the 12th Bolivar
triumphantly marched into the capital, and found in its coffers silver
coin to the value of half a million dollars, which the viceroy had left
behind in his haste.

It must be said further that the English auxiliaries aided greatly in the
results of these battles, their conduct giving Bolivar such gratification
that he made them all members of the Order of the Liberator.

It is not our purpose to tell the whole story of this implacable war, but
simply to relate the dramatic invasion and conquest of New Granada. It
must suffice, then, to state that the war dragged on for two years longer,
ending finally in 1821 with the victory of Carabobo, in which the
Spaniards were totally defeated and lost more than six thousand men. After
that they withdrew and a republic was organized, with Bolivar for its
president.

Two years later he aided the Peruvians in gaining their independence and
was declared their liberator and made supreme dictator of the country.
After ruling there absolutely for two years, he resigned and gave the
country a republican constitution. The congress of Lima elected him
president for life, and a new commonwealth was organized in the northern
section of Peru, to which the people gave the name of Bolivia, in honor of
the winner of their liberties.

HIDALGO THE PATRIOT, AND THE GRITO DE DOLORES.

In the last quarter of the eighteenth century ideas of revolution were
widely in the air. The people were rising against the tyranny of the
kings. First in this struggle for liberty came the English colonies in
America. Then the people of France sprang to arms and overthrew the
moss-grown tyranny of feudal times. The armies of Napoleon spread the
demand for freedom through Europe. In Spain the people began to fight for
their freedom, and soon the thirst for liberty crossed the ocean to
America, where the people of the Spanish colonies had long been oppressed
by the tyranny of their rulers.

The citizens of Mexico had been deeply infected by the example of the
great free republic of the north, and the seed of liberty grew for years
in their minds. Chief among its advocates was a farmer's son named Miguel
Hidalgo, a true scion of the people and an ardent lover of liberty, who
for years longed to make his native Mexico independent of the effete
royalty of Spain. He did not conceal his views on this subject, though his
deeper projects were confided only to a few trusty friends, chief among