Peru proved an even tougher job, but the combined forces of San Martin and Cochrane proved irresistible, and both Lima and Callao were taken in 1821. Lima, however, was recaptured by the Spaniards in 1823, but Bolivar, marching against it from Colombia, was appointed dictator, and gained so decisive a victory in 1824 that the Spanish army was forced to capitulate, and by 1826 the connection with the mother country was completely and finally severed. Spain had vainly striven against these successive misfortunes, and in 1815 sent out a considerable force under Marshal Morillo, who gained a few temporary successes; but his cruelties and atrocious conduct only exasperated the colonists, and instigated them to greater exertions. The various countries of Central America were quietly federated into the Republic of Guatemala in 1823, in the absence of any Spanish troops to oppose; and thus, from the northern borders of Mexico to the southern confines of Chili and La Plata, the conquerors of the New World were forever ejected. England was the first to recognize the South American republics, and entered into commercial treaties with several of them in 1825, after which date Spain can no longer be said to have been able to claim ownership of a single acre on the American Continent. Meanwhile of a once vast colonial empire but Cuba and Porto Rico remained. What were the forces at work which there prevented secession? The political economist Mr. R. J. Root, to whom and to whose work on this subject we are already much indebted, states that the conditions were different. The predominant feature of the islands was negro slavery, whereas the wealth of the Spanish-American colonist lay in lands which, if subject to alienation, were at least impossible of removal. The Cuban planter reckoned as his most precious possession the flesh and blood attached to his estates, and the very words “freedom” and “independence” stank in his nostrils. Whatever inconvenience, therefore, he suffered from his political connection with an effete monarchy and a decaying or decayed empire, he at least felt that, while he clung to it, it would afford him protection for his property.