latter port, and, there being no hotels, he had the good
fortune to enjoy the hospitality of the Jesuit superior, Father
Mahony, whose name proclaims his Irish nationality. Such was the
impression made on Falkiner by the kindness of the Jesuits that he
shortly afterwards was received into the Church and entered as a
novice in the College of St. Ignatius at Buenos Ayres. He spent the
first years of his missionary career in Misiones and Tucuman. Later
on he was despatched by his superior to Patagonia, and his success
there during 27 years was almost equal to what has already been
mentioned of Father Field in Paraguay. He converted many tribes, and
traversed nearly every part of Patagonia from Rio Negro to Magellan's
Straits, and as far inland as the Andes. He knew most of the Indian
tongues, and by his winning manners and knowledge of medicine gained
a great influence over the savages. When he published his life and
travels, such was the effect of his book upon the king of Spain that
he at once ordered surveys and settlements to be made along the
Patagonian coast, which Father Falkiner represented as exposed to
seizure by the first adventurer who should land there. Father
Falkiner's book has been translated into French, German, and Spanish.
He returned to England and died at Spetchly, Worcestershire, near the
end of the 18th century.

In 1774 the bishop of Ayachucho was Dr. James O'Phelan, who rebuilt
the old Cathedral of Pasco. His father was an Irish officer in the
Spanish army.

II.--THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.

Towards the close of the 18th century the Pitt administration lent a
willing ear to a Venezuelan patriot, General Miranda, who proposed
that Great Britain should aid South America to expel the Spanish
rulers and set up a number of independent states. Spain being the
ally of France and paying an annual subsidy to Napoleon, it became
moreover the object of England to seize the treasure-ships
periodically arriving from the River Plate.

Hostilities having broken out in Europe in 1803, an English squadron
under an Irish commander, Captain Moore, captured in the following
year some Spanish galleons laden with treasure at the mouth of the
River Plate. In June, 1806, Major General William Carr Beresford with
a British squadron cast anchor about twelve miles from Buenos Ayres,
and with a force of only 1635 men took possession of that city of
60,000 inhabitants. The indignation which such a humiliation at first
cause