Page:The History of San Martin (1893).djvu/326

 CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE REVOLUTIONS IN QUITO AND VENEZUELA.

1809—1812. on the Southern Continent, is divided geographically and socially into two great systems, which are nevertheless analogous, having the same origin and the same language. Simultaneously they felt the same impulse, simultaneously arose in both sections the spirit of independence. In each section one man took the lead, devoting his life to the cause which was at once his own and that of his race; yet were these two men of character wholly different. The one, cool and calculating, was devoid of personal ambition; the other, whose dreams were of glory and of power, was its slave. Yet in each glowed the passion for emancipation, and each in his own way accomplished the task before him. The one, San Martin, gave liberty to the South, the other, Bolivar, gave liberty to the North. They joined, and the social equilibrium was established.

The northern zone of the Continent extends about twenty degrees north of the Equator, from the frontiers of Peru to Panama and the Carribean sea. In 1810 this zone comprehended the Viceroyalty of New Granada, the Captain-Generalcy of Venezuela, and the Presidency of Quito; three political divisions marked out by geographical lines, and peopled by several heterogeneous races. At that date New Granada had 1,400,000 inhabitants, Venezuela 900,000, and Quito 600,000. Of these, 1,234,000 were