upon the superstitious minds of the Yaquis by posing as a saint. She performed "miraculous" cures, and under her influence pilgrimages were made by hundreds of ignorant Mexicans to her home in the region of Hermosillo. These pilgrimages soon became serious on account of the excitable character of the people, and the Mexican government sent a body of soldiers to make the girl a prisoner. As the fact of her arrest became known, there was a great deal of excitement; and at last the girl was placed on board a train, and, accompanied by a strong guard, was escorted to the United States border and left in the town of Nogales, Ariz. Hither her followers resorted in great numbers, and she continued to perform many wonderful cures. Then came an outbreak of Indians in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, in which she led the revolt, bearing apparently a charmed life. She was at last arrested and again taken across the United States border, with the injunction never to return to Mexico. For several months she lived in a small town on the Texas side of the river, near El Paso, but afterward gathered a band of several hundred ignorant Mexicans, crossed the river into Mexico, and proclaimed another revolution. This was overcome, and she fled back across the river, taking refuge with friends in Texas. For some time she was quiet; but of late has headed another army of fanatics, who believe that she is a saint delegated by Divine will to lead them to victory in a war against the Mexican government.

United States troops have arrested the young woman, her father, and a number of men who have been engaged in the disturbance. It is stated that her father is the most responsible for the trouble, as she does just about what he wants.

JAMAICA.

About the middle of September, a fresh uprising of the Maroons in the island, similar to that of last year (Vol. 5, p. 674), occurred, causing much anxiety and necessitating the dispatch of a large posse of police to the disturbed scene. The periodical revolts of this half-civilized mountain tribe are due to alleged encroachments, by the landholders, upon the outlying lands of the Maroon reservations.

CENTRAL AMERICA.

Costa Rica has become a gold-standard country, a decree withdrawing its present system of currency having been issued in July. Advices also reported that a law had been passed prohibiting the importation of foreign silver.

Both Costa Rica and Guatemala have refused to join the confederation known as "The Greater Republic (Republica Mayor) of Central America." The treaty of Amapala, upon which the confederation is founded, and which was outlined in CURRENT HISTORY at the time it was signed (Vol. 5, p. 676), was finally ratified at San Salvador on

Vol. 6-43.

September 15, by representatives of Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Late in September it was announced that the government of Nicaragua had discovered and foiled on the eve of its execution a plot to assassinate President Zelaya and overthrow the present administration. Since the collapse of the recent revolt (p. 413), the enemies of the victorious president and a considerable number of his supporters, the conservatives, with which party he had been allied but a short time (p. 173), joined to overthrow him. The conservative malcontents were presumably disappointed in not sharing the spoils of office. The plot was to assault the barracks and palace simultaneously, to kill the president, and to destroy the barracks with dynamite in case the assault were repulsed. Some of the leaders in the conspiracy were arrested.

SOUTH AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

Argentina. The figures of the census taken last year, which have just been completed, show the population on May 10, 1895, to have been 4,042,990, an increase of 2,218,776 since the census of 1869, or an annual increase of 4.6 per cent.

The figures for the chief cities are: Buenos Ayres, 663,854; Rosario, 93,584; all others, below 50,000. The density of population is one and two-fifths per square kilometre. The schools number 2,774; libraries, 150; newspapers, etc., 45; hospitals, 129; Catholic churches, 849, non Catholic churches, 50; theatres, 121; flour mills, 532; sugar mills, 48; sugar plantations, 2,749; vineyards, 6,513; breweries, 44; distilleries, 108; wine factories, 852; cattle, 12,316,037; sheep, 63,611,108; hogs, 3,079,038.

A strike involving 4,000 workmen was in progress in Buenos Ayres in mid-August, the men demanding a working day of eight hours.

Chile.-The election of Señor Errazuriz (p. 415) as president for a five-year term in succession to Admiral Don Jorge Montt, who became president in November, 1891, on the collapse of the Balmacedist rebellion (Vol. 1, pp. 445, 566), was ratified in the Chilean congress, September 3, by a vote of 62 to 60. On September 18 the new president was formally installed in office.

In September the Chilean government dispatched a small squadron to reassert its ownership of the island of Juan Fernandez, famous as the scene of "Robinson Crusoe's" adventures. The island, it appears now inhabited by an agricultural colony of about a 1800 Swiss and French peasants, who have heretofore made and executed

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their own laws, but have been accustomed to refer all disputed points to one M. Rodt, a Swiss, as arbitrator, to whom the island was leased by Chile in 1872, and through whom the colonists were induced to settle there. The object of the government in reasserting sovereignty is presumably to remind the settlers that under international law they are subject to the laws of Chile.

Gold Standard Adopted. An extremely interesting account of the experiences of Chile under a silver standard and the recent conversion to a gold standard (Vol. 5, p. 410), is found in a report from Mr. E. H. Strobel, United States minister at Santiago, on "Resumption of Specie Payment in Chile." Like the United States, Chile has gone through stages of bimetallism and inconvertible paper. Although a much larger producer of silver than gold, its experience has brought it to the practically unanimous conclusion that the gold standard is the best for the interests of the country. The following is a summary of some of the statistics given by Mr. Strobel, bearing on the course of wages and prices during the silver period:

3.

The peso is supposed to be worth 45 pence; but in 1875 it was worth 43 pence, in 1885 it was worth 26 pence, and in 1895 it was worth but from 13 pence to 17 pence. During this period, while the money of the country was depreciating, and when, therefore, its purchasing power was growing less, wages increased, but not nearly at the rate at which the peso decreased. In 1875, for example, some mechanics received from 3 to 4 pesos a day; a carpenter received from 3 to 4 pesos; a laborer, from 1 to 13 pesos. In 1895 the mechanic who had received from 3 to 4 pesos received from 44 to 61, while the carpenter received from 4 to 5, and the laborer from 24 to But the higher wages were not worth nearly so much to the recipients as the lower wages had been; for a while in 1875 the peso was worth nearly its full value, in 1895 4 pesos were equivalent to 1.79, and 6 pesos were worth only 2.46 pesos of full value. The laborer, instead of being able to buy the necessaries of life to the value of nearly 14 pesos with a day's wage in 1895, procured goods to the value of only about .85 of a peso, although in the first instance his day's wage was 14 pesos, and in the latter 24 pesos. When he received 14 pesos his daily wage purchased for him food and other commodities of the value of about 1.70 pesos; in 1895, when his day's wage was 3 pesos, it purchased only 1.13 pesos' worth of goods.

Ecuador. The revolution under General Vega, which broke out last quarter (p. 416) lasted until near the end of August. This is only one of several insurrections fostered by clerical leaders against which General Alfaro has had to fight since his accession to the presidency last year as the representative of liberalism (Vol. 5, p. 679). The present rebellion, however, became very formidable, for, instead of being confined to the mountains and sparsely inhabited districts around Quito, it was centred at Cuenca,

from which point the rebels held sway over Assuay and neighboring provinces. Late in July General Alfaro again took the field in person and opened a vigorous campaign. On the 24th a sharp battle was fought near San Miguel de Chimbo, the rebels being forced to fall back on Cuenca. On August 12, near this point, a column of rebels was defeated by the advanced guard of General Alfaro's army, whereupon General Vega concentrated all his forces at Cuenca. The capture of this stronghold on August 22 definitely crushed the rebellion. General Vega surrendered after a few hours of brave resistance. The government troops entered the city on the next day; and the victorious president issued immediately a decree granting a general amnesty to the rebels and a delay of three days for them to surrender their arms.

During September Ecuador suffered from one or two. incursions of guerilla malcontents from across the Peruvian border.

Peru. By the middle of July, the rebel leader in the province of Loreto, General Seminario (p. 416), had determined to surrender; and quiet had been restored at Iquitos, a few malcontents having fled to the interior districts.

Toward the end of July, an important conspiracy against the Pierola administration was discovered and foiled by the authorities at Lima. About forty arrests were made. The conspirators included among their numbers, it is said, ex-President Caceres and some of the most prominent people of the republic.

Gold mines of great value have been discovered in the province of Carabaya, department of Puno, in the extreme southeastern part of the republic. They are in the region which supplied the ancient Incas with their boundless stores of the yellow metal.

Venezuela. This republic has followed the example of Chile in adopting the gold standard. This was done by constitutional amendment to put a stop to the agitation for a depreciated currency. Congress assented to the recommendations of the president; and the several states have ratified the action of congress.

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GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

Parliamentary Procedings.-The important measures passed during the quarter were very few. One was the Agricultural Rates bill (pp. 420, 421), one of those undesirable yet not always avoidable laws whose aim is to placate a class of the population for some grievance or to indemnify it for some disadvantage. It will probably serve a temporary pur

pose. The Education bill seems to be beyond revival for the present.

The Irish Land Bill. This bill (pp. 421, 422) had a stormy course in both houses. Coming up in the commons in July, a month after it had passed its second reading, it was met by a harassing attack from the liberals. But a greater danger awaited its committee stage-the loading it with amendments. These-proposed mostly in the interest of the landlords, and some with seeming intention to wreck the bill by rousing the opposition of the Irish nationalists-burdened it with an incongruous and unmanageable mass. The Duke of Abercorn and other conservatives had early charged it with concealing a principle of confiscation. The bill was threatened with the same fate that had befallen the Education bill-the fate of being stifled under amendments, the amendments in the former case due to unwise advocacy, in this case perhaps to hostile strategy. In view of the peril, on July 14, the government withdrew a large part of the amendments which they had adopted, relating to procedure before land courts and defining improvements by tenant or landlord on landed property. This was hailed by the opposition as an acknowledgment of discomfiture: whatever it was it

SIR HENRY JAMES,