PERU. 



625 



in order to have three or four freight-trains 

 weekly." 



On quitting Peru, December 18, 1879, Presi- 

 dent Prado left the executive power in the 

 hands of the Vice-President, General La Puer- 

 ta, than whom, it would appear, none more 

 ill-suited could have been chosen for such a 

 charge at that critical juncture. Popular dis- 

 content at once became visible, and, the senti- 

 ment spreading to the troops at Lima, a vio- 

 lent revolutionary movement ensued, in favor 

 of Don Nicolas de Pierola, which ended in the 

 establishment of the latter at the head of the 

 Government, with the self-bestowed title of 

 Supreme Chief. We here transcribe the proc- 

 lamation issued by Pierola at Callao on the 22d 

 of the same month : 



To THE PEOPLE AND THE ARMY : Silent and sorrow- 

 ful before the exigent demands of the people and the 

 army, I resigned myself to circumstances during the 

 days which followed the shameful flight of Prado and 

 the advent of the superannuated General La Puerta, 

 hoping that the army would decide at last to overcome 

 the scruples of a misunderstood loyalty which stayed 

 apart of it from acting according to its convictions, 

 which are those of the nation, and desirous of avoiding 

 any collision between brothers and the loss of a part of 

 our forces. 



The headlong and impatient ambition of General La 

 Cotera, after brutally stifling the unanimous voice of 

 the people of Lima and Callao, provoked a conflict 

 yesterday, employing the forces under his command 

 to disarm the patriots of the army, whose only aim was 

 the salvation of the country and the defeat of the for- 

 eign foe. 



In Lima but a few moments sufficed to show how 

 irresistible was the patriotic desire of the people and 

 the army, and it would have sufficed for me to remain 

 a few hours more in the capital to end all resistance. 



Yielding, nevertheless* to the motives I have already 

 expressed, I preferred to retire to this city, which has 

 received me without any manner of resistance, to the 

 end of making impossible all chance of strife between 

 brethren and of favoring the tranquil adhesion of 

 those remaining in Lima to the political regime pro- 

 claimed mouths ago by the whole nation. 



Thus all conflict is made utterly inexcusable, and 

 throws in its true light the responsibility for its evils 

 upon its sole authors. 



_That portion of the army still under their orders in 

 Lima will not, I am confident, permit this responsi- 

 bility to become a fact, to the immeasurable injury of 

 all. The hour of national reparation has come. In 

 the series of disasters which have marked the history 

 of our foreign war, Peru has no part. In shaking off, 

 as she now does, the old rule, she raises the most elo- 

 quent protests against that deplorable history, and 

 presents herself worthy of her name and her destinies 

 before the other peoples of the earth. 



For us there is, as there can only be, but one aspi- 

 rationa swift and full triumph over the foreign en- 

 emy. To achieve this work, we are now all brothers, 

 without the memory even of our past divisions, and 

 drawn one to another by the indissoluble tie or love 

 for Peru. 



Whatever may retard for an instant the complete 

 national unity is an act of treason to our country. 

 Unity is the one condition of the power and triumph 

 of Peru. To that end has ever consecrated and now 

 consecrates his most zealous eflbrts, your fellow-citi- 

 zen and comrade in arms, N. DE PIEROLA. 



Thus the constitutional government was, in 

 the short space of four days, overthrown, and 

 replaced by a dictatorship, as indicated by the 

 following decree: 



VOL. xx. 40 A 



NICOLAS DE PIEROLA, Supreme Head of the Republic- 

 Considering 



I. That the inhabitants of Lima and Callao, by 

 their respective acts, have spontaneously invested mo 

 with supreme authority in the state, with lull and 

 complete powers ; 



II. That the army and navy of the republic have 

 adhered to this step, which has been long the general 

 aspiration of the country, and that it is confirmed by 

 the army in the south and by all the towns in tele- 

 graphic communication with the capital : 



I decree : 



SOLE ARTICLE. With the title of Supreme Head of 

 the Republic I accept the position and powers with 

 which I have been invested. 



The Chief Clerk of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is 

 intrusted with the publication and communication to 

 the proper persons of this decree. 



Given in the Government-House in Lima, this 23d 

 day of the month of December, 1879. 



NICOLAS DE PIEROLA. 

 By order of his Excellency : 

 The Chief Clerk of Foreign Affairs, 

 E. LARRABURE Y UNANUE. 



Pierola, by some called the evil genius of 

 Peru, and to whose influence may be traced 

 much of the disaster that has befallen that re- 

 public, has been spoken of by United States 

 Minister Christiancy as a man of great mental 

 capacity, of boldness and decision, and one 

 whose inclinations are generally believed to be 

 kind and humane. " Yet he most thoroughly 

 believes," adds Mr. Christiancy, "that in time 

 of war, or any great national crisis, the law of 

 self-preservation is superior to any written con- 

 stitution. He is now to be tested, and so 

 much is expected of him that it will be hard to 

 meet all these expectations; and it is quite 

 possible he may fail, and, in the course of a 

 year, become as unpopular as Prado is to-day." 

 Pierola displayed, during the first weeks of his 

 dictatorship, no common energy in levying 

 troops, forming new regiments, issuing decrees, 

 and adopting vigorous measures of reform in 

 many branches of public administration in 

 which they were urgently needed. The war 

 in the mean time was progressing on the coast. 

 The slight check sustained by the Chilians in 

 Tarapaca on November 26, 1879, far from dis- 

 couraging them, seemed but to stimulate their 

 ardor, and the Peruvian columns were almost 

 immediately forced to retreat upon Arica. Be- 

 fore the end of March, 1880, the Chilian divis- 

 ions commanded by General Baquedano invest- 

 ed the town of Moquegua, and on the 23d of 

 the same month took possession of Torata. 

 This last victory, at a cost of but eight killed 

 and twenty-seven wounded, made the Chilians 

 masters of the roads leading to Arequipa. On 

 May 26th the important town of Tacna, which 

 had long been the objective of Baquedano's 

 efforts, was taken, after a fiercely-contested 

 battle, in which the allied troops, commanded 

 by Admiral Montero, Prado's successor, and 

 the new President of Bolivia, General Cam- 

 pero, were completely routed and dispersed. 

 In this encounter the allies, numbering in all 

 8,320 (5,120 Peruvians and 3,200 Bolivians), 

 were divided into two wings, the left under 

 Colonel Camacho and the right under Cam- 



