8o  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA

revolted  against  the  home  government.  In
1809  the  Spanish  authorities  were  deposed  and
independence  declared  in  1825,  as  a  result  of
the  Battle  of  Ayacucho,  fought  on  Dec.  9,
1824,  when  the  Spanish  forces  were  totally
defeated.
Simon  Bolivar,  the  hero  of  the  rebellion
against  Spain,  drafted  its  constitution  which
provided  for  a  President,  two  Vice-Presidents,
and  two  houses  of  Congress—composed  of  a
Senate  and  a  Chamber  of  Deputies.
Although  Bolivia  is  entirely  within  the
Tropic  Zone,  it  is  blessed  with  a  variety  of
climates,  due  chiefly  to  its  altitude.  There
are  two  seasons,  the  rainy  from  December  to
May  and  the  dry  covering  the  remainder  of
the  year.
Owing  to  some  gigantic  convulsion  of  Nature, ­
  ages  ago,  what  evidently  was  the  bottom
of  the  ocean  was  forced  upward,  and  now
forms  an  enormous  plateau  over  500  miles  in
length,  covering  more  than  60,000  square
miles,  at  an  average  altitude  of  12,000  feet.
This  is  a  comparatively  barren  stretch  of  land