The presence of the great Bolivar, whose victorious campaigns in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador had sealed the independence of those countries on the battlefields of Boyacá, Carabobo, Bomboná, and Pichincha, animated the now drooping spirits of the Peruvian patriots, and filled all hearts with hope and confidence. In the month of July, 1824, the Liberating Army of the North began its march toward Cerro de Pasco. The task of leading a large body of troops over the mountains was tremendous, especially as the supply of provisions had to be kept up at great cost, and the severity of the climate at such an altitude was a serious drawback. Over a similar pathway, five hundred miles farther north, the Conquerors had led their men three centuries earlier, on their way to Cajamarca. But on what a different mission! They sought the subjugation of a noble and gentle race, whom they hoped to rob and enslave “by right of conquest”; these advancing hosts were seeking to bring freedom and happiness to a suffering people. The victory of the former brought only an ignominious destiny to the Conquerors; the triumph of the latter is emblazoned in the high places of immortal glory. Pizarro’s name is a synonym for cruelty and rapacity; the names of San Martin and Bolivar thrill the soul, and stir its noblest sentiments. [Illustration: THE MUNICIPAL PALACE, LIMA.] The final events in the history of South American independence took place within a year after the beginning of Bolivar’s campaign on the plateau of Junin. The story of Junin is soon told. While the royalists remained inactive at Jauja, more than a hundred leagues to the south, Bolivar reached the plateau, on the 5th of August, 1824, and reviewed his troops, ten thousand strong, cheering them with those inspiring addresses which great military captains of all ages have found so effective. As soon as General Canterac learned of the approach of Bolivar, he advanced with his army, consisting of eight thousand infantry, thirteen hundred cavalry, and a proportion of field artillery, as far as the lake of Junin, near the southern shore of which the famous engagement took place. After a march of fifteen miles through a mountainous district, Bolivar’s army reached an elevated point, from which they obtained a sudden view of the royalist army, five miles away, marching over the plains of Junin. The patriot cavalry, nine hundred strong, having dashed forward, came up within a short distance of the royalists; putting himself at the head of his cavalry, Canterac ordered a charge which might have won the day, as the patriots, in their enthusiasm, had placed themselves in an unfavorable position; but the Spaniards were too sure of their victory and pushed in hot pursuit of the retreating cavalry, thereby giving an opportunity for a Peruvian battalion under Colonel Suarez, which had been detained in the marshes, to advance on the rear of the royalist ranks and thus afford the