Perhaps to these indications of an intellectual awakening in Spanish South America one ought to add a reference to a forerunner of modern aviation, who achieved fame to such an extent that he became known as El Volador. This was Santiago Cárdenas, who was born in Callao about 1726. Here he lived with his parents, who were extremely poor, until they secured for him, while he was still very young, a position on a vessel trading between Callao and the coast of Chile. The tidal wave that succeeded the earthquake of 1746 threw the vessel, to which he was attached, upon the shore. This event deprived the seafaring life of some of its attractions for him, and he left his service and went to Lima. Here he devoted himself to work in practical mechanics. Having acquired noteworthy skill in this field, he became ambitious to invent a machine for flying, and petitioned Viceroy Amat for support to enable him to carry out his project. The inhabitants of Lima did not receive with favour his proposal to fly from the hill San Cristóbal to the great square of the city, and on his appearance on the streets they hooted at him and stoned him. The government, however, intervened, and set aside the proposed attempt. Thereafter El Volador’s efforts were directed to writing a book on flying, which he called _Nuevo sístema de navegar por les aires_. [Sidenote: On art of flying] In 1860 the manuscript of this book was in the library of the school of medicine; it was afterwards transferred to the national library at Lima, but some pages at the end had been lost, as also some of the rude pen drawings. But in 1878 Ricardo Palma had the manuscript copied and printed at Valparaiso in a little volume of one hundred and thirty pages. In the introduction he set down certain curious facts regarding Cárdenas. The next year Pedro Ruiz published a pamphlet in which he discussed the art of flying. Mendiburu, from whose notice of the Volador these facts are taken, refers to a manuscript in the library of Lima entitled _Viaje al globo de la luna_, giving some account of Santiago El Volador. In the course of time the populace recovered from its aversion to Cárdenas’ project, and it is reported that he had to seek asylum in a church to escape from the crowd that wished to compel him to fulfil his promise to fly. [Sidenote: Intellectual movement in the last decades] [Sidenote: Mutis and Nariño]