INTRODUCTION. 15 
America can assume a national character, even now that the yoke of 
Spain is virtually broken, for want of the internal material, if I may 
so speak, to form a government. 
The whole system of Spain, while the colonies were kept close, 
was, with regard to them, commercial, and not political. The vice- 
roys were, in fact, after the first wars with the natives were over, no 
more than the presidents of a set of monopolists ; their views were 
bounded by their sordid and narrow mercantile interests, and the 
government and occupation of Mexico and Peru were never looked 
upon otherwise than as a means of acquiring riches, while the 
freedom, happiness, or interest of the inhabitants was neglected. 
Sloth and ignorance were the nécessary consequences ; and when the 
people roused, as from sleep, and asserted their independence, the 
habits and ideas of the class, from which of necessity the chiefs and 
governors were chosen, had been so moulded on those of the ancient 
order of things, that they have followed the same path; and regard- 
ing the possession of power as merely that of the capital of a mer- 
cantile company, they have speculated accordingly, and, by petty 
trafficking, public and private monopolies, and trading schemes, have 
injured the people they ruled, excited distrust among foreigners, and, 
in many cases, ruined themselves. 
Such, at least, has been the case in Chile, and such I believe 
it to have been in Peru and the provinces of La Plata. I am too 
little informed of the facts relating to Columbia and Mexico, but, 
from what has come to my knowledge, I suspect it has not been 
very different with them: but it is time to return to the history of 
Chile, of which alone I can speak with certainty. 
It was on the 22d of June, 1810, that Carasco, captain-general of 
Chile, having convened the inhabitants of Santiago to a meeting in 
the palace square for the purpose of promulgating to them the orders 
of the expatriated court of Spain to obey the French regency, that 
the first popular tumult took place. Some private meetings had 
been held before. The agents of the central junta were not inactive, 
but no public occasion had yet appeared to call forth the public 
