The day of Sucre was
then at an end, and the President of Bolivia was Andreas Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz was a powerful Chief-of-State, a born leader of men, who
managed to hold his somewhat wild 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.
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