THE GROWING POWER OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHILE. 95 



mast and reverently folded, a little flotilla manned by the garrison cast off its 

 moormgs, discharged a farewell gun, and quietly dropped down to St. Louis. 

 After a short delay to bring aboard a few things and to take leave, Riu got in- 

 to his boat, the vessels shoved out into the stream, saluted the village with a 

 volley, and soon were lost to sight. Doubtless the Spaniards left no unkind 

 feelings behind. 



The flotilla was in no haste to make a quick voyage; and ere it reached its 

 destination it was met by a fast-speeding dispatch-boat with the Spanish colors 

 flying, which communicated Ihe joyful intelligence that Count O'Reilly with 

 three thousand troops of the line, amid the roar of guns, and the rattle of mus- 

 ketry, and the shouts of many voices, had landed at New Orleans, and re-estab- 

 lished the authority of Spain in Louisiana. From that day until the cession of 

 the country to the United States, the flag of Spain on the shores of the Missis- 

 sippi attested her absolute domination over the west half the valley. Fort St. 

 Charles was dismantled by the Spaniards, the timber of which it was constructed 

 soon decayed, successive floods left their deposits where it once stood, and in 

 the course of years not a vestige remained — its memory is preserved only in 

 history. 



St. Louis, Missouri, 1884. 



THE GROWING POWER OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHILE. 



Chile is in name and in an important sense a republic, and yet its govern- 

 ment is an oligarchy. Suffrage is restricted to those male citizens who are regis- 

 tered, who are twenty-five years old if unmarried and twenty-one if married, and 

 who can read and write; and there is also a stringent property qualification. 



The population of Chile doubled between 1843 and 1875; '^he quantity of 

 land brought under tillage was quadrupled; copper mines were discovered, and 

 so worked that Chile became the chief copper-producing country in the world; 

 some of the silver mines rivaled the Comstock lode ; more than one thousand 

 miles of railroad were built; a foreign export trade of $31,695,039 was reported 

 in 1878; and two powerful iron-clads, which were destined to play a most im- 

 portant part in Chilean affairs, were built in England. Meanwhile, the constitu- 

 tion was officially interpreted so as to guarantee religious toleration, and the polit- 

 ical power of the Roman Catholic priesthood diminished. Almost everything 

 good, except home manufactures and popular education, flourished. The devel- 

 opment of the nation in these years was on a wonderful scale for a South Ameri 

 can State, and the contrast between Chile and Peru was peculiarly striking. 

 Comparative purity and strength of race, born out of hardship and producing 

 political stability and honesty and personal courage, seemed to be the prime fac- 

 tors in the Chilean distinction. And yet the two peoples were the descendants 

 of the same European. race and of kindred Indian races. Doubtless the differ- 

 ence in climate was entirely favorable to Chile. — July Atlantic. 



