PART II

PERU, CHILE, BOLIVIA, ECUADOR, VENEZUELA, COLOMBIA, PANAMA

G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London The Knickerbocker Press 1904

Copyright, 1904 by Thomas C. Dawson

Published, September, 1904

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

PREFACE

This history begins when Pizarro and Almagro, Valdivia and Benalcazar, led their desperadoes across the Isthmus to the conquest, massacre, and enslavement of the prosperous and civilised millions who inhabited the Pacific coast of South America. It ends with the United States opening a way through that same Isthmus for the ships, the trade, the capital of all the world; with American engineers laying railroad iron on the imperial highway of the Incas; with British bondholders forgiving stricken Peru's national debt; with their debtor bravely facing the fact of bankruptcy, and turning over to them all its railways.

The American people, alert, practical, keen, possessing in their press and congress admirable organisations for the collection and dissemination of exact knowledge, already fully appreciate the advantages that will accrue to the United States itself from the building of the Panama canal. Hardly less thoroughly do they understand the probable effect upon eastern Asia and the great commercial nations of western Europe. Few, however, have yet reflected upon the canal's vital importance to the peoples of the Pacific coast of South America--to four at least of the six countries whose stories I have tried to tell in this volume.

Cut off from all practicable communication with the rest of the continent by those yawning ravines which lead down the inner declivities of the Andes, gullied by gigantic torrents, and choked by impenetrable forests, the narrow strip of territory stretching along the mountain tops and shore plain from Quito to Central Chile, connects with the outside world solely through ports on the Pacific Ocean. Throughout colonial times the stream of greedy Spanish office-holders flowed down the coast from the Isthmus, and a scanty trickle of trade followed the same channel. For three centuries Panama was the _entrepôt_ and Lima the metropolis of all Spanish South America except Venezuela and eastern New Granada. Magellan's famous discovery did not divert these currents because the stormy straits that bear his name are practically useless for sailing ships, and even Schouten's rounding of the Horn only blazed a path which proved too perilous for the vessels of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But with the nineteenth century improvements in navigation and especially with the use of steam and the freighter built of iron, all was changed. Valparaiso became nearer to London or New York than Guayaquil, and during the last seventy-five years the ports of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Pacific Colombia have been little more than remote and unimportant stations on a trade route that stretches its interminable length from the commercial emporiums in the North Atlantic through Pernambuco, Rio, Buenos Aires, and around the southern end of the continent. For centuries Spanish tyranny denied the world access to those countries, and hardly had they shaken off the political system that strangled their development, when geographical considerations and the invention of iron steamships placed them at a disadvantage compared with their competitors. Their commercial, and therefore their industrial and political progress, has been ten-fold slower than it should have been.

The moment the first vessel floats through from the Caribbean to the Pacific the course of commerce will reverse its direction. Buenaventura, Esmeraldas, Guayaquil, Callao, Mollendo, Iquique, and even Valparaiso and Talcahuano will send their ships by the short route of Panama instead of around the continent and through the Straits of Magellan. Western Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile herself will be tied by rapidly strengthening bonds of mutual interest and intercourse to each other and to the great commercial nations; and a transformation will begin whose extent no man can foresee. Every patriotic American must hope that his own countrymen will devote the money, energy, and attention essential to secure that share of influence and trade justly due the United States' geographical proximity and political sympathy; that French literature, language, and ideas, British capital, and German commerce now so dominant in all South America, will be supplemented by American schools, money, and commercial enterprise; and that such influences will spread from Panama through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia down the coast to prosperous Chile and across into the fertile plains of Argentina and southern Brazil.

The author wishes to acknowledge his especial indebtedness to Sir Clement Markham's scholarly _History of Peru_, one of the very few complete and intelligent histories of a South American country available in the English language. The reader who commands Spanish will be interested in Torrente's _Revolucion Sud Americana_, Mackenna's _Historiade la Independencia_, Paz Soldan's _Narracion Historica_, Mitre's _San Martin_, and Bulnes's _Expedicion Libertadora_.

For Chile excellent books in both Spanish and English abound, among which are worth special mention, Barros Arana's _Historia General_, Mitre's _San Martin_, Bañados's _Balmaceda_, Hancock's _History of Chile_, and Hervey's _Dark Days in Chile_.

Few authorities exist for Bolivia. Valdes's _Estudio Historico_ is admirable for the period which it attempts to cover. Sanjines's _Historia_, Mitre's _San Martin_ and _Belgrano_, Torrente's _Revolucion_, and D'Ursel's _Séjours et Voyages_, as well as Fernandez's recent _Campaña del Acre_ have been found valuable.

Wolf's _Geografia del Ecuador_ is more than a geography, and no one interested in that country can afford not to study this work carefully. Suarez's _Historia General_, and Cevallos's _Compendio_ give a good account of military and political affairs but do not bring them down to recent years.

For Venezuela Tejera's _Manual de Historia_ has been of much use, as also Scruggs's _Colombian and Venezuelan Republics_, Jenny Tallenay's _Souvenirs_, and in the war of independence Mitre's great work on the life of _San Martin_.

Perez's wonderfully condensed book, _Geografia Politica_, has been the main reliance for Colombia, but Mitre's _San Martin_, Torrente's _Revolucion_, Holton's _New Granada_, and Scruggs's _Republics_, have supplied much information on points not covered by Senor Perez's work.

Intelligible details about comparatively recent times are proverbially the hardest to obtain, and the author feels that whatever of accuracy these pages may boast is due principally to his friends among present South American diplomats--men who understand South American history because they have been a part of it. Salvador de Mendonça, Joaquin Godoy, Oliviera Lima, Claudio Pinilla, Estanislao Zeballos, Manoel Gorostiaga, and Carlos Tobar have kindly tried to help him thread his way through the tangled mazes of Latin-American politics, and his principal reluctance at giving these pages to the public now is that he has not had the good fortune as yet to know and converse with men of like ability from Colombia and Venezuela.

T. C. D.

PETROPOLIS, BRAZIL, March 29, 1904.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

_PERU_ I. THE INCA EMPIRE 3 II. THE SPANISH CONQUEST 20 III. CIVIL WARS AMONG THE CONQUERORS 41 IV. THE COLONIAL PERIOD 58 V. THE WARS OF INDEPENDENCE 74 VI. FROM INDEPENDENCE TO CHILEAN WAR 98 VII. THE CHILEAN WAR AND LATTER-DAY PERU 117

_CHILE_ I. THE SPANISH CONQUEST 135 II. THE COLONIAL PERIOD 148 III. THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 156 IV. THE FORMATIVE PERIOD 189 V. CHILE'S GREATNESS AND THE CIVIL WAR 211

_BOLIVIA_ I. THE CONQUEST AND THE MINES 235 II. THE COLONIAL SYSTEM AND TUPAC'S REVOLT 248 III. THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 255 IV. BOLIVIA INDEPENDENT 266

_ECUADOR_ I. THE CARAS 285 II. THE SPANISH CONQUEST 297 III. THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 311 IV. THE FORMATION OF ECUADOR 320 V. MODERN ECUADOR 330

_VENEZUELA_ I. CONQUEST, SETTLEMENT, AND COLONIAL DAYS 347 II. THE REVOLT 357 III. MODERN VENEZUELA 384

_COLOMBIA_ I. CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT 403 II. COLONIAL TIMES 419 III. THE WAR AGAINST SPAIN 430 IV. MODERN COLOMBIA 446

_PANAMA_ THE EVENTS LEADING TO INDEPENDENCE 475

INDEX 491

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

CHURCH OF SAN FRANCISCO, LIMA _Frontispiece_

ANCIENT PERUVIAN MONUMENT 7

CHURCH OF THE JESUITS IN CUZCO ON THE SITE OF THE PALACE OF HUAYNA CAPAC 15

OBSEQUIES OF ATAHUALLPA 33 _From a painting by the Peruvian artist Monteros._

STONE BRIDGE OVER THE RIMAC RIVER, LIMA, PERU 37

RUE MERCADERES, PROCESSION DAY, LIMA 45

LITTLE "INFERNILLO" BRIDGE ON THE OROYA RAILWAY. ALTITUDE 10,924 FEET 55

PROMENADE OF THE ALAMEDA, LIMA 62

GENERAL VIEW OF LIMA, SHOWING THE CATHEDRAL 68

BAKER ON HORSEBACK, LIMA 75

THE MOLE AND HARBOUR OF CALLAO 83

CHURCH OF SAN FRANCISCO LIMA 87

MILK-WOMAN OF LIMA ON HORSEBACK 91

VILLAGE OF CHICLAY ON THE OROYA RAILWAY, 12,200 FEET ABOVE THE SEA 100

DON RAMON CASTILLA 107

STATUE OF BOLIVAR, LIMA, PERU 115

GENERAL DON ANDRES A. CACERES 129

MAP OF PERU _Facing_ 132

BRIDGE ON THE ROAD BETWEEN SANTIAGO AND MENDOZA 137

INDIAN ENCAMPMENT 146

HOUSE OF CONGRESS, SANTIAGO 153

PLAZA DEL ARMAS, SANTIAGO 157

BERNARDO O'HIGGINS 165

RAILROAD BRIDGE BETWEEN SANTIAGO AND VALPARAISO 169

TALCAHUANO 175

NATIVE COSTUMES IN CHILE ABOUT 1840 179

VIEW OF SANTIAGO, CHILE, ABOUT 1835 195

VIEW OF VALPARAISO 205

JOSE MANUEL BALMACEDA 221

THE PLAZA, VICTORIA, VALPARAISO 229

MONOLITHIC DOORWAY AT TRAHUANACO 237

BALSAS ON LAKE TITICACA 259

LOADED LLAMAS 279

ECUADOR INDIANS 302

CHURCH OF SANTO DOMINGO AT GUAYAQUIL 305

GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR 325

COSTUMES OF NATIVES NEAR QUITO 327

ECUADOR PEON'S HOUSE 332

PRINCIPAL STREET IN GUAYAQUIL 340

ANCIENT INDIAN ROCK FOR GRINDING MAIZE 358

THE PASS OF ANGOSTURA, BOLIVAR CITY 373

ROAD NEAR MACUTO 379

ENTRANCE OF PUERTO CABELLO IN 1870 386

VENEZUELAN SOLDIER OF 1870 393

VENEZUELAN GUERILLAS 397

MAP OF ECUADOR, COLOMBIA, AND VENEZUELA _Facing_ 398

OLDEST FORTRESS IN AMERICA, AT CARTHAGENA 407

TRAVELLERS DESCENDING A MOUNTAIN ROAD 411

NATIVE BOATS, MAGDALENA RIVER 415

THE NATURAL BRIDGE AT GUARANDA 421

FALLS OF TEQUENDAMA 423

NATIVE HOUSES IN COLOMBIA 427

ROPE BRIDGE OVER THE MAGDALENA RIVER 434

THE HOME OF BOLIVAR 440

PANAMA FROM THE BAY 445

SCENE IN THE ANDES, EN ROUTE TO BOGOTÁ 449

CATHEDRAL, PANAMA 453

CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS IN 1850 456

TYPES OF COLOMBIAN NATIVES 459

POST-OFFICE AT BOGOTÁ 463

RAFAEL NUÑEZ, PRESIDENT OF COLOMBIA IN 1879-1883, 1885-1891 467

VIEW OF PANAMA 477

STEAMERS ON THE MAGDALENA RIVER 479

NATIVE VILLAGE ON THE PANAMA RAILWAY 483

MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA SHOWING PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT FOR INDEPENDENCE _At End_

PERU