South America; a popular illustrated history of the struggle for liberty in the Andean republics and Cuba

Preface

THIS volume relates the story of liberty and progress in Latin America. It is also an introduction to a study of the Andean republics and those on the Spanish Main.

The struggle for liberty in Cuba but follows the events of the Latin republics of the Andes, and throws a new light on those heroic endeavors.

South America is one of the lands of the future. The immigration to that country is now rivaling that to North America, and to the overcrowded populations of Europe the south temperate zone is the waiting world.

An English poet of prophetic gifts is recorded as saying that in the progressive development of America, South America, or the table-land of the Andes, was not unlikely to become the theater of great achievements, an opinion also shared by the author of "Social Evolution." It is objected to this that much of South America is tropical, and that the lands of the Sun are unfavorable to the development of the virtues and arts of peace. But out of nearly such conditions of mingled temperate and tropical climates came the poems of Job and Homer, the arts of Egypt, and the sacred literature whose principles govern the conscience of the world. Sarmiento, the educational President and prophet of Argentina, once said that Buenos Ayres would become the greatest city of the three Amervi PREFACE

icas. This may be too large a vision. But whatever may be the future of South America, her growth is such as to make her recent history a very interesting study to the popular mind.

To write an adequate history of South America and Central America would require a lifelong preparation of study and travel, and more than ordinary ability, insight and vision, to which gifts the present writer can make no claim. He has wished to interest others in the story of liberty in these lands, to picture Bolivar's march to the south and San Martin's to the north, the meeting of these heroes, the central campaign in the Peruvian highlands, and the progress of the new republics after the Congress of Panama. If such be but history in outline and picture, it is a story most pleasing to write, and, we may hope, not uninteresting to read.

In 1895 the writer visited Buenos Ayres, went over the Andes to Valparaiso, and up the west coast to the ports of Tarapaca, to Callao, Lima, and Guayaquil, and afterward to Cartagena and Costa Rica. These excursions led him to spend much time, on his return, in reading works on these countries in the Boston Public Library, which is rich not only in the collections made by Ticknor and Prescott, but in books of travel in South America, and local narratives of South American cities, and in biographies of heroes like Don Ambrosio O'Higgins, Lord Cochrane, General William Miller, and many South American leaders of English descent or of English education. The reading of these books, and that of the travels of Humboldt, has been followed by the reading of the popular works of Sarmiento, Mitre, Pilling, and of local poets, some of whose poems are events in picture. Strongly partizan pamphlets, and books forged out of some special experience, like Larrazabal's vivid " Life of Bolivar," of

PREFACE Vll

which only the first volume was published, and like James Briggs's " Life of Miranda," give episodes in strong colorings, which are interesting to collect and reproduce in an historical order.

In this course of reading, following his excursions, the writer was led to wish to tell the story of South American liberty for popular reading, as an introduction to a study of South American history. He has sought to explain events so clearly to the reader that his narrative may prepare the way for more philosophical studies of a most interesting phase of the recent progress of mankind.

South America, after the manner of the lesser countries Japan and Mexico, seems about to surprise the world by her industrial achievements. The liberators of the viceroyalties and the pioneers of science are the heroes of a great preparation, and in harmony with this spirit of patriotic educational and industrial progress this interpretation is written. As much as South America owes to Bolivar, San Martin, and Sucre, the emancipators, she feels her obligation to men like William Wheelwright of Newburyport, Massachusetts, who made for her shores, ports, lighthouses and harbors, founded the South American Steam Navigation Company, caused the railway across the pampas to be built, created the canal of Ensenada, and planned the railway over the Andes from Buenos Ayres to Santiago de Chili and Valparaiso. This captain of industry has two grand monuments in South America, and a more humble memorial in his native town of Newburyport.

The immigration of the eastern world to South America is becoming so great that already this eastern movement across the placid seas of the equator is laying the foundation of a new Latin race under the peaks of Tupungato, Aconcagua, Illimani and Chimborazo. The " purple empire that England lost," resourceful Argentina, extends

Vlll PREFACE

her ports and multiplies her cities, in which float the flags of Italy, Germany, England and the East. Buenos Ayres has now a population of nearly seven hundred thousand souls, and may number nearly a million at the close of the century.

A land of wonder awaits these new immigrants. South America embraces an eighth of the globe. The whole area of the United States could find room in the marvelous valley of the Amazon, whose fertile fields would sustain an incalculable population. The Mississippi would be lost in the river that drains the Andes. The glittering domes of the Cordilleras surpass by a mile the highest peaks of the northern part of the hemisphere. Cotopaxi lifts her snowy chimney five times as high as Vesuvius.

The stupendous table-lands where the Incas ruled in their glory, and that begin at silver Potosi, the highest large city on earth, and end at Quito, in the shadow of Chimborazo, have an area of more than four times the State of New York. Lake Titicaca, the supposed crater of a volcano, is twelve thousand feet high. The Bolivian highlands, the region of the alpaca, the vicugna, and of the crags of the condor, are capable of maintaining a population surpassing that of France or Spain. And in these temperate altitudes are to be found all varieties of climates, and the productions of all zones.

Here spread the coast solitudes of Atacama, with its resources of silver, and the white desert of Tarapaca, the natural laboratory of vegetable food, that causes the outworn gardens of Europe to bloom again.

The early history of these vast regions that await the future is one of moral and spiritual suggestion, of heroism and romance. The period of the Spanish and Italian discoveries has been a tempting theme to the writers on human achievement, and the ideal civilization of the period

PREFACE IX

of the Incas has interested the historian. The Spanish conquerors have been pictured in romance and song, and by the regretful pen of the philosopher. But the story of the heroes of the republics of South America, though it has found a considerable place in narrative and critical history, has not often been told in popular form. It is the purpose of this volume to tell this story, as the like story of our own land has often been told, for home reading, for the social club, the school-room, and for the pioneer of opportunity.

In regard to the style of the book, the writer has aimed to make vivid and picturesque what seemed to him the heroic and prophetic. His purpose has been to interest the reader in what is most noble and promising, to be true to the spirit of events, and accurate in noting progress from the liberal and optimistic point of view. He has undertaken this introductory work less in the spirit of authorship than in the hope that he who reads this will read more from the authors cited, and be led to study the more adequate sources of information about a country of heroic achievement and wonderful resources, that promises to take a foremost place in the new history of the New World.

28 Worcester Street, Boston, Massachusetts, July, 1898.

Introduction

THE whole of South America for the two centuries after the Columbian discovery was a viceroyalty of Spain. At first it had but one viceroy, the seat of whose government was in Peru. From a very early period Lima, which came to be called, in the poetic language of the conquerors, the " Pearl of the Pacific," was the " City of the Kings." In the golden days of the Spanish Main colonial settlements multiplied in the viceroyalty, and some of the most important of these were on the eastern coast. There New Granada arose, with the city of Cartagena, whose gigantic fortifications and walls are still a wonder.

As the population grew the viceroyalty was found to be too large for the administration of the government. For this reason Spain created another viceroyalty in New Granada in 1718, and a captaincy at Caracas in 1734. During this period of subdivision a viceroyalty was founded at Buenos Ayres, and a captaincy in Chili.

South America was wholly governed by the kings of Spain, who maintained for the judgment of its common affairs the Council of the Indies, or of West India. This council instituted a local court of inspection, called the Audiencia. This was also a court of appeal. The authority of these bodies was only advisory. The King of Spain governed all ; his will was supreme.

The viceroy, or vice-king, represented the Spanish xii INTRODUCTION

throne. He was president of the Council of the Indies. His salary was sixty thousand dollars, or pesos, in Peru, and forty thousand dollars in New Granada and Buenos Ayres. The viceroy, as a rule, held his office for five years.

The cabildo was a popular assembly somewhat corresponding in purpose and form to a council of a mayor and aldermen. An alcalde was a judge, or a justice of the peace. A Spanish Creole was a Spaniard born in the colony. He was little more than a Spanish slave.

These simple explanations are a necessary introduction to Spanish- American history for popular reading.

The purple flag of the liberation of the north of South America went from Venezuela to New Granada, and thence to Ecuador and over the Peruvian Andes. It was first thrown to the breeze by Miranda, and was borne on its march of flame and blood to Peru by Bolivar. This was the southward march of liberty.

The purple flag of the liberation of the south of South America went from Buenos Ayres (Argentina) over the Andes, and emancipated Chili and Peru. The flag was borne by San Martin, and the banner of the southern army of the Andes was emblazoned with the emblem of the Sun. This represents the northern march of liberty.

The two flags of liberation, that of the north and that of the south, met in Peru, in Lima, the " City of the Kings." General Sucre completed the liberation in the Peruvian Andes.

It is our purpose to describe the march of the two flags of liberation, the victory of the united banners in Peru, and to trace in outline the industrial and educational progress of the republics of the Sun.

Ducoudray-Holstein, an officer under Bolivar in the war of the liberation, thus clearly presents the march of

J

INTRODUCTION Xlll

events in the Atlantic provinces of South America from the beginning of the revolution to the battle of Carabobo, near Valencia, Venezuela, which was the Yorktown of the war of the patriots of the north :

" The following are the principal revolutions and changes of government on the Main, from April 19, 18 10, until December, 18 19, when Venezuela and New Granada united under one government, which took the name of the Republic of Colombia.

" In Venezuela the Spanish government was changed by a revolution which took place at Caracas, April 19, 1 8 10, when the Captain- General Emparan and the Real Audiencia were arrested, and a provisional junta was formed, under the name of ' Junta Established for the Preservation of the Rights of His Majesty, the King Ferdinand VII.'

" On March 2, 181 1, the Congress of Venezuela opened its sessions at Caracas. It was composed of the deputies of the following provinces : Margarita, Caracas, Merida, Cumana, Barcelona, Barinas and Truxillo. By an act of July 5, 181 1, Congress declared the republic of Venezuela free and independent of Spain. On the 21st of December of the same year it sanctioned a constitution which bound the provinces together by a federal act, like that of the United States of America. But these several provinces, being exposed both to internal faction and to invasion from without, were scarcely able separately to bear the expense incurred for their own preservation, so that the expenses of the general government, and the support of the army and navy, fell chiefly upon Caracas. Congress was in a prosperous state, when the dreadful earthquake, together with the loss of Puerto Cabello, and the capitulation of Vittoria, between Generals Miranda and Monteverde, ruined the government, and destroyed the Congress and xiv INTRODUCTION

republic of Venezuela (July, 1812). The country was left to anarchy, and subjected to the power of the sword.

"On August 14, 1814, General Simon Bolivar entered the city of Caracas as conqueror, and assumed the title of ' Dictator Liberator of the West of Venezuela,' and established an arbitrary military government. General San Iago Marino had done the same before in the provinces of Cumana, Barcelona, etc., under the title of ' Dictator Liberator of the Provinces East of Caracas.'

"July 17, 18 14, the Spaniards again entered the city of Caracas. In consequence of the battle of La Puerta, where the two dictators were beaten by Boves, the Spaniards shortly after took possession of the provinces, which the two dictators and their troops had evacuated. In the night of the 24th and 25th of August the dictators embarked at Cumana.

" Venezuela again became subject to the bayonet, and each military chieftain governed despotically the territory occupied by his troops.

"May 5, 1 8 16, Simon Bolivar, with some armed men, entered again the territory of Venezuela (the island of Margarita), and assumed the title of ' Supreme Chief, Captain- General of the Forces of Venezuela and New Granada,' etc.

" On the 6th of July of the same year he lost that title and Venezuela, when he suddenly embarked at Ocumare for the Dutch island of Buen Ayre.

" On December 31, 18 16, General Bolivar landed again at Barcelona, and reassumed the title of ' Supreme Chief, Liberator of the Republic of Venezuela, Captain- General,' etc. He had been called through the powerful influence of Admiral Louis Brion, but under the express condition that he should, upon his arrival, assemble a congress at Barcelona. He not only neglected to do so, but he per-

INTRODUCTION XV

secuted the members of the Congress at Cariaco, May, 1817.

" In consequence of General Bolivar's unfortunate campaign in 1 8 18 against Morillo, the general dissatisfaction of the inhabitants of Angostura with that campaign, and the strong representations of Brion, Zea, Manuel Torres, Dr. Roscio, Dr. Carli, and other patriots, the supreme chief was compelled at last to assemble a congress at the city of Angostura, under the name of the Congress of the Republic of Venezuela. Bolivar was chosen President of the republic."

After the battle of Boyaca, Bolivar united Venezuela and New Granada, under the name of Colombia.

The revolution against the Spanish rule in America began in Buenos Ayres, and in the north at Caracas at about the same time. The two movements met in Altro, Peru.

Under the rule of the viceroys the people of South America had practically no rights. Spain only allowed them certain privileges in return for obedience and service. They were made slaves and were robbed in the name of the government. Out of their servitude and enforced labor Spain became one of the richest of nations. It was death for a Creole to protest in any open way against injustice. One of the greatest forms of injustice was the mita, or the enforced labor of the native population. On the Spanish Main the tyranny was as great as it was on the land.

There were enlightened and patriotic priests; some of the leading heroes were priests ; but in general the ecclesiastical tyranny was as rigorous as that of the state. (See Appendix.) The church as well as the state enforced the view that America was the gift of the Holy See to Spain, and that it was the divine right of the king to rule, xvi INTRODUCTION

and that the king could do no wrong. Any plea for justice outside of royal authority was both treason and heresy.

Such was the civil condition in South America when the first revolution arose under Tupac Amaru.

Contents

PAGE

Preface v

Introduction xi

Chapter I

THE first struggle for liberty against the Spanish dominion in Latin America was made by a descendant of the Incas — Tupac Amaru. The effort was a spasm; it ended in one of the most cruel and pitiable scenes of history; but its influence lived. The sympathetic reader may well inquire, after reviewing the tragedy of Amaru, will the spirit of the events that made Tupac Amaru the first apostle of liberty in the Peruvian highlands ever return again to the Quichua race in the ancient Incarial empire?

Visions become history, and patriots build, like the Hebrew legislator, after the pattern shown them on the mount. Washington, following the example of Cincinnatus, laid down the sword and took up the implements of husbandry, and dreamed, in Mount Vernon's gardens, of the time when all the nations of the world should make a compact of peace. This larger faith in humanity found expression in the International Conference of 1890, called the Pan-American Congress, whose inspiring spirit was the Hon. James G. Blaine, then the Secretary of State. Near the close of that memorable congress of the representatives of seventeen American republics, Mr. Blaine said :

" If in this closing hour the conference had but one i deed to celebrate, we should dare call the world's attention to the deliberate, confident, solemn dedication of two great continents to peace, and to the prosperity which has peace for its foundation. We hold up this new Magna Charta, which abolishes war and substitutes arbitration between the American republics, as the first great fruit of the International American Conference. The noblest of Americans, the aged poet and philosopher Whittier, is the first to send his salutation and benediction, declaring :

" ' If in the spirit of peace the American Conference agrees upon a rule of arbitration which shall make war in this hemisphere well-nigh impossible, its sessions will prove one of the most important events in the history of the world.' "

Such are the hopes of Latin and English America, for whose liberties from foreign dominion Tupac Amaru struck the first blow, and made himself the earliest martyr. The memory of the past haunted this native hero of liberty. In his veins flowed the blood of benefactors of his race who had reigned a thousand years. One of his ancestors, bearing his name, had dared to lead a rebellion against the tyranny of Spain in the dark days of the viceroyalty.

Tupac Amaru I. (too-pak ah-mah-roo), the Inca after whom this later hero was called, was born in Cuzco about 1540, and died there in 1573. He was the grandson of Atahualpa, and the second son of Manco Inca Yupanqui, who succeeded the unfortunate Atahualpa on the throne. The eldest son of Yupanqui, Sayri Tupac, submitted to the Spanish crown, and was baptized and given a place as subchief under the rule of the conquerors. On his death the Incarial succession fell to Tupac Amaru. This Indian had the spirit and pride of his ancestors. He refused to renounce his family claims in favor of the Spaniards, and aspired to restore his race to their pristine glory. He sought refuge in the mountains of Vilcabamba. The Peruvian Indians recognized him as the true Inca, the royal representative of the children of the Sun. For this reason the Spanish viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, determined to bring him within reach of his power. In 1572 the viceroy pretended to be sending troops to Chili, but he ordered two hundred and fifty of these auxiliaries to explore the mountain fortresses of Vilcabamba, and to capture the young prince and bring him to the viceroyalty.

Tupac Amaru met the invaders like a hero, but was again and again defeated by their superior arms and skill.

He then fled, with his family and followers, to the mountain fortresses of his principality, which he deemed impregnable. Before the rugged mountain walls rolled a stream which he believed no foreigner could cross without destruction.

Captain Martin de Loyola, in the service of the viceroy, resolved to cross this stream with twenty intrepid followers, under the cover of night. He suddenly appeared in the camp of the Inca, captured the prince, and carried him to Cuzco. He was there accused of leading a revolt, and was beheaded.

His descendant, Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui, Amaru II., seems to have inherited his purpose and spirit. He dreamed of the independence of his people, and of the return of the first Inca in the glory of the rising sun.

Before we narrate the incidents of this hero's history, let us glance at the race from which he sprang.

There are great legends, worthy of noblest representation in poetry and art, that belong to the dusk of American tradition, to the twilight of the gods. They are fanciful, but they are parables, and are full of the noblest suggestions. One of these relates to Quetzalcohuatl, the mythic apostle from the eastern world to Guatemala, and to the golden age that arose under his preaching, when the birds sang never so sweetly, when the flowers bloomed never so brightly, when a single ear of corn taxed the strength of a man, and no violence was allowed to bird, beast or man. Quetzalcohuatl, of whom the beautiful bird of Guatemala, the quetzal, is still a reminder, — a bird that, according to John Lloyd Stephens, the explorer, is " the most beautiful thing that flies," — is associated in an agreeable fable with the person of St. Thomas, the doubter, the apostle who said to the disciples, when Christ was about to take the ways of peril, " Let us go, that we may die with him." According to the old legends, which have received color from the beautiful sculptured cross found at Palenque, St. Thomas went to the Indian peninsula of Malabar, founded there the church that has lived in the Nestorians of Persia, and, according to an extension of the same fable, came to Mexico by the supposed way of Chinese Tartary, Bering Strait, and the West Pacific coast, and there appeared as Quetzalcohuatl. The legend, which has many forms, has, notwithstanding its absurdities, left us a picture of the golden age in America as poetic as Vergil's " Pollio," and as interesting as the prophecy of the Cumaean sibyl.

The second great legend that awaits poetry and art is that which attributes the origin of the Peruvians to Jewish wanderers from Armenia, or from other parts of the Orient. This legend also has many forms.

A most interesting work published in 1854, entitled " Peruvian Antiquities," by Mariano Eduardo de Rivero and Johann Jakob von Tschudi, translated by Francis L. Hawks, D.D., thus pictures some of the incidents of this great but improvable tradition :

" Passing by the proofs, more or less ingenious, advanced by Heckewelder, Beltrame, De Laet, Emanuel de Moraes,

Beatty, Samuel Stanhope Smith, William Penn, Count Crawford, and many others, we will make particular mention of Adair, who lived forty years among the Indians, and who, after the most thorough examination and minute comparison, assures us that the origin of the Indians is Israelitish, founding his assertion principally on the religious rites, which plainly present many points of agreement with those of the Hebrew people.

" Like the Jews, the Indians offer their first-fruits ; they keep their new moons, and the feast of expiation at the end of September or in the beginning of October; they divide the year into four seasons, corresponding with the Jewish festivals. According to Charlevoix and Long, the brother of a deceased husband receives his widow into his house as a guest, and after a suitable time considers her as a legitimate consort. There is also much analogy between the Hebrews and Indians in that which concerns various rites and customs, such as the ceremonies of purification, the use of the bath, the ointment of bear's grease, fasting, and the manner of prayer. The Indians likewise abstain from the blood of animals, as also from fish without scales ; they consider divers quadrupeds unclean, as also certain birds and reptiles ; and they are accustomed to offer as a holocaust the firstlings of the flock. Acosta and Emanuel de Moraes relate that various nations allow matrimony with those only of their own tribe or lineage, this being, in their view, a striking characteristic, very remarkable and of much weight. But that which most tends to fortify the opinion as to the Hebrew origin of the American tribes is a species of ark, seemingly like that of the Old Testament. This the Indians take with them to war. It is never permitted to touch the ground, but rests upon stones or pieces of wood, it being deemed sacrilegious and unlawful to open it or look into it. The priests scrupulously guard their sanctuary, and the high priest carries on his breast a white shell adorned with precious stones, which recalls the urim of the Jewish high priest, of whom we are also reminded by a band of white plumes on his forehead.

" According to the credible testimony of Adair, the Indians of North America celebrate the feast of first-fruits with religious dances, singing in chorus these mystic words : ' Yo Meschica, He Meschica, Va Meschica,' forming thus, with the three first syllables, the name of Je-hovah, and the name of Messiah, thrice pronounced, following each initial. On other occasions may be heard in their hymns the words Aylo, Aylo, which correspond with the Hebrew word El, ' God.' In other hymns occur the words hiwah, hiwah, hydchyra, ' the immortal soul,' and Schiluhyo, Schiluhe, Schiluhva, of which Adair thinks that Schihth is the same with the Hebrew word Schaleach, or Schiloth, which signifies 'messenger' or 'pacificator.' The use of Hebrew words was not uncommon in the religious performances of the North American Indians, and Adair assures us that they called an accused or guilty person haksit canaha, ' a sinner of Canaan ' ; and to him who was inattentive to religious worship they said : ' Tschi haksit canaha ' (' You resemble a sinner of Canaan '). Lescarbot also tells us that he had heard the Indians of South America sing ' Alleluia.'

"Those authors who attribute a Hebrew origin to the American tribes do not agree among themselves touching the coming of the Israelites into the New World: some think that they came directly from the eastern hemisphere to the West, and established themselves in the central and southern parts of this hemisphere ; but the majority are of the opinion that they crossed Persia and the frontiers of China, and came by the way of Bering Strait."

A writer named Montesinos would have us believe that the Peruvians came from Armenia, that here were King Solomon's mines ; and he dates the events of poetic history from the deluge, of which the Peruvians seem to have traditions.

Several curious writers have attempted to prove that the first Inca, Manco Capac, and the poetic divinity of Mexico, Quetzalcohuatl, were Buddhist missionary priests.

In a work like ours, which seeks to tell the story of liberty and progress in Latin America, to picture an advance in civilization by incidents, a study of the Incarial period would not be expected ; but a glance at that wonder of romance is permissible, as it associates itself with an heroic revolution in which one of Inca blood was a leader.

Gonzalo Pizarro and Prescott have pictured the Incas in their glory. The authority of the Peruvian monarchs exceeded that of the most powerful kings of the eastern world. Under the dominion of Huaina Capac the Inca empire extended from the regions north of Quito to the river Maule in Chili, or eight hundred leagues, thus exceeding the greatest empire in Europe, and was bounded on the west by the Pacific, and on the east by the pampas. It contained some ten millions of inhabitants,* a number that greatly diminished after the conquest.

Over this glittering empire the Inca was the absolute lord. " The very birds will suspend their flight if I command it," said Atahualpa to the Spanish invaders, in the fabulous language of the Peruvian kings.

According to Garcilasso de la Vega, himself of Inca blood, the government of the Incas was paternal. One only needs to read Garcilasso's wonderful book to be convinced that Mr. Bellamy's prophetic retrospect entitled * According to some authorities, thirty millions.

" Looking Backward " has already largely been enacted in the theater of the Andean world. Some of the accounts of the glory of the Incas seem to belong, indeed, to the dazzling epoch of fables. Plutarch tells us that the birds in the air were affected when the Roman herald proclaimed the liberty of the Greeks ; and Sarmiento, in his " Revolution," says the shouts that hailed the Inca on his pilgrimages among his people caused " the birds to fall to the ground."