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Hispanic Nations of the New World; a chronicle of our southern neighbors by William R. (William Robert) Shepherd
page 49 of 172 (28%)
independent, under the name of the "Republic of the Equator"
(Ecuador). Everywhere the artificial handiwork of the Liberator
lay in ruins. "America is ungovernable. Those who have served in
the revolution have ploughed the sea, " was his despairing cry.

Stricken to death, the fallen hero retired to an estate near
Santa Marta. Here, like his famous rival, San Martin, in France,
he found hospitality at the hands of a Spaniard. On December 17,
1830, the Liberator gave up his troubled soul.

While Bolivar's great republic was falling apart, the United
Provinces of La Plata had lost practically all semblance of
cohesion. So broad were their notions of liberty that the several
provinces maintained a substantial independence of one another,
while within each province the caudillos, or partisan chieftains,
fought among themselves.

Buenos Aires alone managed to preserve a measure of stability.
This comparative peace was due to the financial and commercial
measures devised by Bernardino Rivadavia, one of the most capable
statesmen of the time, and to the energetic manner in which
disorder was suppressed by Juan Manuel de Rosas, commander of the
gaucho, or cowboy, militia. Thanks also to the former leader, the
provinces were induced in 1826 to join in framing a constitution
of a unitary character, which vested in the administration at
Buenos Aires the power of appointing the local governors and of
controlling foreign affairs. The name of the country was at the
same time changed to that of the "Argentine Confederation"(c)-a
Latin rendering of "La Plata."

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