POLITICAL HISTORY OF PERU. gjj 
generosity, though they may have been but feeble. At the time 
he assumed the command, and declared himself supreme chief, he 
banished General Nieto, a superior officer. The captain of' the 
vessel in which he went was induced to land him in the north of 
Peru, where he collected some troops, and made war upon Salaverry 
who immediately marched against him, vowing vengeance for what 
he termed his ungrateful conduct, in return for his lenity On 
Salaverry's approach, one of Nieto's followers betrayed him, and he 
was surprised and captured. Salaverry immediately invited him 
to his tent; they supped and slept together on the same hide, but he 
afterwards banished him from Peru. 
Another act, which does not show him in quite so good a light, 
was his ordering General Valle Reistra, an old companion, an 
amiable and good officer, to be torn from his wife at midnight, 
and within her hearing shot in cold blood, for no alleged crime] 
and it is supposed merely for the purpose of striking "terror into 
his opponents. He was full of energy, both to determine and 
execute his plans, and evinced talents which, had they been con- 
trolled by judgment and guided by moral principle, would have 
consolidated his power and saved his country from the anarchy 
which has since existed. He possessed the true spirit to rule the 
Peruvians, so far as energy was concerned ; and before Peru becomes 
settled, she will need some military despotism, in order to break 
down the small and numerous contending chiefs, that are, as each 
gains the ascendency, the worst of tyrants. The mode of his death 
has already been spoken of. 
Santa Cruz was in the Spanish service at the commencement of 
the revolution, and being captured by the patriots, was for some time 
a prisoner in Buenos Ayres. On his liberation he espoused the 
popular cause, and was for a short time at the head of the government 
in Peru, where he had been placed by Bolivar, and continued until 
the setting aside of Bolivar's authority, and the election of La Mar 
as President. He was expelled by the intrigues of his enemies, but 
was afterwards employed as minister to Chili. His subsequent ele- 
vation to the presidency of Bolivia has led to the suspicion that he 
participated in the assassination of the former President, Blanco, and 
his patronage of the known actors in that affair, gave strong grounds 
for believing the truth of the report. 
Santa Cruz is a man of ordinary talents, but of sound common 
sense. From his education (which is superior to that of his 
