that carried by Hernando Cortes in the Con- 

 quest of Mexico." It now hangs in the- Na- 

 tional Museum at Mexico City — a relic of the 

 stirring times when the present city was Te- 

 nochtitlan, the Aztec capital and the. scene of 

 Montezuma's grandeur. Another standard 

 carried by Cortes was, according to .Presc'ott, 

 "of black velvet, embroidered with gold, and 

 emblazoned with a red cross amidst flames of 

 blue and white, with this motto in Latin be- 

 neath : 'Friends, let us follow the Cross ; and 

 under this sign, if we have faith, we shall 

 conquer.' " 



429. Pizarro. — This is the banner of Pi- 

 zarro, which the people oL Cuzco, the' royal 

 city of the Incas, presented, in 1824, to Gen- 

 eral de Sucre, the trusted lieutenant of the 

 liberator Bolivar and the victor of the battle 

 of Ayacucho, which broke the power of im- 

 perial Spain in South America. De Sucre, in 

 turn, presented it to his commander-in-chief, 

 who gave it to his native city of Caracas, 

 Venezuela, where it is now treasured. -This 

 standard is said to have been carried by Pi- 

 zarro when he entered Cuzco, a conqueror, in 

 1533. It hung all those intervening years in 

 the cathedral of the ancient Peruvian city. In 

 a letter to Bolivar, de Sucre said : "I present 

 to you this standard which Pizarro bore to 

 Cuzco 300 years ago ; a portion of the ma- 

 terial is in shreds, but it possesses the merit 

 of havingied the conquerors of- Peru." 



Strictly speaking, the flag is really a banner, 

 or fanion, such as was generally used in the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. On one of 

 its faces of scarlet damask the arms of Charles 

 V are embroidered ; on the other is represented 

 the Apostle St. James (Santiago), in an atti- 

 tude of combat, mounted on a white horse. 

 When the standard was received in Caracas, 



'the reverse siae consisted only of white satin, 

 and it was 'not discovered until 1872 that this 



: was not, a part of the flag, but a covering to 

 protect its most interesting face, upon which 

 is painted and embroidered the figure of the 

 mounted warrior. The red cross of Santiago 

 appears on his coat-of-mail, but the hilt is all 

 that remains of the sword in his hand. 



430. Pizarro. — General San Martin, "the 

 liberator of the South," believed this flag to 

 be the standard of Pizarro ; but old documents 

 relating to the founding of Lima by the Span- 

 ish conqueror seem to prove that it was the 

 banner of that city. The escutcheon granted 

 to Lima by Charles V, in 1537, appears on the 

 flag. 



The Municipal Council of Lima presented 

 the standard to San Martin in 1821, after his 

 successful campaigns in Chile, and, in his fare- 

 well proclamation to the Peruvians the follow- 

 ing year, prior to his departure " for Europe, 

 he said : "I have in my possession the standard 

 which Pizarro bore to enslave the empire of 

 the Incas. _ I have ceased to be a public man, 

 but by this alone I am rewarded with usury 

 for ten years of revolution and war." In his 

 last testament Jje provided that "the standard 

 which the Spanish bandit Pizarro waved in the 

 conquest of Peru be returned to the said Re- 

 public." 



THE LIBERATORS OF LATIN AMERICA 



431. San Martin.— Flying this flag, Gen- 

 eral San Martin came north into Peru with 

 his Bjercito Libertador, or liberating army, in 

 1820, after having effected the complete over- 

 throw of the royalists in Chile. Forces sent 

 against the liberator joined his army, and in 

 Lima even the Viceroy's secretaries were revo- 

 lutionists at heart. General San Martin en- 

 tered the capital on July 12, 1821, and was pre- 

 sented with the flag of Pizarro (see 430) ; on 

 July. 28 the proclamation of independence was 

 issued in the Plaza Major. 



- After layingthe foundations of a republican 

 government, the Protector journeyed north to 

 Guayaquil, Ecuador, to confer with General 

 Simon Bolivar, who had accomplished inde- 

 pendence for the Northern States of South 

 America. Then San Martin returned to Lima 

 and, after placing the government in the hands 

 of the first constituent congress, retired to Eu- 

 rope, the recipient of every honor within the 

 gift of a grateful people. 



432. Army oe the Andes. — This silken 

 "Banner of the Sun," as it was called, Avith its 

 beautiful, embroidered design and edges deco- 

 rated with precious stones, was made for San 

 Martin's" Army of the Andes by the women of 



I Mendoza City, which lies at the foot of the 

 -^Ghiilo-Argentine -Cordillera on- the Argentine 

 (side. The revolutionary leader carried it over 

 'the -snow-covered mountains into Chile, which 

 he liberated. 



The flag was publicly consecrated in Men- 

 doza City with elaborate ceremony on January 

 5, 1817. As it was unfurled a salute of twenty- 

 one . guns, was fired, the populace shouting, 

 "Long live our Argentine country." General 

 San Martin then, holding aloft the banner, ex- 

 claimed in a vibrating voice, "Soldiers! Swear 

 to uphold this standard and die, if necessary, 

 in its defense, as I swear to die !" "We swear 

 to do so !" came the response, amid a triple 

 discharge of musketry, followed by a salvo of 

 twenty-five guns. 



The design of the badge on the field of blue 

 and white is practically the same as the present 

 Argentine coat-of-arms (see 453). 



433. Bolivar. — Under this flag Simon Boli- 

 var, the liberator, broke the hold of imperial 

 Spain upon its provinces in northern South 

 America early in the 19th century. Venezuela, 

 Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru owe their inde- 

 pendence to him and he is worshiped as a na- 

 tional hero in these countries. It is said that 

 while visiting the United States on his return 

 journey from Paris, where he had been an eye- 

 witness to some of the stirring scenes of the 

 last days of the French revolution, he was first 

 impressed with the desirability of "political in- 

 dependence, and, returning to Venezuela, he 

 began the military operations which freed his 

 native land. 



434. Banner oe Hidalgo. — "Viva America, 

 viva religion, death to bad government," was 

 the war cry of Mexico's soldier-priest. Miguel 

 Hidalgo, who, shortly after the American col- 

 onies had attained their independence, led the 

 popular revolt against Spanish rule in the 

 country to the south of us. His flag was the 

 sacred banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the 



357 



