Bolivia has been called the cradle of civilisation, and long before the Incas in the neighbouring State of Peru founded their kingdom it was inhabited by a cultivated race, who have left behind monuments of their skill in the shape of statues and buildings strongly wrought of carved stone. Whatever the warlike prowess of this primitive folk may have been, it was not sufficiently developed to resist the invasion of the Incas, and when the Spaniards, under the redoubtable Pizarro, entered the country, they found it under the domination of the latter race. Bolivia may also make the unique boast that on its soil was struck the last blow for South American independence. The victory of Ayacusho, achieved in December, 1824, proved the death-blow to Spanish domination in the sub-continent, and it is therefore a landmark not only in the history of South America, but of the world. [Illustration: SAILING ON LAKE TITICACA.] Bolivia may also be proud--if nations should be proud of such things--that she has had more revolutions than any other State even in that part of the globe where revolutions are a favourite pastime. The Bolivians resemble a certain king in one of Browning’s poems, they have favourites manifold, and shift their ministry [Illustration: BALSAS ON LAKE TITICACA.] some once a month. The obvious result of this is that the later history of the country makes confused and rather weary reading. One dictator followed another after the collapse of Bolivar’s ambitious dream of establishing a Central South American dictatorship for himself, with the heads of all the other communities subject to his authority. Some of these men, to their credit be it recorded, tried to assume the mantle of the wise ruler, but others were bloodthirsty tyrants. Few of them stand out in bold relief like Francia in Paraguay or Bolivar in New Granada. One of the most celebrated of the bunch was Melgarejo, who in the sixties of the last century abandoned all pretence of governing by any sanction except that of brute force and terror. Although the lives of Bolivians were very insecure, for none of them ever knew when they would be charged with conspiracy against the State and sent to execution, Melgarejo’s regime was not one of undiluted evil. The best points in his rule were exemplified in the application of funds for public purposes, and before his overthrow in 1871 silver production had enormously increased, foreign capital had flowed freely into the country, and the Mollendo Railroad, extending to the head of Lake Titicaca, had been opened. The war with Chili, in which she joined forces with Peru, ended disastrously for Bolivia, for it entailed the loss of her nitrate territory, and cut her off entirely from the Pacific Ocean. It is in the retrieving of that highway to the sea that her prosperity in the future lies.