WESTERN COAST OF AMERICA, 291 



mean time civil war and dissensionhavecontinued 

 their desolating career, and a complete prostra- 

 tion of public credit has been the consequence. 



The causes which have led to the present 

 disastrous state of aiFairs, may be attributed 

 mainly to the unfortunate system of goverment 

 adopted by Spain for her colonies, and the 

 baneful influence of war, which has created a 

 miUtary spirit, unchecked by any moral re- 

 straint. Each chief has been ambitious of 

 power ; extensive and thinly-populated terri- 

 tories have favoured revolutionary demagogues, 

 whose designs have been too often matured by 

 the total absence of means for prompt commu- 

 nication, and thas these countries have been 

 kept in a state of political distraction and inse- 

 curity, at total variance with their wellbeing 

 and prosperity, and the stores of immense 

 wealth with which nature has so abundantly 

 endowed them, have remained unproductive.* 



* In consequence of the scantiness of population in 

 South America, the governments of the three states of 

 Chile, Bohvia, and Peru, have severally encouraged the 

 settlement of foreigners in their respective territories. 

 Decrees, for this object, have been officially published, 

 offering them every protection and facility. The present 

 population of Cliile and Peru has before been stated. 

 That of Columbia, now divided into three separate states, 

 may be thus generally described : 

 o 2 



