We are only concerned here with the War of Independence so far as it affected Upper Peru, the Bolivia of later days. When the patriots of Buenos Aires had succeeded in liberating from the dominion of Spain the interior provinces of the Rio de la Plata, they turned their arms against their enemies who held Upper Peru. An almost uninterrupted warfare followed, from July 1809 till August 1825, with alternate successes on the side of the Spanish or royalist and the South American or patriot forces,--the scene of action lying chiefly between the Argentine provinces of Salta and Jujuy and the shores of Lake Titicaca. The first movement of the war was the successful invasion of Upper Peru by the army of Buenos Aires, under General Balcarce, which, after twice defeating the Spanish troops, was able to celebrate the first anniversary of independence near Lake Titicaca, in May 1811. Soon, however, the patriot army, owing to the dissolute conduct and negligence of its leaders, became disorganized, and was attacked and defeated, in June 1811, by the Spanish army under Gey fol Goyeneche, and driven back into Jujuy. Four years of warfare, in which victory was alternately with the Spaniards and the patriots, was terminated in 1815 by the total rout of the latter in a battle which took place between Potosi and Oruro. To this succeeded a revolt of the Indians of the southern provinces of Peru, and the object being the independence of the whole country, it was joined by numerous Creoles. This insurrection was, however, speedily put down by the royalists. In 1816 the Spanish general Laserna, having been appointed commander-in-chief of Upper Peru, made an attempt to invade the Argentine provinces, intending to march on Buenos Aires, but he was completely foiled in this by the activity of the irregular _gaucho_ troops of Salta and Jujuy, and was forced to retire. During this time and in the six succeeding years a guerrilla warfare was maintained by the patriots of Upper Peru, who had taken refuge in the mountains, chiefly of the province of Yungas, and who frequently harassed the royalist troops. In June 1823 the expedition of General Santa Cruz, prepared with great zeal and activity at Lima, marched in two divisions upon Upper Peru, and in the following months of July and August the whole country between La Paz and Oruro was occupied by his forces; but later, the indecision and want of judgment displayed by Santa Cruz allowed a retreat to be made before a smaller royalist army, and a severe storm converted their retreat into a precipitate flight, only a remnant of the expedition again reaching Lima. In 1824, after the great battle of Ayacucho in Lower Peru, General Sucre, whose valour had contributed so much to the patriot success of that day, marched with a part of the victorious army into Upper Peru. On the news of the victory a universal rising of the patriots took place, and before Sucre had