War of Independence.—Unsettled state of the country at the close of 1835 and early in 1836.—Gamarra’s Government.—Insurrections.—Guerilla and Freebooters.—Foreign Marines.—Lima invaded from the castles of Callao, under command of Solar.—Orbegoso enters Lima.—Castles of Callao taken by assault.—Battle of Socabaya.—Salaverry taken prisoner.—Execution.—Public tranquillity hoped for under the protection of Santa-Cruz. Having in the preceding chapters attempted to give a correct idea of the general aspect of Peru, and of the social condition of its inhabitants, we will subjoin a brief sketch of the anarchy into which it fell about the close of the year 1835 and beginning of 1836. From the year 1810, when first the Patriot flag was triumphantly carried into upper Peru by the spirited Buenos-Ayreans, the natives of lower Peru, or that which is now called the Peruvian Republic, had the path to freedom boldly pointed out to their view. But in Lima, where Spanish influence and loyalty were strongly concentrated, it was not until 1819, when Lord Cochrane appeared with a liberating squadron on the shores of Peru, and the Chilean and Buenos-Ayrean forces in the year following landed on the same coast under the command of General San Martin, that the national spirit of the Peruvian people declared itself in that joyful welcome, and effective support of their proposed deliverers and fellow patriots, which struck dismay into the councils, and confusion into the operations of their proud oppressors. Then, indeed, were kindled all the horrors of civil strife and warfare in this once opulent and peaceful country; and these sanguinary struggles never ceased, until, aided by the Colombian troops, and the directing mind of the great Liberator Bolivar, the Peruvians were at length enabled to throw off the chains of despotism which for more than three centuries they had submissively worn,—chains of which they will long bear evident marks on their national and domestic character; for the battle of Ayacucho, which was gloriously fought and won by the Patriots on the 9th day of December 1824, and which terminated the great liberating campaigns of Peru, has not yet secured prosperity to that distracted country. But the Peruvians, having thrown off the tameness of bondage, and assumed the name of freemen, have yet harder work before them than the expulsion of the Spaniards: they have to finish their own work of regeneration; to surmount all the intestine difficulties and reconcile all the discordant elements which originate among themselves; they have to free their community of noisy demagogues that poison the public press, and discontented agitators who, affecting the purest zeal for the commonwealth, have an eye only to their own interest, and whose object is change—they care not what, so long as it may benefit themselves. How far they are yet from having realized the