resistance of fourteen days, he subdued, and converted into allies. At Cholula he massacred six thousand of the natives in revenge for their treachery. Success now wafted his banners, and the capital of the empire lay before him. Received by the emperor Montezuma at the head of his nobles, Cortez was conducted to a house in the city, which he fortified in the strongest manner possible. It appears there was a prediction among the Mexicans, that a strange people should come to chastise them for their sins—a piece of superstition of which Cortez availed himself. By treachery he obtained possession of the person of Montezuma, whom he kept a prisoner for six months. Worn out at length, the Mexican emperor acknowledged himself a vassal of the Spanish throne. In the meanwhile Cortez lost no opportunity of strengthening his power, by surveys of the country, and dividing the spoils among his followers.

He was again on the point of losing the fruit of his exertions; for Velasquez, who commanded the expedition from which Cortez had been despatched from Cuba, hearing of his success, sent out a large force under Narvaez, to seize him, and take possession of Mexico. This formidable danger Cortez frustrated, as well by bribes as the rapidity of his movements, almost without bloodshed. But this he observed gave fresh spirit to the Mexicans, who attacked him on his return, and wounded him in his fortress. The wretched Montezuma, who had been placed in the van to deter the assailants from prosecuting their attacks, was wounded, and died of a broken heart. Cortez was compelled to evacuate the place secretly, but only to return with a larger body of forces at the expiration of six months. We shortly afterwards find his head-quarters at Tezcuco, where, with the assistance of the Indians, he built a flotilla of thirteen ships. Reinforced with two hundred men, eight horses, and some military stores, he renewed the siege. Gallantly was the capital defended by Guatimozin, the new emperor, and Cortez was once taken prisoner, but rescued at the expense of a severe wound. Seventy-four days did the city hold out, although the ranks of Cortez were augmented by one hundred thousand Indians. August 12, 1512, beheld Guatimozin a prisoner, and his capital in the hands of the merciless invaders—merciless to him they were, for Cortez stained the lustre of his glory by putting the brave but ill-fated monarch to the torture. But there is even in this world a retributive justice; and worldly minds, however sublimed by courage and enterprise, generally encounter reverses similar in character to their own conduct. Success had excited envy; and Cortez was doomed to find that no courage and enterprize can be altogether free from reverses. Created captain-general of New Spain (the name he had given to his new conquest) even after an order had been issued, but not executed, for his arrest—established in high favour and honour with the emperor, his native master—endowed with a grant of large possessions in the New World— he had the mortification to find himself possessing only military command. The political government was vested in a royal ordinance. His enterprising spirit led him to the discovery of the great Californian gulf, but his glory was on the wane; irritated and disappointed, he returned to Europe to appeal against the proceedings of the royal ordinance, but without success; and he, who had barbarously tortured the gallant emperor of Mexico, died twenty-six years afterwards of a broken heart, A. D. 1547, in the 62nd year of his age.

Abstracting the interest which attended the discovery and first conquest of Mexico, or New Spain, the historian finds a tame succession of events, which claim but a very vague notice. From the year 1535 to 1808 (here was a succession of fifty viceroys, one alone an American by birth. At the latter period a spirit broke forth, elicited by centuries of oppression and exclusive favour to Europeans, which led the Mexicans to offer resistance to the disunion of Spain. The dissensions were headed by Hidalgo, an enthusiastic patriot, who was proclaimed generalissimo, Sen

tember 17, 1810. He unfortunately halted in his advance towards the capital, which gave the royalists time to rally, and enabled them to defeat his intentions a few months, and put him to death. But with him the spirit of independence vanished not. Morelos, a priest, assumed the command, and several princes were completely ensured to the side of liberty. A congress of forty members was called, but after the defeat and execution of Morelos, it was dissolved by General Teran, who succeeded him. After languishing for some time, the revolt was entirely quelled in 1819. The change of system introduced into Spain by the cortes alarmed the ecclesiastics in Mexico, who, for their defence, elected Iturbide, under whom a bloodless revolution was effected, and Mexico maintained in al its rights, independent of the Spanish dominion, A. D. 1822. After to usurpation of the title of emperor for little more than one year, Iturbide was compelled to lay down his usurpation, and he retired to Leghorn.

A federal government was now formed, and sworn to, February 24, 1834. Still commotions arose, in one of which Iturbide, who had been induced to return, lost his life. Thenceforward the government has been almost in a continual turmoil, adverse parties fighting for the rule, and alternately overthrowing each other. The generals Pedrazzo, Guerrero, Arenas, Arista, Urrea, and others, rapidly succeeded in grasping after the shadow of power, were exalted, and debased. Bravo, Bustamente, and Santa Ana, more successful because more unscrupulous tyrants, managed for a time to monopolize what there was of authority. Each of them being in turn banished, General Herrera was, in 1845, elected president

SOUTH AMERICA.

PERU.

The Peruvians have strange traditions that their progenitors were instructed in the arts of government and society by a man and woman, named Manco Capac and Mama Oello, from an island in a lake south of Peru. Under their instructions their kingdom was established, the royal family instituted, and success and power heaped upon them. This was about the thirteenth century; and previous to the arrival of the Spaniards in 1524, there had been fourteen successive monarchs or incas. On the arrival of the Europeans, Huana Capac was the reigning inca, who was taken prisoner and put to death by Pizarro, the discoverer of the country, although he had paid as much gold for his ransom as filled the place of his confinement. Pizarro likewise defeated his successor, and was created marquis of Atibellos, with large possessions in his conquest. His associate, Almagro, was also amply rewarded.

The city of Lima was founded by Pizarro, in 1533, but the Peruvians again took up arms under their inca, Manco Capac, and obtained some successes. A division took place between Pizarro and Almagro, the latter of whom having sustained a defeat, was taken prisoner and beheaded by his conqueror; who, two years afterward, was assassinated by Almagro's party. Various insurrections ensued with various successes, in which were conspicuous Vasco de Castro, Blasco Vela, Gonzales Pizarro, and Pedro de la Gasca, a priest. The royal authority of the Spaniards was at length established by the surrender and execution of the last inca, Tupac Amaru, by Toledo, the viceroy at Cuzco, A. D. 1562. Peru re

At

mained in a state of uninterrupted vassalage the Spanish crown, till the year 1782, when a descendant of the last inca, on being refused a title which had been granted his ancestor, Sayu Tu, ac, reared the standard of independence, round which the natives rallied with spirit, and in great numbers. For two years the war continued wit alternate success. last Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui was defeated, an with the rest of his family, excepting his brother Diego, put to death. The surviving brother shortly afterward shared the same fate, on suspicion of being engaged in a revolt at Quito.

Peru escaped awhile the rising spirit of insubordination, which convulsed the other colonies; but in 1809 commotions ensued, and juntas were established in the cities of Quito and La Paz, but were suppressed. In 1813 the independents of Chili were subjugated, but their efforts were triumphant in 1817, under General San Martin, and Chili was not only evacuated by the Peruvian army, but sent an army to retaliate upon Peru. Lima capitulated on July 6, 1821, and San Martin held levees in the viceregal palace. The independence of Peru was solemnly proclaimed on the 28th of the same month, and San Martin was proclaimed protector. This office he laid down, after calling together a constituent and sovereign congress, on the 20th of September, 1822.

Disinterested as was this abdication, it was not followed by prosperity to the country. The inadequacy of the junta appointed by the congress soon became manifest: the patriots were defeated early in 1823; the congress was dissolved, anarchy predominated, and Lima surrendered to the Spanish troops in July of the same year. They were partially dispos sessed by Bolivar and the Chilians shortly afterward; and Peru, though safe from Spanish subjugation, was like a vessel tossed by every casual wave, unsafe, and exposed to conflicting dangers.

CHILI.

This country was subjugated in 1450, by the Peruvians, who retained possession of it till they were driven out by the Spaniards under Almagro, in 1535. The Spaniards were driven out by a general rising of the natives three years afterward. Pizarro attempted to colonize the country in 1540, and though opposed by the natives of Copiapo, he succeeded in conquering several provinces, and founded the city of Santiago, February, 1541. In attempting to extend his Conquest he exposed his settlement, for six years, to the strong and repeated attacks of the Mapochians, in whose district Santiago was. His lieutenant, Pedro de Valdivia, to whom this extension was entrusted, made the Promancians his allies, and, surmounting various attacks and oppositions from the natives, founded the cities of Concepcion, Imperial, and Valdivia. He was shortly afterward defeated by his old enemies the Araucanians, who took him prisoner, and he was at length despatched by an old chief with the blow of a club.

These Araucanians kept the new colonies for several years in a continual state of alarm and distress; and so far succeeded in avenging their former defeats, as in 1598 to capture Vallansa, Valdivia, Imperial and other towns, and form the cities of Concepcion and Chillar. Nor were these the only losses sustained by the Spaniards. The Dutch plundered Chiloe, and massacred the garrison. The feuds between the Araucanians and Spaniards were settled by a treaty of peace in 1641, which lasted for fourteen years; then came a war of ten years, and another peace. In 1722 a conspiracy for the extirpation of the whites was happily frustrated. The colonists were gathered into towns, the country divided into provinees, and several new cities founded by the governor Don Josef Manto,

1742. A similar attempt by Don Antonia Gonzago, in respect of the Araucanians, relighted the torch of war, which blazed three years, when harmony was restored. Nor does anything of particular moment occur in the history of Chili, till 1809: then a successful revolutionary movement took place, and for four or five years fortune favoured the cause of independence; but in 1814, a royalist party from Peru nearly extinguished the flame of liberty. Success (in 1817) returned with General San Martin, who brought them freedom. D. Bernado O'Higgins was made director of the junta; and a fatal blow was struck at the power of the royalists on the 5th of April, 1818, when a large tract of coast was declared in a slate of blockade by the Chilian navy under Lord Cochrane. In 1820, at stated in the history of Peru, the Chilian army under San Martin, liberated Peru from the Spanish thraldom, and San Martin retired into the ranks of private life in Chili. His example was followed by O'Higgins, who resigned the dictatorship, January 28, 1823, and was succeeded by General Freire, the commander-in-chief. The royalist flag, which was hoisted in September, near the city of Concepcion, was pulled down after a short period, and a free constitution appointed, with a popular govern

ment.

BRAZIL.

The honour of discovering this country is contested between Martır. Behem, and Pedro Alvarez Cabral, at the close of the fifteenth century. It was originally called Santa Cruz by Cabral, but afterward Brazil, from the name of a wood produced there. It was first colonized by some refugee Jews, in 1548, banished from Portugal, and was fostered by the able guidance of Governor de Sonza, and the blandishments of the Jesuits. In 1624, San Salvador was taken possession of by the Dutch, who were in turn defeated by an armament of Spaniards under Frederic de Toledo.

The Dutch, in 1630, succeeded in making themselves masters of Demerara, Paraiba, and Rio Grande. Maurice of Nassau added Scara, Seregipee, and the greater part of Bahia; and the whole of Brazil was on the point of yielding to their arms, when the revolution which drove Philip IV. from the Portuguese throne, afforded an opportunity for both the Dutch and Portuguese to expel the Spaniards from Brazil. By an agreement between them, the country received a plural title, being called Brazils from the circumstance that both the Dutch and Portuguese possessed almost equal parts of it. By conquest and treaty the whole at length fell to Portugal.

In 1800, the royal family of Portugal, driven from Europe by the invasion of the French, migrated to Brazil, which from that period has risen rapidly in importance, independence, and strength. In 1817, a revolution broke out in Pernambuco, which failed. A free constitution was passed, and the king returned to Lisbon. Subsequently the prince-regent, on his birth-day, October 12, 1822, was proclaimed constitutional emperor of Brazil, independent of the Portuguese throne—a measure which has since been formally recognised by the government of the parent country.

THE REPUBLIC OF LA PLATA, OR UNITED PROVINCES The title of the United Provinces is of modern date, as the following brief outline of the history of this part of the New World will exhibit. Juan Diaz de Solis, a Spaniard, is said to have been the first adventurer who explored the country, and took possession of it, A. D. 1513. Berge

tian Cabot, in 1526, in the La Plata, discovered the island of St. Gabriel, the river St. Salvador, and the Paraguay.

Buenos Ayres was founded in 1536, by Don Pedro de Mendoza. This did not flourish much, on account of the restricted state of commerce, which was, however, gradually relaxed, and in 1748 the annual flota made its last voyage. A free trade with several American ports began in 1774, and an extension to the Spanish ports was granted in 1778. Under a viceroy, trade augmented, and commercial prosperity ensued. Buenos Ayres was captured in 1806 by General Beresford, with a British army, which was in turn compelled to surrender a few weeks afterward to General Liniers, a French officer, at the head of a body of militia. Sir Home Popham, with five thousand men, having captured Fort Maldonado, attacked Monte Video, without success; but, reinforced by Sir Samuel Auchmuty, at length carried the town by storm. The operations were extended under General Whitelocke and General Crawford, who with twelve thousand men renewed the attack upon Buenos Ayres, but were defeated and captured by the native militia. Liniers, who had contributed so largely to this defeat, was raised by the people to the viceroyalty, upon the expulsion of Sobremonte for cowardice.

The United Provinces escaped not the swell of that storm which the French invasion stirred up in Spain. After various intrigues and plots, Ferdinand VII. was at length proclaimed in Buenos Ayres by the address of Don Josef de Goyeneche. A rising of the people (August 1809) was suppressed by Liniers, who was shortly after deposed and sent into exile. Rapid were the convulsions which now shook this unhappy country; till, on May 26, 1810, the people rose, expelled the viceroy, and appointed a provisional junta of nine persons. In vain the provinces of Cordova, Paraguay, and Monte Video refused their co-operation; they were compelled to go along with the tide. In vain Liniers and General Nieto assembled armies; they were defeated, and beheaded. Shortly after the district of Potosi fell into the hands of the patriots, who deputed, in 1814, a special mission to Ferdinand, on his restoration to the Spanish throne, with conditions of submission. These, happily for them, were rejected. In the same year a small cloud passed over the hopes of the patriots by General Artigas, which was dispelled by the capture of Monte Video, the last stronghold of the Spaniards. After two years of carnage and confusion, in 1816, a sovereign congress met at Tucuman, and on October 6, the same year, the act of independence was ratified, D. Juan Martin Pueyrsedon being dictator. Monte Video was taken by the Portuguese under the Baron de Leguna, who had seized on the most valuable part of da Oriental.

Petty dissensions and intrigues, incident to the effects of rising independence, interrupted the progress of success necessary for the consolidation of a new state. D. Jose de San Martin cut a distinguished figure in this part of the history, having twice defeated the independents at Entre Rios, in 1811; but his efforts failed, and the independence of the Provinces of Rio de la Plata was shortly after sealed. Artigas, driven by the Portuguese across the Paraguay, was apprehended by the dictator Francia, and in 1819, Pueyrsedon, the dictator, fled to Monte Video, and thus dissolved the confused mass of the union of conflicting and discordant provinces. After a variety of events and political changes, D. Martin Rodriguez was established governor, October 6, 1820; and in the following year the independence of Buenos Ayres was recognised by the Portuguese government. A general congress was convened at Cordova the same year, and on the 15th of December they decided the number of deputies to be sent by each province.

In 1827 a war broke out between the republic and Brazil, respecting the possession of Uruguay (Banda Oriental) established as an independen!