Sunny, happy, smiling Chile, stretches like a broad ribbon unrolling itself along the Pacific coast of South America. To-day she is a Republic with a Constitution and a President. Chile is a prosperous Republic; for after civil war and political struggles, she has found herself, and is even stronger and more vigorous than when under the rule of Bernardo O’Higgins. High in her background loom the Andes, their jagged summits covered with eternal snows; while in their hearts are valleys, lakes, and rushing torrents, rich copper mines, and grazing grounds. Chile’s immensely long and narrow land reaches from the hot and arid deserts of Peru, to the cold and rainy country of Cape Horn. But the beautiful, sunny, happy Chile lies between these two extremes. In that delightful part, grow barley, wheat, grapes; and herds of cattle and horses feed on the rich grass. Each year, Chile sends quantities of grain as well as of iodine, nitrates, and wool, to the markets of our United States, and to those of other countries as well. In Chile, thousands of school children in the cities, towns, and villages are taught to honour the name of Bernardo O’Higgins, who founded their Government, Chile’s “first Soldier, first Citizen.” The children of Chile keep their Independence Day on February 12, while our children in the United States are celebrating Lincoln’s Birthday. ONE OF TWENTY Chile is only one of twenty flourishing Latin American Republics. They are called Latin American, because they were settled by Latin Races, Spanish, French, or Portuguese. There are eighteen Spanish-American ones; one French, Haiti; and one Portuguese, Brazil. In these twenty Republics there are more than 75,000,000 people. This book is too short a one in which to tell about all the Liberators of these Republics. There was Toussaint l’Ouverture, the extraordinary coloured man, an ex-slave, who liberated Haiti. Haiti was the first Latin American Republic to declare its Independence. In Peru, there was Tupac Amaru, the brave young Indian Cacique, a descendant of the “Child of the Sun” whom Pizarro conquered. He tried to liberate his people from Spain, but was captured with all his family, and put to death. In Paraguay there was the tyrant-liberator Francia, about whom that fascinating romance in English, _El Supremo_, tells. While _La Banda Oriental_, as Uruguay used to be called, had for a Liberator, the bold bandit-like Artigas. In Mexico, it was the priest Hidalgo who roused the Mexican People to revolt against Spain. The Peoples of the eighteen Spanish-American Republics, are not _one_ People like those of our United States, living at peace under _one_ Government and governed by _one_ Constitution. They are not a Union. Instead, each is a separate Republic. Each may do as it pleases without consulting the welfare of the others. This at times, brings about bad feeling, and even war.