318 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. |_Chap. XIX.—B.P. 
The above table gives rise to very serious reflec¬ 
tions. A diminution of nearly one-half the population 
during fifty years of absolute freedom is a very grave 
matter, and it becomes an important consideration 
what freedom is worth under such circumstances. 
The prediction of Bolivar, the Liberator, or, as he 
is sometimes called, the Washington of Sp anis h 
America, in his last letter, dated 9th Nov., 1830,* to 
General Flores, about a month before his death, is 
now in course of working out, and before very long 
will be fully accomplished in the total disappearance 
of the descendants of those who by cruelty, bigotry, 
and every species of crime, have reduced this magni¬ 
ficent country to its present degraded condition. 
The difference between the fortunes of the Latins 
and Anglo-Saxons on the American Continent has 
been marked indeed; the prosperity of the latter is 
probably due to the absence amongst the earlier emi¬ 
grants of the enervating influences of the Romish re¬ 
ligion. But be that as it may, they certainly strove 
to act fairly; while the Latins, on the contrary, made 
* “ I have been in power for nearly twenty years, from which I 
have gathered only a few definite results :— 
“ 1. America, for us, is ungovernable. 
“ 2. He who dedicates his services to a revolution, ploughs the sea. 
“ 3. The only thing that can be done in America is to emigrate. 
“4. This country will inevitably fall into the hands of the unbridled 
rabbie, and little by little become a prey to petty tyrants of all colours 
and races. 
5. Devoured as we shall be by all possible crimes, and ruined by our 
feiociousness, the Europeans will not deem it worth while to conquer us. 
6. If it were possible for any part of the world to return to a state: 
of piimitive chaos, that would be the last stage of Spanish America. 
