DARK FUTURE OF PERU. 117 



want, men of a type superior to the ordinary political 

 adventurer may come forward ; some strong man, with 

 resolute will and clear insight, may possibly arise, and 

 re-establish order in the midst of a moral chaos ; but 

 of such a deliverance there is as yet no promise. 

 Conversing with men of very different opinions, I was 

 unable to hear of any man whose name inspired con- 

 fidence. Some such feeling had existed with regard 

 to the President Pardo, but when he was assassinated 

 no serious attem^pt w^as made to detect and punish 

 his murderers. The only opinion which appeared to 

 obtain general assent was that the worst of the ad- 

 venturers who have been the curse of Peru was the 

 late dictator Pierola. 



One thing, at least, appears certain : if Peru is to 

 be rescued from anarchy and corruption, it must be 

 through the influence of a single will — by a virtual, if 

 not a formal, autocracy. To believe that in such a 

 condition of society as exists here progress can be 

 accomplished by representative institutions seems to 

 me as gross a superstition as the belief in the divine 

 right of kings. 



