Intelligible details about comparatively recent times are proverbially the hardest to obtain, and the author feels that whatever of accuracy these pages may boast is due principally to his friends among present South American diplomats—men who understand South American history because they have been a part of it. Salvador de Mendonça, Joaquin Godoy, Oliviera Lima, Claudio Pinilla, Estanislao Zeballos, Manoel Gorostiaga, and Carlos Tobar have kindly tried to help him thread his way through the tangled mazes of Latin-American politics, and his principal reluctance at giving these pages to the public now is that he has not had the good fortune as yet to know and converse with men of like ability from Colombia and Venezuela.

T. C. D.

Petropolis, Brazil, March 29, 1904.

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
[PERU]
I.THE INCA EMPIRE[3]
II.THE SPANISH CONQUEST[20]
III.CIVIL WARS AMONG THE CONQUERORS[41]
IV.THE COLONIAL PERIOD[58]
V.THE WARS OF INDEPENDENCE[74]
VI.FROM INDEPENDENCE TO CHILEAN WAR[98]
VII.THE CHILEAN WAR AND LATTER-DAY PERU[117]

[CHILE]
I.THE SPANISH CONQUEST[135]
II.THE COLONIAL PERIOD[148]
III.THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE[156]
IV.THE FORMATIVE PERIOD[189]
V.CHILE'S GREATNESS AND THE CIVIL WAR[211]

[BOLIVIA]
I.THE CONQUEST AND THE MINES[235]
II.THE COLONIAL SYSTEM AND TUPAC'S REVOLT[248]
III.THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE[255]
IV.BOLIVIA INDEPENDENT[266]

[ECUADOR]
I.THE CARAS[285]
II.THE SPANISH CONQUEST[297]
III.THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE[311]
IV.THE FORMATION OF ECUADOR[320]
V.MODERN ECUADOR[330]

[VENEZUELA]
I.CONQUEST, SETTLEMENT, AND COLONIAL DAYS[347]
II.THE REVOLT[357]
III.MODERN VENEZUELA[384]

[COLOMBIA]
I.CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT[403]
II.COLONIAL TIMES[419]
III.THE WAR AGAINST SPAIN[430]
IV.MODERN COLOMBIA[446]

[PANAMA]
THE EVENTS LEADING TO INDEPENDENCE[475]

INDEX		[491]