AWAKENING OF ARGENTINA AND CHILE 



141 



tion. A profoundly interesting field of 

 research in human variation awaits the 

 student of the race in evolution. 



In touching on this vast example of 

 human evolution involving today 60,000,- 

 000 of people, we can glance only at some 

 of the incidents related to the Argentine 

 and Chilean nations. Both populations 

 were well established before the close of 

 the sixteenth century, but by very unlike 

 elements. Valdivia and his successors, 

 the invaders of Chile, were soldiers bent 

 solely on conquest, such as they had taken 

 part in in Peru, for immediate gain ; the 

 colonists who in successive expeditions 

 founded Buenos Aires came with wives 

 and children, with horses, mares, and im- 

 plements of husbandry, to settle in the 

 land. 



THE SPIRITED PRODUCT OF A RACIAL 

 AMALGAMATION 



The warring invaders of Chile met and 

 mingled with a warlike Indian race, the 

 Araucanians, and their issue is without 

 question the most independent, the bold- 

 est, the most aggressive of South Ameri- 

 can peoples. 



The merchant colonists who sought the 

 Rio de la Plata maintained to a greater 

 degree the purity of the European blood 

 and have constantly been reinforced by 

 fresh immigrations from all the nations 

 of western Europe. They are today the 

 most enterprising, as they are the most 

 cosmopolitan and progressive, of the 

 Spanish- Americans. 



During the first century of its exist- 

 ence the colony of Buenos Aires was the 

 victim of that monopolistic policy so char- 

 acteristic of the individualistic Spanish 

 tendencies. Although destined by geo- 

 graphic situation and accessibility from 

 both land and sea to be the commercial 

 focus of the continent, the settlement was 

 denied commercial intercourse. 



During half a century the shipment of 

 cargoes to or from Buenos Aires was ab- 

 solutely prohibited under penalty of 

 death, and during the following 50 years 

 traffic through the port was so restricted 

 and burdened as to amount to prohibi- 

 tion. Lima was the center of govern- 

 ment and monopoly. All the produce of 

 the continent destined to Spain was gath- 



ered there and shipped via the Isthmus 

 of Panama. Only articles of small bulk 

 and high value could pay the freight 

 charges and the imposts. The heavy 

 freight of hides, wheat, or wool could 

 not move by that channel ; and the pam- 

 pas of Buenos Aires, producing nothing 

 more valuable, shipped nothing. 



No more colossal example of misgov- 

 ernment, no more striking illustration of 

 the incapacity of medieval Spain to gov- 

 ern the colonies her soldiers had won, is 

 to be found even in her annals. 



STATE'S RIGHTS IN THE ANTIPODES 



The northern cities — Cordova, Tucu- 

 man, Mendoza, and San Juan — were es- 

 tablished by leaders from Lima and re- 

 mained attached to that transmontane 

 capital, through which their commerce 

 flowed. They did not sympathize with 

 Buenos Aires in her isolation ; and, later, 

 when independence from Spain had been 

 won, when the Argentine Republic was 

 struggling into existence, the civil wars 

 were fought between the conservatives of 

 the interior and the progressives of the 

 coast. Something of the same division 

 exists today. Cordova and Mendoza are 

 intensely provincial ; they are for States' 

 rights. Buenos Aires, grown immensely 

 powerful and the seat of national govern- 

 ment, emphasizes national control. 



The isolation of Buenos Aires and the 

 pampas influenced the evolution of the 

 Argentine people of the country outside 

 of the cities in a striking degree. It 

 helped to develop the Gaucho, the Argen- 

 tine plainsman, whose natural evolution 

 in adaptation to the environment of the 

 pampas was intensified and accentuated 

 by separation from the ameliorating ef- 

 fects of intercourse and culture. 



The Gaucho sprang from the Spaniard 

 and Indian. He was a nomad. His life 

 of frugality, activity, and hazard favored 

 the fittest and fiercest. He knew no law 

 save that of might. He was independent, 

 daring, familiar with violence, and care- 

 less of life. Had he through a Spanish 

 parent some Moorish strain, he repre- 

 sented in the pampas his ancestors, who 

 had galloped over the plains of Arabia. 

 Sarmiento describes in graphic language 

 the wild barbaric character and life of 



