It may safely be said that the South American temperament is, in itself, no more revolutionary than any other.  When the material circumstances of one of these States have been brought to resemble those which prevail in a European country, the conditions of politics necessarily grow to resemble each other as well.  Thus the difficulty with which the more advanced Republics are confronted is no longer one connected with rapid and disorderly changes of Government and Presidents.  The States in question are now too wealthy in themselves and too loaded with serious responsibilities for the possibility of such casual recurrences.  The strife, in consequence, tends rather to centre itself, as in Europe, to a contest between capital and labour, and, as elsewhere in the world, strikes have taken the place of more sanguinary battles.

All this, of course, applies with greater force to some of the South American countries than to others.  The vitality and power of the Continent in general is now, at all events, beginning to assert itself to the full, and in the minds of a certain number of its educated and intelligent inhabitants South America is destined in the future, however distant this may be, to become the rallying-ground of the Latin races.

[Illustration:  SKETCH-MAP:  SOUTH AMERICA.]

INDEX

Abipones, 12

Aboriginal tribes, 145, 146

Alberdi, Manuel, 167

Alfinger, 28, 33

Almagro, 47, 48, 52, 54

Almagro, Diego (the Younger), 112

Alvarado, Pedro de, 51, 52

Alvear, 170, 172, 255, 276

Andradas, the, 198, 203, 204, 211-214

“Araucana, La,” 23

Araucanians, 13, 56, 58, 122, 128

Artigas, 172, 193, 201, 275

Asuncion, 67, 69, 73

Atahualpa, 48-51

Ayacucho, Battle of, 184

Aymaras, tribe of the, 56

Ayolas, Juan de, 66-68

Bahia, 40, 42, 96-98, 103, 107, 186, 194, 198, 200

Balboa, Nunez de, 31, 32, 33

Balcarce, 168

Balmaceda, 271

Belgrano, 159, 167-170, 173, 245

Benalcazar, 34

Bogota, Santa Fe de, 115, 147, 149, 223

Bolivar, Simon, 154-156, 159-166, 175, 182-184, 229, 232-235

Bolivia, 283-285

Brazil, 36-46, 79, 80, 185-227

Brazil wood, 37

British mariners, 95-98

British, hardships endured on northern campaign, 161, 162

British settlers, methods of, 43

British invasion of the River Plate, 139-141

Brouwer, 126

Buccaneers, 93, 94, 146

Buenos Aires, first settlements at, 65

Buenos Aires, 71, 115, 118, 167-173, 208, 209, 234, 236

Buonaparte, Joseph, 156, 157

Buonaparte, Napoleon, 156, 157