It is a remarkable fact that several of the South American countries, Mexico, Peru, and Chile, were governed by viceroys of Irish birth in the critical period preceding the Independence, although Spanish law forbade such office to any but Spaniards born.  It was in recognition of gallant services in Spain, in combination with the Duke of Wellington, that General O’Donoghue was made viceroy of Mexico in 1821, but the elevation of the great viceroy of Peru, Ambrose O’Higgins, was due to the splendid talents of administration already displayed by him during twenty years of service in Chile.  He was born at Summerhill, Co.  Meath, about 1730.  An uncle of his was one of the chaplains at the court of Madrid, and at his expense O’Higgins was educated at a college in Cadiz.  He then entered the Spanish engineer corps, and in 1769 was given the command of the commission sent to Chile to strengthen the fortifications of Valdivia.  He was made captain-general of Chile in 1788, was subsequently created marquis of Osorno, and in 1796 was nominated viceroy of Peru, a position which he held until his death in 1801.

The great viceroy left only one son, Bernard O’Higgins, who succeeded General Carreras in the supreme command of the patriot army against the Spaniards in 1813.  In 1817 O’Higgins took a principal part in the victory of Chacabuco, and was almost immediately appointed supreme director of Chile, with dictatorial powers.  During his administration, which lasted six years, he gave every proof of his fitness for the position.  But, alas! it was the misfortune of South America to surpass the republics of antiquity in the ingratitude shown towards its greatest benefactors.  It is then not surprising to find that the Father of his Country, as O’Higgins is affectionately styled, was deposed by a military revolution, and obliged to take refuge in Peru, from which country he never returned.  General Miller and Lord Cochrane, in their Memoirs, give frequent testimony to the honesty and zeal of Bernard O’Higgins.  He was always treated as an honored guest in Lima, in which city he died on October 24, 1842.  He left a son, Demetrio O’Higgins, a wealthy land-owner, who contributed large sums for the patriot army against Spain.

Among other Irish commanders in Chile and Peru, who, during the War of Independence, fought their way to dignity and rank, was General MacKenna, the hero of Membrillar.  He was born in 1771, at Clogher, Co.  Tyrone; his mother belonged to the ancient Irish sept of O’Reilly, whose estates were confiscated after the fall of Limerick in 1691.

General Thomond O’Brien, who won his spurs at the battle of Chacabuco, seems to have been born in the south of Ireland about 1790.  He joined the army of San Martin, and accompanied that general through the campaigns of Chile and Peru until the overthrow of the Spanish regime and the proclamation of San Martin as protector of Peru.  On the day (July 28, 1821) when independence was declared at Lima,