South America. A month before his death from tuberculosis, Bolivar wrote a final, disconsolate letter: “I have governed for twenty years and have drawn few certainties from it: 1) South America is ungovernable for us; 2) waging a revolution is like plowing the sea; 3) the only thing one can do in America is emigrate; 4) this country will inevitably pass from petty tyrant to petty tyrant, of every race and color; 5) when we have devoured ourselves, the Europeans will no longer even consider us worthy of conquest; 6) if it were ever to happen that a part of the world were to return to primitive chaos, it would be South America.”
