The wars for independence, 18101820, in South America were led by young men of the landowning, aristocratic class like Baltasar Bustos and his friends. Most of these men were passionate in their pursuit of liberty, but it was the freedom of their own class which they wanted to secure. The liberation of the lower classes was given little or no consideration. Nor did it occur to many of them that the Indians should be given any rights at all.

Bustos sincerely believes that he wishes freedom for everybody, and when he meets Indians in Upper Peru, he makes a speech for their benefit in which he proclaims the ideals of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Harmony should exist between man and nature and all men in nature. He belatedly realizes that few of the Indians understand Spanish and that even those who did would find his philosophy unintelligible. Later...