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 attempt was 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. 



