cter bred by a mountainous country and a bracing climate
and by a hard struggle for existence, but ignorant through lack of
education, shut out by a narrow-minded commercial system from knowledge
of the outside world, and destitute of the character-training that free
institutions afford.

Struggle for independence.

The national independence of Chile dates from the second decade of the
19th century. The revolt of England's North American colonies, and the
events of the French Revolution naturally suggested the idea of a
struggle for independence to the Spanish colonists, and the deposition
of Ferdinand VII. by Napoleon, and the ensuing disorganization of Spain,
supplied the desired opportunity. In 1809 risings took place in
Venezuela, in Ecuador, in Upper Peru and in the Argentine; the
revolutionary fever spread to Chile, and on the 18th of September 1810
the _cabildo_ of Santiago secured the resignation of the governor and
vested his powers in an elected _Junta_ (board) of seven members. This
event was the beginning of the independence of Chile. But it was some
time before independence was fully attained. The mass of the people were
ignorant, intercourse between them was slight, and there was a strong
section attached to the old regime. The party determined on independence
was at first small, and compelled to conceal its aims till the ground
had been prepared for open decisive action. Further, there were
divisions between the patriots of Santiago and those of Concepcion, and
bitter jealousies between the leaders, the chief of whom were Juan
Martinez de Rozas, Jose Miguel Carrera and Bernardo O'Higgins. Owing to
the apathy of the people and the enmities existing among the leaders,
the Spanish forces, sent by the viceroy of Peru to crush the
revolutionary movement, succeeded after two years' indecisive fighting
in completely defeating the patriots at Rancagua in 1814. For three
years the Spaniards maintained their hold on Chile, ruling the country
with tyrannical harshness, but in the spring of 1817 a patriot force
which had been organized at Mendoza in the Argentine by Jose de San
Martin, an Argentine officer, and by O'Higgins, crossed the Andes and
overwhelmed the royalists at the battle of Chacabuco. O'Higgins was
named director-general of Chile, while San Martin, realizing that the
independence of each colony depended on the Spanish being expelled from
the whole of South America, set about preparing an invasion