South America (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from South America The present chileno-peruvian contest is not the first instance in which manure (guano or nitrate of soda) has been the cause of nations flying to arms in South America. There may be exceptions to the rule, but for the most part these people require no particular motive or object for drawing the sword. They seem to love strife for its own sake; and although sheer exhaustion often compels them in the heat of their squabbles to hold up their hands, it is seldom to a settled peace, but only to an indefinite truce that they can be brought to consent. The struggle is adjourned Sine die, the ill blood remains and discord becomes the normal state, the contending parties being only too readily prompted to be on with a new quarrel before they are off with the old one. Thus Chili and Peru, who are now flyingi'fat each other's throat, have not yet come to a final settlement of their late quarrel with Spain, and are still nominally at war with that country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.