions and their beef, maize, mules and horses found a good market in the mining districts. By the year 1580 the Spanish colonial system affecting the natives had been perfected, codified and put into general operation. The whole country was divided into about 30 districts each governed by a Corregidor who in theory was controlled by a complicated and carefully drawn system of regulations but who in practice was a petty tyrant against whom the white creoles had little chance of redress and who held the Indians absolutely at his mercy. The regulations framed by the distant viceroy at Lima for the protection of the natives were evaded by the Corregidors intent solely on extorting money from the poor creatures committed to their charge and comiendas had nominally been abolished but landed proprietors still exercised the right to exact tribute from the Indians on their estates and great numbers were forced to serve as life servants under various pretexts. Those Indians who retained a semblance of freedom obeyed their own casiques who were often the descendants of the royal Inca family. The principal duty for which the Spaniards held these chiefs responsible was the collection of the head tacks in their respective villages. The letter of the law required a seventh of the adult male population to work for the benefit of the government and in practice this resulted in an unlimited farming out of Indians as slaves to the rural proprietors. As much as possible the Indians retired to their villages to escape the notice of the officials hoping to find under their own casiques a measure of security and a chance to live in modest poverty. Misrule, slavery, labor in the mines neglect of that intensive and government directed agriculture which had alone rendered it possible to sustain the dense population of Inca times decimated the Indians. Few parts of the plateau escaped coming under Spanish rule but the white conquerors like their Inca predecessors stopped short when they reached the dense forests and steep valleys eroded by wildly rushing rivers which covered the eastern slope of the great mountain region. Down these terrific gorgeous snow progress was made and only occasionally did some devoted priest manage to establish a mission among the intractable Indians who inhabit the open prairies interspersed among the beautiful forest covered plains drained by the tributaries of the Madeira. The roads the Incas built to the Pacific continued even in Spanish times to be the only practicable way of communication between Bolivia and the outer world. Transportation over the steep and tedious route from Potosí to La Paz, dense around Titicaca and along the high valleys of southern Peru to the beginning of the tremendous descent to Lima was too expensive to permit any export except of the precious metals. To the south there was a somewhat easier route to the valleys of northeastern Argentina into which the Spaniards had spread within a few decades after the discovery of Potosí and when food and pack animals were drawn for the mining regions. Spanish law forbade the use of the Atlantic ports at the mouth of the plate and for more than two centuries Bolivia continued under both administrative and commercial subordination to Lima. Jesuit missionaries arrived in Bolivia within 25 years after Loyola had founded the order. They established an important mission on the banks of Lake Titicaca in 1577 and five years later introduced the printing press in order to distribute among their proselytes, grammars and catechisms in the native dongs. In the 17th century they succeeded penetrating down the eastern slope of the Andes and across the Great Central Plain to the outlying hills of the Brazilian mountain system where they established several missions among the Chiquitos Indians. They even reached the grassy prairies which lie 300 miles north of the inner angle of the Great Plateau, converted the mojos and taught them to herd cattle. But in the forests and along the base of the Andes the fierce tribes held their own as they had against the Incas and as they have continued to do against the Spanish Americans to this day. In 1619 another great silver fine was made, this time near Lake Titicaca. A few years later civil war broke out among the Potosi miners caused by the rancorous greed of the speculators who worked the mines under contract. Official authority could do little to suppress the bloody encounters and the factions were only reconciled after three years of fighting. The discovery in 1657 of another very rich silver mine near the lake brought on desperate fights among the miners who flocked to the place. The chief contractor enraged the other Spaniards by his exactions and the situation became so serious that in 1665 the viceroy went in person and summarily tried and executed 42 persons among them the contractor's own brother. For 150 years the Spaniards had failed to find gold deposits equal to those from which the Incas had drawn the fabulous treasures that paid at Awalpa's ransom. But about the end of the 17th century rich placers were discovered in the mountains east of Lake Titicaca. The town of Sorata soon rivaled Potosi in opulence. Shortly thereafter other great gold deposits were found on the eastern slope of the Inner Andes by adventurous Brazilians who had made their way across the continent to the eastern headwaters of the Madeira and ascended the Bani River as far as the escarpment of the Great Plateau. The news of the discovery brought a crowd of Spanish miners from Chile and as the placers were rich and Indian labor abounded fortunes were rapidly accumulated. The gold was sold in annual fairs and it continued to be held to this day. But as is always the case in gold washings the first results were the best. The region is too difficult of access for quartz mining and the production rapidly fell off. Activity in that part of Bolivia ceased in the 18th century and only a few Indians continued to wash a little gold in the remote streams. In 1781 Sorata was destroyed and the country virtually abandoned. End of Section 14 Section 15 of the South American Republics Volume 2 by Thomas Clelland Dawson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Piotr Natter, Part 3 Bolivia Chapter 2 The Colonial System and Tupac's Revolt During the 200 years which followed the Spanish conquest life on the Bolivian Plateau was vegetative and dangerous except for the occasional excitement caused by the discovery of a rich new silver mine. The Indians lived in their villages herding their master's sheep or cultivating maize and potatoes, paid tribute to the encomenderos or the crown collector and submitted with dull patience to all the exactions. They reverenced their casiques, listened submissively to the parish priests and meekly suffered the tyranny of the corregidores. The image of the conquerors was unintelligible to most of the people. When summoned to work in the mines they went to slow misery and certain death with the stoicism of their race. The South American Indian changes his attributes but slowly and we find a moral resemblance in tribes differing quietly in material culture. The Inca Emperor exacted and received the same blind unquestioning obedience that the Aguayans gave to Lopez four centuries later and the rude guaranis on the banks of the Paraná who had hardly entered the Stone Age were no more readily submissive to the Spaniards than the Quechua's of Bolivia whose engineering, agriculture and architecture had reached a high degree of development. Except the floating population of miners the Spaniards and their descendants lived in the cities La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro, Charcas, Tariha, Santa Cruz. Each city had its plaza, its townhouse, its officials and its law courts. Administrative centers for the surrounding districts their inhabitants were mainly functionaries and hangers on who varied the sleepy monotony of their existence by factional quarrels and political intrigues. In these cities the slow process of amalgamating the white and red races began and the dynamic restlessness of the Caucasian infiltrated by degree into the static calm of the Indian. The lower classes of the towns became half-breed while in the country districts pure Indians predominated. Late in the colonial period the Spaniards were still occupying the position of alien taskmasters and the process of fusing the different races into a homogeneous mass had made little progress after two centuries and half of contact. In a word the social and political organization of Aperperu was largely a continuation of the Inca system but that system had been deformed and deprived of its efficiency and was subject to constant arbitrary interferences from the Spanish Corregidores while the cities were separately governed by military governors and their own cabildos. Until the middle of the 18th century the authority of the Lima Viceroy nominally extended over the whole of the Spanish South America. However, boards of high judicial and civil functionaries called Audiencias responsible directly to the crown exercised very important and independent judicial and administrative function each over a great division of Spanish America. Hardly had the conquest been completed when an Audiencia was established at Cercas and that city became the political and ecclesiastical capital not only of all Aperperu but of the vast regions to the south. The Viceroy was too far away to interfere and in effect a great semi-independent province was created whose boundaries extended indefinitely south and east from the transverse range which separated the Titicacabazan from the region immediately governed by the Viceroy and known as Lower Peru. To the jurisdiction of this province the governors of Tucumán, Paraguay and Buenos Aires were subject as well as the missions among the Chiquitos and Mohos on the headwaters of the Paraguay and Madeira. The Bourbon Kings who succeeded the House of Austria early in the 18th century were forced to abandon the effort to centralize the administration and commerce of the whole continent at Lima. The Atlantic and Caribbean coasts could not be effectively governed from the Pacific and the rising currents of trade and immigration must be allowed more liberty to follow their natural channels. The Viceroyalty of Bogota was created in 1740 including the northern and northwestern portions of the continent and in 1776 the southeastern parts were erected into the Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires. The whole audience of Cercas was separated from Lima and to its territory was added that portion of Chile which lay east of the Andes. Though the Bolivian Plateau was the most populous and important division of the new Viceroyalty Buenos Aires far away on the Atlantic and in a region then considered of little value was chosen as the capital. In spite of prohibitive regulations goods had long been smuggled into Buenos Aires and then scarred over the Argentine plains up the comparatively easy passes leading to southern Bolivia and the selection of the plate city was a recognition by the Spanish government of the futility of longer trying to divert the trade of the Atlantic slope from its natural channels. But the great length of the Atlantic route largely overcame the advantage of easier gradients and social and commercial habits centuries old could not be revolutionized by statute. Most of Bolivia's small intercourse with the outside world continued to be conducted along the old Inca routes to the Pacific and political union brought about no organic and commercial incorporation with the provinces near the mouth of the plate. Before the new Viceroyalty was in good running order a great Indian insurrection broke out which involved a large proportion of the Indians of the Plateau. Tupac Amaru, the legitimate heir of the Inca emperors and a wealthy and influential casique in one of the valleys between Cusco and the Bolivian border had received a good Spanish education and possessed many friends among the whites. But his heart went out to his own people and he had the courage to protest against the intolerable oppressions of the Corregidores. Failing to obtain redress after repeated prayers to the Spanish authorities, at least to enforce their own laws honestly, he resolved to appeal to arms and in 1780 he captured and killed a particularly demoniac Alcorregidor his own immediate superior and summoned the Indians of Southern Peru to fight for their rights under his banner. Tupac had secured some firearms and out of the vast multitudes which assembled at his call he equipped 3,000 men. The Spaniards advanced from Cusco with a force of 1,200 men but Tupac defeated them and hastened across the range to arouse the population around Titicaca. At every village he addressed the people from the church steps saying that he was come to abolish abuses and punish the Corregidores and the Indians responded with acclamations for the Inca and Redeemer. Meanwhile the Spanish officials were assembling a large force in Cusco which, strange as it may seem, was mostly composed of Indians. The race possessed little instinctive capacity and the organization was deficient in initiative, moral courage and independence and had not the resolution to refuse to follow the Spanish officers. There were only a few like Tupac who possessed the mental energy and originality to plan and to fight on their own account. Receiving news of the Spanish preparations the Inca herded back to his home province and attempted to negotiate. He recounted to the Spanish authorities his own earnest endeavours to obtain a measure of justice for his people, the habitual violation of Spanish law by Spanish officials and the intolerable oppression of the system of impressment. He proposed a negotiation by which reforms might be attained without further bloodshed. Tupac's fame as an enlightened and unselfish patriot rests securely on the contents of the noble and able despatch which, on this occasion, but the latter refused all compromise and ordered in advance on Tupac's position. He was surrounded, his army destroyed and he himself sentenced to be torn to pieces by horses after witnessing with his own eyes the fearful tortures and death of his innocent and harmless wife and children. The preparation of such atrocities goaded even the dull and stoical Indians into a fury. They rose everywhere on the plateau and the Spaniards in northern Bolivia fled for refuge to La Paz and Puno, the Spanish army which had overcome Tupac advanced into the Titicacabazan but was compelled to retreat before overwhelming numbers. Puno was evacuated and in 1781 the Spaniards had lost all foothold in northern Bolivia. But the habit of obedience was too strong, their first fury over, the Indians listened to promises of commitment and offers of compromise. Tupac's cousin, who had been made chief of the insurrection after the former's murder was persuaded to submit on the promise of pardon only to be arrested, tried and executed as soon as his followers had laid down their arms. The family of the Inca was extirpated 90 of its members including women and children being sent on foot, loaded with chains over the hundreds of miles of mountain road to Lima and then conveyed to Spain when they rotted away in prison. Many of the reforms to secure which Tupac had lost his own life and devoted his skin to destruction were voluntarily put into effect by the Spanish government a few years later. The office of Corregidor was abolished and the district governors were made directly responsible to the governor of the province who was in turn responsible to the viceroy and audiencia. Courts were established to protect the rights of the Indians and the higher authorities made a sincere effort to secure the enforcement of the laws. However, the reforms did not materially change the condition of the country and the Indians apparently settled back into the same apathetic obedience to the whites. The anti-Spanish feeling took no active form for the present but the events had proven to have become a field well prepared for the springing up of a crop of bloody insurrections. End of section 15 Section 16 of the South American Republics, Volume 2 by Thomas Clelland Dawson This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Piotr Natter Part 3, Bolivia Chapter 3, The War of Independence The South American War of Independence began and ended on the plateau of Upper Peru. On Bolivia's soil the first blood of the Great Revolt was spilled and there the last Spanish soldiers laid down their arms. Lying on the Great Route from Lima to Buenos Aires her territory inevitably became the battleground for the hardest and most continuous fighting on the continent and her population, having been the most oppressed by Spanish misrule showed itself the most in efforts to drive out the Spanish authorities. From 1809 to 1825 with scarcely an intermission battle succeeded battle, campaign campaign and insurrection insurrection as the Spaniards and Patriots, alternately victorious marched and counter marched along the Great Mountain Road that windsed through the plateau from Umauaca on the Argentine frontier to the barrier north of Lake Titicaca. Not a village, but what was captured and pillaged, not merely ones but many times and the tale of gatherings and hangings of massacres, burnings and depredations of heads and hands spiked up by hundreds along the highways wearies in the telling. The Indians and half-breeds who formed the bulk of the Bolivian population joined by tens of thousands the bands that were continually being recruited or were impressed into the Spanish armies. Like Missouri in the American Civil War, Bolivia furnished more than her contingent to both sides and the geographical position was similar to that of Virginia. The fighting on her soil was the longest continued and the severest although the decisive battles were fought outside her territory. Swipaccia, Waki, Ayouma, Viluma correspond to Seven Pines, Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg, while Chacabuco, Boyacá and Ayacucho like Donaldson, Vicksburg and Chattanooga were the fights that brought the real results. The patriots from the Argentine wished to carry the war to the seed of Spanish power and made continual efforts to get to Lima by way of Bolivia, but though they often reached the plateau, they could never long maintain themselves. The farthest that they ever penetrated was to the south end of Lake Titicaca, where they were still distant from their goal by more than a thousand miles of difficult mountain road. The Spanish generals were more successful, but any army in possession of the plateau was immediately impelled to dissipate its forces in keeping open lines of communication with the seaboard and in tedious marches. The news of the French user-patient in 1808 and the consequent civil disturbances in Spain demoralized the Spanish authorities in the Bolivian cities and the Creoles immediately conceived the hope that they might possess themselves of the offices and the revenues. Early in 1809 a few influential native Bolivians and disaffected Spaniards took forcible possession of the government buildings in Charcas and La Paz and deposed the Spanish officials. The insurgents managed to arm a few troops, but were able to make no effective resistance to the forces which the viceroys at Buenos Aires and Lima promptly sent to quell the movement. The rebellion was quenched in blood. Goyaneche, the Lima general, ordered wholesale executions among those who had taken part, and the news of his dreadful cruelties roused a bitter desire for revenge in the hearts of the Creoles of all South America. The deposition by Buenos Aires of her viceroys on the 25th of May 1810 was shortly followed by the advance of an Argentine army into Bolivia, and the forces which the Spanish authorities at Potosí and Charcas had been able to collect were defeated at Suipacha near the southern border of the Plateau. All the cities of Bolivia fell into the hands of the Patriots, while the villages rose in revolt against their Spanish tyrants. The Buenos Aires wished to protect the Bolivian provinces to a centralized government and rule them from the capital on the plate. But every town in Upper Peru had its ambitious Creole leaders who wished to control their own country. These disagreements had much to do with the crashing defeat which the Argentine army shortly suffered at Waki on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca. The projected triumphal advance through Cusco and Lower Peru to Lima was turned into a precipitated retreat through La Paz, Oruro and Potosí into the Argentine. Alone the Bolivian Patriots were not strong enough to prevent the re-establishment of the Spanish authority in the cities along the main route. But in the villages and the outlying cities like Cochabamba and Santa Cruz the insurgent bands kept up desperate resistance. The main body of the victorious Spanish army pursued the fleeing Argentines into their own territory only to be defeated by General Belgrano in the Battle of Tucumán a victory which probably saved Buenos Aires from capture and the South American Revolution from extinction. In 1813 the Argentines again invaded Bolivia, but they had not proceeded far beyond Potosí when they were met and routed in the battles of Viapugio and Ayouma. The Bolivian Patriots were once more left to their own resources and their country subjected to the most awful devastation. Though unable to concert a general plan of action or to assemble one large army, nevertheless they had courage to die in battle or on the scaffold. The most famous leaders in the south were Camargo and Padilla whose daring forays helped prevent the Spaniards from advancing into the Argentine while Arenales at Santa Cruz and other Patriot leaders farther north continually threatened the line of communication to Titicaca, Cusco and Lima. Late in the year 1814 the region north of Lake Titicaca to and beyond Cusco burst into insurrection under the lead of an Indian casique and an indefatigable agitator of a priest named Munecas. The Indians rose en masse and the Spanish army in southern Bolivia was cut off from Lima. 20,000 insurgents assembled near the north end of Lake Titicaca but they possessed neither arms, officers or organization. Not one in twenty had a musket and though their invasion down the Maritime Cordillera to Arequipa was at first successful a comparatively small force of Spanish regulars chased them back over the passes to the region of the lake and there dispersed them at the battle of Umaciri. Meanwhile the Garia bands in southern Bolivia and the Argentines in Salta had been more successful. The Spaniards were compelled to retire from the Argentine border back beyond Potosí. The Argentines again invaded the plateau and advanced in force on the road to La Paz and Lima. Once again the Spanish forces which concentrated to meet them were victorious and the Allied Patriots were completely overthrown in the battle of Viluma, November 1815 which marks the end of the first period of the war of independence. Thence forward for seven years the Spanish generals were dominant on the plateau and the Bolivian Patriots made only a desultery and scattered resistance. With admirable foresight the victorious Spanish general Pethuela went to work to subdue thoroughly the whole of Upper Peru. The viceroy Pascal backed him up in establishing in this natural fortress a strong military state whence money and soldiers could be drawn for offensive operations against the insurrection in any part of the continent. The mines supplied the funds of which the vise-rigal government stood in such desperate need and the hardy sturdy Indians of Bolivia afforded a stock of excellent recruits whose fidelity might be enforced by white officers and severe discipline. Pethuela remorselessly pursued the Patriot chiefs. Camargo was finally run to earth captured and garoted. Padilla fell in the midst of his little band and was brutally beheaded as he lay wounded on the ground. Garrisons occupied all the towns and important positions. The irregular excesses of the Spanish soldiery were sternly forbidden. A measure of order and security replaced the confusion of the previous years and the whole resources of the people were carefully husbanded and devoted to the upbuilding of an army. Before the end of 1816 Pethuela had a well-equipped and efficient force of 8,000 men ready for an advance into the Argentine. The year 1816 was the blackest year for the Patriot cause since the beginning of the revolution. Chile had been reduced to obedience. The Argentine was convulsed by civil war. Uruguay had fallen into the hands of the Portuguese king. The Spaniards were triumphant in Venezuela and New Granada, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia were making no resistance. Pethuela had been promoted to be viceroy at Lima and La Serna in the beginning of 1817 led the Spanish army into the Argentine and advanced far beyond the frontier. But he made his campaign according to the rules of regular European warfare. And though the Gauchos of Salta did not venture to give him battle they kept up a harassing series of night attacks, ambushes and daring forays into his very lines. Mounted on their fleet and hardy planes' horses living on wild cattle and needing no baggage or provision train their mobility was phenomenal and they rendered the advance of the Spanish army through the long stretches of desert and Pampa almost impossible. Meanwhile San Martín's great victory at Chacabuco in Chile completely changed the situation throughout the continent. It was necessary for the viceroy to drain the other provinces of troops to attempt Chile's recovery. Even if La Serna did succeed in pushing toward Buenos Aires San Martín could recross the Andes and strike him in flank with a victorious army. The Spanish general withdrew from the northern Argentine and took up the old position near the Bolivian border. The Argentines never attacked him in force although they kept up a war with incursions over the frontier and the indomitable Bolivian patriots rose in one local revolt after another during the next four years. The country was never pacified although the relentless vigilance of the Spanish commanders prevented the insurrection from being general. In 1820 San Martín sailed from Valparaiso and landed his army of Argentines and Chileans on the Peruvian coast near Lima. His masterly dispositions soon compelled the Spaniards to evacuate the capital and then sforf their power was confined to the Andean region which extends southeast from the Cerro de Pasco to the southern boundary of Bolivia. The patriots had the advantage of being able to land troops at any point on the coast and the Spanish generals to meet these invasions were compelled to move their armies over the torches mountain paths. Late in 1822 an expedition attempted to reach the Bolivian plateau by the pass which leads directly up to La Paz. Valdez, the Spanish general managed to get to the threatened point before the patriots had pushed and attacked at a disadvantage and their army was destroyed. A year later a similar effort was made by an army of 5,000 Peruvians under the command of Santa Cruz. A Bolivian half-breed of noble Inca lineage who had been engaged in the Spanish service until 1821 and then deserting had risen to supreme power in the Patriot army after the retirement of San Martín. Northern Bolivia had been denuded of troops by the Spanish generals in the course of their operations near Lima. No army disputed the pass and Santa Cruz penetrated to La Paz without opposition. Valdez hastened from Peru and the Spanish army in Southern Bolivia moved toward the threatened region. Santa Cruz's position lay directly between them. His forces were superior to either of the Spanish armies and apparently it would not be difficult for him to whip them in detail but he made the mistake of dividing his own forces and Valdez came up with such unexpected speed that he failed to unite his two divisions before the Spaniards reached La Paz. He retreated to the south in order to join his other division closely followed by the enemy and scarcely had he affected the junction when Valdez skillfully outflanked him and united his forces to the army of Southern Bolivia. By this manoeuvre the Patriot army found itself hopelessly outnumbered and fled north in disorder. By the time it reached the coast it had been practically annihilated. One body of Spaniards resumed at its leisure a position threatening clima while the Bolivian division occupied itself with crushing the insurgents who had risen at Cochabamba and other points during Santa Cruz's stay upon the plateau. This disastrous campaign seemed to destroy all hope of Bolivian freedom for years to come. But Olanieta, the renegade Argentine who commanded the Spanish army in Bolivia quarreled with La Serna and the northern generals. They sent a force to fight him and while the Spaniards were thus warring among themselves Wirt was received that Bolivar had arrived on the Peruvian coast accompanied by his great lieutenant Sucre and a large army of Colombian veterans. To meet this pressing danger the viceroy abandoned his efforts to reduce Olanieta to submission recalled the troops he had sent into Bolivia and sent north as large a force as he could master. Bolivar climbed the coast range unopposed and met the Spanish army not far south of Cerro de Pasco. On the 24th of August 1824 he won the cavalry action of Junín and his Spaniards were compelled to retire to Cúthco. Bolivar went to Lima to consolidate his political position leaving the command with Sucre. Four months later the viceroy suddenly broke out of Cúthco outmaneuvered Sucre and marched toward Lima closely followed by the Colombian forces. The two armies finally met at Ayacucho, December 9, 1824 and though the royalist army fought on a field of its own using and had the advantage in numbers and artillery it was annihilated. The only Spanish troops which remained in the field were Olanietas in southern Bolivia. He struggled desperately to hold his men together and make another stand but the news of Ayacucho was the signal for an uprising of the Patriots all around him. The royalist officers and troops had no heart for a hopeless fight and as Sucre approached the detached garrisons deserted. In March Olanieta received word that one of his lieutenants Medina Sely, who was in command at Tumulsa near Potosí had declared for the Patriots. The Spanish general promptly marched with the few troops who remained faithful and on the 1st of April 1825 fought the last action of the War of Independence. Olanieta was defeated and himself slain probably by a ball fired by one of his own men. End of section 16 Section 17 of the South American Republics Volume 2 by Thomas Clelland Dawson This Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by Piotr Natter Part 3, Bolivia Chapter 4, Bolivia Independent After his great victory at Ayacucho, Sucre advanced rapidly to Cusco and thence into the Titicacabazin By February he had reached Oruro in what is now Central Bolivia and Aperperu rose as one man to welcome the Deliverer. The next step was to decide upon the future government. For 30 years before the beginning of the revolution this country had been part of the vice-royalty of Buenos Aires and when the city on the plate had expelled its Spanish rulers the Patriots there had expected that the Aperperu would continue to be connected with the new nation. Although in the early years of the war these provinces sent delegates to congresses which assembled in the Argentine cities the Creoles of the Plateau never showed any anxiety to incorporate their country with the Argentine and the successes of the Spanish generals virtually renewed Bolivia's ancient connection with Lima Now that the Spaniards were expelled the Bolivian Creoles were no more willing to unite with lower Peru than with Buenos Aires and Bolivar encouraged this sentiment. The ambitious and lucky soldier had formed the Napoleonic conception of making himself supreme dictator of a confederation of small states each of which was to be ruled by a subordinate dictator named from among his creatures. To organize Aperperu into separate country with Sucre at its head would be a long step in this direction. Bolivar himself was president of the confederation of Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador as well as dictator of lower Peru and at the head of a victorious army of Colombians. Argentina's influence was nullified by civil war. Chile's strength was as yet unsuspected. For the moment Bolivar was supreme in South America. At his dictation Peru and Buenos Aires promulgated decrees leaving to the provinces of Aperperu the right quote to decide freely and spontaneously as to what form of government would be most conducive to their prosperity and good government end quote. When Bolivar himself reached the country he was received in a delirium of joy and gratitude and the enthusiastic Bolivians acclaimed him father of their country. In a literal sense he deserved the title for his intervention had conferred independence on Bolivia and his decrees now fixed her boundaries. In general he followed the ancient limits of the audiencia of Charcas. Peru retained the sea coast directly to the west as well as all the Titicacambasin north and west of the lake compelling Bolivian commerce to pass through foreign territory in order to reach the ocean. Far to the south Bolivia was conceded a little ribbon of coast but the root thither lay over the bleak and barren puna and was too long to be of any practical service. On the 11th of August 1825 official proclamation was made that the new republic had begun its existence taking the name Bolivia in honor of the liberator. Congress said in the act of independence that quote, Aperperu is the altar upon which the first blood was shed for liberty and the land where the last tyrant perished. The barbarous burning of more than a hundred villages the destruction of towns and households raised everywhere for the partisans of liberty the blood of thousands of victims that would make even caribs shudder the taxes and executions as arbitrary as inhuman the insecurity of property life and of honor itself an atrocious and merciless inquisitorial system all have not been able to extinguish the sacred fire of liberty and to just hatred of Spanish power end quote. Early in the following year Bolivar presented a constitution already for the approval of Congress. Written in his own hand it stands a curious proof of his political ideas. After laying down the somewhat vague principle that liberty is a mere island which the waves of tyranny and anarchy alternately threaten to engulf and establishing a legislative system too complicated to be workable he shows the cloven hoof by providing for a president elected for life and possessing the right to nominate a successor. Sucre was made the president as a matter of course but hardly had he begun his regular government when troubles broke out his own character the internal conditions of Bolivia and the international geolocys felt against him as the friend and representative of Bolivar combined to make his position untenable a general of the first order a statesman of enlightened ideas and a single-minded and unselfish patriot Sucre would not deign to impose himself by force of arms on a reluctant people nor make undignified compromises with the turbulent Caudios. He had accepted the presidency only after it had been repeatedly pressed upon him by the Bolivian Congress and though he was probably influenced by his loyal wish to aid Bolivar in the latter scheme of uniting all Spanish America under a strong semi-monarchical government he was unselfishly anxious to restore peace and order the heterogeneous population of about a million who lived upon the plateau was however demoralized by the terrible experiences through which it had passed in the previous 15 years three-fourths were Indian a stoical docile race which would not make much trouble but which was divided into two nations speaking different languages and possessing little capacity for organization the few whites and the more numerous people of mixed blood were the dominating elements and these had been trained to lawlessness and ferocity by the long war Sucre vainly tried to replace anarchy by some semblance of orderly government the revenues of the country had fallen from the two millions annually of colonial times to almost nothing his attempt to substitute a rational system of direct taxation for the countless Spanish imposts failed, money to pay the Colombian troops could not be raised and the mercenaries became mutinous at the same time symptoms of rebellion appeared among the Bolivian Claudios troubles in Colombia and Venezuela had forced Bolivar to retire from Peru and the troops he left behind almost immediately mutinied and Santa Cruz pushed himself to the head of affairs at Lima the Bolivarian constitution of Peru was overthrown and Santa Cruz and Gamarra advanced upon Bolivia to expel Sucre the latter's Colombian troops mutinied and bands of insurrectionists rose in various parts of the country to aid the Peruvian invaders while Argentina and Chile plainly showed their desire for Sucre's overthrow on the 28th of July 1828 a little more than three years after his triumph and entry into Bolivia Sucre made a treaty with the leader of the Peruvian army agreeing to withdraw from Bolivia with all the natives of Colombia General Santa Cruz was named president and the Peruvians occupied many of the Bolivian provinces for several months only to withdraw when it became evident that their continued presence would surely provoke a universal uprising Santa Cruz soon triumphed over all opposition and established himself as master of the country the new president was a man whose general intelligence and ability and knowledge of diplomacy law and economics gave the country a successful and rational government though he abandoned Sucre's premature attempt to reform the taxing system he energetically applied and improved the old imposts and soon brought some order out of the financial chaos his army was the best organized, disciplined and equipped in South America he also tried to attract European immigration and to improve agricultural, commercial and social conditions and methods the difficulties of communication and the conservative and industrially unenergetic character of the population however prevented any rapid development Peru was distracted by civil commotions and Santa Cruz pressed hard on the northern country he probably could have forced the session of the adjacent seacoast to the inestimable and lasting benefit of Bolivia, but his ambition led him farther appealed to for help by one of the rival Peruvian factions he gave it upon the condition that the country should be divided the two parts uniting with Bolivia in a confederation of which he was to be the supreme head in 1835 he invaded Peru and made himself master of the country the creation of the Peru-Bolivian confederation was an especial menace to Chile and the Argentine the latter country, still a prey to the most lamentable civil disorders was in no position to undertake any effective intervention but Chile's already strong and well established government determined to restore the balance of power pretext for war were soon found and the more solid texture of Chile's social and political organization the energy of her people bred in cold regions and her command of the sea quickly made themselves felt the first expedition sent to Arequipa in 1837 was compelled to retire by an army where Santa Cruz dispatched down the Cordillera from La Paz the factions in Peru however rose and in the following year Chile renewed the war on the 20th of January 1839 with the aid of the Peruvian auxiliaries the Chileans overwhelmingly defeated an army of Bolivians and Peruvians under Santa Cruz at the Battle of Yungay the fragility of the foundations upon which Santa Cruz had rested his system was now apparent the Peru-Bolivian confederation disappeared from the map Peru re-established her independent existence with her old boundaries Santa Cruz's enemies in Bolivia rose in rebellion and he fell without a struggle as a matter of fact the ten years of his more or less orderly government had not changed the character of the Bolivian creals and mixed bloods his government had been military reactionary and a mere makeshift the Indians still occupied their inferior position the lower classes regarded the ruling coteries as self-seeking aristocrats adult discontent fermented among the whole population and the ambitious chieftains found little difficulty in seducing the soldiery Bolivia definitely cut off from the Pacific helpless to defend her interests in the plains surrounding the plateau unable to attract the fertilizing and civilizing currents of commerce and immigration entered upon an epoch of civil war pronunciamentos and dictatorships which lasted nearly half a century a recital of the literally countless armed risings and of the various individuals who exercised or claimed to exercise supreme power would throw little light on the progress of the country foreign commerce and domestic industry were so small that the government was always poor and unable to meet its expenses Peru's possession of the seaports held Bolivian commerce at her mercy and the military and naval power of Chile was a continental menace either of Bolivia's larger neighbors could easily bring on a revolution by opportune aid to ambitious factions the turbulence of the Creole military classes was not restrained by any powerful and intelligent commercial and industrial population in the midst of the fighting which followed the overthrow of Santa Cruz a liberal constitution was proclaimed which attempted to take from the executive his preponderance in the government Negro slavery was abolished and the movement was all together in the direction of democracy and against the property holding classes in 1840 General Bolivian overcame all his rivals and gained supreme power in the following year the dictator of Peru taking advantage of the continual disputes over question of transit to Peruvian territory and thinking that in Bolivian's controlled condition she would not be able to resist incorporation led a large army over the border and occupied the province of La Paz but the Bolivians rallied around Bolivian and defeated the Peruvians in the battle of Ingavi near the end of 1841 a victory which definitely assured the independence of Bolivia Bolivian had risen to power by brute military force and crushed out the feeble attempt at popular government made after the fall of Santa Cruz the spotic, irritable and ambitious he had not the white knowledge or administrative capacity of Santa Cruz and he gave the country a much worse government the pride of the turbulent half-breeds was roused by the victory over the Peruvians and conspiracies and insurrections occurred more frequently Bolivian ordered the liberal constitution of 1839 to be repealed and the interference of the executive in the governmental system was restored by the constitution of 1843 he ruled until 1848 but the partisans of Santa Cruz grew bolder and bolder in spite of the president's efforts to surround himself with officials of talent and intelligence the power of the government decreased the irrational and artificial boundaries given to Bolivia by Bolivar continued to involve her in disputes with Peru and in 1847 the imposition of practically prohibitive duties nearly brought on war Bolivian assembled an army but Castilla, the Peruvian president found means to foment an insurrection and the Bolivian president was soon engaged in a desperate conflict with the very men whom he had expected to lead against the foreign enemy successful at first in his operations one mutiny was suppressed only to be followed by others more formidable and he finally gave it up in disgust and retired to exile a year of confused struggling followed and at last General Berthou succeeded in establishing himself as dictator of low origin and uneducated passionate and violent the new ruler owed his elevation to his popularity with the common soldiery and the lowest classes of the population his so called policy of conciliation amounted in fact to permitting the guerilla bands to do as they pleased rapin, robbery and triad became almost the nominal condition of the country while the better elements never ceased their conspiracies Dr. Linares a man of property and learning though stubborn and uncompromising persisted untiring in his efforts to rid the country of the dictator for seven years however Berthou find himself while Bolivia fell lower and lower into the pit of anarchy disgraced abroad by the actions of an ignorant tyrant who broke treaties refused to listen to the protests of foreign ministers and finally bundled them all out of the country secured that on his mountaintops no army could reach him to avenge the insult the British foreign office literally wiped Bolivia from the map colonized as a civilized nation at last the dictator tired of his place and voluntarily resigned it leaving as his successor a bastard son-in-law named Cordova the latter suppressed nine revolutionary movements in three years before he was at last overthrown by the indefatigable Linares the new dictator started in with the good wishes of the respectable elements and earnestly tried to raise his country this into which he had fallen but the nation had been so thoroughly demoralized that there was no foundation to build upon the public offices were filled by political favorites but when he threw them out and tried to put honest and competent men in their places he lost the good will of the office holding class he tried to reform the army and dismissed the useless swarm of officers without commands but this gained him the enmity of the military the very ministers whom he had selected to aid him in putting reforms in effect plotted against him and it was a conspiracy led by Fernandez the member of his cabinet in whom he placed his greatest confidence that brought about his fall after he had ruled three stormy and anxious years a period of frightful confusion known as the presidency of general Atcha ensued the chiefs fought among themselves with such ferocity that in Chile and Peru the partition of Bolivia was seriously discussed finally at the end of 1864 a remarkable man came to the front out of the tangle this was the celebrated dictator Melgarejo who frankly abandoned all pretence of governing by any sanction except that of brute force and terror he kept up a great army of spies and the conspiracies which they reported were ruthlessly rushed by the well-paid ruffians who composed his army and blindly obeyed his capricious commands one day the dictator drunk as was his habit called the guard and ordered them to jump out of the windows in order to show a visiting foreigner the superior discipline of the bolivian soldier several had broken their arms or legs but he did not even look to see and continued his demonstration by ordering his aid the camp to quote unquote lie dead like a puddle dog taxes were arbitrarily levied peaceable citizens were exiled and shot around him circulated a crowd of parasitic functionaries but in spite of his extravagances and cruelties Melgarejo gave some solidity and consistency to the governmental structure the production of silver had been declining until about 1850 but at the beginning of Melgarejo's administration had again reached 10 millions annually and thereafter rapidly increased with the encouragement given by him to the investment of foreign capital money was freely spent on public works and the moendo railroad extending to the head of Lake Titicaca dates from this time it is the principal route for bolivia's foreign commerce though it does not touch bolivian territory the isolated desert region on the coast began to be exploited the guano, nitrate, copper and silver found there vastly increased the country's revenues although a considerable foreign debt was incurred. Melgarejo's enemies succeeded in overthrowing him in 1871 and their leader general Morales succeeded to supreme power there followed some relaxation of the system of personal tyranny but in the main the form of the administration changed little either under Morales or his immediate successors the first named was able to negotiate a european loan to be employed in the building of railways and in fact one was constructed running from Antofagasta on the nitrate coast over the Cordillera and across the Puna table land to the center of the country at Oruro heavy gradients the unproductive character of the region along the line and its length have prevented its furnishing the cheap and practical outlet to the sea which had been hoped for insurrections continued to break out from time to time and in 1876 general Datha usurped supreme power his rule lasted until the Chilean war of 1879 but the first decisive defeat was the signal for his fall Narfiso Campero became president and the Bolivian nation hopeless of recovering its coast provinces by force of arms began the task of readjusting itself to the new conditions the constitution was rewritten in its present form and the succession of presidents have since ruled the country in a peace and security which forms a happy contrast with the anarchy which preceded Melgarejo's advent the production of silver rapidly increased reaching 15 million dollars in 1885 when Pacheco was president and growing to 20 million in 1888 with Arthe in the executive chair Potosí still yields 3 million ounces per annum and the great one Chacamines far surpass Potosí making Bolivia the third silver producing country in the world but her great resources can never be profitably utilized until a practical outlet to the sea has been found on the pacific she has been absolutely shut in since the Chilean war Peru controlling the northern fourth of the coast which separates her from the ocean the remainder Bolivia is without a seaport though she retains a hope of receiving compensation for the loss of her nitrate territory in the session of one such outlet when Chile and Peru are able to come to an agreement about the province of Arica but the explorations of heath on the upper tributaries of the Madeira resulted in discoveries which may ultimately enable Bolivia to utilize the magnificent fertile plain laying just at the foot of the table land but so far well nigh as inaccessible as the South Pole Broad and navigable rivers meander through this vast region needing only the construction of a railway around the Madeira Rapids to communicate with the Amazon and the Atlantic. Since the days of the Jesuit missionaries the Mohos Indians in the prairies on the Mamoré north of Santa Cruz have retained a measure of civilization breeding cattle and keeping up a connection with the creoles at Santa Cruz. Lately the latter have pressed on into the rubber regions on the lower Mamoré and even crossed into the valley of the Beni and founded the town of River Alta where the Orton joins the Beni. From La Paz daring men painfully made their way down the roadless gorges of the great Cordillera and reached navigable water where the Beni emerges from the mountains. Thence to River Alta it was comparatively easy and little steamboats now ply these waters. This region is permanently inhabitable by civilized men, but to the northeast the country drops off into swampy plains drained by the Acre a tributary of the sluggish Purus. Up the latter river the Brazilian rubber hunters had come from Manaus and found the banks of the Acre unprecedentedly rich in the finest gum. Thousands poured into the territory and by the early 90s it was furnishing a large percentage of the world's supply. Though the Bolivian boundary had long been believed to cross the Acre near the 9th degree the Brazilian rubber gatherers did not hesitate to enter an entirely unoccupied territory and even penetrated as far south as the 12th degree in a region undisputably Bolivian. The authorities at La Paz attempted to assert their political control but since it was well nigh impossible to get troops into the country, except by way of the Atlantic, the rubber gatherers defied them. The Brazilian government intervened to protect the interests of its citizens. President Pando had it an expedition in 1902 which was met at the borders of the Acre valley and after some fighting with the insurgent Brazilians which seemed likely to bring on a war between the two powers he was agreed upon which Brazil takes the territory, paying a money indemnity, agreeing to build the railroad round the Madeira falls and seeding a port on the Paraguay. Internally the condition of Bolivia has in the main been quiet since the Chilean war and the contest between clericalism and radicalism has lost much of its bitterness. General Camacho led an unsuccessful insurrection in 1890 and afterwards fled to Valparaiso. Three years later he planned another insurrection and the government had great difficulty in obtaining arms and money for operations against him. Chileans finally furnished rifles and a loan and shortly afterwards a treaty was negotiated by which Bolivia abandoned its alliance with Peru and came under Chilean influence. Peru resented this and the following year her restrictions on Bolivian commerce nearly brought the two countries to blows. The crisis however passed and Bolivia has returned to the policy of avoiding entangling alliances while pressing Brazil, Chile, or Peru to give her outlets to the ocean. In 1896 Alonso, leader of the conservatives and that energetic general and explorer José Manuel Pando, chief of the liberals contested the presidential election. In this contest the geographical jealousies which exist between Dordern and Southern Bolivia played a considerable role. Alonso was successful and served as president during three years, but early in 1899 Pando began war-like operations and in April overthrew Alonso in a decisive battle. Under his vigorous administration the country has been quiet, the plain of the Madeira has been opened up to settlement and the international position of the government is now vastly improved. End of section 17 Section 18 of the South American Republics Volume 2 by Thomas Clelland Dawson This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Piotr Natter Part 4, Ecuador Chapter 1, the Caras The irrigated valleys of Chile lie open to the ocean and therefore are easily accessible over the low coast range. The seaboard of Peru is likewise defenseless and though the Andean passes are high, they are dry and practicable and offer a way of approach to the table and behind. The want of rain from Valparaiso to Paita is explained by the Antarctic current whose waters cool the breezes so that the warmer land condenses no moisture. But at the northern boundary of Peru the coast bends abruptly to the east. The cold current follows its original northeast direction and lets the warm tropical waters wash the land. From the Gulf of Guayaquil to Panamá the coast and mountain sides are covered with luxuriant vegetation and the ascent of the passes becomes well-nigh impracticable. Therefore the Andean plateau in Ecuador is accessible from the Pacific only on the south and the Colombian plateaus are virtually cut off from communication with the western ocean. Tradition relates that about the 7th century of the Christian era a nation of Indians bearing the name of Caras invaded the seaboard of central Ecuador. They were warlike, aggressive, conquerors by instinct and their civilization was superior to that of the barbarous tribes upon whom they descended. They came by way of the sea most probably from the south bringing a complicated religion to which they were fanatically devoted and a military and tribal organization which gave them an overwhelming advantage. In all probability the Caras were akin to those highly civilized nations who lived in the valleys of the northern Peruvian coast. Be that as it may there is no doubt that the Caras were not long content with dominance along the coast and succeeded in forcing their way up the slopes of the Cordillera through a zone uninhabitable on account of the perpetual rain and only penetrable along defiles where the soaked clay of the steep mountain sides affords no footing and the tangle of vegetation leaves no path. At 6000 feet above sea level the roads became better the vegetation ceased to be tropical and when they emerged through the passes to the comparatively level plains about Quito some 8000 feet above the sea they found themselves in a country where the cereals and fruits of the temperate zone flourished and no forests interrupt communication. Two lines of great mountains stretched north and south and between them lay a plateau less than 40 miles in width and though much of it was bleak and arid at least half lay below the elevation where the successful cultivation of the cereals and the potato becomes possible. At regular intervals transverse ranges of mountains called nudos or knots cut the plateau into separate divisions each measurably protected from attack by its neighbors and the anequador has been aptly compared to a great ladder 400 miles long with the nudos forming its gigantic rungs. Beginning at the northern boundary of modern equador Quito lies in the second of the eight sub plateaus which is one of the largest and most fertile. Into it descended the Karas and began to conquer and absorb the aborigines. These inter-Andean valleys were inhabited by numerous tribes speaking distinct languages who had developed considerable skill in agriculture. The compact and efficient military organization of the Karas gave them a great advantage for their specialized peoples but for 300 years they were occupied in extending their power over the valley of Quito and thence over La Tacunga and Ibarra which adjoin it north and south. From the year 1300 the Karatraditions gather more clearness and precision. By a law handed down from immemorial times each shiri was succeeded by his son or if he had no son daughters and other female descendants being absolutely excluded. The 11th shiri whose reign corresponded with the last year of the 13th century had no male heir and he asked the general council of the nation for permission to name as successor the husband he might choose for his daughter. Each one of the different chiefs hoping to be selected voted for the proposition but the shiri diplomatically went outside and proposed to the monarch who ruled in Ryobamba that his eldest son Ducisela married the princess Toa the proposition was accepted and the Quito kingdom doubled its territory and power. Ducisela reigned 70 years and upon his death was succeeded by his son Autachi the 13th shiri. This monarch raised the Karapower to its highest pitch extending his dominions south over the plateaus of Alausi, Cagnar, Cuenca, Hubones, Saruma and Loja and then far beyond the present Ecuadorian boundary over the Peruvian provinces of Wanakabamba, Pura and Paeta. This vast increase of territory was due more to treaties of confederation and alliance than to conquest. None of the new provinces were ever thoroughly incorporated into the Karaconfederacy and their allegiance to the shiri in Faraway Quito set lightly upon them. By the end of the 14th century the Kara influence was dominant along the Andean Plateau from the first degree of north latitude to the 6th south and extended to the arid coast plain of northern Peru. The humid and forested coast region north of Guayaquil remained in the hands of barbarous tribes nor were the Karas ever able to extend their power down the wooded eastern slopes of the Andes into the Amazon plain. Kara expansion was suddenly checked by the Incas. In the latter part of the 14th century these fears and indomitable Islamites of the western continent under the lead of Tupacupanqui conquered the coast nations from Lima to Paeta and the Ruder tribes who lived in the mountains from Cerro de Pasco north to the Ecuadorian border. Tupac did not respect the southern confederates of the Karas and the Shiri appears to have made little resistance when his allies were rapidly reduced. The Inca system was the far better adapted for conquest. The Emperor could equip and lead to invasion armies numbering tens of thousands while disciplined blindly obeying their generals marching over carefully prepared roads and supplied by an admirable commissariat. The Karas had contended themselves with treaties of alliance. They were only the chief tribe in a confederacy and warlike as were the members they could not combine to offer any effective resistance to the first onslaught of the great military empire. A fairly homogeneous civilization had grown up in the Ecuadorian Cordillera during the fourth hundred years of Kara influence bringing with them from their unknown original home capacity for military and political organization far superior to that of most American aborigines. The Karas were like a ferment introduced into the heterogeneous and inert tribes of the plateau which gradually transformed the latter into a vigorous people so well fitted to their surroundings that they survived the Inca conquest even turning the tables and becoming the dominant element in the empire and then the decimating tyranny of the Spaniards so that 95% of the present population is composed of their descendants. That this civilization was in the main self-developed can hardly be doubted. There is no evidence of any intimate contact with the Incas with the peoples of Yucatan and Mexico the Karas had no connection and the conjecture as to communication with the peoples of eastern Asia have no historical or archeological basis. Their civilizing and consolidating mission was aided by exceptionally favorable surroundings. The climate was healthy, agreeable and conducive to bodily and intellectual vigor. The soil reasonably fertile and well adapted to the production of eminently nourishing food crops while requiring hard labor in its cultivation. The potato the quinoa grain and maize played no insignificant role in the history of the Karas. They might never have risen above the level of carips if they had lived in a region where savory and poorly nourishing asculins grew wild. Not less important was the physical configuration of Ecuador. Dry and open valleys, some of them large enough to sustain 200,000 people and easily penetrable in every part, while surrounded by high mountains and bleak paramos shut off from the outer world by the forest-covered declivities of the Cordilleras, were admirably adapted to favor the growth of compact little states, whose inhabitants would retain their individual initiative and local pride even after incorporation in a larger political system. While Coppo, the 14th Shiri, ascended the throne of Quito in 1430, Tupacupanqui had completed the reduction of the coast-tripes of northern Perúl and the mountain-tripes as far north as the present Ecuador border had ceased to resist him. From the coast valleys of Pura and Paita he marched up the easy path which leads over the Cordillera into the fertile plateaus of eastern Ecuador, and after a few victories all the tribes as far north as the Nudo of Azway submitted and transferred their allegiance from Quito to Cusco, Loja, Tharuma, Cubones, the great valley of Cuenca and Canyar were taken away and while Coppo was deprived of all but his hereditary dominions the old kingdoms of Riobamba and Quito. The Shiri possessed no army capable of undertaking an offensive campaign against the Incas, but although terrified at Tupac's rapid advance, the ancient possessions of the Shiri remained faithful. Tupac spent two years in the province of Canyar erecting fortifications and recruiting his army by new arrivals from the south and enlistment among the recently conquered tribes. Meanwhile, while Coppo was fortifying himself in the valley of Alawsi which lies north of Azway and in the passes that lead over the Tiocaja's Nudo in Riobamba, about the year 1455 the Inca army advanced in force. Defeated in several minor actions the Shiri abandoned Alawsi and concentrated his forces in the passes of Tiocaja's. After three months of skirmishes and sieges, in which the force fell one by one, the Karas were compelled to accept a pitched battle. The conflict was well sustained, but with the death of the principal Kara general, victory declared for the Incas and the Karas fled from the field leaving 16,000 dead. While Coppo retired to Riobamba but there it was impossible to maintain himself and he was forced to retreat to the fortress of Mocha and the Nudo which divides Riobamba from the valley of Latakunga. Here he made a determined and successful stand and all two packs efforts to force his way over the last line of natural fortifications which kept him out of the northern valleys where in vain. The Inca emperor was forced to content himself with destroying his possession of the provinces already conquered. In 1460 he returned to Cusco leaving the territory garrisoned. Three years later the heroic while Coppo died and was succeeded by his son Kacha, the 15th and last Shiri. The young man signalized his accession to the throne by an aggressive campaign for the recovery of the lost provinces. He passed south into the valley of Riobamba, surprised the Inca garrisons and put them to the sword, re-indicating all the country as far south as the Nudo of Azwai. Beyond that range he was unable to go for all his efforts failed before the obstinate resistance of the inhabitants of Kanyar. Tupac began preparations to lead an overwhelming army against Kacha but his own death interrupted him and it was not until 1475 that his son Wainacapac, surname the great, was able to take the road for the north, determined to put an end to the Shiri dynasty. He first consolidated his power among the tribes on the coast south of Guayaquil whom his father had left half independent and then extended his conquests along the northern shore among the barbarians of Manabí. On the island of Puna he put to the sword all the male inhabitants and one tribe in Manabí, notorious for its abominable and unnatural practices he extirpated. Returning south he crossed the mountains in northern Peru and descending their eastern slopes waged a bloody war against the Pacamoles who inhabited the forests where the upper Amazon debauches into the plain. Having thus secured his line of communications he devoted himself to the main object of the campaign the conquest of Quito. This proportionate as appeared the resources of the contending nations the war which ensued was well contested. The Karas had resumed their war-like habits and the imminence of the danger animated them and their allies to a desperate resistance. For months the Karas held the great Inca army at bay in the defiles of the Aswai but finally they were defeated and retreated to the line of Yocahas. The Incas followed and in a great battle vanquished their opponents so decisively that not only was Ryobamba lost as had happened after the former defeat but likewise Latakunga and Quito itself. No stand could be made at Mocha and the Shiri fled to Ibarra through Quito where the Karankis, the most war-like members of the confederacy were determined to resist to the last. A considerable number of Karawariors had escaped the slaughter at Yocahas and the formidable army assembled to defend the last fortresses in the extreme north of the kingdom. Waena himself laid siege to Otavalo, the principal stronghold of the Karankis but he was not able to reduce it. Their successes encouraged them to take the offensive and in assorty the Inca emperor narrowly escaped losing his life. Compelled to retire to suppress a mutiny among his northern troops, he left the northern army under the command of his brother, Aukitoma and the latter was killed in an assault on the redoubtable fortress of Otavalo. This however was the last victory which the Shiri won. Waena's reinforcements had come up as he advanced with an overwhelming army to avenge his brother's death. Otavalo was taken and its garrison put to the sword. The Shiri fled to another fortress where he was defeated and slain. The victorious emperor took a fearful vengeance on the Karankis whose obstinacy had cost him so dear. Tradition tells that 24,000 were massacred and their bodies thrown into a lake which has ever since borne the name of Yawarkoccia the pool of blood. Then swerve the provinces of the old Keto kingdom were integral parts of the Inca empire. The southern valleys had readily accepted the Inca rule and the central ones appeared to have abandoned the Shiri's cause promptly after the second battle of Tyokahas. Though the Karankis had been exterminated and the Karas had suffered greatly, the other tribes remained intact. The Inca emperor saw that a policy of conciliation would best ensure the obedience of these formidable peoples. He spent the remainder of his long life in Ecuador, married the daughter of the dead Shiri and ruled rather as the legitimate successor of the ancient dynasty than as an alien conqueror. So far as possible the religious, political and social customs of the Incas were introduced but it does not appear that the work of amalgamation had proceeded very far in the 50 years which intervened until the advent of the Spaniards. The Qichua had not displaced the native Tongs to any great extent and while the Ecuadorian tribes became loyal subjects they did not regard themselves as in any way inferior to the older subjects of the Empire. Rather had the balance of power passed to them. They had acquired the skill in regular warfare once the exclusive property of the Incas and the issue of the civil war between Vascar and Atahualpa seems to prove that they would have played the principal role in the Inca system if the advent of the Spaniards had not altered everything. Huayna Capac died in Quito in 1525 and his body was taken to Cusco to be laid with his ancestors. In order better to secure the northern kingdom to his descendants he named Atahualpa a son by his marriage with the Shiri princess, ruler of the old dominion of Quito. His eldest son, Vascar was given the rest of the Empire as the title of emperor and a suzerainty over Atahualpa. But Huayna's wise provisions were render valueless by the dispute which arose between the two brothers about the boundaries of Atahualpa's territories. The latter insisted that they included the provinces south of the Atwai which had been rested from Walcopo by Tupacupan 70 years before, but Vascar would not admit that they extended beyond the hereditary dominions of the Shiri dynasty. The people of Kanyar, the most northerly of the disputed provinces had always been bitter enemies of Quito and their chief now refused to recognize Atahualpa as overlord and sent a deputation to Vascar. Atahualpa dispatched his uncle Kaluchima and his great general Keith Keith to occupy the province and dethrone the recalcitrant chief. Vascar hered up some of his incarregulars to aid the people of Kanyar who won the first battles and advanced towards Atahualpa's capital. The northerners rallied around the grandson of their old Shiri and two great armies met on the banks of the Naxiche only 50 miles south of Quito. Atahualpa gained a complete victory and followed it up by advancing over the Atwai into Kanyar where he was again overwhelming victorious over a second army which Vascar sent against him. The whole of southern Ecuador fell into his hands and he took a fearful vengeance on the Kanyaris. Atahualpa himself remained in Ecuador while Keith Keith went on into Peru to achieve that crushing series of victories which resulted in the taking of Cusco and the capture of Vascar himself. By the year 1532 the whole empire as far south as Cusco lay prostrate and it seemed certain that the Cusco dynasty would be displaced by the illegitimate Quito branch. End of section 18 Section 19 of the South American Republics, volume 2 by Thomas Claland Dawson this Librivox recording is in the public domain, recording by Piotr Natter, part 4 Ecuador, chapter 2 the Spanish conquest. The fratricidal war lasting 7 bloody years exhausted the resources of the northern and central provinces of the Inca empire and raised the spirit of factions to a bitter pitch. Hardly had the last battle been fought when Pizarro landed on the northern Peruvian coast. The moment could not have been more favourable. The story of Atahualpa's capture of Pizarro's intrigues with the different Inca factions and of his triumphal march to Cusco through a country distracted by civil feud belongs rather to the history of Peru, then of Ecuador. With Atahualpa's death and the defeat of Kiskis near Cusco Quito was left without a master. The country had been drained of able bodied men by Atahualpa's levies and bands of troops who found their way back from Peru fought among themselves. The indefatigable canyaris rose again against the Quito authorities and following the fatal example said by the Huascar party in Peru applied to the Spaniards From San Miguel, the colony which Pizarro had established at Pura, in the valley where they rode from the Ecuador table and debauchers into the coast plain, Sebastian de Benalcazar led a force of 200 Spaniards to their assistance. Ascending the Cordillera he was joined by great numbers of Indians in Loja, Cuenca and Canyar and crossed the Asuay before he encountered the meager force of the Quito Generals. Horses and firearms gave the Spaniards an easy victory and their enemies retreated to the defenses of Tiocajas. This locality was once more fated to be the scene of a battle the size of the Ecuadorian history. Benalcazar and his allies were victorious but at such a cost that he thought seriously of giving up the enterprise. Tradition resides that the giant volcanic otopaxi burst forth into a terrific eruption after the battle and that the midnight explosions were heard scores of miles along the plateau. To the Indians this was an infallible sign of the displeasure of the sun god. Trembling with superstitious fear they retreated in disorder. Benalcazar crossed Tiocajas without resistance and overran the country as far north as Quito taking possession of the city in December 1533. Alvarado had been harrying up from Peru with reinforcements and on his way along the plateau fell in with a third expedition under Alvarado, governor of Guatemala. Coming from Panama on his own account and landing on the coast a long distance north of Guayaquil Alvarado had succeeded in forcing his way through the dense forests and rain-soaked defiles and debouched on the plateau near Riobamba. Benalcazar had to withdraw and Benalcazar was entrusted with the completion of the conquest he had so well begun. Disappointed in the search of gold Benalcazar divided the country into feudal lordships enslaving the Indians and compelling them to pay tribute. His restless energy was not satisfied with the conquest of the old Cara kingdom and he soon led an expedition of 150 Spaniards to 4,000 Indians against the coast provinces and founded the city of Guayaquil whose magnificent and sheltered port the best on the Pacific coast gave independent access to the sea. Though the passes leading from Guayaquil to Riobamba were far more tedious than the southern ones from Pura Tuloja they brought Quito 200 miles nearer the ocean and their use made Ecuador independent of northern Peru. Hardly had Benalcazar returned to the table land and gone north to conquer southern Colombia when the tribes near Guayaquil attacked and destroyed the settlement. His lieutenant at Quito dispatched another expedition Pizarro sent reinforcements by sea and the place was refounded. Again was it destroyed and only in 1537 when Pizarro sent up Orellana with an adequate force and settlement made on the side where today is the largest and richest city of Ecuador. Benalcazar had conquered Quito in the name and under the authority of Pizarro and the latter now named his brother Gonzalo Governor. Confident of finding another Peru in the unknown regions of the east of his new domain the younger Pizarro enlisted hundreds of adventurers and in the beginning of 1541 led the largest and best equipped expedition yet assembled in South America down the declivities of the Andes. Difficulties began as soon as he reached the sweltering, steaming forest region. Rain fell unceasingly. The soft clay of the defiles afforded no footing. Instead of finding stone highways like those over which they had marched in their conquest of the table land the Spaniards had to cut tracks along the mountain sites and cut vegetation. Provisions ran short, clothes rotted, arms rusted no villages or tribes possessing food were encountered. Finally Gonzalo was obliged to halt the main army sending a detachment under Oriana the second in command on ahead to find provisions. Oriana followed down a stream which soon grew large enough to be navigable. He built boats and proceeded but still found signs of civilized inhabitants. Fearing that he could never ascend the river to the main body he determined to keep on, confident that ultimately he must reach the ocean. The river he was descending is now called Dinapo. After a course of nearly a thousand miles it flowed into the Amazon and down the latter's broad current Oriana and his little band floated to the Atlantic. There built a little ship and finally made their way to Spain. Hearing nothing of Oriana Gonzalo gave up and climbed back to Quito with a starving and naked remnant of his men. There he learned of the assassination of his great brother at Lima and that Vaca de Castro the royal commissioner appointed to settle the disputes between the partisans of Almagro and Pizarro had passed through Ecuador on his way south to Peru appointing another governor for Quito. Gonzalo retired to Charcas in southern Bolivia whence he emerged a year later to head the great rebellion. The viceroy was compelled to fly from Lima and landing at Tumbez made his way to Quito. The Spaniards in Ecuador and southern Colombia were against Pizarro but the latter chased the viceroy out of Quito and north into Papayan where Benal Cazar took sides with him. 400 Spaniards accompanied the viceroy in a counter-invasion but near the city he was completely defeated and decapitated as he lay wounded on the field. Gonzalo now undisputed lord of the whole Inca empire returned at his leisure to Lima. The tale of how Gasca shrewd old priest by intrigue and conciliation reestablished royal authority and brought Pizarro to the scaffold does not especially affect the history of Ecuador. By 1550 the civil wars were over the unruly original conquistadors had been executed, banished or reduced to obedience. Shortly afterward the system of Indian tribute and slavery was modified so that although the proprietors got rich the aborigines were saved from rapid extermination, royal officials and functionaries were installed, an elaborate reestablished and Ecuador with the rest of Spanish America entered upon a long period of exploitation under form of law instead of being the half-azard prey of irresponsible private adventurers. For the next 250 years Ecuador has no history. The occasional eruption of a volcano or an Indian insurrection is all one finds in the annals except the interminable lists the Spanish officials sent out to enrich themselves and the crown at the expense of the hapless Indians. The Spanish occupation brought about no colonization of Ecuador in the true sense of that word, although it worked a considerable revolution in the life and customs of the Indians who continued to constitute the bulk of the population. Indeed the habitable area of the Andean Plateau was so limited and the aboriginal population was so numerous that there was no room for immigration without a war of extermination. The cultivable area of Andean Ecuador barely exceeds 8,000 square miles and it is probable that more than a million natives lived there in the time of the Caras and Incas. Even at the present day these 8,000 miles contain more than two-thirds of the total population and not more than 400,000 in habit the 280,000 square miles of high barren mountains steep the clivities of the Cordillera and wooded plains on the coast and in the Amazon Valley which constitute the remainder of Ecuador. One of the important results of the Spanish occupation was the introduction of a new food plants and domestic animals. Wheat and barley were early planted by the Castilian proprietors who had divided the country themselves and these grains quickly replaced the quinoa which with the potato had been the chief reliance of the Caras. The cultivation of the potato and also of maize was however continued. The Spanish invaders introduced the plantain and banana which immediately became the staples of the forested and tropical districts making possible a great increase of population. The plateau was found suited to European fruits and orchards were soon flourishing in its more favored parts. Rice, indigo and sugarcane were also introduced and an export trade in these articles grew up as well as in the natives cacao and sarsaparia. The Spanish rulers affected radical changes in the political, social and religious life of the civilized Indians. A certain apathy and fatalism seems characteristic of the American Porigine and in Ecuador trained through countless centuries to the patriarchal rule of his own chiefs he submitted to the exactions and innovations of his new masters. According to Spanish constitutional law and practice America was not a component part of the mother kingdom but the new continent was regarded as the personal property of the king of Castile its lands, mines and inhabitants being his to dispose of at pleasure. The viceroy at Lima was the monarch's lieutenant only responsible to the king himself or to the advisory board known as the Council of the Indies. For great territorial divisions like Ecuador this power was delegated to governors and the Corregidores were likewise unrestrained within the smaller subdivisions. The Indians were regarded as mere chattel and the tribute exacted from every adult was a logical consequence of their legal status. In theory even the Spanish residents had no rights to self-government nor did any constitutional guarantees of life or property exist. But such a despotism largely existed only on paper. The Spaniards who came to South America brought with them their characteristic constitutional traditions and personal independence. Instinctively they flocked into cities and organized municipal governments after the time honored Spanish form. So a system came into existence which had the sanction of the people's cooperation and was therefore workable. The country districts were left to the Indians and as long as they paid their tribute to the crown or to the Spaniards who claimed the land they tilt little heed was paid to the form of civil government among them. The influence of their hereditary chiefs survived for centuries and their old laws and customs died out only by the Greece. In the cities contact between Spaniards and Indians was closer. In process of time the increasing number of half-breeds aided in the process of amalgamation and even the pure blood Indians of the fields and villages learned much of what their masters had to teach them. The church however operated more powerfully than any other influence in making Ecuador Spanish. Within a few years after the conquest a regular bishopric was established in Quito and hundreds of priests and friars flocked over to take part in the wholesale evangelization of the hidden natives. The gospel was preached everywhere. Churches and chapels built in even the smallest villages the objured Indians were treated with scant ceremony and it soon became well understood among the natives that a herty acceptance of the Christian cult tended to keep them out of trouble. Ecuador quickly became one of the most devotedly Catholic countries in the world and has ever since remained so. The crown and the landed proprietors made lavish gifts to the cause of religion and a great proportion of the property of the country ultimately fell into the hands of the religious orders. Quito has appropriately been called a community of convents and if we are to believe the accounts of travelers in colonial times half the population must have been priests, monks and nuns. The introduction of Christianity among the Indians aided powerfully in spreading and knowledge of the Spanish language but was more effective in substituting the Quechua for the ancient local tongues. The evangelists found it easier to preach to all the tribes in one language and Quechua was naturally chosen since it was already in the most general use as the official medium of the Inca Empire. The Spanish priests reduced it to written form and it became a lingua franca which was understood among all the nations of the Andean Plateau very much as Guarani was among the Indians of the Atlantic slope. The details of Spanish civil, military and financial administration in Ecuador did not differ greatly from those in the other provinces and there is no need to repeat them here. The peaceable character of the Ecuador Indians made the maintenance of a standing army or even of a militia unnecessary. A few companies of troops in each of the principal towns and the natural military aptitude of the Spanish residents was sufficient to suppress any symptoms of rebellion and to keep the Indians at work for their masters. Happily for the natives no great finds of silver or gold were made except in the southern province of Loja and forced labor in the mines did not decimate the population as happened in Bolivia and parts of Peru. Spaniards did not emigrate to any considerable extent and negro slavery flourished on the sea coast. The only schools were priest seminaries in which little except theology was taught and the level of intellectual culture among the Creoles sang very low. Taxes were heavy, public employments and titles of nobility were openly sold by the government, commerce amounted to little because little gold and silver was mined and other articles would not bear the heavy transportation charges and the exactions of restrictions of the Spanish colonial system. The magnificent stone highways which the cara and income on arcs had built were allowed to fall into ruins but their remnants are to be seen even to this day on the table land near Cuenca still solid in spite of the storms and earthquakes of 4 centuries. Population on the plateau slowly decreased. Quito had been a great city while it was the cara capital the residents of Huayna Capac and Atahualpa and in 1735 Uyo estimated that it contained over 1,000 people but at the end of the 18th century it had fallen to less than 40,000. However the introduction of the plantain undoubtedly brought about an increase of population in the coast provinces and Guayaquil flourished with the cultivation of cocoa and sugarcane. No great figure of a soldier, reformer or administrator stands out among all the hundreds of officials who were sent over from Spain to rule the country. Even records of the growth of jealousies between Spaniards and Creels, such as we encounter in other countries of South America, are wanting. The Creels appear never to have been able to interrupt the monotonous course of Spanish administration. In 1564 the old kingdom of Quito with the addition of some outlying Colombian and Peruvian provinces was erected into a court of appeals with important administrative functions was established. The Viceroy of Lima continued to exercise nominal jurisdiction over all Spanish South America until the year 1719 when the Viceroyalty of New Granada was first created. The Quito presidency was attached to the new jurisdiction and this emphasized the separation from Peru. 1200 miles of crooked, wretched road intervened between Quito and Lima, while the distance to Bogota was less than half as great. However, the natural outlet for the plateau from Cuenca north to Papayan was the road to Guayaquil, and the Quito presidency was therefore coextensive with a natural commercial subdivision of the continent. In 1736 a party of scientists commissioned by the king of France came to Quito for the purpose of an arc of the earth's meridian at the equator. These savants erected two pyramids to serve as a permanent record of the line they had measured and placed upon them an inscription stating that the work had been done under the patronage of the king of France. Years afterwards a Spanish official offended in his national pride by the wording of the inscription obtained an order from Madrid for the destruction of these monuments so invaluable to the science of exact geography. The latter part of the 18th century was marked by a greater interest in education. The seminaries widened their courses of study to include something more than the canon law and the fathers, and public spirited creoles endowed new and better institutions of learning. No press or periodical literature appeared, but poetry and bell letter were cultivated with some success by native authors. Though the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1765 was accomplished without bloodshed, it resulted in no material weakening of a glasiastical influence. The revolutionary ideas which were transforming the political thought of the world during the 18th century hardly penetrated Ecuador at all, and whatever influence they had was confined to the small percentage of the population that boasted of blood. The news of Lexington and Yorktown, and the enfranchisement of British North America stimulated no similar movement among the patient Indians and devout creoles of the Andean valleys, and even the tremendous cataclysm of the French Revolution passed almost unnoticed. End of section 19.