In a neighbourhood where the writer resided for several years in the department of Junin, there was a villager of no small local pretension, who held at one time, in his own person, the offices of governor and captain of militia of his district, and, if we remember well, of alcalde also (he being alcalde on the death of the governor whom he succeeded); and in this way he became invested with all the authority of a petty dictator. The province was that of Huanuco, where, through the praiseworthy zeal of Colonel Lucar and Don Pepe (now Colonel) Echegoyen, a troop of cavalry was always kept up in some sort of military order: and the workmen of the different larger estates and little farms around, were called upon to assemble on Sundays under their respective captains; and, at assigned places, to go through some of the simplest military evolutions, using, however, no arms or particular uniform. These Sunday exercises were generally ill attended; and, of ten or twelve young men on an agricultural estate, it would be usually enough if two or three appeared at one time in the ranks. Upon one occasion, however, when the captain of local militia in the village of Ambo had the honour of having the additional appointment of governor conferred on him, he called upon the writer when indisposed and in bed, and, with great appearance of sympathy and confidential cordiality, congratulated himself upon his promotion, because it would afford him the power, as he had the will, to serve his neighbour. With many such smooth expressions and assurances of kind and honest intentions, calculated to put even a misanthrope off his guard, he ended his visit by requesting that, as it was most desirable to keep up the military spirit of the district, he would expect of the writer that he should use his influence in persuading the young men on his hacienda to attend regularly at the military exercises in the adjacent village; a proposition to which he readily acceded, as it was agreeable to the established laws of the country. On the first or second Sunday following, six fine young men went to attend the exercises at Ambo; and were seized and put into prison, with many others, under strong guard, to be marched off next day as recruits for the line. The provincial prisons of Peru are in general very bad and insecure, and they are less frequently used than they should be for any better purpose than that already mentioned, viz. confining the useful and industrious husbandman—thus diminishing a race already too scanty, and yet a race on which the prosperity of the country mainly depends: “Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them, as a breath has made. But a _bold peasantry_, their _country’s pride_, When once destroyed can never be supplied.” Upon this occasion, we are glad to say, that the new governor’s deceitful conduct towards us did not serve his turn as he wished.