until the whale fishery rounded cape horn, no commerce but colonial, scarcely any intercourse but colonial, was carried on between europe and the long line of the opulent spanish provinces on the pacific coast. it was the whaleman who first broke through the jealous policy of the spanish crown, touching those colonies; and, if space permitted, it might be distinctly shown how from those whalemen at last eventuated the liberation of peru, chili, and bolivia from the yoke of old spain, and the establishment of the eternal democracy in those parts.