example, the brave attempt of the Cacique Lempira in Honduras; but these rebellions were all crushed by the iron hand of the Adelantado and by his generals. Now came the low murmur of a rising tempest over the land, and the winds were blowing from a different quarter of the heavens. Now the ruling caste was uneasy, and it was about to reap the inevitable harvest of the wind it had sowed. Not in the province of Guatemala, not at the seat of the Audiencia Real, but on that disturbed strip of land along the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and San Salvador, where earthquakes are on the most terrific scale, and volcanic vents bristle threateningly, appeared the first forcible remonstrances against this aged and encrusted tyranny. In 1811 there were risings, little _pronunciamentos_; but there was no combination to insure success. The false system of government taught a distrust of others; selfishness permeated individual character as well as the nation at large; and no man could put confidence in his neighbor. No leader appeared to unite the discordant elements, the evolution of a free state was very slow, and at last was as much owing to the supineness of Spain as to any forceful act on the part of the provinces. We have here no war of freedom, no Washington, no Bolivar. Sporadic murmurs were heard now and again; they came to the ears of the people and set a few men to thinking; the number of these thinkers grew, until in 1821 the then representative of Spain, Gavino Gainza, joined the rebels,—much as a disappointed politician of the present day leaves his party for the camp of its opponents,—and independence was solemnly proclaimed, September 15, in Guatemala. Spain seems to have acquiesced in an act which deprived her of her fair American colonies; but it may be supposed that her mismanagement had left little value in the possession.