r to the treaty of 1881
between Argentina and Chile, by which Argentina acquired
all the territory east of the Andes, including Patagonia
and the eastern part of Tierra del Fuego.

By the conquest and settlement of the broad plains
(_pampas_) and the frozen region of the south, a new world
was created, much as in the United States of America a new
world was created by the acquirement and settlement of the
western plains, mountain lands and Pacific coast.

21. Vast areas in Argentina are given over to the
cultivation of wheat, barley and oats.

=159.=--These are the last stanzas of =Prometeo=, a poem
in which the author addresses the human mind and urges
it to break its bonds and free itself from tyranny and
prejudice: see also in _Vocab_.

=160.=--Obligado: see note to p. 151.

=162.=--=Colombia.= Colombia was formerly known as Nueva
Granada, and its inhabitants are still sometimes called
_Granadinos_. An older and larger Colombia was organized
in 1819, toward the close of the revolutionary war; but
this state was later divided into three independent
countries, viz., Venezuela, Nueva Granada and Ecuador. In
1861 Nueva Granada assumed the name of Estados Unidos de
Colombia, and only recently the Colombian part of the
Isthmus of Panama established itself as an independent
republic. The present Colombia has, therefore, only about
one third the area of the older state of the same name. In
treating of literature, the terms Colombia and Colombian
are restricted to the present-day Colombia and the older
Nueva Granada. The capital of the Republic is Santa Fe de
Bogota, to-day generally known simply as Bogota. It is at
an elevation of 8700 feet above the level of the page 286
sea, and has a cool and equable climate.

It is generally conceded that the literary production of
Colombia has excelled that of any other Spanish-American
country. Menendez y Pelayo (_Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Am._,
III, _Introd._) speaks of Bogota as the "Athens of South
America," and says further: "the Colombian Parnassus
to-day excels in quality, if not in quantity, that of any
other region of the New World." And Juan Valera in his
_Cartas americanas (primera serie_, p. 121 f.) says: "Of
all the people of South America the Bogotanos are the most
devoted to letters, sciences and arts"; and again: "In
spite of the extraordinary ease with which verses are
made in Colombia, and although Colombia is a democratic
republic, her poetry is ar