bondholders finally reached. His efforts made Ecuador the second South American republic whose independence was formally recognised by Spain. In religious matters he proved true to his liberal convictions, and while never persecuting the clergy always advocated religious freedom for the individual. But though he set his country's feet in the path of progress, the steps were slow, short, and uncertain. His alliance with the military element as represented by Flores, and the religious and social conservatism of the bulk of the people, hampered rapid progress. The radical liberals conspired against him, but their plots were sternly stamped out. Government remained essentially military and aristocratic, and active participation was confined to the educated and military classes. Nevertheless, a sort of equilibrium between the demands of the governing caste and the capacities of the producing masses was reached, and a certain degree of order replaced the indiscriminate exactions and tyranny which the proletariat had endured ever since the first Spaniard had landed. When Rocafuerte finished his term in 1839, Ecuador was at peace and had recovered much of the material prosperity lost during the long wars. On the plateau the Indians cultivated their wheat and potatoes in security, while on the low coast lands the cacao industry flourished, making Ecuador one of the chief sources of the world's supply of chocolate and multiplying Guayaquil's population and wealth. [Illustration: ECUADOR PEON'S HOUSE.] Flores's command of the army insured him the succession to the presidency. Though his return to power meant political reaction, the beneficent effects of Rocafuerte's system had been too obvious to be entirely ignored and hastily abandoned. Flores's first measures were moderate, but his irrational ambition quickly led him into an expensive and fruitless intervention in the Colombian civil war of 1840. His financial difficulties and a return to military habits caused him to adopt measures continually more arbitrary, and he went stubbornly ahead with his schemes to make his dictatorship permanent. He forced the adoption of a new Constitution lengthening the presidential term to eight years, and caused himself to be declared elected in 1843. The conflict with the liberals became acute; Rocafuerte protested and was forced to fly for his life. The young radicals of Quito plotted the tyrant's assassination, while the villagers of the plateau arose in revolt against the gatherers of an obnoxious poll-tax. In 1845 a liberal revolution broke out at Guayaquil. Flores descended from the table-land, but the liberal army met and defeated him at the foot of the mountains, and he accepted the offer of twenty thousand dollars in cash and a pension to leave the country.