I. _The intellectual movement after the expulsion of the Jesuits._ II. _Political reformers._ III. _Poets._ IV. _Literary periodicals: Mercurio Peruano; Gaceta de Lima._ V. _Contributors to Mercurio Peruano._ VI. _El Telégrafo Mercantil._ VII. _Tadeo Haenke._ VIII. _El Volador._ I [Sidenote: Expulsion of the Jesuits] [Sidenote: Signs of new intellectual life] [Sidenote: The old views and the new] The expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 produced an immediate decline of literary activity in the Spanish colonies. It had, moreover, a far-reaching influence on the means of instruction; it closed the most efficient schools, and silenced those persons who might have continued to spread enlightenment through their writings. The most noteworthy salvage from the wreck was the collection of books and manuscripts that were gathered up from the Jesuits’ colleges. In Bogotá some of these books and papers, placed in charge of a librarian and made accessible in the building of the ancient Jesuit college, formed what was then known as the Royal Library. It was formally opened to the public January 9, 1777, and at that time contained 13,800 volumes. Another act tending to stimulate the intellectual life of New Granada was the organization of the Botanical Expedition, or bureau of scientific investigation, under the direction of José Celestino Mutis. A little later literary production was encouraged by the formation of literary societies, or “circles,” and the founding of periodicals. The new intellectual movement appealed particularly to the rising generation of creoles. A phase of it was seen in the attention given to political questions and the enthusiastic patriotism manifested by Antonio Nariño and his associates. But this movement did not close abruptly the period of mediævalism in the colonies. Writers, like Manuel de Caycedo Ladrón de Guevara (Bogotá, 1718-1781), continued to produce voluminous works which made clear only the author’s ecclesiastical erudition. But in view of the approaching revolution in the British colonies and in France, more men began to think in terms of worldly things; instead of exercising their imaginations in creating a heavenly state, they began to look forward to a new earthly state. The new idealism, imposed upon men by the rising spirit of revolution, contained a force competent to transform the world.