The first independent Congress of Peru decreed that the government should be exercised by Congress, and that a Junta de Gobierno, composed of three of its members, should constitute the chief executive power. General La Mar, General Alvarado, and the Count de Vista Florida were named for the first Junta, General La Mar being appointed its president. The oath of allegiance to Congress took place with great _éclat_ in September; the following year the Junta de Gobierno was dissolved and Don José de la Riva-Agüero was elected president of the Republic, taking the oath of office and receiving the _banda bicolor_, a band of ribbon in two stripes, “white and red,” which is still worn by the chief executive of Peru on official occasions. Congress also bestowed on President Riva-Agüero the rank of grand marshal. At the same time, the command of the army was given to General Santa Cruz and General Gamarra was appointed chief of staff. The president gave especial attention to the army, and within a few months after his inauguration General Santa Cruz left Callao for the interior at the head of five thousand troops, in two divisions, one of which was under his own command and the other in charge of General Gamarra. They marched into Alto Peru and met the united royalist forces under La Serna’s generals, Valdes and Olañeta, but were obliged to retreat before the superior force of the enemy; and Santa Cruz lost the greater part of his army while making his way to the coast over the bleak Cordillera, during a dreadful storm. La Serna, who had his headquarters at Cuzco, had organized his forces in two divisions: the army of the North, commanded by General Canterac and stationed in the valley of Jauja, as a menace to Lima; and the army of the South, under General Valdes, supporting the royalist cause between Arequipa and Potosí. This was the condition of affairs when General Santa Cruz left Callao. Soon afterward General Sucre, who has been called the diplomatic agent of General Bolivar, arrived in Callao with a force of three thousand Colombian troops. At the same time, General Canterac was preparing to march on Lima at the head of nine thousand men. In view of the circumstances, President Riva-Agüero convoked a council of war, which resulted in the appointment of General Sucre as commander-in-chief of the patriot army. Canterac entered Lima in June, 1823, with his splendid troops, but finding that Santa Cruz was on his way to the interior he retired to Jauja. With the advent of Canterac’s army into Lima, the republicans removed their headquarters to Callao, and later, to Trujillo. The difficulties incident to the inauguration of a new form of government occurred in the present case; a quarrel arose between Congress and executive, the president resenting the action of Congress in bestowing supreme authority on General Sucre, and the president’s enemies seeking to undermine his authority. General Sucre,