nselfish man in history, and his fame has grown steadily in Spanish
America, since Argentina built a tomb-palace for his remains, and
decreed for him one of the most splendid funerals ever known to the
Western World.

General Don Joachim de la Pezuela, the last Spanish ruler of Peru,
was the forty-fourth viceroy from Pizarro. "The Indians," he said,
"love the memory of the Incas--the country is ready to rise." The
banner of Argentina was putting to flight the condors of the Andes,
and the last viceroy saw in its advance the end of Spain in the New
World.

The Argentine hero who had created the army of the Andes for
universal liberty was San Martin. He was born on February 25, 1778,
at Yapeyu, in Misiones. His father was a South American officer
under the last rule of the viceroys. The family removed to Spain in
his boyhood, and he became for two years a pupil in the Seminary of
Nobles, at Madrid. At the age of twelve he became a cadet, wearing a
uniform of blue and white, which he made in manhood the colors of
South American emancipation.

He fought in the war against the Moors, and in the campaign against
France, in 1793. In 1800 he took part in the so-called "War of the
Oranges against Portugal."

In the early part of the nineteenth century there began to be formed
in Spain secret societies for the purpose of advancing the cause of
liberty and human progress. One of these associations, called
_Caballeros Racionales_, became very influential, and corresponded
with the society of the Grand Reunion of America (_Gran Reunion
Americana_) of London. This society was pledged "to recognize no
government in America as legitimate unless it was elected by the
free will of the people." San Martin joined this society. The London
society was established by Miranda, the Spanish patriot, a friend of
Bolivar, by whose inspirations San Martin became a disciple of
liberty, and whose dreams he fulfilled long after the patriot was
dead.

San Martin won honors and a medal in the Spanish resistance to the
victorious eagles of Napoleon. In that campaign he fought under a
banner of the Sun, having this motto in Latin: "We bear this aloft
dispersing the clouds." He made this banner the flag of the army of
the Andes.

In 1812, San Martin, as a disciple of the principles of the Spanish
apostle of liberty, Miranda, returned to South America, and in March
went to Buenos Ayres, and offered his sword to the Argentine
patriots for the cause