ld adherents in check.

Since no man of any other temperament could have succeeded in retaining
his post in this age of turmoil and unrest, Santa Cruz proved himself a
despot, but in many respects a benevolent despot, who showed an interest
in genuine progress. Realizing, for instance, the serious disadvantage
under which his country laboured on account of its lack of an adequate
population, he devoted much of his thought and time to the amendment of
this state of affairs, which he was inclined to alter somewhat
arbitrarily. He urged, for instance, the taxing of celibates and their
exclusion from the magistracy in order that their want of patriotism
might be singled out and punished. Whatever might have been the result
of measures such as these, the Bolivians proved themselves sufficiently
numerous to defeat the Peruvians once again. Peru was invaded, and Santa
Cruz entered Lima as its protector.

A few years later--in 1837--Peru fell into a dispute with Chile on
account of the Guano provinces of Atacama and Tarapaca. Peru was again
invaded, but eventually the Chileans abandoned the country and returned
to their own.

After this, no little confusion prevailed in the internal affairs of
Peru. Various leaders came, fought, and went, until civil war was
followed by a conflict with Bolivia, in the course of which Gamarra, the
Peruvian President, was killed, and the Peruvian forces were totally
defeated in 1841. In 1845 there seemed a prospect of improvement in the
affairs of the Republic, when Ramon Castilla was elected President.
Castilla was a man of strong and progressive views, and commerce began
to flourish under his guidance. He was followed by President Echenique,
but returned to public life, and succeeded the latter as President after
a lapse of ten years, in the course of which considerable official
corruption had been shown.

In 1864 occurred the first collision with Spain since the conclusion of
the war of liberation. In that year Spain sent out Admiral Pinzon to the
Pacific coast in command of three war vessels. The objects of the
expedition were avowedly scientific, but it met with a suspicious
reception from the first on the Pacific coast. The conduct of Admiral
Pinzon decidedly did not tend to allay any anxiety on the part of the
Republicans. Both Peru and Chile felt that their independence was
endangered, and prepared to resist.

On April 14, 1864, the Spanish vessels gave the signal for war by
seizing