. Simon Bolivar for years fought the decaying power of
Spain, and to him what are now the Republics of Colombia, Venezuela,
Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru owe their liberation. But Diaz has been more
than a soldier, and his great achievement in the redemption of modern
Mexico from bankruptcy and general decay completely overshadows his
successes in the field during the ceaseless struggles of his earlier
years.

Had he retired in 1910 he would have done so with honor, and every
hostile voice in Mexico would have been stilled. All would have been
forgotten in remembrance of the immense debt that his country owed him.
He would have stood out as the great historic figure of a glorious era
in the national annals. It was the first time he had broken his word
with the people. Staying too long, he has been driven from office by a
movement of ideas, the strength of which it is evident that he never
realized until too late, and by a rebellion that in the days of his
vigorous autocracy he would have stamped out with his heel.

It is a sad picture to look on, especially when I turn to that other
one of the simple palace-home in Mexico City, with the fine old
warrior, with dilating nostrils like a horse at the covert side, his
face aglow, his eyes flashing as he told me of bygone battles, escapes
from imprisonment and death, and deeds of wild adventure and romance.
These inspiriting recollections he freely gave me for the "authentic
biography" which he had given me permission to write. Up to that time
he had refused that favor to every one; and in spite of his grateful
recognition of the "honesty and veracity" of the volume I had written
about his country five years before, he was long in giving his consent.
"I have only done what I thought right," he said, "and it is my country
and my ministers who have really made Mexico what she is." In the days
of his strength, corruption was unknown in his country, and even now no
finger can point at him. He retires a poor man, to live on his wife's
little fortune. Diaz had the right to be egotistical, but he was
modesty itself.

Yet he had risen from a barefoot lad of humble birth and little
education to the dictatorship of one of the most turbulent states in
the world, and this by powers of statesmanship for which, owing to want
of opportunity, he had shown no aptitude before he reached middle life.
Before that he seemed but a good soldier, true as steel, brave, hardy,
resourceful in the field