Page:A history of Chile.djvu/144

 ish-Americans objected to the monopolies and the official arrogance of the mother country, the peasantry had far more to complain of in the burdens which fell most heavily upon them. A rebellion broke out in Peru, where the native classes were more oppressed than in Chile. An Inca descendent, José Gabriel Condorcanqui, called Tupac Amaru after his ancient progenitor, aroused the long suffering people to such zeal that they took up arms. He defeated the Spaniards at Sangarara, November 13th, 1780, and a few days afterward published the causes which had led to the revolt. He addressed letters to the bishops and other officers, proposing changes of the existing oppressive measures ; his proposals were rejected with disdain.

In 1781, Condorcanqui was defeated at Checacupe, where with his family he was taken prisoner. Hideous cruelties were perpetrated upon the captives by the Spanish courts, and terrible was the vengeance wreaked upon the patriots; but their deaths did not end the revolt. It was not until the year 1783, that the rebellion was finally put down ; but the death of Tupac Amaru was as a bugle blast resounding through Spanish-America. He had not died in vain, for an attempt was soon made to ward off the storm in Peru by a few measures of reform; such as abolishing the repartimientos, which held the natives to a species of serfdom, modifying the rules respecting forced labor, and doing away with the obnoxious office-of corregidor. Tupac Amaru had accomplished more than had Don José Antequera fifty years before, in his attempts to reform abuses and establish a representative government in Paraguay.

Ubalde succeeded no better in Peru in 1805; he rekindled the fires of patriotism, but paid the penalty in death. In 1809, patriot forces were defeated at Huaqui; General Belgrano led a patriot army from Buenos