Aurora de Chile

"[4] Locals in Chile had attempted to procure a printing press from the Spanish government and then under the Junta, attempts were made to purchase a printing press from the revolutionary junta in Buenos Aires, but were unsuccessful after the death of Mariano Moreno.

[5] Finally, on November 24, 1811, Swedish-American Mathew Hoevel (Spanish: Mateo Arnaldo Hoevel), an idealist for free government, landed the Galloway in the port of Valparaiso with a printing press, American printers, and arms and munitions to supply the troops of the independence movement.

The paper's first issue was published on February 13, 1812, under the direction of Camilo Henríquez González, who was not only the first editor of Chile's first periodical but also the first that had seriously argued for Chilean independence.

It was the first widespread publication to introduce its readers in Chile to the Age of Enlightenment philosophies—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, and others—which informed Henríquez's writings.

The paper was also the vehicle for the sharp wit and timely commentaries by Camilo Henríquez on the happenings of the monarchy.