General Ramon Castilla, the President, is a native of Tarapaca in the extreme south of Peru, and must now be close upon seventy years of age. He is the son of Pedro Castilla, who worked the refuse silver-ores of the mines of El Carmen,[356] and young Ramon acted as his father's _leñatero_, or woodcutter. He, afterwards, entered the Spanish army, and on the arrival of the patriot forces from Chile in 1821 he joined their cause, and attained the rank of colonel. After the independence he was appointed Sub-prefect of his native province of Tarapaca, in 1826; and he was Prefect of Puno from 1834 to 1836; but he was mixed up in all the civil wars, and, after a victory gained by him in 1844, he was elected President of the Republic. Castilla is a small spare man, with an iron constitution, and great powers of endurance. His bright fierce little eyes, with overhanging brows, stiff bristly moustaches, and projecting under lip, give his countenance a truculent expression, which is not improved by a leathery dried-up complexion; but he has a look of resolution and an air of command which is almost dignified. This remarkable man is an excellent soldier, brave as a lion, prompt in action, and beloved by his men. Uneducated and illiterate, his political successes and management of parties almost amount to genius, while his victories have never been stained by cruelty, and his antagonists have seldom been proscribed for any length of time, generally pardoned at once, and often raised by him to posts of importance in the service of the Republic. His firm and vigorous grasp of power has secured for Peru long periods of peace; faction has been kept under, while an incalculable blessing has thus been conferred on the country; and probably no other man had the ability and the nerve to effect this. But Castilla, though a necessity, has been a necessary evil. His want of education renders him useless as a statesman. He has generally shown himself indifferent to all public works, and to measures for the moral or material benefit of the country, while he insists on keeping up an enormous standing army, and on spending untold sums on a costly navy, thus squandering the public money, and continuing a pernicious and ruinous system. The brave old man has been a necessity. He alone has been able to keep the peace, and give time to the Peruvians slowly to develop the resources of their country; and through this period of tranquillity, when he shall have passed away, interests and influences may have insensibly risen up, which will prevent the recurrence of such periods of anarchy as preceded Castilla's first accession to power.