YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY PERU AS IT IS: A RESIDENCE IN LIMA, AND OTHER PARTS OF THE PERUVIAN REPUBLIC, COMPRISING AN ACCOUNT OP THE SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THAT COUNTRY. BY ARCHIBALD SMITH, M.D. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, Uuiltsjjer in ©titulars to jfytr fBajests. 1839. LONDON : PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, Dorset Street, Fleet Street. TO SIR ALEXANDER CRICHTON, M.D. F.R.S. PHYSICIAN IN ORDINARY TO THE EMPEROR OP RUSSIA, AND TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE ; KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE ORDERS OF ST. WLADIMIR AND ST. ANNE, KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF THE RED EAGLE OP PRUSSIA, ETC. the following account of Peru, a country which, it is probable, the Author never would have visited but for his very kind and disinterested patronage, is most gratefully dedicated by Archibald Smith. PREFACE. In this refined age and country, to make a graceful appearance as an author requires endowments to which the writer of the fol lowing pages has no pretension : neither would he have intruded himself on the pub lic notice, had he not thought it a duty in cumbent on every one who travels, to give his own .country the benefit of his observa tion and experience. He will venture to assert, that he has had ample means of making himself acquainted with his sub ject, and that he has treated it with can dour and impartiality. vi PREFACE. Tor upwards of ten years he lived in Peru : sometimes residing among miners ; at other times associating with agricultu rists; and professionally brought into con tact with persons of all classes and ranks in society, from the palace to the humblest hut. In the interior of Peru, but more espe cially in Lima, the writer has met with great courtesy and kindness in private life, and been distinguished by very flattering marks of public favour. He therefore, it may be well believed, has not " set down aught in malice;" and he trusts that in the following pages there will not be found any thing injurious to the Peruvian people, or at variance with that lasting gratitude and honest pride with which he remembers and acknowledges their hospitality . With respect to the manner of execut ing his task, he feels that he requires the indulgence of his reader ; but, with regard PREFACE. vii to the matter, he persuades himself that, however unskilfully treated it may be, and however deficient in that exquisite minute ness of detail which delights the curious, it will nevertheless be found to convey to the intelligent reader a fair general idea of the physical and moral condition of Peru ; which, as it is all that the writer has aim ed at, so to have attained it is all that he desires. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER I. Boundaries of the Peruvian Republic. — General appearance and climate of the coast. — Seasons divided into Wet and Dry. — Vegetation. — Lunar influence. — Enervating effects of the climate of Lima. Page 1 CHAPTER II. Chances of life in Lima diminished by neglect of medical police. — Statements showing the proportion of deaths to the population of Lima. — Proportion between the different sexes and castes of the inhabitants 18 CHAPTER III. Food, fruit, and water used in Lima. ... 32 CHAPTER IV. Remarks explanatory of certain Dietetic maxims, and esta blished notions or prejudices, illustrative of the physical con stitution and domestic habits of the Limenians. . . 46 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. Condition of Slave population, and its influence on the family economy and moral sentiments of the • European race. ..... ... Page 106 CHAPTER VI. Social state of the Limenians under the Spaniards and Pa triots. — Spanish colonists. — Style of conversation. — Im provements in female education. — Zamba attendants. — Om nipotence of the ladies at fifteen. — Esprit de corps of the fair sex. — Forgiving temper of public opinion. — Defective admi nistration of justice. — Prerogative called Empefio. — God fathers and god-mothers. — Saint-day parties. — Flowers and perfumes. — Limenian women excel in attention to the sick. — General character of the white women and dark races. — Boys of European race. — Few men of intellectual habits. — Promenade of Amencaes, as illustrative of national feeling and character. — Pillo and Pillo-fino. — Money a substitute for morality. — Relaxation of morals general, but not uni versal 121 CHAPTER VII. Religious prejudices. — No faith with heretics. — Corpse of an Englishman cast into the street by the pious mob. — Eng lish supposed to have been buried with money in the island of San Lorenzo. — New cemetery, and Latin inscription for the English burial-ground. — Religious disadvantages of the British in Peru. 160 CHAPTER VIII. Clergy and lawyers more honoured than physicians or sur geons. — University of St. Mark. — Anatomical amphitheatre. CONTENTS. XI — College of San Fernando. — State of the medical schools and profession on the coast and in the Sierra. — General remarks on Limenian education. . . . Page 177 CHAPTER IX. General features of the Sierra. — Roads. — Wilds of San Ma teo. — Indian's eyrie Mountain curate. — Enterprise ofa priest engaged in inland traffic. — Pastoral Hfe of Indians. — Ancient ruins. — Royal road of the Incas. — Tarma, a pretty Sierra town, or pueblo. — Various sorts of bridges.— Balsa, or canoe of rushes. — Ancient aqueducts and terraced gardens of the aborigines. — Pagan edifices among the rocks near the coast. — Vale of Rimac. — Temples of the ancient Sun-worshippers of the land. ... 199 CHAPTER X. Journey from Lima to Pasco by Obrajillo Diversity of air and climate. — Canta, a locality favourable to consumptive indi viduals. — Obrajillo, residence of muleteers. — Relay of mules, and payment in advance. — Cultivation and crops. — Ascent to and pass of the Cordillera Veta, or Cordillera sickness. — Indian hut. — Muleteers' lodgings on the Puna Huallay Diezmo. — Pasco. ....... 252 CHAPTER XI. Account of another route between Pasco and Lima, by Junin, Huay pacha, Pucara, Tucto. — Mines of Antacona, Casa- palca, Pomacancba, San Mateo, San Juan de Matucana, Surco, Cocachacra, Santa Ana, and lastly, Chaclacayo. — nume ration of a series of rocks, as they appear in succession from the pass of the Cordillera to the entrance into the Vale of Rimac 286 ERRATA. Page 11; line 22, and in all other instances, for Lorin read Lurin. 22, „ 7, for Pellisier read Pellicer. 25, ,, 15, for Manano read Mariano. 42, „ 18, for patillas read pa/illas, 72, „ 2, for cq/ollo read cogollo. 84, ,, 9, for en cima read erecima. Ill, ,, 12, for tarrea read tarea. 135, ,, 4, for honorada read honrada. 150. „ 5, for 23rd of June read 24th of June. 201, ,, 20, for Quichoa read Quichua. 204, ,, 11, and in all other instances, /or lassos read lasos. 212, ,, 5, &c. for premicia read primicia. 257, ,, 12, for Verugas, read Verrugas. 298, „ 3, &c. for Cocachacera read Cocachacra. PERU AS IT IS. CHAPTER I. Boundaries of the Peruvian Republic. — General appearance and climate of the coast. — Seasons divided into Wet and Dry. — Vegetation. — Lunar influence. — Enervating effects of the climate of Lima. Modern Peru is bounded on the north by the Republic of the Equator; on the south by the Republic of Bolivia ; on the east by the Portuguese territories, or Brazil ; and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The coast of the Republic of Peru extends along the shores of the Pacific from the river Loa, which is the southern boundary that divides it from Bolivia, to the river Tumbez, which divides it on the north from Guayaquil, or the Republic of the Equator. All this extent of coast, from 3° 30' to 21° 30' south latitude, VOL. I. B 2 RIVERS. is naturally a desert, intersected by several rivers, of greater or less magnitude, that descend along narrow mountain-glens of the Andes to the Pacific Ocean. Many of these rivers are dried up for several months in the year ; while others, of larger size, carry a perennial stream, swelling during the rainy season in the inland country, and are never seen to shrink so much in time of drought in the elevated regions from whence they spring, as not to supply the means of irrigating and beautifying the mari time vales through which they flow as they approach the ocean. It is remarkable that, while along the coast of Peru the eye wearies in looking at sandy plains and hills, we no sooner pass the river Tumbez than the face of nature changes : in the former range all looks arid and scorched ; in the latter country all is verdant and sappy. The coast of the Equatorial Re public presents to the eye well-wooded plains ; PIURA. 3 while on the coast and in the valleys of the western side of the Peruvian territory, trees, when not reared by man, are only to be met growing in favoured places in the vicinity of springs and rivers. Piura, the most northern province of Peru along the shores of the Pa cific, is celebrated for its remarkably dry atmosphere ; but in a rainy year, which sel dom happens in this province, the pastures that suddenly spring up are surpassingly lux uriant, — the very sand-fields, " arenales," after one or two days' rain, unfold an ex uberance of life and vegetation. The temperature of the low valleys on the coast of Peru may be said in general not to exceed 82° of Fahrenheit in summer, nor to descend much under 60° in winter.* Where, however, high hills closely overhang * In Piura the temperature of the air, in summer, ranges from 80° to 96°, and in winter from 70° to 81°, Fahrenheit. The sea-breeze, or southerly wind, which commences to be felt about ten o'clock in the forenoon, is here hailed as the messenger of health by the natives, who are never visited by any sweeping and fatal epidemics. B 2 4 TRANSITION OF TEMPERATURE. the sandy plains or dry "pampas," it is difficult to say to what degree the thermo meter may fall during night, when the rush of cold air from the upper regions is in proportion to the degree of radiation from the plains, and the force with which the sun's rays during the day had struck on the scorched ground. So intensely on such occasions does the traveller feel the transition, that, when benighted on desert places, he is sometimes compelled by the keenness of the cold to dismount, and bury himself up to the neck in the warm sand, until a returning sun again befriend him on the morrow, and encourage him to pur sue his trackless way. In Lima, the capital of Peru, neither the extremes of heat nor of cold are ever expe rienced ;* an advantage which it partly owes » Lima is situated in lat. 12° 2' south, and long. 76° 58' west. It stands six or seven miles inland from its sea-port of Callao, and the more elevated part of the city is about five TEMPERATURE OF LIMA. 5 to its very splendid back-ground of moun tains, rising one above another to the skies. In winter, the thermometer of Fahrenheit never, in the centre of the town, falls under 60° in the shade; and, during summer, we have never seen it rise above 82°, — its usual station being about 80° in well-aired apart ments. The ordinary difference between the fall of the night and day thermometer is only from three to four degrees when the thermometer is placed inside a common barred window without glass, and opening into a veranda or corridor, such as is usual in Lima houses, for the sake of free ven tilation.hundred feet above the level of the sea. It has frequently suffered from earthquakes, which are very common ; and one of the most remarkable occurred in the year 1828. Houses of one story have their walls usually composed of sun-burnt bricks called adobes ; but, that they may be better able to resist the shocks to which they are so often exposed, they are principally constructed, when of more than one story high, of wood and cane : the whole work, inside and out, being plastered over with clay, and white-washed or painted . 6 BAROMETRICAL VARIATIONS. In the sultry month of February, the ther mometer, if placed on the open and flat-roofe a"d was not seen to fall below 29^- inches. Our means of observation began in THE RIVER RIMAC. 7 September, and ended in March, and there fore included the transition from wet to dry weather, — from the cool of winter to the highest heat of summer. On one occasion when we observed the barometer fall from 29^ to 29^ inches, there had been a smart earthquake, which, though it happened in the usually dry month of January, was preceded by a. gen tle shower of rain, at the appearance of which the people in the streets rejoiced, and called it " aqua bendita," holy water ! — On another occasion, when we noticed a similar sinking of the mercury, the river Rimac showed by its turbid and swollen stream that it rained heavily in the higher mountains.* As for thunder and lightning, •The Rimac divides the city of Lima from its suburbs of San Lazaro, and has over it an excellent bridge close to the palace. This bridge, accommodated with recesses and seats, is greatly resorted to in fine evenings. The young ladies of the metropolis, in their imposing evening party or tertulia at tire and decoration, are fond, in times of public tranquillity, to saunter to the bridge on moonlight nights, and there to breathe 8 THE SEASONS. ' they have been so rarely witnessed in Lima, that there they may be said to be unknown. The above statements regarding the state of the atmosphere in Lima, it may be proper to mention, are founded on observations made by the writer at his residence in Archbishop's Street, close to the cathedral and great square ; but about a mile higher up, in a part of the city called the " Cercado," the influence of the adjacent hills is more sensi bly felt in the cooler evenings and mornings ; — the night thermometer sometimes sinks down to 54° at the orchards of the Cercado, when in the centre of the city it falls within an open window or veranda not under 60° of Fahrenheit. In Lima the four seasons are by no means distinctly marked : the dry summer weather frequently encroaches on the autumnal sea- the pure air of mountain and sea blended and eddying as it gives freshness to the pale cheek, and, in its cool and circling current, wafts fragrance from the choice flowers at this social hour gracefully wreathed around the Rimac beauties' heads. THE SEASONS. 9 son, supposed to be humid ; and again, the sort of weather and ailments most pre valent in winter are sometimes continued through a part of spring. Hence, though the seasons are usually distinguished into spring, summer, autumn, and winter, it would be more truly cha racteristic to adhere to the usual division of the aborigines, into wet and dry. In May the mornings become damp and hazy ; and, from the beginning to the latter end of June, more or less drizzly. In Octo ber, again, the rains, which even in the months of July and August are seldom heavier than a Scotch mist, cannot be said to be altogether over, as the days are still more or less wet, or occasionally there may be seen to fall a light and passing shower ; the evenings and mornings being damp and foggy. In November and December, when the dry season may be reckoned to have set b5 10 THE SEASONS. in, the weather, except for an interval at noon, is for the most part cool, bracing, and delightful : and April, too, is in this respect an agreeable month ; at the latter end of which, the natives of the capital, being so exceedingly sensitive as to feel a difference of only two or three degrees be twixt the temperature of two succeeding days like an entire change of climate, are admonished, by a disagreeable change in their sensations, to protect themselves by warm apparel against the chills arising from an occasional north-west, or from the influence of the common south-west wind. Throughout summer the wind blows al most uniformly, and in gentle breezes, from the south ; but the prevailing wind for nine months in the year is the south-west, which, as it mingles with the warmer air along the arid coasts of Peru, tends to moderate the temperature of the atmosphere, and to pro duce the fog and "garua," or thick Scotch THE SEASONS. 11 mists, of which we have taken notice. Dur ing the dry season on the coast, the rains are experienced in the interior of the coun try and lofty range of the high table-lands, — especially in the months of January, Feb ruary, and March, when the rain that falls inland is often very heavy, and, on the most elevated regions, it is not unfrequently al ternated with snow and hail. Thus, the dry season of the coast is the wet in the sierra, or mountain land, and vice versa ; and by merely ascending nigher to the sierra, or descending close to the sea, without any appreciable shifting of latitude, the favour ed Peruvians may enjoy, by the short migra tion of a few leagues, a perpetual summer or an endless winter, — if that, indeed, should be called winter, which is the season of natural growth and herbage. Whoever, late in August, or early in Sep tember, has had the good fortune to visit Buena Vista in the enchanting vale of Lorin, 12 THE SEAS0NS.- six or seven leagues south of Lima, and for many years the hospitable mansion of that enlightened philanthropist, John Thomas, Esquire, must have observed that at this season, when the sandy downs of Lorin are yet moistened by slight rains and vapours, and garnished with flowers, such of the trees in the vale as are not evergreen, and depend not, like the vegetation of the neighbouring heights, on the periodical rain of the coast, impart a certain melancholy hue to the land scape, as they have already commenced to shed abroad their sear foliage ; and here the music of the thicket, and booth on the height, are both in unison with feelings in spired by the yellow-leaved willows, when the " lomero," or herdsman of the downs, tunes the "yaravi," a mournful Indian strain, on his homely lute, and when the cuculi, in a plaintive note, responds from the guarango grove. By the end of September, or beginning of THE HARVEST. 13 spring, we find the trees in the great avenues around Lima beginning to bud ; and the new leaves expand on them, as the grass dies on the adjacent hills, or is only seen to preserve its verdant appearance in the deep clefts and tops of the hilly recesses of Amencaes.* But no sooner dies the natural vegetation on the neighbouring heights, and nearer ridges and declivities in view of the city, than the fertile irrigated fields and enclosures throw forth the waving verdure of a hopeful harvest. Barley, peas, and maize, sown during the wet or misty season, come to maturity through the joint operation of sun and artificial moisture after all natural or spontaneous vegetation has withered and disappeared from the now arid hills and sandy downs. * We shall have, by and by, further occasion to speak of Amencaes, where there grows a handsome yellow flower of the same name, which on the first approach of slight showers and vapours, at the commencement of the wet season on the coast, is the pioneer of vegetation; as the primrose, in our own glens, presages the returning verdure of spring. 14 LUNAR INFLUENCE. The maize crops the farmers always harvest in the " menguante," or decrease of the moon; for it is a fact known to every husbandman, that if they collect the crop in the " cre- ciente," or increase of the moon, it will not keep free of moths for three months, even though allowed the advantage of being left in husk, in which state it is found to be least liable to damage. In the valleys around Lima the agricul turist is very careful not to sow in the cre- ciente, lest the seed should become so dis eased and injured as never to yield a healthy crop. The same attention to lunar influence is bestowed by the wood-cutter, who knows that timber cut in the creciente soon decays, and on this account is not of use for con structing houses, or for any other permanent purpose ; this is particularly the case with the willow and alder, as the writer had once occasion to know experimentally. Being disinclined to believe what he considered to LUNAR INFLUENCE. 15 be the prejudices of the natives respecting lunar influence, he insisted upon roofing in part of a house with alder and willow cut in the creciente ; and after a couple of years he was convinced of his own error, when he saw the timber employed become quite brit tle and useless, so as to need to be re placed or supported to prevent the roof from falling. The "arriero," or muleteer, scrupulously attends to the influence of the moon on his cattle ; for if "he travels in the creciente, and in a warm or even temperate climate, he takes strict care not to unsaddle his riding- horses, nor to unpad his cargo-mules, until they have rested awhile and cooled suffici ently : and, if he should neglect these pre cautions, he would be sure to have his cattle disabled by large inflammatory swellings, rapidly running on to suppuration, forming on their shoulders or loins. In short, the very "chalan," or horse- 16 INFLUENCE OF THE CLIMATE. jobber, will not be prevailed upon to cut the lampas from a beast's gums, nor will a Li menian at any time, except in the " men- guante," offer to pare his own corns, (and few are free of such tormentors,) for fear of induc ing severe irritation as the reward of his indiscretion ; and we may reasonably infer from all these common-place and familiar facts, that, in Peru, lunar influence is very remarkable, since both in the animal and vegetable kingdom it forces itself upon the attention and experience of every one. If it be asked what general influence such a climate as we have now described may have on the animal frame, we would answer that there appears to be something peculiarly enervating and degenerating, aggravated by the total neglect of sanitary police, in the state of the atmosphere and locality of Lima. This effect is observable in the dog species, which becomes sluggish and spiritless, and more disposed to bark than to bite ; but it INFLUENCE OF THE CLIMATE. 17 shows itself more especially in the male de scendants of unmixed European parentage. We commonly see the son of the brave and stately Spaniard dwindle away from the strength of frame and manly character of his progenitor. His mind, like his person, be comes petit-maitre ; and, though vivacious in youth, it continues through life to be more distinguished for readiness than power, for mobility than vigour. 18 EPIDEMIC DISEASES. CHAPTER II. Chances of life in Lima diminished by neglect of medical police. — Statements showing the proportion of deaths to the population of Lima. — Proportion between the different sexes and castes of the inhabitants. If the mildness of contagious epidemic diseases were to afford a fair test by which to judge of the climate of any particular locality, or the medical police of its com munity, that of Lima would surely rank as one of the most favourable. But, however open and spacious be the construction of the houses and site of this capital, and what ever may be said for or against the personal and domestic cleanliness of its inhabitants, and other circumstances affecting the health AQUEDUCTS, 19 of individuals, it must be admitted that the salubrity of Lima, and the chances of life it affords, are materially diminished from the want of due attention to public clean liness. The aqueducts or canals, which run along all the principal streets in a direction from east to west, and give off branches for gar dens and convents, &c. are, after they have passed the city, to some extent usefully distributed on fields between it and the sea port. But, in general, agriculture, like every other branch of industry, is neglected since the revolution. The drains intended to con vey the surplus water from the city over a gentle slope, to impart that moisture to the good soil which could not otherwise part with its nutritive properties, or support ve getation, are frequently in a ruinous condi tion. Thus, the water is suffered to stag nate in some parts, and run waste in others, 20 STREET-CANALS. without being applied to those beneficial pur poses of tillage which should be the means of augmenting the health, population, and general resources of Lima and its environs: By the street-canals, are to be seen all day long the industrious vultures, (by far the most efficient agents of police,) gulping up the refuse cast into these receptacles of every sort of nuisance. When the water runs in small quantity, or is altogether stop ped from neglect, the quantity of vegetable and animal deposit carelessly allowed to ac cumulate in these channels emits a pro fusion of gaseous volatile poison, more or less penetrating and pernicious, according to the season of the year and heat of the weather. The manure conveyed from the pens and stables, (which might be applied so as richly to repay the farmer's toil, and be made to beautify at the same time that it MANURE-HEAPS. 21 enriched to an incalculable extent the adja cent plains,) — this manure, when not thrown into the canals, is conveyed to the broad walls of the picturesque city, and there heap ed up day after day ; or, if not thus disposed of, it is carried to the river's brink, where it is suffered to accumulate into ferment ing mounds of daily increasing size. Here it absorbs moisture, and generates miasmata that taint the air breathed by the inhabit ants ; and so their sloth is chastised. We are persuaded that their own culpable inat tention to the cleanliness and salubrity of their capital contributes largely to entail upon them a greater proportion of disease and mortality than could at first sight be expected from the features of the climate. Those natives, indeed, who have passed a life of well-regulated habits, are said to at tain a cheerful old age in Lima; and there are instances of a few individuals exceed- 22 MORTALITY IN LIMA. ing a hundred years of age, who pre serve considerable bodily activity and men tal vivacity. There was living, when we left Lima in 1836, an active little Franciscan friar, said to be considerably above a hun dred. A Spanish gentleman of the name of Pellisier, very remarkable for the acute- ness and vigour of his mental powers and general health, died in our own day, at the age of a hundred and two or three ; and some other instances of this sort might be mentioned. These, however, are ex ceptions. For it is worthy of particular remark, that, whatever be the causes that tend to produce the melancholy result, the truth is, that the general mortality in Lima is very great ; a fact which the records of its Pantheon fully confirm, as may be seen from the annexed documents. MORTALITY IN LIMA. TABLE 23 r Showing the number of Deaths in Lima and its Suburbs from the year 1826 to the year 1835, both inclusive. Year. Deaths. Year. Deaths. Total number of Deaths in the preceding Ten Yeais. 1826 1827 18281829 1830 207521622106 19482118 18311832 183318341835 1871 2576330527442603 23,508 Before we offer any remarks on the above table taken from a careful examination of the register-books belonging to the Pantheon, or public cemetery of Lima, it may not be amiss to premise what was the population of Lima when the last census was taken, just before the revolution broke out, and when that city is supposed to have been full of people and at its acme of prosperity. This census, taken by John Baso, one of the " oidores," or judges of that period, and dated at Lima, September 30, 1818, concludes by the fol- 24 MORTALITY IN LIMA. lowing summary : — " As is demonstrated by the preceding statement, the capital of Lima comprehends within its walls, huts and cottages contiguous to the city gates, and suburbs of San Lazaro, 54,098 persons of all sexes, castes, states, and conditions, which are distinguished minutely in the same statement; of which the total amount consists of 27,545 males, and 26,553 females." During the ten years embraced by the above table of mortality, the population of Lima is always estimated, by the best in formed natives, as much under, as at the time of the census of Baso it was found to be above, 50,000 ; but no data, or census of later date, by which to verify this matter in a precise manner, exist in the hands of the patriots ; therefore it is in some degree subject of conjecture, although from the number of houses that are now abandon ed,, and the great falling away of the agri- MORTALITY IN LIMA. "25 cultural and horticultural labourers, we are probably not far from the truth in calling the average population of the capital and suburbs during the last ten years 45,000 ; in which case the deaths in twenty years will, ac cording to the above rate, as seen from 1826 to 1835, amount to 47,000, — a number greater than the whole population given. It may not be irrelevant to notice that, in the year 1828, (twenty years after the Pan theon had been opened for interment,) the much lamented General La Mar, at that time president of Peru, visited the burying- ground, and desired, at the suggestion, we are told, of Don Manano Castilla, a gentle man who had the honour to accompany his excellency on the occasion, one of the chap lains of the cemetery, to inform him, after re ferring to the proper archives, the total num ber of bodies interred for the twenty years it had then been open to the public ; and vol. i. c 26 MORTALITY IN LIMA. we are assured that the result corresponded closely with the rate expressed in our pre sent statement. The archives of Beneficen- cia, to which the chaplain had recourse, are now lost or mislaid ; but the account he fur nished General La Mar, after these docu ments, then extant, were consulted, was pub lished in some one of the periodicals of that day, which, however, we ourselves have not seen. It appears from our table of mortality, from 1826 to 1835, both years inclusive, that during the last four years the number of deaths has augmented in proportion to those that took place during the preceding six. The most obvious reason for which, that we can assign, is, that the late administrator of the cemetery and keeper of its register, to whose charge the books were left during the first six years, was not attentive (as his books yet testify) to enter the number of espuestos, — in other words, corpses left secretly in ex- ESPUESTOS. 27 posed situations, as, for example, at the Pantheon, hospital, or convent gates ; but his successor (Pasos) has, throughout the last four years specified, been very careful to insert a correct enumeration of these cast away bodies, as the writer has had an op portunity of ascertaining in looking over the books of this obliging person, who lent his willing aid to procure the details whence are drawn the general results expressed in the table. The number of the espuestos is almost in credible, and shows the prevalency of great poverty ; for it is but charitable to think that no one would thus cast away a child's remains who was not deprived of the ordi nary means of covering the expense of an humble interment : but it is said that, in this business, much fraud is committed by the parents of the deceased, who, to avoid paying the regular funeral dues, give the vol. i. c 2 28 INCREASE OF DEATHS. hearse-men a few reals for picking up the exposed bodies, and carrying them to the cemetery to be buried. For these considera tions, it will not be unwarrantable to infer that the increase of deaths during the last four years on the table has not been so much in reality as in appearance, from the omission of duly registering the espuestos. Nor does it appear from a document now before us, titled, " Guia politica, eclesiastica, y mili tar del Peru," by the celebrated and praise worthy Dr. D. H. Unanue, published in the year 1793, that the gross amount of deaths has altered, in proportion to the existing population, to that extent which many per sons would incline to believe, in consequence of the great increase of poverty and demo ralization which have been experienced since that period. In 1793 the population was quoted in the "Guia" at 52,627, and the number of deaths at 2795, not including such as occurred among nuns or ecclesiastics ; INCREASE OF DEATHS. 29 all of whom, conjointly, formed a large item in the population of Lima, and must have had a good many deaths among their number to increase the real bill of mortality.* It cannot be supposed either, that war had much share in swelling the Pantheon list of * The proportion which the different sexes, castes, and con ditions, &c. of the inhabitants of Lima bore to one another in the year 1818, may be learned from the subjoined summary taken from the census of Juan Baso, Oidor. Summary of Men by Castes. Secular Spaniards 8406 Priests and Friars 1331 Mestizoes - 2660 Indians 1 Free Negroes ) .„„ and Pardos < *"" Summary of Men by Wards. 1st Ward 6841 2nd Id. 3rd Id. 4th Id. 6389 3512 Cercado, } the high-/ er part of > 259 the city I so called J In wards 4662 27,545 Gen. amt. of the ¦whole. 27,545 26,553 Summary of ¦Women by Wards. ' 7975Wardlst 6090 — 2nd 7420 — 3rd 4756 — 4th 312 Cercado 26,553 Summary of "Wo men by Castes. 9455 Secular Spa nish women 506 Nuns. 3262 Mestiza wo men. 1731 Indian wo men. '7715 Black and swarthy free women. 3884 Id. slaves. To convey a more particular idea of the different races of people in Lima, as these are divided and subdivided, and SO INCREASE OF DEATHS. dead in these latter years, because, though civil broils were frequent since the year 1826, yet Lima itself was not the usual seat of con flict. Some troops there were always sta tioned in this city ; but, should these be ex change in colour by intermixing with one another, we shall add tables on the subject, given by Dr. Unanue, in his work titled " Observaciones sobre el clima de Lima.'7 Intermarriages. Offspring. Colour. Mixture. Men. Women. European CreoleWhite WhiteWhite White White WhiteNegro European Creole IndianMestizaNegress Mulatta QuarteronaQuinteronaIndian Creole CreoleMestizoe Creole MulattoQuarteronQuinteron WhiteChino White White WhiteWhite \ negro, J white. £ negro, j white. ^ negro, £ white. The same author gives the following as the retrograde inter marriages, by which the offspring are of a more dingy appear ance, and made to recede more and more from white, which he takes as the standard primitive colour. Marriages. Offspring. Colour. Negro, Negress, Negro. Negro, Mulatta, Zambo, f negro, \ white Negro, Zamba, Dark Zambo, J negro, \ white Negro, Dark Zambo, Negro, xSnegrO, .JyWhifc Negro, China, Zambo, INCREASE OF DEATHS. 31 eluded from the estimate of the regular popu lation of the place, still, however, any dif ference in the sum of mortality thus pro duced from soldiers dying in hospitals and registered at the cemetery would be, most likely, more than equalled by the default in the account of the espuestos, especially young children, whose remains were irregu larly interred, and so not at all entered upon the books. And as for the Montonera troops, or others who met with violent death in or about town during the late noisy skirmishes, they were, upon the whole, too inconsiderable to merit much notice in this place, as appears very clearly from the various entries made in the register by Pasos, the present adminis trator and book-keeper of the cemetery. 32 DIET OF LIMA. CHAPTER III. Food, fruit, and water used in Lima. As the degree of health, and vigour of constitution, enjoyed by individuals, depend in a great measure upon the diet, as well as on the air they breathe, climate, and caste, we shall offer a few general observa tions on the dietetic habits of the Lime- nians. Besides maize, which is more generally cultivated than wheat, the latter being to a considerable extent an article of importa tion from Chili and other foreign parts, the staple food of the poor on the coast is derived from the camote and yuca, both of DIET OF LIMA. 33 which roots are exceedingly nutritive and wholesome ; but, in Lima, animal food is consumed in very large quantity. The quantity of poultry used here is incalcu lable ; and a good reason for this is, that the sick, infirm, and convalescent, — always ex ceedingly numerous in this capital, as well in public hospitals as in private houses, ; — think themselves neglected in their diet if they have not, at least once a day, chicken or chicken soup. Geese and ducks are in low reputation as articles of aliment ; but of pigeons and turkeys there is always a large supply in the daily market, held under sheds in convenient parts of the town. Fish is usually good and plentiful, — the fishermen, by the way, furnishing the best specimen we have seen of a robust form in the Indian family. The number of fat pigs killed in the town has been, in the year 1835, — on occasion of imposing, for the support of the colleges, a c 5 34 PIGS, OXEN, AND SHEEP. duty of four reals, or about two shillings a-head, on each pig, — estimated considerably above twenty thousand yearly ; and there is always so large a consumption of lard and fried pork, (" chicharones,") that the trade of the " mantequero," or lard and swine-dealer, is, after that of the baker and lottery-man, " suertero," one of the most lu crative in the capital. From forty to fifty head of oxen, and from three to four hundred sheep, are slaughtered daily for the Lima market: the beef is very good ; the mutton of inferior quality. We were told by one of the principal beef contractors that, early in the year 1836, the slaughter of oxen in Lima was reduced to thirty or thirty-five head daily; a decrease from the usual number which he ascribed to the poverty peculiar to that particular period of misrule, "disabling many families from buying beef, and partly also to a new military order relating to the soldiers' rations. STREET-COOKS. 35 Instead of his former allowance of meat, the soldier was now allowed two reals daily to provide for himself what food he pleased ; — an injudicious alteration in his circum stances, for he either gave his ration-money for drink, or indulged his appetite in eating some unwholesome trash calculated to throw him too often on the sick-list. Pastry and sweet-meat criers are seen everywhere in the Lima streets ; and a sort of cook-stand, abounding in fried pork and fish, is to be found at the corner of every square. This practice gives some insight into the dietetic habits of the vulgar; and such poor families of genteel pretensions as from necessity hire out their slaves, are seldom at the trouble or expense of cooking at home when they can more easily call in from the street what little they may satisfy themselves with. Masamorerias, or a sort of pap-shops, are very common in Lima. Of the sweet 36 MASAM0RA. pap in vulgar use there are as many varieties as there are of meal and flour, — such as peas, beans, rice, maize flour, arrow-root, starch, — of which they have many varieties. Any of these boiled in water to a very soft consistence, with or without the addition of fruit or some vegetable acid, and sweet ened exceedingly with sugar, molasses, or "chancaca," (the latter, a coarse sort of brown sugar made up into cakes,) is what constitutes the great Limenian dish " masa- mpra," to which these sweet-mouthed peo ple are as proverbially partial as the English are to roast-beef. However salutary in itself may be the quality of the more substantial food of such Limenians as can afford to live well and generously, yet most of their dishes are so sodden in lard, that the common fowl, the pigeon, turkey, and that excellent family dish the " puchero," consisting of a variety of fruit and vegetables, with pieces of meat AGI-PEPPER. 37 of different kinds and quality, all boiled and presented in one great piece of plate, — are among the comparatively few which a simple palate can relish. Their soups, together with a great variety of vegetable dishes, are so heated with agi- pepper, that the coats of the stomach would indeed require to be well greased to protect them against the piquant effects of this popular condiment. Useful and even neces sary as this agi is found to be by those Indians of the valleys who cultivate it around their doors, and whose diet is nearly all vegetable, yet in a climate like that of Lima, and in constitutions so delicate as those of its inhabitants confessedly are, it must prove injurious to the organization of the stomach, and to the health in general, when freely and daily taken with a plentiful allowance of animal food, and a general mode of living sober but not temperate; for though the better classes deal sparingly in wine, yet, by 38 THE NATIVE RACES. partaking more or less of every dish at table, and these not a few, they usually eat more than the powers of digestion can comfortably apply to the support of the frame, not usually exposed by so indolent a people to great waste from athletic exertion. The native dark races are indeed much more robust in form, and hardier in consti tution, than strangers to their climate ; and many of them drink "aguardiente," or un- coloured cane spirits, in great quantity, and with less immediate ill effect than one would expect. Their constant use of such ex citants as ardent spirits and fermented beverages called " chichas," with animal food and agi, may possibly be a principal reason why these persons, whenever they are seized with inflammatory complaints, stand general bleeding better than others of their own caste fed upon sango, a name applied to a sort of mash made with maize-meal and sweet potatoes : but persons of European descent, WHITE MEN. 39 with skin so much more delicate than the darker races in Peru, and endowed with a more susceptible nervous system, suffer much more readily from atmospherical vicissitudes; and their digestive organs and powers of assimilation being comparatively weak, those irregularities, borne by the negro and zambo with comparative impunity, are to the white man, whose organization is not so suitable as theirs for a warm and relaxing climate, the frequent cause of various disorders of the bowels, as indigestion, cholera mor bus, or dysentery. The dietetics of the Limenians naturally induce frequent ex amples of impaired digestion ; and worms, too usually the inmates of unhealthy bow els, are so remarkably common, and in acute febrile diseases are so generally ex pelled either dead or alive, that their ap pearance in such disorders is looked upon as a matter of course. What share the water, as a vehicle for ova, may have in vol. I. c 8 40 WATER. propagating these worms, it may be difficult to assign ; but as the aqueducts are much neglected, and proper filtering-stones not in general use, it is likely that some seeds of disease may thus enter the system; and it may be mentioned that, during the warm weather, a host of animalcules show them selves to the naked eye in the earthen jars, or " botijas" which are kept in the culinary apartments as receptacles for water intended for ordinary domestic purposes ; and even water, heated in hot baths to ninety or more degrees of Fahrenheit, if again allowed to cool, and stand over a few days, is seen crowded with myriads of playful animal cules. Of water taken by the writer from the fountain of the great square in Lima, just as the river began to rise in January from the effects of the inland rains, he is happy to be able to furnish the following analysis by Dr. Thomson of Glasgow. FRUITS. 41 Sp. gr. 1*00028; purer than Clyde water: 1000 grains contained Grains. Common salt . . 0-05 Sulphate of lime . .0-19 Silica .... 0*06 Vegetable matter . . 0-04 034 Nature has supplied the Peruvians of the coast with fruits most suitable to their wants ; and these, though often injurious when eaten in a state of immaturity, or when the stomach is not in a fit state to receive them, are yet, when used in season, most grateful to the taste, and salutary to the constitution, in the regions where they abound. We shall, therefore, introduce in this place a list of the fruits produced in the orchards in and about Lima, with a specification of the months when they are in season. This we are happily able to do by presenting our readers with a list, obligingly given to us 42 FRUITS. by Mr. Mathews, an English botanist, now making rich botanical collections in the in terior of Peru ; but whose occupation, as an horticulturist at Lima, afforded him the best opportunity for exact and practical informa tion on the subject. January. — Grapes begin to ripen ; and also apricots, and a few pears. February. — Grapes, pears in abundance, apricots ; peaches begin to ripen ; lucumas scarce ; figs. March. — Grapes in abundance ; pears scarce ; peaches in abundance ; apples be gin to ripen ; lucumas in abundance ; figs in abundance. April. — Apples in abundance; quinces, ceruela de frayle {spondias dulcis), and ceras- as (malpighia glandulosa), patillas (psidium lineatum), and guavas ; figs scarce. May. — The same as April ; a few grapes are seen in the market, brought from the southward ; cherimollas. FRUITS. 43 June. — Cherimollas and guanavanas ; sweet and sour oranges ; a few apples. July. — The same as June, with the ex ception of apples and limes ; sweet lemons and sour lemons begin to ripen. August. — The same as July; but slight demand for oranges this month. September. — Lucumas, paltas, and the fruits of the previous month. October. — Same as September ; but a great demand for limes and sweet lemons. November fDuring these two months and < there is a great demand for December. ^SWeet and sour lemons, for "frescos" or cooling drinks. Sweet oranges rarely remain good after the middle of November. Plantains produce all the year, but the greatest abundance is during the hot months. The pepino is also much eaten during De cember, January, and February. In the months of April and May, the pulp sur- vol. i. c 10 44 FRUITS. rounding the seeds in the pod of the pacay are much eaten. In addition to the above account by Mr. Mathews, we may notice that the melon and sandia, or musk and water-melon, are much cultivated in the neighbourhood of Lima ; and are to be seen in large heaps by the bridge, and at the corners of streets, where they are bought up, and consumed with avidity, in the hot month of February. Olives too, and very good ones, grow in the Vale of Rimac, and arrive at maturity in February and March. During the late civil wars, several valuable olive plantations were wantonly cut down. Strawberries, and like wise " tunas," or Indian figs, of inferior quality, grow in Lima ; but the market is supplied with these fruits, and of the best quality, from the neighbouring valley of Sta. Ulaya. The pine-apple does not ripen spontaneously in Lima, though attempts are now making near the Callao gate of the city FRUITS. 45 to cultivate it. The pine-apple eaten in Lima is usually brought from the eastern side of Peru, from the Montana of Tarma and Gu- ancayo, &c. Sometimes, also, a few pine apples are carried from about Moro on the coast to the northward ; but these often de cay before they arrive in Lima. 46 OPINIONS AS TO CHAPTER IV. Remarks explanatory of certain Dietetic maxims, and estab lished notions or prejudices, illustrative of the physical constitution and domestic habits of the Limenians. In Lima there are certain opinions and rules, relating to the nature and cure of dis eases, so very popular and well received among the vulgar, and at the same time so habitually countenanced by many of the na tive practitioners, that, for any one who pro poses to practise in that part of the world, and hopes to be honourably acquitted by the jury of nurses and attendants who are always numerous about the sick, it may be worth while to consider the tenor of the following remarks : CURE OF DISEASES. 47 I. No conoce nuestro clima. — It is affirmed by native doctors, but not always acceded to by the vulgar, that there is something occult in the climate of Lima, which only a Limenian or Creole physician can sufficiently comprehend. Hence the prejudiced objection, " No conoce nuestro clima," — that is, " he knowsnot our climate," — is sanctioned by high professional authority ; and this much hack neyed caveat is usually laid at the threshold of every European doctor who desires to make himself professionally useful in Lima. Every one, we think, will admit that the practice of medicine must be modified, or con siderably altered, according to the topography of any particular country ; for it is observed, that difference of locality affects not only man, but plants and animals, in a striking de gree as we extend from the Equator towards latitudes far to the north or south of it. Yet, if there be any who understand either the botany or zoology of Peru, or who en- vol. I. c 12 48 PERUVIAN IGNORANCE. deavour to illustrate these subjects by their science and diligence, they are not Peru vians. The only lover of natural history we have the honour to be acquainted with in that country is Don Mariano Rivero of Arequipa ; and, though their tranquil sky might be ima gined to allure Limenians of a philosophic turn of mind to the contemplation and study of the heavenly bodies, yet to Dr. Gregorio Paredes alone belongs, in the present day, the merit and high distinction of keeping the sublime vigils of the astronomer. Now this dearth of native science is not confined to these general branches of natural history and philosophy, but affects very sensibly the prac tice of medicine. The very manuals of pri mary medical instruction put into the hands of medical students in the capital of Peru are foreign and European. And thus it is plain that they have no peculiar and na tional digest of medical knowledge — no local PREJUDICE. 49 and partial medical code, such as charlatans and public impostors would desire to insinu ate when they talk of their own practice of physic, or what they call Medicina del pais. It is indeed to be hoped that no respect able physician in Peru will hereafter indulge in the folly of maintaining that Europeans are neither fit to practise in that country, nor able to comprehend the peculiar influ ences of the climate of Lima. This climate, like every other on the known face of the globe, is open to the investigations of the meteorological observer, whether he be a na tive of the Old or New World. The laws of physiology, we may further observe, like those of gravitation, are the same in Peru as in other parts of the world ; and the aphorisms of Hippocrates, generally founded on accurate observations made more than two thousand years ago, are at this day equally true as when first embodied, and applicable to man's physical constitution all vol. i. D 50 MEDICAL TREATMENT. over the globe. The medical treatment of diseases, whether conducted at home or abroad, must be conducted in conformity with the common and immutable laws of the animal economy, and with due attention to the constitution and temperament of indi viduals. The locality of the patient's -birth or residence, the influence of climate, diet, and habits, &c. are mere accidental circum stances, secondary and subordinate consider ations, which every physician or medical officer of our fleets and armies, to whatever clime he be transported, should be able to survey and to estimate, like the skilful com mander who, as he reconnoitres his ground, perceives the local character of a new field of action. II. Tomar dulce para bever agua a las horas de la comida. — This is a standing diet etic rule observed at the close of a meal or repast, which means that sugar, or some DIETETIC RULE. 51 sweet preserve, is to be taken to give relish to the water that it is customary to drink at this time, whether one feel thirsty or not : they therefore sweeten the palate to enjoy their simple drink. Should a Limenian in perfect health, who thus drinks water at stated periods, feel thirsty shortly after a meal concluded, as usual, with sugar or some sweet-meat and water, he is taught to endure the inconve nience rather than bring on himself indispo sition by indulging his thirst. To understand this, it is requisite to know, that, until three hours have elapsed after the taking of the last meal, no one is supposed to drink even water, which is the most common beverage of the natives ; for to commit such an irregularity would, it is believed, be to occasion a fit of indigestion or to hazard health. This may appear a ridiculous prejudice to those who are accustomed to quench their thirst, as often as it naturally arises, without d 2 52 DIETETIC RULE. regard to rules ; but, on the coast of Peru, the neglect of this prophylactic rule of only drinking at stated periods, when it violates the established habits of an individual trained up in the observance of it, may be allowed to be injurious to the health, as it certainly disturbs the digestive functions. This strict attention to measured periods of drinking water is also countenanced in the hill-land of the interior, where digestion is usually so vigorous as not to require such nice precau tion : but it is patronised by custom ; and this, no doubt, the majority hold as a sufficient reason for the continuance of the practice. When a person suffers from acute febrile disease, and is only allowed very spare and tenuous diet, such as chicken soup, panada, tapioca, or arrow-root, &c. ; then, from one meal to another, the regular interval is five hours ; three hours after each meal, water, or some medicated drink, is given ; and, two hours after this drink, the allotted aliment, DIETETIC RULE. 53 of whatever simple sort it may be, is again repeated. Thus food and drink are regularly alternated till the patient is considered to be in a state which requires the supply of solid food ; and then, as when in ordinary health, the interval from meal to meal is understood to be seven hours. The solid food given to the convalescent generally consists of chicken, which, of all the items in the list of Limenian dietary, is that in most general requisition. Now, for the proper digestion of the chicken, five hours are allowed before any medicated drink is ordered after it ; and the principle recognised in this method is, that drink, which too much dilutes and weakens the gastric juice in the stomach, cannot with propriety be taken before chy- mification is complete. Nurses, and very kind and obliging friends, usually attend so strictly to the above order in giving food and drink, that, though the poor patient be burning with thirst, he can 54 PREJUDICE OF NURSES. only have permission to quench it at the fixed and assigned hours ; and, through a feeling of pure benevolence towards the sick, they interrupt a salutary sleep rather than fail in punctually giving either drink, nutriment, or medicine at the corresponding hours. Under the influence of an amiable sense of duty, the anxious mother is often heard to assure the doctor that she herself was attentive to give her child its drink or medicine at exact time, as announced from the nearest church spire by the striking of the clock ; though it grieved her to interrupt its gentle slumber. During the exacerbations of intermittent fevers, so prevalent in Peru, the state of the stomach is usually much disturbed ; and in such circumstances, instead of alternating food and drink without regard to the con dition of the digestive functions, we have taken pains to persuade the sick to deviate from the order established by custom, and allowed our patients the inexpressible com- MEDICAL PEDANTRY. 55 fort of drinking as often as thirst urged them, until there was obtained a solution of the febrile exacerbation. III. Prepararse para tomar purga. — Many practitioners of the venerable Boerhaa- vian school have died in Lima in course of the last few years, but several of this stock are yet remaining; and, in their professional harangues at consultations, they are heard to talk learnedly of the malignant, adust, crude, and corrosive, &c. state of the hu mours of the human frame, without, as it always appeared to us, being able to affix any precise and practical ideas to these hy pothetical expressions. And though the junior doctors of mpdernized opinions are generally found to indulge in some theory of the abstract solidists, yet they are obliged to respect the prejudices of the vulgar, and talk in a way that is agreeable to those whom it is their business to persuade. Pa- 56 MEDICAL PRACTICE. tients, blinded by the received notions con cerning the scorched blood, and displaced, corrupt, or perturbed and jumbled humours, reckon the daily visit of the physician in dispensable under ordinary circumstances of indisposition. They do not expect that, day after day, active drugs are required ; but, according to their own precognition of the case, they think it necessary for their safety that their medical adviser make his regular visits and observations, carefully examine the various excretions, and so be able to judge accurately of the character of the case, and prepare the patient by delay, diet, and diluents, &c. to take physic in due time, which is the meaning of the vernacular ex* pression, " Prepararse para tomar purga." IV. Empacho. — This famous Limenian mischief-maker is supposed to lurk concealed under almost every form of chronic or intrac table disease, and means, in the most usual EMPACHO. 57 acceptation of the word, a preternaturally loaded and torpid condition of the bowels : but, on other occasions, the same word is used to express the casual lodgement, in any part of the digestive passages, of some such matter as the fresh rind of a fig, grape, or date, keeping up local irritation and fever. Thus, at one time, the term empacho signi fies a confined and inactive state of the bowels ; and, at other times, indigestion of some foreign and adherent substance, fre quently giving rise to quite a contrary con dition of gastric disorder : the former is call ed simply empacho ; the latter is called em pacho pegado, — for the removal of which, a table-spoonful, or two, of the liquid fat of a fowl — the enjundia de gallina ! is a popular remedy. In a large proportion of cases where this cause of mischief is supposed to exist, it has, in fact, no place or existence except in the mind that conceives the notion of it ; and, in VOL. i. d 5 58 FATAL PREJUDICE. itself, the fallacy is harmless so long as it is speculative : but the practice to which it leads is often mischievous, and it is with the latter that the practitioner has most to do. It would, indeed, be a hopeless task for the regular practitioners in Peru to reason a Limenian doctress out of her reveries on the subject of empacho, which, when viewed by her as the exciting cause of disease, assumes a Protean character, and is visible to her imagination in mostly every case of ailment, which she, true to her favourite opinion, offers to cure in her own way. The evil effects of a farrago of nostrums, or untimely and inappropriate medicaments applied by the help of the doctress, the edu cated physician is often called, but sometimes too late, to correct ; and the fatal abuses thus arising have, on various occasions, called forth the public and earnest remonstrances of the highest medical tribunal of the coun- THE JERINGA. 59 try, — but all to no purpose, the practice be ing rooted in vulgar favour and prejudice. So universal, indeed, is the credit of the Limeiia quacks, or curanderas, of whom La Senora Dorotea is the chief, and so general is the use of the instrument called jeringa, (through the medium of which the principal ingredients of this senora's materia medica are confidently applied,) that it constitutes an essential and conspicuous article of do mestic utility. And the great consideration in which this auxiliary is held, as a sine qud non in the treatment pf empacho, and almost every disease, renders it a topic of never- failing cpnversation. As a familiar example of the abuse of the jeringa, may be mentioned the vulgar prac tice of resorting to it in disorders attendant on dentition. Sometimes the increased action of the bowels is indiscreetly stopped by as tringents thus adhibited, and a fatal determi nation of blood to the head ensues ; but it 60 ERRONEOUS TREATMENT. more frequently happens that the contrary practice is pursued, and stimulant remedies are administered, which either increase the existing disease, or transmute it into a dysen tery. On such occasions the skilful practi tioner may endeavour in vain to convince the mother that her child's gastric ailment does not proceed from the presence of the dire em pacho. When, as often happens during the progress of teething, children are suffered to eat all sorts of sweets, fruit, and unwholesome diet, or permitted to partake of strong food used by adults, and ill-suited to the more de licate organs of the tender child, then, no doubt, empacho or indigestion may be traced, in many cases, as a co-existing cause of the irritation and disturbance in the bowels, to which the offspring of white parents are more particularly subject in Lima. Compli cated cases of this nature demand a prudent modification in treatment. Yet such in stances are not so frequent as others, inde- SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEF. 61 pendent of indigestion, and in which a mode-^ rate bowel complaint is so far from being in jurious that it is most salutary, as a natural protection against affections of the head dur ing the process of teething It is a peculiarity connected with the religious belief and popu lar customs of the country, that diseases of infancy and early childhood are too lightly considered by the native physician. The reason assigned for this is the devout one, that little innocents are exempted from the pangs of Purgatory, which muste-be borne by adults for the purification of their souls ; and that therefore, for the child, it is hap piness to die. We have heard the physician offer this consolation to a weeping mother in the higher ranks of society. He softly assured her that her pretty babe would pass through Purga tory to Paradise without as much as scorch ing a finger in the transit. In the lower and middle ranks especially, 62 SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEF. this religious dogma seems to stifle the na tural emotions of the heart ; for, evidently forgetting that even " Jesus wept," they ce lebrate with music and dancing the death of the dearest object of a fond parent's affection, who, as her child is consigned to a niche in the Pantheon, bedecks her person, grown thin by previous care and watching, and now she smiles in her robes of white, as if these were indeed no emblems of torn af fection ! V. Sangria sobre el empacho. — To bleed a patient affected with empacho is, by the common consent of the vulgar, declared to be a most unpardonable blunder; and this is the meaning of the expression, " Sangria sobre el empacho !" when ejaculated in the apart ments of the sick. It will be readily imagined that, in nume rous instances coming under the vulgar de nomination of empacho, the subtraction of BLEEDING. 63 blood will be a necessary measure before purgatives can be properly or safely resorted to, with a view tp rempve from the bowels the irritating cause lodged there, and affect ing the general system. But to avoid the unjust criticism of uncharitable members of the profession, who are always ready to turn to their private advantage, any popular prejudice which can be called in to humble the name of fellow-practitioners more respect able than themselves, and also as a mean either to acquire or to preserve the confi dence of the sick, the prudent physician will not overlook the natural effects of any known prepossession regarding blood-letting. He will so far accommodate his practice to the ideas of those who are most interested in the issue of his treatment, as to order at least one enema, when the empacho is firmly believed to exist, before he proceed to the further discharge of his professional duty, 64 MEDICAL CONCESSION. and fulfilment of the indication of the case, by ordering the lancet to be applied. No time or advantage is lost by such a concession to the preconceived and inflexible opinion, that bleeding is particularly hurt ful in those cases of illness connected with undue accumulations in the bowels : but one very important end is gained by it; since, by agreeing with the sick and their friends on an indifferent point of practice, they will more willingly submit to the application of other remedies necessary for the safety of the patient. VI. Cosas frias y calientes. — All articles of diet, and medicaments, are by the Peru vians vulgarly divided into cold and hot ; or, as the words on which we are about to comment express it, into " cosas frias y calientes." When the physician prescribes any par ticular diet or physic to a patient in Lima, FEMALE PRETENSION. 65 he must be ready to answer many inqui ries regarding the qualities of the things prescribed. Besides professed sick-tenders, zamba housekeepers or head-servants, some wo men in the middle and humbler ranks, such as manteras, chocolateras, tenderas, cigare- rasy picanteras, pulperas, changaneras, — that is, female shopkeepers, chocolate and cigar venders, with a subordinate gradation of publicans, &c. — are always ready to talk, with confounding fluency and volubility, without knowledge, concerning qualities and temperaments ; and they display a natural acuteness of metaphysical capacity, with a truly peripatetic nicety of discrimination, when, in a moment of oratorical excitement, they assign to certain mixtures and drinks ideal measures and degrees of the elementary qualities. Women skilled in such mysteries, and omniscient charlatans, run over the vari ous combinations of the cold and hot, dry 66 FEMALE PRETENSION. and humid, and all their resulting modifica tions of temperature and temperament, with apparently unerring precision, and with a graduated exactness which no chemist in Europe, with every advantage of science and apparatus, can pretend to equal in his elabo rate investigations into the qualities and ele ments of bodies either living or inanimate. The particular temperament of the patient his intimate friends are supposed to know perfectly ; and the doctor's reply to any ques tion that may be proposed to him on this subject will be considered, in many instances, as no bad test of his penetration and profes-* sional knowledge in other matters with which they do npt presume to be themselves ; so jvell acquainted. In conformity with such prevailing impres* sions, when nurses are to be selected for the children of delicate mothers, preference is given to the black women, as their blood and NURSES. 67 milk are believed to be cooler and more re freshing than the same fluids are in women of a different race. The Indian woman, on the other hand, is considered inferior to the negress as a nurse, because she is believed to be of a comparatively hot temperament and constitution. The effect of the quality of the nurse's milk is conceived to influence the future temperament of the infant that hangs on her breast ; and it is sometimes as signed as a reason why an individual is of an ardent temperament, that when a child he had been weaned, or deprived of the breast, by giving him wine,-^se desteto con vino. Colour is looked upon as an indication of constitutional temperament even in the lower animals. Thus, when one in town labours under hectic fever, or consumption, he is re commended to go to the country, and drink warm milk from a black cow, because it is allowed to be more cooling and febrifuge 68 MEDICINAL COLOUR. than the milk taken from a cow of any other colour. In case of a rheumatic swelling of a joint, — the knee, for instance,— or some tumefac tion in any of the glands, it is taken for granted, that, whatever other remedy be ap plied, the envelope for the limb or part af fected must be of a medicinal colour, and consist of black wool, or something of a dark woollen texture. In short, so far has this general idea concerning the antiphlogistic nature of black been carried, that few natives dispute its accuracy : nor are we prepared to say that it may not have some founda tion in fact and observation (though often laughed at by strangers as a puerile pre judice) ; for it is well known to scientific men, that the free radiation of heat is much influenced by the differences of colour in the radiating surfaces of bodies. With respect to food and drink, the divi sion into cold and hot is never overlooked. THE TRAGUIT0. 69 A " traguito," or little dram of Italia, a colourless brandy made on the coast, the old men consider as fresco, or cooling, when taken immediately after dinner; and when they take the " traguito" which they do not every day, it will probably facilitate the digestion of the greasy food which they are commonly accustomed to eat, and in this manner deserve the name of a fresco. But, again, though at their entertainments they allow wine to be a safe and good drink after the " helados" or ices, which they like exceedingly, still they use wine sparingly on other occasions, as they consider it too heating for general use. There are fruits after which the na tives do not think it safe to drink either wine or spirits ; of this sort is the short plantain, called " platano de guinea," after which a mouthful of spirits would be con sidered quite poisonous. Foreigners do not seem to attend to this strict rule observed VOL. I. d 11 70 COOLING FRUITS. by the natives ; nor is the violation of it, as far as we know, attended with any se rious consequence to them. Various kinds of fruit and vegetable juices, which are considered cool in their qualities, are not rarely most heating in their effects, according to the condition of the system when taken. The melon is in reputation for its cooling nature ; but, though the impression made by it on our alimentary organs is at first very refresh ing, the muleteer who journeys from the Cordillera to the coast, and has but once in his lifetime been attacked with a gas tric tertian, in consequence of cooling his parched fauces by eating of the me lon, can give a lively account of the in ternal heat, agitation, and oppression expe rienced by him on the occasion. There is no cooling fruit safer than the granadilla, which is most grateful and refreshing to the feverish patient, pr thirsty traveller in COOLING MEAT. 71 the scorched and rock-bound ravines and nar row valleys of the interior, where this fruit is often abundant, as it is also on the coast in its proper season. Fowls are reckoned to be infinitely cooler in their temperament than sheep or oxen, and their flesh is also considered as very safe and cooling ; hence the almost universal use of the former, and prohibition or disuse of the latter, in the dietary of a delicate invalid. This distinction will appear .still more strongly marked, when it is observed, that to prescribe beef-tea in any acute dis ease would be deemed an act of rashness and ignorance ; but chicken-tea is held to be the most cooling of diluents, and very eligible in the most inflammatory diseases and in the warmest weather. This chicken-tea, called " agua de polio,'' is commonly prepared in the proportions of three cupsfull of water to one half of a little unfledged chicken, with the addition of a 72 AGUA DE POLLO. mallow leaf or two, and the core of a lettuce, (cojollo de lechuga,) by which latter in par ticular its cooling properties are said tp be exalted. After the ingredients are boiled together for a proper length of time, the clear decoction is poured off for use. The great efficacy of this drink is accredited by the undisputed consent of doctors of all co lours, and matrons as well as nurses of all sorts and temperaments.* It is needless to remark that, in general, plain water or toast-water, or a ptisan of bar ley decocted with some of the subacid fruits of the country, would answer very agreeably the purpose of the agua de polio ; but when the latter is preferred, it should be remembered that in warm weather it decomposes rapidly, and then acquires irritating properties. As a purgative, in gastric disorders, the old phy sicians in Lima extol almond oil, which is often of inferior quality ; and they take some pains to arm the minds . of the credulous OIL OF HIGUERILLA. 73 against the use of the best castor-oil of Eu ropean preparation, by telling them that it is extracted from the seeds of the " higueril- la," or castor-oil shrub, everywhere indige nous in the warm valleys of the interior ; and these seeds are generally known to be exces sively drastic when taken as the peasants use them, in the dose of two or three bruised, and then swallowed in substance. Now from the seeds the native apothecaries pre pare an impure oil, which is sold in the shops under the name of " oil of higuerilla ;" and as it is only used for burning in lamps, when the vulgar learn that castor-oil is but an other name for the same, they naturally con sider it as essentially hot, and most heating and improper for internal use. The vulgar should be advised by every ingenuous and intelligent member of the profession, that the fault is not in the remedy, but in the way of preparing it : and this remark may be extended to the delicate preparations VOL. i. e 74 USE OF ACIDS. from the mineral kingdom, which acquire a bad name when badly prepared, as is neces sarily the case in Lima, where chemistry is so little cultivated or practised as a science. VII. Los acidos son malos para el pecho.— ^ No class of remedies is in more general use in Lima than vegetable acids in the bilious disorders of daily occurrence ; but in affec tions of the chest, whether simply catarrhal, or of the more serious forms of pneumonia or phthisis, it is a generally received and settled opinion that acids of all sorts are injurious, which they make known by such expressions as these : " Los acidos son malos para el pecho," — acids are bad for the breast ; " Los acidos cierran el pecho," — acids shut up the breast. This opinion seems to have partly origi nated from a notion, once entertained by the doctors, that acids coagulate the animal fluids, and so produce obstructions and dis- USE OF ACIDS. 75 ease. It is made evident to our senses, that milk secreted from the blood is readily coagulated by acids ; and thus they seem to conceive that something of the same pro cess takes place in the circulating fluids of the body when acids are taken into the system. Not only the vulgar, but some of the pro fessional characters, appear to be impressed with the notion that the blood is thickened or curdled by acids, whether mineral or ve getable ; and that the delicate circulation of the lungs is consequently impeded, and the respiratory pores clogged. This opinion ap pears to be expressed in the very common remark, " El enfermo torno fresco de lemon, y con el acido se le ha tupido el pecho," which means that the patient drank cold lemonade, and with the acid the breast was stopped up. We are well persuaded that there are instances, especially among delicate females, E 2 76 USE OF ACIDS. where the respiratory organs are so suscep tible of impressions, that the immediate re frigerating effects of cool acidulated drinks on the stomach of such persons extend rapidly, by sympathy, from the stomach to the surface of the body and lungs ; and there produce a certain degree of constric tion on the exhaling vessels, which disturbs their healthy action. It is only in this manner we can ac count for the fact, as frequently stated to us by patients, that, as certainly as they did take anything cool and acidulated, they were speedily affected with a tightness about the chest, and felt as if they had actually caught cold. On such occasions their usual observation was, " El acido me ha cerrado el pecho," — the acid has locked or clc-sely shut the breast. A complicated ailment which is vulgarly conceived to be seated in the chest, is often USE OF ACIDS. 77 met with in Lima during the sultry months of January, February, and March. It is attended with a short and dry cough, a foul tongue, and evening fever, or restless ness, that chases away sleep. The patient becomes low-spirited and anxious ; and dreads an approaching attack of consumption, or spitting of blood. In such disorders, the gastric and hepa tic functions may be suspected of some irre gularity ; and, when in any case this is ex plained to the patient, the disease may be treated as one seated in the organs of diges tion, and frescos or cooling acidulated drinks often do wonders. Not only diluted in cold water, but with the addition of ice, the va rious vegetable acids of the season are given with the best results. They break up the whole chain of morbid symptoms ; and the patient, thus encouraged and refreshed, completes convalescence by cold sea-bathing, 78 USE OF ACIDS. and a few weeks' residence at the neat vil lage of Mira-flores, a few miles from the capital. Throughout the entire year, but more particularly during the warmer months, great use, and no small abuse, is made of all sorts of frescos, or cooling and acidulated drinks, with or without the addition of ice, and other ingredients of a very opposite nature, as pimento and spices, which latter render the same drink heating to the sto mach, that, by ice, is rendered cool on the lip. There are no beverages which the vulgar misapply more than their frescos. The most approved of these, as tamarinds and whey, or the juice of the apple and quince, &c. diffused in water and sweetened with sugar, are sometimes so long continued with a view of cooling and purifying the blood, that they finally relax and weaken the stomach ; of USE OF ACIDS. 79 which there are heard many complaints. Again, iced water, or iced acidulated frescos, are frequently misapplied in the common acute diseases of the country when the pa tients are in a free sweat ; for, by suddenly checking a salutary perspiration, very bad consequences may follow : but this, though a well-known fact, is too often overlooked. VIII. Acido sobre la leche es malo. — It is particularly worthy of notice that, shortly be fore or after milk happens to be taken pure as a drink, or mixed up in some culinary form as an article of diet, it is believed that no acid can be safely received into the stomach ; it being thought necessary that the interval between these incompatible ingredients should be seven hours at least. In illustration of the fact here stated, it may be mentioned that we were once called to see a lady in Lima who had been ailing 80 USE OF ACIDS. for about a twelvemonth ; and, on inquiring why she had delayed her cure so long, her reply was, — " A year ago, on my arrival from Valpa raiso, I called in Dr. , a French phy sician, who ordered me to confine myself to a rice and milk diet alternated with lemonade. I felt so greatly shocked at this gentleman's extraordinary error in prescribing such treat ment, which every one knows to be most hurtful, not only to the infirm, but to the sound and healthy, that I resolved at the time to leave my complaints to nature, rather than expose my life to the greater indiscre tion of some other doctor of less fame." In this instance the error, for which the French physician was blamed, consisted in his having overlooked the popular rule uni versal in Peru, and probably not unknown in Chile, that " acido sobre la leche es malo,'' viz. that acid after milk is hurtful. According to this rule in Peruvian diete- INCONVENIENT CUSTOM. 81 tics, it would be considered little short of poisonous to use milk or cream with any sort of fruit, jam, or preserve containing the least quantity of acid. And here it may be noticed, that in their own preserves, they completely destroy the rich and distinguish ing flavour of the fruit by an excess of sugar, just as they annihilate, in very bad taste, the peculiar and natural fragrance of their finest flowers by sprinkling upon them foreign and artificial perfumes. IX. Los olores son malos para las recien paridas, — It is one of the social customs of Peru, sometimes attended with great incon venience, that friends and visitors, moved by feelings of kindness, crowd into the rooms of the sick, when not perhaps in a fit state to enjoy company or conversation. During their confinement ladies are not sufficiently exempted from this friendly in trusion, or neighbourly attention. The only VOL. i. e 5 82 USE OF PERFUMES. restraint imposed upon those who visit a lady on such an occasion is, that they do not enter her apartment with flowers or per fumes ; nor are the attendants permitted to introduce censers with the fumes of burn ing incense, as is customary at other times. Thus, it is acknowledged that " Los olores son malos para las racien paridas," viz. that perfumes are injurious to women during their confinement ; and they certainly are so, for they are frequently observed to give rise to fainting, convulsions, or other bad conse quences. These precautions all who visit or wait upon the sick are strict in observing; and so much the more, as it is customary for females in every rank to use perfumes on their dress, and to decorate their heads with flowers for evening visits : a practice in which the woolly-haired negress and mu latta greatly excel, as they love to adorn their stunted curls with flowers of aroma and jessamine. EMBROCATIONS. 83 Parturient women are very subject to a sensation of languor and exhaustion at stomach, attended with a feeling of faint- ness, which they call "fatiga." On ordi nary occasions, when this feeling or sensation is experienced by females not similarly situ ated, it is usual to resort to cordials and odo riferous draughts containing lavender, harts horn, &c. and also to stimulating embrocations applied over the seat of the stomach, which usually consist of a camphorated mixture, or perhaps Cologne water, and other such remedies applied in common cases of weak ness and faintness referred to the stomach ; but, under the circumstances to which our rule refers, all applications of this sort are inadmissible. When there is a feeling of sickness and faintness, with a disconsolate sensation (call ed "un desconsuelo") at the epigastrium or scrobiculus cordis, they are allowed on all occasions to apply to the stomach, as a popu- 84 COLD WATER DANGEROUS lar remedy with the matrons, a bit of warm toast, or the breast of a fowl sprinkled over with powdered cinnamon and moistened with wine, or, as it is vernacularly expressed, " la pechuga de gallina con vino y canela ;" and they agree that this application, which possesses a great deal of their confidence, commonly produces the best effects. X. Tomar aquafria en cima de colera. — To drink cold water immediately after a fit of anger, which is the meaning of the words in our text, is a frequent cause of ailment, and one which the practitioner every day hears of as the origin of the worst cases of visceral obstructions or hepatic disease. Unfortu nately, the occasions of such attacks are of ordinary occurrence ; for the temper of those who suffer from them is rarely under proper control, and, as a necessary consequence of the existing state of society, provocations to anger are common in every situation. DURING ANGER. 85 We were once consulted by a curate of an irritable disposition, and an epicure in his taste, on account of an induration and very prominent enlargement of the liver, which some time after ended in a fatal abscess. This gentleman assigned, as the exciting cause of his malady, his having drunk cold water when angry, or on occasion of a quar rel he had with his cook, a Zamba girl, who we may suppose must have spoiled some favourite sauce. This was the first time we were consulted on an ailment said to arise from drinking cold water when angry. But afterwards, as we had engaged in more general practice, we were called upon to listen to very many statements of the same sort ; and, on such multiplied and independent evidence, we are compelled to believe that this is indeed one of the usual causes of hepatic derange ment very prevalent in Peru. During these fits of anger the brain ap- 86 EFFECTS OF ANGER. pears to be greatly excited, and the flow of blood to it increased ; and the liver, which readily sympathises with the brain in our mental states of angry emotion, seems to be at the same time gorged with blood. Under these circumstances, we think a draught of cold water operates injuriously, by creating a sudden chill within, and in- • ducing, through the channel of sympathy between the stomach and liver, contraction of the biliary excretories, which lays the foundation of more permanent congestion and consequent inflammation, by preventing the natural relief which should arise from a free flow of bile. That the ready flow or free outlet of bile is the natural and proper medium of relief in such cases, every one has an opportunity to judge ; for fits of anger are so common in Lima, that a day never passes without witnessing or hearing of their ill consequences ; and the most familiar and immediate effect is a EFFECTS OF ANGER. 87 bilious disorder of the bowels, or indigestion and subsequent vomiting, — just as the sto mach happens to be occupied, or otherwise, during the period of mental perturbation. We may remark, that ice and iced water are only considered safe (even by the vulgar, who use them daily with a view to restrain the excessive flow of bile consequent on an angry or choleric fit,) when they are given after the violence of the commotion is over, and after the stomach, if it happen to be loaded, has, by drinking warm water or other wise, been freed of its contents ; but in hot weather, when the. skin is more relaxed, and the bilious secretion more plentiful and redundant than common, ices are much used, and iced water forms the usual drink at the hour of meals. We meet with persons who never expe rience the smallest annoyance or approach to anger, without being affected by some cor responding movement in the bowels ; and 88 EFFECTS OF ANGER. others are never known to get warm in earnest discussion without feeling some de rangement at the stomach, or showing on the following day a white or furred tongue. In truth, the delicacy of the digestive or gans, or that mobility by which their func tions are so easily affected by mental emotions, is quite extraordinary ; and, as the daily repair and due sustenance of the whole frame depends on the regular and healthy discharge of the digestive functions, it is not to be wondered at that, among a people by no means intellectual in their habits, the sword should often be observed to wear out its scabbard, — in other words, that the frequent agitations of passion should induce serious diseases, and easily wear out the frame in a country where the sympathy between the mind and chylopoetic organs is so very marked and influential. Hence the anxiety which experienced natives feel at the hour of awakening repentance, or the return EFFECTS OF ANGER. 89 of sober reflection, after a culpable indul gence of anger ; and hence, too, the rigid abstinence or tenuous diet attended to after one has been fretful or out of temper, till the pulse is again observed to be natural, and the organs of digestion sufficiently com posed : and to show how far these painful states of mind may affect the secretion of milk, we have only to recollect that the Limeria will hear her babe cry a whole day, rather than harm it by giving the breast till her own agitation, which she knows vitiates her milk, is quieted after one of those choleric movements which it has been either her fault or misfortune to suffer. XI. Si se puede lavarse con aqua fria. — In almost every case of lingering illness in either sex, it is vexatious to witness the reluctance to ablution that prevails in the capital ; and this prejudice, with the dread 90 CHORRILLOS. of shaving connected with it, is particularly cherished among those who have been deli cately nurtured ; the male part of whom are often heard to ask " si se puede lavarse con aqua fria o afeytarse?" — if it be safe to wash with cold water or to shave. The Limenians are fond of seasonal bath ing and the pleasures of a watering-place, which they know how to enjoy for three months in the year. Chorrillos, three leagues to the south of Lima, is the favourite watering-place, much frequented during the sultry summer months by gambling parties, and persons of rank and fashion from town. It is only a small vil lage of fishermen, and constructed of cane and mud. The Indian owners of the shades, and neatly constructed houses or ranchos, let them to the bathers at a high rate during the bathing season ; and some persons either take these for a term of years, or construct other light summer houses for themselves, CHORRILLOS. 91 which they fit up very tastefully, and pass the summer months in them in the midst of gaiety and mirth. Chorrillos is sheltered from the south-western blast by an elevated promontory, called the Moro-Solar, which rises like a gigantic guaca overlooking the numerous monuments, or pagan temples, of this name, which are scattered over the naturally rich, but now in a great measure waste and desolate plain, that extends from Lima to Chorrillos. During the raw, damp, and foggy months of July and August in Lima, Chorrillos en joys a clear sky and a genial air. The south-westers laden with heavy clouds spend their strength on the friendly Moro-Solar, (on which burst the only thunder-storm witnessed by the Limenians in the memory of any one now living,) and divide into two currents : the one pursues the direction of the village of Mira-flores, and the other the hacienda of San Juan, leaving Chorrillos 92 SEA BATHING. clear and serene between. Thus protected, the village of Chorrillos feels not the chilly mists of winter ; and it is the great hospital of convalescence for agueish, asthmatic, dy senteric, rheumatic, and various other sorts of invalids from the capital during the misty season, when the clinking of dollars and noise of the die no longer disturb the repose of the sickly. The salutary practice of bathing in the sea was in former times confined chiefly to those affected with cutaneous diseases ; but within the last forty or fifty years, as we are told, sea-bathing has been preferred to river-bath ing, or to the cold baths by the old Alame da, and fountain of Piedra-lisa. The women are usually cleanly in their persons ; but, however congenial cleanliness may be to their sex, they, like the sick and bearded men, seem to be greatly afraid of ablution in hectic fever, and some thoracic diseases with which they are often visited. THE INDIANS. 93 Of the Indian in the interior we need not speak in the same breath with his brother in the capital, or with- the maritime Indian, whose ordinary occupation in fishing, or more delicate engagement of safely conduct ing the ladies over the surf during the bath ing season, especially at Chorrillos, neces sarily leads to cleanliness. But the indige nous mountaineers never perhaps in the whole course of life wash their bodies tho roughly ; and their skin (at least in the warm valleys) is habitually covered with a thick coating of perspirable matter and extraneous dirt, which it is not easy to wipe off. In very many cases of acute disease, the warm bath is, with the natives of the coast, a favourite and most valuable remedy, rarely neglected ; but its application is usually for bidden in affections of the chest. It will be readily imagined that the frames of those who fly from impressions of cool air and hazy weather, which, with all their care 94 DELICATE CONSTITUTIONS. to shun, they cannot entirely escape, easily become so sensitive as to render them more susceptible in proportion to their self-in dulgence, and more liable to catarrhal affec tions, than those who, by free exposure of their persons, train their constitutions to greater hardihood. As evidence of the evil results arising from the vain endeavour to avoid the im pression of the common physical causes to which, through life, every one must be oc casionally exposed, we would particularly notice the peculiar delicacy of the delicately reared Limenian. When somewhat weak ened by bad health, or a slight indisposition which confines him to his apartments for a few days, should he happen to shave and wash the face with cold water, he is there by put in danger of being visited by a spas modic affection of one side of the mouth, or affected, as is more likely to take place, DELICATE CONSTITUTIONS. 95 with a cold in the head ; so that the in flammation thus induced in the nostrils and fauces may soon be observed to extend itself along the continuous mucous membrane, and through the windpipe into the cavity of the chest ; and there it is hard to foretel what ravages it may commit. We need not therefore be surprised to hear the often reiterated query of the con valescent in the words, " No me hara dafio lavar y afeytarme ?"— will it not do me harm to shave and wash ? Nor should we indulge in a smile at his expense, as we see him gradu ally venture on the first degrees of ablution, by rubbing over the hands and face with a cloth dipped in tepid water sharpened with aguardiente, or the common spirits of the country. XII. — Morir en regla. This expression, which means to die according to rule, is one 96 MEDICAL PRECAUTION. which all good Catholics are most solicitous to realize for themselves and friends ; and the custom it refers to is deemed of the ut most importance in a religious and profes sional point of view. When a physician visits a patient, and finds him in a doubtful or critical state, he must never omit to warn the patient or his friends of his real situation, with a view to enable them to call a medical consultation, and allow time for testamentary preparations and spiritual confession. The neglect of this precautionary measure would, in the event of the disease terminating fatally, bring great blame on the physician ; but, after he has notified what he considers to be the pa tient's real condition, then, whether the parties interested in such communication choose to act upon his advice or not, he has acquitted himself properly ; and when the patient, previously confessed and sacrament- MEDICAL JUNTAS. 97 ed, dies with the benefit of a consultation, or duly assisted by a medical junta, he is said to die according to rule, that is, morir en regla. The great medical juntas in Lima, by which we understand consultations where more than four or five doctors are met to gether, are remarkable occasions of oratorical display. The warmest discussion frequently turns on the dose, composition, or medicinal operation of some common drug ; and all the learning, method, and criticism, some times discovered at these solemn debates, ter minate not unfrequently in the most simple practice, by which the nurse is enjoined to have recourse to the jeringa, and the pa tient told he must drink " agua de polio," or chicken-tea, until the return of the junta. In former times such consultations were called oftener than necessary, because a great junta became a sort of ostentatious exhibi- VOL. I. f 98 MEDICAL CONFERENCE. tion, in which all who could afford to cite a group of doctors desired to imitate the great and the wealthy. A sample, on a Uttle scale, of such fashion able follies, is familiar to the Limenian in the well-known local story of the two doctors, who, for a month or more, daily met in con sultation at the house of a family in town, where, as they retired to the supposed privacy of a consulting-room, the one would clear his throat, and ask the other, " Come el enfermo hoy ?" — May the patient eat to-day ? — to which the second doctor would reply, " Como no ? si, comera." — Why not ? yes, he shall eat. Thus, day after day, began and ended the consultation, as far at least as its topics of discussion concerned the patient ; while the good old doctors spun out a regular al lowance of time before they rejoined the pa tient, or his attendants, serenely to announce the well-matured result of their conference. MEDICAL CONFERENCE. 99 A man of nous, accustomed to listen behind the scenes, at length broke in upon their consultation ; and dismissed them one day by paying to each his usual fee, and telling them both how happy he was to find that he now knew as much as themselves, for that he could repeat as well as any body, " Come el enfermo hoy ? — Como no ? si, comera." A medical junta in Lima is commonly continued morning and evening, and from day to day, till the patient is pronounced to be out of danger. As the junta breaks up after each separate meeting, it is cus tomary for the president of the meeting, or one of the physicians, to say, as he leaves his seat, "Vamos a consolar al enfermo," — Let us go to console the patient; and then all the doctors present re-enter the patient's apartment to soothe and to console hirn ; and after this one of the number steps forward f2 100 MEDICAL CONFERENCE. to lay down the regimen — " a dar el regi men" — agreed upon in consultation, and which one or more nurses and attendants are now ready to receive from the mouth of the physician. After the formality of a junta is thought no longer necessary, it often happens that, by wish of the patient or his relatives, two or more of the medical advisers return at separate hours, but by mutual agreement, for several days, by way of further security to the sick, or as a source of satisfaction to his family. After all the care possible bestowed on the part of doctors, it often happens that, when the patient recovers, San Antonio, or any other saint after whom the indivi dual is named, has all the credit of the cure ; but, when the case is unprosperous, then all the evil is ascribed to human agency. In Lima, as elsewhere, it will readily enough be admitted in general terms that UNFAIR ACCUSATION. 101 all must die ; but regarding this proposition, when death strikes any one in particular, difficulties at once suggest themselves ; for the surviving friends are ever ready to assign many reasons why they are quite sure the deceased might have escaped, had it not been for this or that physician that misun derstood his malady. Hence it may be said that it is only in well-regulated juntas, and in public hospitals, that the people of Lima are supposed to glide to their latter end by fair and natural means. Upon this subject we heard it remarked by a sagacious native, " Should a gambler lose at a cock fight, he does not attribute the loss to any fault in the cock, but to some trick done to him ; if a horse lose in a race, his owner never acknowledges the cause of the failure to be in the animal, but assigns it to some accident thrown in his way : and surely, when we know that on such comparatively trivial occasions men thus talk and think, 102 UNFAIR ACCUSATION. it is but natural for them, in an affair of such moment and interest as life itself, never to believe that a friend or relative loses his existence from any fault of his own, or any defect in his organization, but rather that his demise should be charged, as we see it is, though often unjustly, on the blind and stumbling ignorance, or unpardonable carelessness and indifference of the physi cians." One common consequence of this mode of thinking is, that, by a single fatal case in practice, all the former success of the practi tioner is overlooked, at least for a time; from which it follows that various medical advisers are sure to replace one another often in those families where death is a fre quent visitor. We seldom meet in families that shyness or reserve in divulging bodily ailments which can render them reluctant to change their family physician ; and no physician, though INJURIOUS CUSTOM. 103 specially entrusted with a patient, can be sure that others of the profession do not, at secret interviews, tamper with his peculiar treatment. This baneful custom leads to professional jealousies and mutual distrust. We believe many families countenance it from motives of consideration for the doctor ostensibly in trust, whose self-love they pro pose to spare by this clandestine practice, when they think a more open manner of proceeding would be repulsive to his feelings. There is, however, another very obvious reason which lends its influence to this fur tive system of visiting the sick ; and it is, that by this means the opinion of several advisers may be had at comparatively little expense. Should only two individuals be called to meet at the bedside of the patient at an ap pointed hour to consult on his case, the meet ing is a bond fide junta, and each member of it is entitled to his four or four and a half dollars ; whereas the single visits are 104 ECONOMY. only valued at one dollar each, and such detached visits are in many instances not paid by the sick, but by the friends at whose request the professional calls are made. Here then is great economy; eight opinions (and if the patient be poor, so that he is only expected to pay a half dollar fee for a detached visit, sixteen opinions) may be procured for the standard price of two when given in consultation; and custom, as well as reason and prudence, require that several opinions should be taken in cases of hazard and difficulty. Owing in a considerable degree to the comparative poverty of the present times, medical juntas are by no means so frequent as they used to be ; but yet it is a common saying on serious occasions, where the assist ance of more than one medical adviser is thought necessary, that more is seen by four eyes than by two. — " Mas se ve con cuatro ojos que con doe." By multiplying skill according A JUNTA. 105 to this rule, a score of eyes may be assembled in one junta to search into the patient's ob scure malady, so as to point out the cause and the remedy ; or, if there should be no other alternative, let him die according to rule. f 5 106 SLAVE DOMESTICS. CHAPTER V. Condition of Slave population, and its influence on the family economy and moral sentiments of the European race. Such is the influence which slave domes tics exercise over the feelings and comfort of private families, and, we would even add, over the moral and physical features of the community, that it would be impossible to give a correct picture of the state of society in Lima without first cursorily viewing the condition of the slave population in Peru. In article 152 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Peru, it is declared that no one is born a slave in the republic, neither does any one enter from other countries who is not left free when he treads on Peruvian PERUVIAN NEGROES. 107 soil. Should any Peruvian be found guilty of importing slaves into the republic for the purposes of traffic, the constitution declares that he shall be deprived of his rights of citizenship. But the internal traffic of slaves still continues, though it is confined to buying and selling such slaves as existed in the country before the war of independence began, or to such of their offspring as were born before the year 1820, when Peru was no longer the acknowledged patri mony of Spaniards. With respect to the mere exterior appearance of negroes born in Peru of African parents, it is observed that they are influenced by the bleaching effects which the climate of the Peruvian coast is known to produce on the ruddy sons of our northern climes who reside for any length of time in Lima. The native negro therefore is lighter in colour, and possessed of finer, more expressive, and much more regular features than the jet-black and lacerated 108 TREATMENT OF SLAVES. " Bozals" or African-born blacks, on whose countenance and breast are commonly seen deep and hideous scars that bespeak at once their more barbarous origin and their foreign importation. The orderly discipline of the " Galpon," or slave-barracks, appears, from the acknow ledgments of the natives themselves, to have been very creditable to the humanity of the slave-holders in the days of Spanish sway over them, — a time when slaves are said to have shared in the felicity of their masters. Leni ently dealt with, and in the abundant fruition of animal gratifications, they felt themselves happy, and forgot that they were not free. The patriot legislators have enacted that it is illegal for any master to apply the whip or scourge, " azote," in chastising his slave. The ordinary mode of punishment in the capital is to send the offender for correction to a "panaderia" or bakehouse, where his labour is increased or mitigated according to TREATMENT OF SLAVES. 109 his conduct while there. In most ancient families, who have yet preserved sufficient fortune to allow them to keep up some re tinue, we find a number of slave attendants whose progenitors served in the same family of distinction for a long series of years ; and thus a mutual attachment has grown up between the parties, that makes them view each other with that sort of interest which we observe between masters and old servants at home. It is not unusual for a master on his death-bed to reward the fidelity of a faithful slave by granting him his liberty ; and we have witnessed some very touching instances of gratitude shown by well-edu cated white women towards those female slaves, or, we might say, devoted friends, on whose willing services and attention they themselves often placed their confidence in the hour of sickness or adversity. These recollections are in our mind associated with those amiable traits of human nature which 110 DECAYED FAMILIES. unite the great family of mankind ; but it must be observed that from such instances, particularly creditable to the character of individuals, nothing can be argued in favour of slavery as such, which never can be other wise than unjust and unchristian. Since the triumphs of patriotism first cheered the hopes of the people, since the very slaves, intoxicated with aguardiente or momentary enthusiasm, joined aloud in the chants in praise of liberty, numberless fami lies in the capital have gradually sunk into increasing poverty, of which a common con sequence is, that individuals who can boast of the purity of their origin, or who, in native phrase, count it no plebeian privilege to say that their four quarters are Biscay an, now find themselves reduced to lend out their old domestic slaves on hire as a means of support ; the slaves being obliged to pay a certain moderate proportion of their daily wages or earnings to their proper owners. AGRICULTURAL SLAVES. Ill A male slave, when thus hired out in Lima, is understood to pay his owner one real, or a sixpence, out of his day's wages or earnings ; and women, when hired out as nurses, are usually paid fifteen dollars a month ; of which they pay four dollars to their proper owners, and the rest they may do what they please with : others again go out as cooks, or are employed as laundry-maids, &c. The few agricultural slaves yet left in the country have usually allotted to them a tarrea, or daily task, so light and easy, as far at least as we have had any opportu nity of knowing, that it is soon executed ; and whatever work any one of them does over and above this daily task, he is paid for as if he were a freeman. Were he in deed to value his personal freedom, he could thus secure it to himself by fair means, and at the cost of moderate industry. A few of the more ambitious of this class have really availed themselves of so good an op- 112 . CAPRICE OF SLAVES. portunity to effect their own emancipation ; but in general the slave population in Peru do not appear solicitous to change their cir cumstances, nor are they very conscious of anything abject in their condition. They well know that they enjoy a degree of liberty which they consider sufficient, and which they sometimes are pleased to exercise to suit their own convenience : for example, if you are assisted by a slave, it is not unlikely that, when least expected, he will tell you it is his desire, and he demands it as his right, that he be sold or transferred to a purchaser of his own choice and finding ; and, should he once become restive, he is best got rid of quickly, as until that is the case no more good comes of him. If the servant should be not a slave, but a dusky freeman of slave descent, he is so accustomed to self- indulgence, that he must daily have his own hours of pleasure, whether his master will or not ; and, if found fault with, he replies CAPRICE OF SLAVES. 113 in the usual ejaculation, " Quien quiere matarse con trabajar ?" — Who would kill himself with toil ? Those again who rely on the assistance of an Indian, (nominally free, though vir tually a slave, working for a mere mainten ance and some trifling gratuity,) reared up from childhood in their own houses and for their own particular service, — a very custom ary thing to do, — are commonly, in the long run, left in the lurch ; for, when a good opportunity offers, away starts the cerrano or mountaineer, whether male or female, for Guamanga, Guamantanga, or some such mountain home. The Indian girl thus rear ed in some private family is commonly very useful until she attains the age of twelve or fifteen, when she looks out for a mate, with whom she can fly to the hills, to be happy in a smoky hut, and on a llama-skin couch ; and the shrewd and quick-eyed Indian boy, with head and hands to con- 114 CAPRICE OF SLAVES. ceive and execute, no sooner gets a little insight into good service or some handi craft, than he meditates upon and watches the opportunity for escaping to his native home, " mi tierra !" and, sooner or later, he is sure to effect his object. Yet, not withstanding this disposition to desertion, where an Indian does become personally attached to his employer, which is not often, his fidelity and constancy are allowed to be unbounded. The vexations so often caused by the Indians among the class of their Spanish employers, or white superiors, (who usually expect more from this oppressed order of citizens than they care to pay for,) gave rise to the proverbial complaint against the indigenous tribes : " Mal con ellos ; pejor sin ellos," Bad with them ; worse without them. The ladies, or females of Spanish blood in Lima, usually become mothers at too BLACK NURSES. 115 tender an age, and we think it is chiefly on this account that they are commonly found to be incapable of nursing with im punity ; and, if they persist in attempts at nursing beyond what their constitution can bear, they are peremptorily warned to desist by the presence of symptoms that menace a decline or consumption. Hence most ladies in Lima are under the necessity of employing black and brown nurses, who are usually slaves either pur* chased for milk-nurses or hired out for this purpose. The skin of the negro appears to be cooler than that of the Indian or white race, and this may possibly have been the origin of the prevailing idea already alluded to, that the milk of the negress is more cooling and refreshing than that of the Indian woman,* * This idea is not founded on experience ; for that the Indian women are really good nurses is proved by the fact, that the offspring of European fathers and Indian mothers, — viz. the Mestizo race, — are very robust. 116 BLACK NURSES. who, though in other respects a healthy and proper person, is never considered eligible as a milk-nurse, when in this character a ne gress can be procured. It unfortunately happens, however, that the predilection thus shown for negresses and those dark women who are nearest allied to the negro race, frequently exposes the white mother's child to a series of evils, such as imperfect nutrition, contamination of blood, and permanent constitutional in jury, all originating in the peculiar circum stances and individual character of milk- nurses ; of whom a single child may have been so unfortunate as to have had as many as half a dozen, and to have suffered suc cessively from the blemishes of each. When the young Don, thus nurtured in the very lap of bondage, comes to be fit for school, he goes to, and comes from it, in the company of a slave ; and the young UNWISE INDULGENCE. 117 Miss, or Nina, who goes out to be educated, is, on her way to and from her parents' house, attended by a sort of duena, or ex perienced zamba. On the customary plea, that the evils of life come early enough, chil dren of gentle blood, especially such as are " rubios," or fair-complexioned, are allowed all manner of gusto, or indulgence ; and in the morning, before they set out for school, they usually receive a real or medio, — sixpence or threepence, — either as pocket-money, or as a bribe to be obedient and to submit to be taught. In this way expensive habits are early acquired, and mere children made to do what is right and proper from pecu niary motives, rather than a laudable sense of duty. Reviewing the effects of a close social union, from infancy upwards, between white children and their slave companions, who are seldom endowed with shame or modesty, 118 EFFECTS OF INTIMACY we are led to remark that, without desiring to make any insinuations against the natural capacity for moral and intellectual improve ment observable among all the races of mankind, or wishing in any degree to de preciate the merit of individuals of pure or mixed African and slave descent, we think it may be truly affirmed, that even minds of a naturally amiable and delicate bias, when led habitually to accommodate them selves to the grovelling feelings and propen sities of the more degraded portion of our kind, undergo deterioration by degrees, and slide into a participation of the qualities of a baser nature, with which they inevi tably amalgamate their own. The proper medium of domestic intimacy allowable be tween masters and slaves, may be a nice matter to determine with precision ; but it may be said in general, that in proportion as this immediate intercourse may meliorate WITH SLAVES. 119 the condition, and quicken the intelligence, of the slave, it tends to lower the tone of morality in that society where slavery is to lerated. Thus, we doubt not, the stand ard of morals is lowered, and we conceive it may be owing to this very alloy* of cha racter that, until very lately, the sheer ruffian was seldom met with, even among the lowest of the dark septs in the volup tuous capital of Peru. Assassinations, it must be owned, have been rather frequent of late years, and these have been almost always perpetrated with impunity ; but there is reason to believe that the agents con cerned in such atrocious crimes were in many instances not sons of the soil, but out casts and fugitives from neighbouring states. Money, not blood, is what the worst of the dark native vagabonds of the coast are gene rally in quest of; and he who does not offer resistance when accosted by the robber, but, 120 HIGHWAYMEN. instead of armour, carries a few dollars or a couple of doubloons for his ransom, may nine times in ten be suffered to escape with entire personal safety from the midst of the most lawless marauders and dreaded high waymen, who are usually no other than re negade slaves. SOCIAL STATE. 121 CHAPTER VI. Social state of the Limenians under the Spaniards and Patriots. — Spanish colonists. — Style of conversation Improve ments in female education. — Zamba attendants. — Omnipo tence of the ladies at fifteen. — Esprit de corps of the fair sex — Forgiving temper of public opinion. — Defective admi nistration of justice. — Prerogative called Empeno. — God fathers and god-mothers. — Saint-day parties. — Flowers and perfumes. — Limenian women excel in attention to the sick. — General character of the white women and dark races. — Boys of European race. — Few men of intellectual habits. — Promenade of Amencaes, as illustrative of national feel ing and character. — Pillo and Pillo-fino. — Money a sub stitute for morality. — Relaxation of morals general, but not universal. Persons of sufficiently mature age in Lima never fail to acknowledge, and often delight to tell us, that before the great revo lution, and during the tranquil period of their VOL. I. G 122 SOCIAL SYSTEM own early recollections, their fellow-citizens and countrymen were in general fair and upright in their ordinary dealings ; and that good humour, happiness, and gaiety of heart were inseparable from their frequent public meetings and social recreations. But this sound and amicable spirit, which indeed appears to have diffused itself pretty generally in the time of the Spanish dynasty, we may trace as emanating from the many estimable and courteous qualities of those more enlightened Europeans, by whose supe rior capacity and direction the then existing order of society was so long and quietly upheld in this and in other sections of the New World. The past state of things was nevertheless faulty in many respects. It involved an uncontrolled indulgence in sen sual gratification, though the memory of many a disappointed patriot likes to dwell on it as on the flowery retrospect of his happiest days. But Lima is no longer a garden IN LIMA. 123 of roses, or a bower of delight. One day, in speaking of the change to the worse that the revolution had brought about in the social system of his country, a venerable old man remarked, " Formerly there was a heart to feel, and a hand to give; but now they have left us neither friendship nor pity : you find not whom to trust ; and men, without regard to right or justice, keep all to themselves with the close unyielding grasp of the ape when she clasps her young to her bosom." An unbounded love of superficial display engages the minds of the people so fully as to have superseded, to a great extent, active benevolence, and sterling, honourable deal ing between man and man ; and we must confess that the yet inexperienced Creoles, left to themselves, show, in the management of their own affairs, slender political discre tion and no shining public virtue. But yet, as a whole, the Peruvians, for g2 124 SOCIAL SYSTEM whose manifold faults very great allowances should be made, have, in an eminent degree, the redeeming qualities of soft, attractive manners, and a mild, prepossessing address. These agreeable characteristics, not so fre quently as could be wished associated with a manly openness and frankness of mind, sometimes serve, in the present evil times, as a ready cloak to exclude the ken of those whom they are willing to deceive. If these secluded people, too long ac customed to servitude and ease during the luxurious dynasty of their European mas ters, were once induced — which, under good moral management, they easily might be, — to make honesty and industry more prevalent virtues than they are at present among the bulk of the population, then they might realize, more largely than they have yet done, the advantages of that unsettled free dom, which, with feelings of pardonable ex- IN LIMA. 125 ultation, they pride themselves in possessing ; and, with such an amendment on their moral features, their richly varied country, with all its natural superiorities and improvable re sources, might soon be transformed into an earthly elysium. But the germ of true po litical liberty must be better cultivated than it has yet been among them, and protected by a steady, disinterested, and patriotic go vernment, before the soil can be made to throw out its latent luxuriance, or generous and noble virtues freely unfold themselves in the heads and hearts of a newly independ ent, uninstructed, and heterogeneous popu lation. The common race of Spaniards from old Spain, who established themselves and rear ed families in Peru, appear to have been, as we formerly signified, men of strict com mercial integrity, scarcely requiring written obligations or acknowledgements in their pe- 126 SPANISH COLONISTS. cuniary transactions one with the other ; they are reported to have been friendly and charitable, always ready to assist a poor adventurer from the old country, or a needy friend, whenever he presented himself. The houses of the affluent teemed with idle domestics and laughing loiterers, whose coarse merriment bespoke contentment and plenty ; and the beggar, who sat in the back- court and corridor (the walls of which are still beautified with painted flowers and land scapes) to enjoy the cool of the artificial fountain, or who rested himself on tne benches of the tesselated porchway, laughing with the merry fellows that were about him, felt not the miseries of pauperism ; for, wher ever the Limenian mendicant seated him self, there he was happy, and partook cheer fully cf the abundant surplus from the ri$h man's table, which was liberally bestowed on the poor. But, generally speaking, delicacy of sen- SPANISH COLONISTS. 127 timent or refinement of education did not belong to the Spanish colonists ; and though they acquired wealth by their moderate in dustry, reared costly edifices and churches, endowed convents and monasteries, and paid for numberless masses ; though they be friended the poor, and filled their welcome guest's cup to overflowing in a land of milk and honey ; yet, be it spoken with candour, their summum bonum seems to have been something like a good Mussulman's paradise. The natives of the country still avow, that though the Spaniard, who used to come to their shores as an adventurer soon to be incorporated into their domestic circle, was seldom a polished or intellectual character, nevertheless he was usually a man of in tegrity and some industry, or, to use their own words, " brusco, pero recto y trabajador." Besides, the women, whom we in general allow to be good judges in every rank of life, continue to bear witness that the Spani- 128 SPANISH COLONISTS. ard makes a good husband and a kind father of a family, — " el Espanol es buen marido y buen padre de familia." But, to merit this encomium from the fair sex on the shores of the Pacific, let it be borne in mind that austere virtue and severe self-denial are not always expected or required in the husband. Those educated foreigners who frequent the rounds and " tertulias" of Limenian good company, — which we take as the best criterion of refinement in that country, — have had occasion to regret, that women of the most elegant manners, ladylike mien, and unimpeached character, are despoiled of no small share of the outward illusion of their charms, and appear to lose much of the moral loveliness of their sex, by »an unconscious licence of speech, that cannot fail to appear faulty in the opinion of those to whom long habit has not yet rendered the style familiar. FEMALE EDUCATION. 129 We have pleasure in bearing our humble evidence in favour of the great pains, and cost, to which mothers now put themselves in educating their daughters ; and it is in controvertible, that the rising generation are about to come on the stage of active life, with many advantages of instruction which were not enjoyed by their parents. But, granting it to be true, that these interesting young ladies may have considerable advan tages over their predecessors in the know ledge of French, geography, music, a little drawing, and a chaster fashion of dancing, still, we are apprehensive, that in more hum ble and useful domestic education not a little is wanting: and this important defect, we conceive, is not to be remedied by expensive teachers, or by the routine of boarding- schools; but, if we mistake not, by good example at home. To improve the do mestic education in the female part of the community, it would be necessary to detach g 5 130 FEMALE EDUCATION. young ladies as much as possible from the customary attendance of old favourite " zambas ;" who, there is much reason to believe, teach them at an early age to pry into the private weaknesses of their seniors, and excite in their quick, comprehensive minds a degree of attention and curiosity which, when indiscreetly called forth, sel dom fail to bias their inclination to vices that may on some occasions be deemed hereditary ; and thus open a door to a se ries of indulgences which, in the long-run, prove the bane of their own ill-sought happiness, as well as the wreck of many a fond parent's hopes, too blindly placed on a daughter left to the daily tutorship of in triguing domestics. The ladies when young, and long before they become marriageable, are taught to anticipate their own omnipotence at fifteen, which little girls of seven or eight years of age already reckon to be the approaching era of their FEMALE EDUCATION. 131 perfect felicity ; for the Spaniards say " No hay fea de quince," — All are fair at fifteen. There is also among these gifted women, whose superiority, as a body, over their own countrymen is always admitted, a great " esprit de corps," so that the greatest sin ner among them is never left without a gentle voice to plead her cause, and pal liate, when she cannot exculpate, a sister's errors. This forgiving system runs through every class and rank, from the highest to the lowest ; but it is in the lofty circles that its influence is most worthy of particular notice. No one ventures to throw the first stone at the unfortunate ; and there insensibly arises a gradation of vices and virtues, »dove-tailing into each other so as to constitute a social whole, wherein the dif ferent degrees of moral deviation are all shaded by an overflowing charity. Pleasure and vice are nearly allied, and unhappily he 132 LAXITY OF MORALS. who assumes the clerical habit and tonsure is not, in his own person, always a stranger to the voluptuous enjoyments of those around him ; and the example of the man who rules the conscience of the people, — who grants them absolution, and allows them indulgences,* — will naturally be imitated : hence the indulgence of public opinion as regards individual and private character in Peru. The slow and partial administration of justice is loudly complained of by those whose affairs require them to frequent courts of law in the Peruvian capital. The turbulent independence of the bad and dis orderly, uncontrolled by any active and faithful police, is every day increasing, and already puts justice at defiance. The im pudence, ill-acquired pecuniary influence, and intrigue of the false-hearted and boast ing patriot, are daily seen to assume the * See Appendix, Art. Ecclesiastical Jubilee. JUSTICE IN PERU. 133 embroidered insignia of " un benemerito de la patria !" — an honour which only in equity belongs to that rare character — the genuine patriot, who knows how to sacrifice his pri vate convenience to the public good. The judges are often left without pecuniary means consistent with their honourable call ing, because their salaries are not duly paid by the government ; and if, under these circumstances, the balance of justice be disturbed in its equilibrium, the blame must not be all laid to the charge of those public functionaries who are the ap pointed ministers of the laws. The truth is, that, for a considerable time back, the sums that entered the national treasury were too scanty to support the pageantry of mili tary array, together with the accumulated expences of a destructive and demoralizing warfare ; and the pecuniary embarrassments arising from these circumstances, involved in their consequences some drawbacks in the 134 THE EMPEN0. civil administration of justice. But another popular cause, and that to which we would desire to draw the attention of the reader, for the unequal distribution of justice, is by common consent allowed to be, that in the best, as even now in the worst of times, the fair sex in Lima have enjoyed, from date immemorial, a more than regal prerogative, which the convulsions that effected what is called their political freedom, have in no essential particular obliterated or changed. It is called Empefio. This tacitly constitutional instrument of clemency, although in the hands of women naturally inclined to mercy, may, when mis guided, operate against the vital interests of the community ; and by* it the true ends of legislative enactments may, from time to time, be frustrated. This prerogative is put in practice especially by certain genteel- looking young women, who are neither mar ried nor single, but who, in the language of THE SAYA AND MANTO. 135 the indulgent matrons of the country, are allowed to be, though not married, highly honourable and gifted, — " No es casada, pero muy honorada, muy prendada :" and a lady of this quality seldom loses favour, or a good place in society, so long as she has a calesa or carriage in Lima, and a rancho or bathing-lodge in Chorrillos. Let us now suppose that this lady, attired in her national, or rather Limenian, dress of saya and manto,* * This dress, peculiarly characteristic of Lima, is little known in other parts of the country, if we except Truxillo. Captain Basil Hall in his Journal, vol. i. p. 106, describes it very correctly. " This dress," says he, " consists of two parts, one called the saya, the other the manto. The first is a petticoat, made to fit so tightly, that, being at the same lime quite elastic, the form of the limbs is rendered distinctly visible. The manto, or cloak, is also a petticoat ; but, instead of hanging about the heels, as all honest petticoats ought to do, it is drawn over the head, breast, and face ; and is kept so close by the hands, which it also conceals, that no part of the body, except one eye, and sometimes only a small portion of one eye, is perceptible." We may observe that, though strange pranks are sometimes indulged in under this disguise, yet it is considered, by those accustomed to it, a convenient dress in itself, in a country where it is usual to hear morning mass before there has been time to braid and adjust the hair, which is sometimes so 136 THE SAYA AND MANTO. desires either to plead some advantage or indulgence for another, or a favour more particularly for herself, — and that for this purpose she employs the blandishments and flow of persuasive language at her command. The gentleman, thus softly assailed by so eloquent and attractive a being, unwisely listens until he is entirely at his magician's bidding. This spell is what is vulgarly meant by the gigantic and overgrown prerogative termed in Peru empefio. But we must not forget to mention, that this long as almost to reach the pretty foot and ancle. It is there fore considered a convenience by women of every class, and even of every age, to slip over their ordinary house-dress a saya and manto when they desire to go to the street " tapada," or with the head and face covered with the thin silken petti coat or manto as described, without being put to the trouble of appearing dressed in a more elegant and formal manner, or after European fashion, as they do at evening parties, or when they frequent places of public amusement, — as the theatre or bull-ring, and promenade in calashes or carriages in their dif ferent alamedas, or public walks. In allusion to the custom of going veiled in the street, the true Limeiia lady is agreeably characterized by their common saying, En la calle, calladita ; En la casa, senorita. FEMALE INFLUENCE. 137 ascendant power is very commonly pro moted by a certain spiritual influence, in which both married and single partake, — namely, the sacred relation between god fathers and godmothers, the well-known "compadres y comadres" of that sunny land ; and it will be at once perceived that an influence so remarkable in the ladies as this, which enables them, during their good pleasure, to deprive men of free will, must have wide practical application, and be productive of great good or evil in that country, where it confessedly extends its sway to bench and altar, senate, palace, and camp. No old stager in Lima hears of a political or domestic altercation, or of any serious movement that causes a stir and sensation in the city, but he immediately inquires what woman can be at the bottom of this bullanga or hubbub ; and if the affair should happen to concern himself, his friends, or political party, he does not long sit at ease 138 FEMALE INFLUENCE. until he finds out who that woman is, or discovers where the spiritual alliance rests, where dwells the comadre that rules the order of the day.* The Peruvian highland girls have an ingenious way of contriving for themselves compadres, without the necessary interfe rence of the priest, merely by sending the gentleman, whom any one of them in par ticular may desire to honour, a sweet cake * The following lines, penned by an ancient Spanish poet, are so exactly descriptive of Lima, as the paradise of women, hat one might imagine they had been written to describe it. " Aqui gobierna y siempre goberno' Aquella reina que en la mar nacio. Aqui su cetro y su corona tiene Y desde aqui sus dadivas reparte, Aqui su ley y su poder mantiene Mucho mejor que en otra eualquier parte." " Sobre una fresca y verde y grande vega La casa de esta reina esta asentada : Un rio al deredor toda la riega, De arboles la ribera esta sembrada, La sombra de los cuales al sol niega En el solsticio la caliente entrada ; Los arboles estan llenos de flores Por do cantando van los ruisenores." Rimas 4-ntig. Castellanas. COMADRE AND COMPADRE. 139 made into the form of a doll, which they call "guawa," the Indian name for baby. This offspring of a good-humoured regard which they desire should become mutual, they nicely dress, and accommodate on a couch made from a selection of the fresh flowers of the season, and forward it with their kindest wishes (con muchisimas expresiones), under their now adopted name of comadre, to the person on whom by this gracious act of partiality they confer the confidential title, expecting by his acceptance a return of the attentions and courtesy of the real compadre. On the coast, again, (in the capi tal,) on the anniversary of a lady's birth-day, or saint's day, celebrated in merry parties encouraged to assemble by the joint allure ments of music, dancing, cooling repasts, and all that can render such meetings attractive, the drawing-room may be said to be convert ed into a flower-garden by the attention of compadres, comadres, and friends, who vie 140 BIRTH-DAYS. With each other in sending presents of fine flowers, sweet preserves, and other gifts ; and, at the annual return of these joyful meetings, the friends of the family, and of the individual who is the object of the com pliments of the day, have the best opportunity of expressing their friendship, by adding to the ornaments of a young lady's toilet, or presenting her with any delicate mark of personal regard. These meetings, not overlooked in the humblest dwellings, are seen to best ad vantage in the handsome " quadra" or tertulia-room of the wealthy, where the large chandeliers are well reflected by spacious mirrors, in which are seen mul tiplied the groups of happy faces, to the delight of the party, all pleased with one another. Here and there are Guamanga baskets of filigree texture laden with spiced and perfumed fruits, sometimes ornamented with delicate threads of gold and silver, FLORAL PRESENTS. 141 fancifully twined from peg to peg of the spice fixed in the fruit. Among them, too, are usually golden apples, — viz. apples coated with gold leaf, — many sweet fruits im bedded in aroma, and the sweetly-scented cheremolla or cheremoya, and orange blos soms, which are peculiarly welcome to the guests when distributed from the hands of the hostess, or her engaging daughters. We may here observe, in passing, that handing a flower to a forenoon visitor, who, if a polished gentleman, accompanies his verbal salutation by raising his hand softly to his heart, is only a customary mark of polite attention, quite in character with the complacent manners and natural taste of the Limenian ladies, in this respect fa voured by their balmy climate, in which odoriferous fruits and flowers are always within reach : and on leaving their house they almost invariably besprinkle their visitors with perfumes, and thus send them 142 ATTENDANCE ON away redolent of hospitality. And while their corridors, in which they frequently swing in their hammocks, or enjoy the siesta, are scented with flower-gardens, and their " patios," or courts, with roses and jessamine, sweet perfumes, and fragrant herbs are frequently used in their princi pal bed-chamber, when it is found conve nient, for the sake of cheering the sick, to receive friends into this apartment, which is usually very gorgeously furnished, and communicates with the drawing-room or quadra. Our professional avocations have afforded us an intimate opportunity to know, and we feel a peculiar pleasure in proclaim ing it, that it is by the bedside of sickness (where men are exceedingly helpless without the aid of the softer sex, at once more pa tient and serene, more dexterous and en dearing in their assistance,) that the Li- mefia, be her rank, birth, or pretensions what they may, is seen to greatest ad- THE SICK. 143 vantage. Here the humblest and most faulty of these comforters shows the native good ness of her disposition, and is seen to rise superior to the drawbacks of her education, manifesting the angelic power of her sex to soothe pain and cheer the broken-hearted, by the exercise of that blessed charity which covereth a multitude of sins. It is curious to notice that among the .white women of Lima there are no meni als, though they are subject to many of the privations and humiliations of poverty; but, a poor girl of unmixed Spanish blood, though of lowly birth, feels, however desti tute in her circumstances, the impulse of what she deems nobility within her ; and at nothing do her prejudices more strongly recoil, than at the idea of becoming the wife of a man of African or slave descent. Comely countenances, — above all, a bright and beautiful eye, — and pretty figures, with an inimitably graceful walk, con- 144 WOMEN OF LIMA. stitute the common inheritance of the European race, who, in their own forms, partake of the softness and fineness of the climate in which they were brought into being. These are, in common with their tawny and darker countrywomen, extreme ly attentive to the public and outward ordi nances of their showy religion, which must strike every one with a feeling of solemnity as, at the stroke of a bell at twilight, every human being engages in one common act of public devotion. They retain the common Catholic spirit of pious display, fasting, and penance ; the same faith in the efficacy of saintly images and influences ; the same re liance on priestly absolution and indulgen ces ; but they do not cherish the cruelty or stern religion of their ancestors, whose ardent zeal planted the cross on the now mouldering ruins of Pachacamac* Though * The ancient Indian temple of Pachacamac is situate about six leagues from Lima on a sandy height, now deprived of irrigation, which overlooks the delicious vale of Lorin. From WOMEN OF LIMA. 145 little versed in book-information, they are usually gifted with natural acuteness and intelligence ; are seldom quite ignorant of the ways of the world, even when educated in convents ; are hardly ever so overcome by their tender feelings, or so blind to their worldly interests, as to fall into the folly of a genuine love- marriage ; ar>4 they are never at a loss for a sagacious observation or pertinent re ply. They are indulgent to human passion and weakness ; are agreeable, sometimes fascinating companions ; and never fail to leave the buen mozo, (the good-looking young man,) if not delighted with them, at least highly pleased with himself. Their conver sation is sprightly and unembarrassed ; and though particularly indulged and caressed this adoratory the sun is seen as he sinks in majesty under the face of the ocean — when " O'er the hush'd deep the yellow beam he throws, Gilds the green wave, that trembles as it glows.'' Byron. VOL. I. H 146 SERVANTS. from childhood, accustomed to flattery and fond of admiration, they are as free from obtrusive levity and affectation of manner, as from blushing timidity or cold reserve ; their filial love is the admiration of foreign ers ; and, when blessed with good husbands, they are faithful and affectionate wives. Nothing in Lima can strike the attention of a stranger, who understands their lan guage, more than the propriety and fluency with which serving-people express their thoughts, and this they commonly do with an agreeable seasoning of the ease and man ner of the higher classes ; a fact, no doubt, attributable to much native ability on their own part, and to their having been brpught up on a footing of great familiarity with their superiors. This recommendatory trait in the humblest ranks of the community is, we regret, fast giving way to the intrusive manners of the unrestrained and rising aris tocracy of a mongrel brood, — a dusky and PEOPLE OF COLOUR. 147 bronzed brotherhood, whose very complexion indicates an incapacity to blush as apparent, at first sight, as among the white race used to be the long-honoured badge of the proud Spanish lineage, — the " sangre azul !" blue blood ! — so called, by the inferior races, in consideration of the hue of the veins rising to view under the delicate tissue of a pure white skin. Wit, not unknown among the white women, is a general attribute of the mes tizo and zambo septs, as well male as fe male. These people of colour are too much addicted to sarcasm, and too fond of the ludicrous and fantastical. When in a bili ous or choleric mood, they are outrageously passionate ; but then, with chicha-pifia (fer mented juice of the pine-apple), and nieve (ice or iced-water), they soon drown or freeze their fury, and restore tp themselves equanimity and mirth. Instances ef death frpm impetupus gusts of passion are, we H 2 148 CHILDREN OF believe, rare among them ; though we have had occasion to hear of some such, and we have witnessed severe nervous ail ments that arose from the turbulent emo tion of their savage anger. Such mixed castes are remarkable for a great deal of what is by themselves called " broma," — a facetious kind of bantering, with noisy fun and sensual dalliance, which is most dis played at their " jar r anas" or merry meet ings : they like the theatre, and they are passionately fond of bull-fights, cock-fights, religious processions, and that sort of song and music which inflame the passions and deprave the heart, — their feasts too often degenerate into debauchery, and their merri ment into obscenity. Boys of pure Spanish parentage or de scent, in Lima, are usually animated and intelligent, like their sisters ; but, as their bodily powers approach to maturity, their attention is engrossed with frivolous plea- SPANISH PARENTS. 149 sures, which seem to enervate the mental fa culties, and stint and vitiate their future ex pansion. It is, therefore, not unusual for hopeful boys to become childish and fickle, silly and fatuous men. The latter imbecility of mind we observe with striking frequency in the families of the suppressed nobility. Those very few well-tempered spirits that have outgrown every obstacle to their full mental developement, have that inborn thirst after knowledge which even knowledge itself cannot quench ; for, the more they learn, the more they aspire to know ; and these men, with little external incitement to for ward or nurture their literary tastes and pursuits, are like those plants on arid land, which only require a few fleeting showers to quicken their energies, develope their form, and unfold their beauty. Such choice persons are the delight of their friends, and worthy of that better state of society for which they daily sigh, as they see the best laws and 150 DAY OF SAN JUAN. institutions of their country trampled upon by military despots, whose nod they must obey, while they say in their hearts, " Veti- tum est sceleri nihil !" On the 23rd of June, (Dia de San Juan,) all Lima annually assemble along the wind ings of the " Great Alamada," and between orangeries now prettily laden with fruit, to the romantic mountain recess of " Amen caes," only about one mile from town, and beautifully adapted for pleasure-grounds, if only supplied with water, which it might have at some expense. This spot commands a fine view of the capital, with its towering spires ; of wide fields, innumerable orchards, the Rimac, and the fine lagoon at its mouth ; the island of San Lorenzo, and the ship ping at Callao ; and it has, in its back ground, a set-off in the acclivities newly clothed with vivid vegetation, among nu merous crags and many a ridge and chasm. Here, on the day of San Juan, — a day of DAY OF SAN JUAN. 151 festivity and joy, — men, women, and child ren, of all ranks, all ages, and all colours and occupations, meet. Mirth is the object of one and all. Their horses, their asses, and even their own persons, are adorned in their best manner ; and the rational as well as the irrational members of the ever- moving crowd are bedecked with the flower of Amencaes taken from the favourite clefts and nooks of these hills. In this place there are tents and sheds, that supply seats and refreshment for those who love the thoughtless and bawling mirth of the " jar- rana." There is at this exhibition a dun ning confusion of musical discord kept up by drumming, piping, shouting, harping, and guitaring, singing, laughing, and dancing; but no fighting. Here too we may see the popular " paseo," or promenade, of the " chu- chumecas" (women of immoral character,) who mingle freely and good-humouredly with the crowd, to the infinite amusement 152 DECLINE OF GAIETY. of the multitude. The national taste is on this, as on other occasions of festivity, emi nently displayed by the loud and simulta neous laugh, or " carcajada," of cheering voluptuaries when the samaqueca — a fa vourite dance — is exhibited in a free and masterly style. The periodical rides and picnics of the Limenians to Las Huacas, Surco, and Lorin, are now dwindling away into neglect, as there is neither money nor public tranquil lity for such happy scenes of customary -gaiety. Carnival, with them, has lost its spirit ; the Noche Buena, or Christmas-eve, is deprived of much of its revelry; and all that in their customs was most alluring and glittering is rapidly withering and dying away. We may now, not unfrequently, observe more disposition to indulge in the gloomy and silent stillness of the " duelo" or formal condolence for the dead, than in the hilarity PERUVIAN ROGUES. 153 of the golden times of these merry-making? people, who were for generations most happy in the unconsciousness of defects, and in the conviction that no people on earth were superior to themselves in knowledge and civilization. In all parts of the world there are crimi nally selfish and unprincipled men ; and in Peru there may be found a set of rogues, called "Pillos," rendered more numerous and trou blesome from the circumstances of the times. Of these the capital presents two kinds, which has led to the distinction of " pillo" and " pillo- fino." The first is a very common and plausi ble sort of rogue ; but the latter is, as the name implies, a more refined cheat, not un frequently enticed from distant parts by the fame of the numerous attractions of Lima, the paralysis of the laws, and consequent facility of escaping chastisement. The clink of hard dollars and doubloons, shoveled into " talegas^ or money-bags, and again thrown open at the H 5 154 PILLOS. gambling-table, are such sounds as are sure to allure the pillo-fine to that promiscuous society of Limenian gamblers, where the pre cious coin usually finds its way into the hands of the crafty. Whatever be the land of this animal's nativity, he is but a vampire,— a human blood-sucker ; but the simple pillo is a very different character, always plausible and pliable, an every-day and common-place member of society, who sponges on his neigh bour, and whom all Englishmen courted for their generosity are sure to encounter. The ultimatum of this person's milky adula tion and very smiling policy is to procure a loan of money ; and when he asks " plata prestada," or money on loan, of any one, he assures that person, that applying to him is the greatest proof he can offer of his own friendly confidence and regard for the individual ; but, while he is lavish of compliment, he takes care not to express his secret purpose, namely, never to reim- P1LL0S. 155 burse whatever in this way he may hope to clutch. It is a trite saying with the Spaniard, • — " Es bueno conocer el amigo sin perderlo," that is, It is well to know a professed friend, but not to lose him ; and this will be found, like most Spanish adages, to convey in ac tual life a lesson of practical wisdom. The common pillo, of whom we take notice, never thinks the less of you for giving him a polite refusal ; and, by so doing, you act in the spirit of the above saying, and preserve both your friend and your money ; for, when civilly refused, he in good nature leaves you, and proceeds forthwith in search of some less wary dupe, and thinks to himself as he departs from you, " Ya este sabe," — This one is up to our tricks. Though Peru be a land of gold and silver, yet nowhere are the precious metals in greater requisition than in Lima, where the scarcity of circulating capital is shown by the 153 ETHICS OF PERU. revolting dealings of the common usurer, who extorts from the victims of his cupidity two or three per cent, a month on the advances he makes ; and the current and regular rate of interest in that country is one per cent, a month, or twelve per cent, a year. The " plata," or money, covers more de linquencies than charity itself; hence we hear such expressions as these : " Nada es mala que gana la plata," viz. Nothing is bad that wins the money. " Bien, le costo su plata !" — Very well, (what is it to us ?) it cost him his money ! " Porque no tener su gusto cuando le cuesta la plata ?" — Why not have his pleasure when it costs him the mo ney ? — as if money, forsooth, could annihilate the moral turpitude of sinful enjoyment. We cannot give the reader a better idea of the popular ethics of Peru in the present day, than in the words of a friend long re sident in the country, who said that Peru had the advantage over every other country ETHICS OF PERU. 157 he had seen, — that in it " no one need ever be put out of countenance for anything he can say or do." By so broad a statement as that conveyed in the expression now cited, we would only desire to represent the bad state of moral feeling prevalent among the bulk of a people not long since let loose to follow their own unrestrained wishes ; with out thereby meaning to deny the fact, that, in Lima more particularly, we often find that good natural dispositions and obliging manners do in no small degree supply, in the ordinary intercourse of life, the place of higher principle. And yet more : we would honourably except from this ge neral description many individual exam ples of eminent virtue to be met in Peru vian society ; striking instances of disinte rested friendship and kindness (of which the writer himself has more than once been the favoured object) ; and the most generous, amiable, and praiseworthy bearing, which 158 ETHICS OF PERU. we have seen displayed by them in their domestic and social relations. If we consider all things in the circum stances of the Peruvians, their story from first to last must awaken an interest in the mind of every inquirer into their past and present state, rather than dispose him to cen sure them indiscriminately for their errors. We may indeed wonder not to find fewer good qualities among them ; and, on the other hand, not to see the fiercer passions that ut terly brutalize human nature, and agitate every corner of society, more called into ac tion among a medley of ignorant and dis cordant castes, passing without adequate pre paration from one extreme of government to another, and from one civil broil into another of greater confusion and misrule. But, as we have already had occasion to mention, there is among the entire mass of the people a natural aptness to please by a happy address ; and no one can witness the ETHICS OF PERU. 159 external graces of the more enlightened and better classes, who are daily engaged in their customary rounds of social and courteous attentions, without desiring that these quali ties, at least, should survive the overthrow of whatever is pernicious to a healthy state of society. 160 RELIGIOUS PREJUDICES. CHAPTER VII. Religious prejudices No faith with heretics. — Corpse of au Englishman cast into the street by the pious mob. — English supposed to have been buried with money in the island of San Lorenzo. — New cemetery, and Latin inscription for the English burial-ground. — Religious disadvantages of the British in Peru. Among a people who suffer so large a privation of moral discipline as the Peru- vians, we naturally look for a corresponding prevalence of religious prejudices. Some years ago, when we lived in one of the most delightful climates in the interior of Peru, we were greatly annoyed by our neighbours of the two beautiful villages Ambo and Tomay-quichoa. The inhabit- RELIGIOUS PREJUDICES. 161 ants of the former would insist that we drove from the estate of Andaguaylla, upon which we resided, the worshipful saints, (little painted images dressed in gaudy rags,) and withdrew the workmen, or " yanacones,"* from their little gods and religion. It was not till after we were accused by the alcalde of Ambo of being a kind of demon or goblin, that the people of the estate were scared into horror and desertion ; or that we found out, through the kindness of our Spanish major-domo, that the alarmed men, women, and children on the estate had over-night rescued the saints from supposed danger, by piously carrying them away to a town about four leagues distant. Next morning we were left with only one workman ; and * The yanacones usually possess from their employers a small piece of land which they cultivate for their own use, and in return give to the masters one or two days' labour weekly for this holding of the estate or farm. On other days th.ey have a right to demand payment in money, according to the current rate of wages in their district. 162 TREACHERY. he, being an old and maimed soldier, had but one hand. This wanton and unjust attack took a legal form, and was parried off by legal measures with the timely interposition of that enlightened and benevolent citizen of the world, Doctor Don Antonio de Valdizan, himself a counsellor of state, a patron of learn ing, and one of the enterprising miners, and illustrious men of Peru. After this fray was finally settled in our behalf, the alcalde per secutor became our avowed and steady friend. But, on the other hand, the mestizos of Tomay-quichoa, nettled at the failure of the Ambinos, allowed us, with their usual ma licious forethought, to go to great expense in fencing, building, and cultivating sugar cane and other productions, before they showed their determination, without any pro vocation given by us, to baffle our labours, and ruin our fortune, by appropriating to their own use the water for irrigating the VEXATIOUS LAWSUIT. 163 fields under crop, thus annihilating the young plantations. We remonstrated against their unfair pro ceedings, but to no purpose. They fabri cated false accusations, and involved us re luctantly in a law-suit of two years' con tinuance, which, to the honour of the judge of the district, the learned and respected Dr. Mata, was ultimately terminated by an equitable sentence. These good people believed we were but Jews, whom the Spaniards greatly abominate ; and they conceived that, if they did not get rid of our neighbourhood in time, other Englishmen, and therefore, as they ignorantly supposed, other Jews, would settle there after us ; and by proceeding to disgust us with the place, and scare us away in due season, they acted in the spirit of the proverb, " El prevenido nunca es vencido,"— --The wary is never foiled. But it is a subject of deep interest to reflect on the practical example 164 FLAGITIOUS MAXIM. thus afforded of the working of that sove reign maxim, " No faith with heretics." We here see, that although a perverted sense of religion did not extinguish the perception of an obvious right, yet it overcame the sense of wrong towards the imagined Jew, and in this respect suppressed the moral feeling of equity. Such banefully erroneous views must gra dually give way before the spreading light of civilization, and a more extended inter national intercourse. The bad moral effect of seeing men, influential and respected while living, consigned to the indignity of a canine grave when dead, cannot but be perceived and felt by the surviving friends and coun trymen of the deceased, whose religious per suasions are distinct from those of the peo ple of the land in which they are so journers. We may mention, that the first English gentleman's remains we were called upon SHAMEFUL' OUTRAGE. 165 to accompany to an unhallowed burying- place, were those of one who died in an inland city remarkable for the hospitality and kind ness of its inhabitants ; and, after answering a few questions regarding the religious creed of the deceased, the price of the interment was settled, we think, at fifty dollars, and then the good-natured bishop, with a degree of liberality seldom exercised towards dis senters from the Romish ritual in Catholic ' countries, yielded his sanction to let the corpse have Christian burial. But, subse quently to this permission, a mob was collect ed in the night, and the body was cast out from the church to the middle of the street, where our obliging friend Don Mariano San- ches told us it lay. On the following morn ing, in a city where humanity was sub dued by the ugly suggestions of supersti tion, there were only two good Samaritans. These gave their attendance at the stranger's funeral, when the only two or three Britons 166 ABSURD SUPERSTITION. at that time in the place accompanied the body outside the city, to find it a grave under the shelter of an orangery, where its moulder ing bones could not by any chance come into contact with those of the pious agitators, who would fain persuade themselves that, while they live in harmony with the living heretic, the mere sight of the worm that nibbles at his interred remains is quite sufficient to en danger their own eternal condition. In the capital of the republic a better example is at length given. Through the meritorious exertions of the British Consul- general, B. H. Wilson, Esq. the Peruvian government have ceded to the English a proper piece of , cemetery-ground* at Bella Vista, an agreeable and convenient situation between Lima and the port of Callao. For merly all the English, not Roman Catholics, * The following very scholar-like inscription for the English burial-ground, his countrymen owe to our accomplished and excellent friend, Mr. Thomas Lance of Lima : — ABSURD SUPERSTITION. 167 who died in the capital or port, were in terred in the barren island of San Lorenzo, where the bodies were exposed to the in sults of the most vile of mankind, — miscreant convicts confined to the island for crimes that expel them from the society of honest men, and who believe that the English here tic, like the ancient Peruvian pagan, must needs have laid with him in the grave in- Degentes per ha?c loca Britanni, auspice suo Consule Belford Hinton Wilson, gratissimoque hujus Rei- publics concessu et beneficio, fe communibus copiis, Regia, censente Senatu, auctis munificentia, hoc Coemeterium struxerunt, sacraveruntque, A.D. : ut, posthac, sua? gentis qui procul & patriot, longinqua hac scilicet, sed amicissimtl terra, supremum obierint diem, spe'fideque patrum innixi, in his sedibus requiescant. 168 ABSURD SUPERSTITION. struments or utensils of his avocation while living ; and, therefore, they are led to expect that, our English merchant's grave must be a place of deposit for a full share of those dollars he was seen always to handle, and to ship away in boxes to his native land. These outcasts were made to feel their own supe riority, if not while in chains or in the galley, at least prospectively in their own cypress-shaded Pantheon, over the wealthiest, worthiest, and most respectable foreigners in their land, who, at the close of life, they might believe, exchanged situations with themselves, — that is, were sent in perpetuity to the arid and leafless San Lorenzo, while they themselves would be conveyed and suf fered to rest in honoured ground until the last day. Let the worst befal them, — should they come to die on the " banquillo," (a rude stool on which the criminal is placed at the hour of military execution,) yet they are not at the last discouraged like the stranger and ABSURD SUPERSTITION. 169 Protestant. They have the aid of the priest when going to execution ; and, when gone, their carnal remains may rest in sanctified earth. There will not probably be wanting on such occasions some godmother masfea que la noche, — more ugly than night, — or some friend, who will remember the necessities of the departed highwayman whose days were closed in the Plaza, and will charitably pay the needy friar's mass (value one dollar) to extricate his soul from perdition. Our Consul-general, ever zealous in the discharge of his public duties, not only saw the inconvenience to his own coun trymen, but the evil result of the former mode of interment in the island of San Lorenzo, and the great disadvantage that British subjects laboured under in having no place of public worship according to the forms of their own national church. These evils he endeavoured to counteract by procur- VOL. i. i 170 ENGLISH WORSHIP. ing the grant of a cemetery as mentioned ; and by having church-service read at the Consulate-general every Sunday, as is done by captains and commanders in such of Her Majesty's vessels of war as have no chaplains on board them. By this arrangement the most incredu lous or prejudiced Peruvians have an oppor tunity of knowing that our Consul-general, and such of his countrymen as do not neg lect the public homage offered at the Con sulate to the Creator, do really feel an in terest beyond the grave, and have a hope in Heaven as well as the deluded vulgar, who long believed (and the absurdity seems to have been inculcated as a political engine of some power by those who must have known better,) that the English were but a species of the ourang-outang, with tails like the lower animals ; and consequently it was quite plain, on the alleged evidence of com parative anatomy, that their ultimate des- IMAGE OF THE VIRGIN. 171 tination could not be higher than that of the beasts that perish. The name of Drake, and the famous trea sure-ship Caca-fuego, are now forgotten ; but we are assured that in Payta the name of Anson is associated with sacrilegious re collections, and is mentioned by the lower class of natives with details that awaken feelings very hostile to our countrymen. At this sea-port, On the northern shores of Peru, on a certain festival and anniversary- day, when the image of the Virgin Mary is taken out in procession, we are told that it is shown with a patch of red wax on the neck, marking the wound once inflicted in this part by a sabre-blow from some disor derly sailor of Anson. An amiable and well-informed Limeiia, in whose house many of the literati daily meet, has laughed heartily at the good old times, when she related that, when a young i 2 172 PREJUDICE AGAINST girl, (and she is not yet more than middle- aged,) neither she herself, nor her playmates, ventured to approach a certain English sailor-boy without holding up their hands and making the sign of the cross with the fore-finger and thumb. This lady's mother took a great interest in the sailor-boy, see ing that he was fair and handsome ; and greatly regretted his not being a Christian, an expression by which she meant, of course, a Roman Catholic. Some recollections of ancient feuds may still co-operate, in a greater or less degree, with religious prejudices to keep up no very warm feeling towards the English as a peo ple ; but it is gratifying to think that even on the distant shores of the Pacific, and among the glens of the Andes, there is a growing intelligence that tends rapidly to dissipate such unfriendly feelings. A nearer acquaintance with the English character, the insensible but gradual progress of know- THE ENGLISH. 173 ledge, the general extension and assimilating tendency of commerce, the softening effects of time, and, in a word, the revolution itself, which opened up a channel for general im provement, are so many circumstances that conspire together to render the already widely extended connexion of Great Bri tain with Peru, every day more cordial in the minds of the natives of this important republic; and when the country becomes more settled under the direction of a wise government, such as its friends are now in expectation of enjoying under the protection of his excellency General Santa Cruz, it is to be hoped that, this international friendship may be rendered still more intimate, and mutually beneficial, than it is at present. Should the projected plan of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company* be happily carried into execution, from which a high moral influence may be reasonably expected, * See Appendix. 174 BRITISH RESIDENTS and our commercial dealings with Peru be further extended, then will the religious wants of British residents become propor- tionably more deserving of public attention. The individual labour and exertions of these enterprising Britons, in a distant part of the globe, contribute to encourage manufactures and industry in their native land; and, though separated from their kindred and country by a wide- spreading ocean, they are rarely so happy as when they think of that home to which it is their daily wish to return, and never cease to feel that once their hearts and warmest sympathies were English. But, unhappily, to keep the heart pure in the midst of the greatest na tional relaxation of morals, — the strongest allurements to vice,— with few incitements to virtue, and no effective encouragement to religion, — is an achievement far too great for the average of mankind. When young men destined for foreign IN PERU. 175 countries leave home at an early age, they are naturally more defenceless against the insidious inroads of corruption, and more open to new impressions flowing in upon them from surrounding objects. Having ar rived in Spanish America, they soon for sake the Protestant respect for the Sunday, and yet scorn the Catholic sacrifice of the mass ; and then they insensibly enter upon the formation of new habits grafted on the manners and customs of the country, in which they are as yet but strangers. The elder and more considerate British residents in Peru, we have reason to know, feel and regret the want of an established ^clergyman regularly and duly trained to discharge the duties of his vocation, and who should command a becoming degree of per sonal influence, arising from his professional character, learning, and piety. No indivi dual of the commercial body — we would even venture to affirm, that no consular 176 SECULAR CHURCH-SERVICE. exertions in this spiritual department of duty— can provide for a regular attendance on church-service ; because, on such topics, every counting-house clerk considers himself quite as knowing as the Consul, or any other secular reader of church-service, to whom as a divine they will not voluntarily accord much deference or attention, however dis tinguished that officiating individual may be for his high character, general intelligence, religious sincerity, and private virtue. CLERGY AND LAWYERS. 177 CHAPTER VIII. Clergy and lawyers more honoured than physicians or sur geons. — University of St. Mark. — Anatomical amphithea tre College of San Fernando. — State of the medical schools and profession on the coast and in the Sierra. — General remarks on Limenian education. During the continuance of the royal au thority in Peru, when military titles were only conferred on men of Spanish blood, the honour of the church and civil courts of judicature was pre-eminently fostered by the government, and the duties of those high vocations devolved on select individuals of white or Spanish race. If there were ex ceptions to so partial a distribution of favour, these appear to have been made in behalf of a few of the aborigines, or Indian people, whose i 5 178 PERUVIAN CLERGY. blood to this day runs in the veins of some of the first families of that country. The Peruvian clergy have ever been jea lous of the dignity of their office, and con sulted purity of blood in their august order with the same earnestness that they watched over the orthodoxy of their faith. They ap pear to have considered all mixture of Afri can blood as a sort of test of spiritual conta mination, and never suffered those tarnished with it to approach the altar, except as hear ers or penitents, — never as ministers of the sanctuary. We may reasonably suppose that much of this partiality on the one hand, and rigorous exclusion on the other, was origi nally founded on considerations of political jealousy and 'distrust ; but, be that as it may, the effects of this line of policy are still ob servable notwithstanding the liberalism that is afloat, for we do not meet with a single curate of negro or zambo progenitors, while in the law the majority of professors are of MEDICAL PROFESSION. 179 Spanish origin. The practice of medicine was looked upon as the proper occupation of those who, though possessed of some clas sical attainments, were deemed unworthy a place in the more distinguished departments of law and theology. But this order of things admitted of a few exceptions ; for, as in the dregs of the legal profession there were cer tain tawny interlopers, so also in the higher walks of the medical department there was a proto-medico, and a few more physicians of European birth or descent. The great body of the profession, however, were raised from among the genuine black, or other more or less crossed Ethiopian castes, to whom, as is affirmed by Ayanque at page 43 of his celebrated satire, titled " Lima por dentro y fuera," the healing art in all its branches, and especially surgery, was al most entirely intrusted. This arrangement, which involved consequences of vital interest to society, probably arose from inadequate 180 MEDICAL PROFESSION. ideas entertained by the Spaniards respect ing the medical profession ; viewing it less as a noble science than as a superior sort of handicraft. Certainly it did not arise from indifference about their own lives or per sonal safety ; for no men are more careful of themselves when sick, or more ready to call in professional assistance, than the Spa niards of South America. An idea still prevalent is, that individuals selected from " la gente prieta," or the sable people, are, on account of their more vigorous cha racter and constitution, the best suited for the exercise of a laborious and active pro fession in the debilitating climate of Lima, where, in former days, young men of Euro pean parentage not in some government em ployment, or members of legal and ecclesias tical establishments, had an insuperable aver sion, which they have not yet overcome, to work for their bread. But, leaving these matters as we find MEDICAL PROFESSION. 18 them, we shall here give an extract from the well-known work, titled " Mercurio Peruano," by which it will be seen what was the ancient state of medicine in Peru. " In the sixteenth century, the taste of our nation leaned in favour of scholastic theo logy, the philosophy of Aristotle, and the civil law of the Romans ; so that at the period of founding the university of Saint Mark, as well as for some time after, there were established for teaching each of the above branches of learning a competent number of well-endowed professorships ; and, moreover, colleges were erected not only in Lima, but in all the principal cities with in the viceroyalty of Peru, for teaching the same. " For medicine two chairs were appoint ed or intended, — one (de prima) on the theory of medicine, and the other (de visperas) on pathology ; but, no salaries being fixed, these fell to the ground. It 182 MEDICAL PROFESSORS. is not therefore to be wondered at, that when, in the year 1637, they deliberated upon restoring the medical professorships, it was stated by Dr. Huerta, that in arts, laws, and theology, there had flou rished a large number of doctors, enumerat ing about one hundred in Lima that very year, (seventy years from the foundation of the university,) but that in this lapse of time only three or four physicians were known among them, who, having studied in other parts, had incorporated themselves with the university." It was at the same time urged by Dr. Huerta (who was professor of the Quichoa language) that the appointment of medical professors was quite useless, " as it was no torious that the Indians performed better cures than the physicians, recovering those whom the doctors had given up for lost ; and, moreover, that many who were for some time in hospitals had from their own ex- EMPIRICISM. 1 83 perience found out how to cure very suc cessfully, without being professed doctors, like Martin Sanches and Juan Ximenes." Let no one suppose, from the date of the fact here stated, that the age of empiricism is passed away ; for now, in the nineteenth century, we have hospital-dressers who take upon themselves the character of instructed practitioners, and are employed as such ; while the famous curandera, or doctress, La Senora Dorotea, wants not among the opu lent and best-informed persons of Lima warm defenders of her skill and superiority over the doctors of the university. Before an anatomical amphitheatre was ' opened in Lima in the year 1792, the study of the healing art continued to be much neglected, as we are informed by the founder of this school, who, after some statements on this important subject,* observes, that * See paper in vol. ii. of Mercurio Peruano for July 1791 ; and the Inaugural Oration on opening the Anatomical Amphi theatre, inserted, for February 1793, in vol. vii. of same work. 184 ESTABLISHMENT OF the public instruction of medicine being wanting in the royal seminary, and having no colleges that might supply this deficiency, it followed as a consequence that in the medical profession those improvements had not been made that the importance of the art demanded, — a great detriment to the public health. Some years after the anatomical amphitheatre, or practical school of anatomy, was formed, its founder was raised to the head of the medical profession in Peru ; and, desirous to advance medical science among his countrymen, he had further prevailed with the viceregal government to establish a college of medicine and surgery in Lima as an independent medical seminary, dedi cated to San Fernando, in honour of their august sovereign Ferdinand VII. of Spain.* This college, as we are informed by one of its earliest inmates, was established in the year 1809, and in it different professorships * Unanue, " Sobre el Clima de Lima," p. 313. A MEDICAL COLLEGE. 185 were properly assigned. Here there was a professor of chemistry, but, for want of suitable apparatus, he had not yet opened an experimental course ; a professor of botany, who really gave some practical lessons when walking out with his pupils in the neighbouring " potreros" or grazing parks. There were also professors of the practice of medicine and surgery, &c. all on a goodly plan, after the manner of European colleges. But, while these improvements were going on, the revolution came, to do evil that good might come ; and then all the fair hopes from the college of San Fernando were nipped in the bud. This seminary, which, at present, meta phorically represents the tree of knowledge, stripped of its green leaves and fair promise, under the shade of the wide-spreading tree of liberty, on which it is to be hoped that science ere long may be grafted, is, in its now blighted condition, under the ncminal rectcr- 186 MEDICAL LIBRARIES. ship of Doctor Don Caietano Heredia, one of the earliest and most illustrious of the disciples educated in this school, — a gen tleman who, to his infinite praise, caught no small portion of that love of knowledge, and desire to disseminate it, which so emi nently distinguished the eloquent founder, Dpn Hipolito Unanue. We may briefly remark that, at the period when the revolution broke out in Lima, there were in the medical profession some men of excellent classical knowledge, well versed in medical literature ; and the valu able libraries which some of them have left behind them would, if only spared by the most destructive moth of that country, long stand as monuments of their profes sional scholarship. Among the junior phy sicians of the capital there is less ancient learning, but a better acquaintance with modern authors, especially French works, which are imported very freely ; and the MEDICAL STUDENTS. 187 revolution, which so lately subverted the ancient form of government, may likewise be said to have opened up new sources of pro fessional knowledge and improvement in medical practice. At present, however, young men hardly acquire the rudiments of medical knowledge when they are hurried away to the army ; and having never enjoyed the advantages of an early systematic education, and being thus hurried into practice, it is to be feared that many of them will be satisfied with the perusal of a few manuals or formularies, and never attain enlarged views of their pro fession. But the military surgeon has ample opportunities of using the knife ; and surgery is now very much improved in Peru, where, till lately, the first principles of this branch of the profession were ill understood. The pharmacy of Lima consisted chiefly of herbs and simples, till English and French apo thecaries' stores were opened, and furnished 188 LIMENIAN PHARMACY. the public with the best remedies, which were soon approved, and recommended by those native physicians who adopted a more active practice than their predecessors. In the present day nearly all the native physi cians of any note order their prescriptions from the French apothecaries. This leads us to remark, that in the well- known Memoirs of General Miller there is a lively account of the wandering practisers of physic of the aboriginal tribe of Callavayas or Yungenos, who, laden with barks, balsams, and herbs, are said to migrate periodically from the vicinity of La Paz, and " traverse the mountains of Peru, Quito, and Chile, and the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, exercising their vocation wherever their assistance is required, to the distance of five or six hun dred leagues." Some medicinal herbs col lected on the mountains and in the valleys are always in requisition, and constitute the INDIAN QUACKS, 189 Chief ingredients of the domestic medicine of those who inhabit the villages of the interior of Peru ; but as French and English assort ments of medicine have become so common of late, the Callavayas have ceased to visit such parts of that country as we are acquainted with. But there are still a set of quacks, ge nerally men of swarthy and mixed race, in every town and village of general traffic or importance, who subsist on the credulity of mankind, and are appropriately distinguish ed by the name of Mata-sanos, or killers of the healthy. No active measures have yet been adopted to suppress the flagrant abuses of the Mata- sanos, who infest the interior villages of Peru ; where, we regret to say, even the regular practitioner is a kind of public extortioner, who, persuaded that the price of his services is never to be paid after pain and the sense of danger are removed from the sick, is ac- 190 MEDICAL EXTORTION. customed to make his bargain, and withhold his remedy till he secures beforehand his fee : and the bargain is usually screwed up to the utmost when the patient is known to be rich, and believes his own life in danger. In con sideration of the medical destitution of the interior of the republic, and the crying evil thus entailed on the community, it was sug gested to the legitimate government in the year 1835, that, from every prefectorate of the republic, a certain number of disciples should be sent to be educated at the com mon expense, in the medical college at Lima ; and that after these young men had completed their studies, and were found duly qualified to exercise the medical pro fession, they should be made to return as practitioners to their respective provinces. This proposal would probably have been car ried into effect, had the country been left to enjoy public tranquillity ; and it is obvious ABORTIVE PROJECT. 191 how easily, under such an arrangement, vil lages and districts of several thousand inha bitants could, by contributing an average annual sum of only a few reals from each individual, procure for themselves a salaried medical adviser, from the midst of their own Indian or mixed population, in every way the most fitted to pass his time usefully and agreeably among his native hills. But, as things are at present, it is almost impossible, even at great expense to individuals, to pro cure proper medical attendance in the time of need ; for the variable climate and tem perature of the interior changing from hill to dingle, and frequently from league to league, is peculiarly unfavourable and dis agreeable to the constitution and habits of the medical gentlemen of the coast, (among whom there are some highly respectable and able men,) who are commonly of various gradations of caste, from the black through 192 SIERRA DOCTORS. all the tints between this colour and white" or European ; so that we need not be sur prised at the reluctance of these individuals to undertake the practice, or expose them selves to the privations of the frigid regions of the interior. But the people of the Sierra, or upland of Peru, being unprovided with medical teachers of their own, can only rely on the capital and coast (where there is no scarcity of doctors, both native and foreign,) for the supply of such regularly educated physicians or surgeons as are here and there found in the interior ; and even these are not always stationary in one town or province, but often ambulate backwards and forwards as their interest or inclination happen to dictate. But, whether settled permanently in one locality or not, it usually happens that when the Sierra doctor is called upon to visit a patient, he rises from the card or diceing table ; and the sort of pre scription given for the cure of the sick will EDUCATION. 193 naturally depend on the state of mind in which the gambler happens to be at the time. Having said so much on the state of the medical schools and practice of medicine, it may be expected that we should advert to the interesting subject of schools and educa tion in general. Small schools for reading, on the Lancas- terian plan, are very common in the capital, and not unknown in the provincial and in land towns; and all — we think all — the white children are taught to read and write. The Bible too, as translated by Scio, is open ly sold by book-dealers, and it is read by in dividuals in the Spanish language ; but no Mr. Wood* is found among them, to carry forward the instruction of the pupils on the basis of the sacred writings. Close to the public library at St. Pedro's church, which contains a large and valu- • Sheriff John Wood, the gratuitous and philanthropic teacher of the Sessional School of Edinburgh. VOL. I. K 194 COLLEGES. able collection of books, there is a Latin academy, which was intended to be a great national school after the declaration of Peru vian independence ; but it is not, we believe, now in a flourishing state : and the colleges of San Carlos and San Toribio have dwin dled away under the baneful influence of a succession of revolutions, and governments misnamed patriotic, which are as hostile to science, though on a different principle, as was the dark reign of the inquisition under the sway of old Spain. Early in the nineteenth, as we have alrea dy shown to have been the case in the six teenth century, the taste of the natives leaned to scholastic theology, the philosophy of Aristotle, and the civil law of the Romans. Heineccius still preserves his authority within the cloisters of the Lima colleges, which are too often deserted for v/ant of funds for their support, — one of the many evils consequent on frequent political com motions ! LIMENIAN YOUTH. 195 It has been long a subject of remark and regret, that, in these principal seminaries of learning, scarcely any of the scholars attend ed to their studies, except those who were sent from remote provinces, and who were not yet wedded to the idle and luxurious habits of the Limenian youth. Indeed, the expression " buen colegial" is proverbial in all Peru as peculiarly characteristic of young gentlemen devoted to gallantry, or who are observed to care more for their loves than their lessons. A new school for law and philosophy was commenced in Lima, a few years ago, by Don Jose Joaquin de Mora, who for some time delivered lectures, and also published a text-book on the Scotch philosophy, which he taught with credit. Mr. Mora, himself a native of Spain, has thus opened, in Peru and Bolivia, new sources of investigation in the departments of metaphysical and ethical science. As vol. i. k 2 196 EDUCATION OF INDIANS. a civilian more especially, this indefatiga ble individual has acquired transcendent celebrity in those countries. Still, how ever, the blessing of well-directed instruc tion is confined to a very few ; and the lower classes of dark race, as well as the Indian orders of the Peruvian people, have seldom any education ex cept that which is necessarily acquired in the ordinary intercourse between man and man, without the medium of letters, and in the usual discharge of the com mon duties of life; for the exercise of which it should be the main object of edu cation to prepare the individual, so as to fit him to act his part in society with dig nity and usefulness, becoming a being of immortal nature. But we need hardly remark, that in Lima the ornamental takes precedence of the use ful ; because there the chief aim of educa tion is to train the young to please in com- FEMALE EDUCATION. 197 pany, by such accomplishments as music, dancing, and play, with only a very super ficial acquaintance with more solid attain ments. From what has been already stated in the course of the preceding pages, it may be inferred that female education, especially, is very much of the kind now alluded to ; though among the fair sex there is a great abundance of excellent talent, which, if pro perly directed, could not fail to be productive of the best social results. But it is not our purpose to speculate on plans of public instruction, or to point out what may be called the philosophy of edu cation ; into the secret of which, we think, an English friend, the father of four well- brought-up boys, has pretty well penetrated, when he enjoins, as a sine qud non of good tuition, absolute obedience, under good ex ample, in early life. How very little phi losophy has to do with the present style of training youth in Peru, and Lima in par- 198 INFLUENCE OF EXAMPLE. ticular, we think the general moral details of this book are well calculated to show ; for early indulgence takes the place of obe dience, and the influence of example is not always the best : yet upon the whole, when free from civil discord, they are pleased with themselves, And eat, and sing, and dance away their time, Fresh as their groves, and happy as their clime.* * Homer must have visited Lima, either in the body or in the mind, when he penned those beautiful lines which so precisely describe it, and are thus translated by Pope : Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime : The fields are florid with unfading prime : From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow, Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow; But from the breezy deep the blest inhale The fragrant murmurs of the western gale. Odyssey, Book iv.l. 76". TABLE LANDS. 199 CHAPTER IX. General features of the Sierra. — Roads. — Wilds of San Mateo. — Indian's eyrie. — Mountain curate. — Enterprise of a priest engaged in inland traffic. — Pastoral life of Indians. — Ancient ruins — Royal road of the Incas. — Tarma, a pretty Sierra town, or pueblo. — Various sorts of bridges. — Balsa, or canoe of rushes. — Ancient aqueducts and terraced gardens of the aborigines. — Pagan edifices among the rocks near the coast. — Vale of Rimac. — Temples of the ancient Sun-worshippers of the land. The space enclosed between the gigantic ridges of the eastern and western Cordillera, or great and frigid mountain-chains of the Andes, is occupied by numerous table-lands yielding short fine grass, and extensive hilly pasture-ground, very like in general outline to the Highlands of Scotland, though destitute of heath : and over this very uneven surface are interspersed lagoons and rivers, and deep, warm, agricultural val- 200 FERTILE GLENS. leys, in the bottom of which grow the richest fruits and produce of the coast; while the summits of the hills, that rise from and enclose these fertile dales, are exposed to the violence of the tempest in the elevated regions of cold and barren ness. From one of these glens, where we once resided for some time, we left a house at the door of which the lemon-tree was in perpetual fruit and blossom, and, in two or three hours thereafter, arrived at the rug ged crags and peaks of the eastern Cordil lera. The lines of road from the western coast to the central Andes of Peru wind along narrow glens, sometimes contracting into mere ravines, edged by lofty hills or prodi gious rocks that close in abruptly. The traveller thus journeys for days, leaving one hill behind, and meeting another rising before ; but never arrives at that ideal MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 201 spot, whence he may command a view from sea to sea, " Where Andes, giant of the western star, Looks from his throne of clouds o'er half the world.'' The highest mountains in Britain, such as Ben-Nevis or Cruachan,* must appear very diminutive, when compared to the Andes, whose very vastness and extent pre clude from the inland regions any view of the sun dipping under the waves of the Pa cific, and whose magnitude limits the quick est sight to the groups of mountains, with their included dales, that go to form one stupendous pile of varied shape, production, and climate. Many of the mountain roads, as they leave the bottom of the glens, and ascend, in more or less of a caracole, along the face of formidable steeps, seem to bear date of origin from the Quichoa era, when the llama was the only beast of burden in the * " Cruachan," the loftiest mountain in Argyleshire, well known to tourists in Scotland. k5 202 LLAMAS. country. These animals, like their Indian owners, delight most in the cool of the hills; but, when laden and on the road, their slow and stately gait must not be hurried or interfered with, nor their burden increased beyond their liking, which seldom exceeds 70 or 80 lbs. weight on a long jour ney : the Indian understands their way, and rules them by gentleness. As the llamas are not for forced marches, and only make short stages of three or four leagues daily, the paths that lead through pasture-grounds are the best suited for them, and may have been considered by the ancient inhabitants of the land as a sufficient reason for striking off from a barren though less elevated or precipitous path, and climbing to eminences that yield an agreeable temperature and some herbage to the indigenous companions of their toil. When a person has occasion to traverse these narrow and fatiguing roads, it is ne- DANGEROUS PASSES. 203 cessary for him to keep a good look-out, lest he should clash with some rider or cargo- beast coming in the opposite direction ; for there are places where it would be utterly impossible to pass two a-breast ; and there would be no small danger, on meeting an impatient animal or careless horseman, that either party would be hurled over the brink, and consigned to the condors and eaglets that nestle on the cliffs and in the dark chasms of the crags. Such dangerous passes are at some places so contracted that the stirrup of the muleteer is seen to overhang the foaming stream, or project beyond the verge of the boldest pre cipice ; and every now and then they are made more formidable by abrupt angles and insecure breast-work without parapets, hastily constructed when the rush of a sudden tor rent from the hollow of a hill, or large stones rolling from the heights, have cleft the way so as to render it for a time impassable. 204 CUESTAS. There are also many cuestas or rapid steeps, with here and there flights of steps, roughly cut in the hard rock. By the way side, in tedious cuestas of several leagues in extent, recesses are, in numerous instances, worked out on the higher side of the road, which serve for the passengers to draw up while those from an opposite direction are allowed to pass on, or where muleteers stop their cattle to adjust their cargoes and tighten their lassos. But when a rock or shoulder of a cliff juts out from the road towards the lower or precipice side, leaving more or less room for a resting-place, then the little flat space is coarsely walled in with large frag ments of rock and such smaller stones as may be at hand, giving the idea of a rude but commanding fortress. The famous Cuesta of San Mateo, on the Tarma road from Lima, we passed in the year 1 834, and could not but wonder how, without any very serious accident, an army of CUESTA OF SAN MATEO. 205 cavalry, destined to celebrate the " fraternal embrace of Maquenguaio,"* had been able to pass the same route a few months before, when the path and staircases were yet wet and slippery from occasional showers ; and when the lower or proper post-road was un fortunately impassable, from the destruction of one of the ordinary rustic bridges on the river or torrent, that runs at the bottom of the rock-locked ravine through which the regular mule-way has been opened, and by which the waters rush foaming and raging in time of heavy inland rains. This stream, like all such impetuous torrents, during the force of the rainy season on the high moun tains and table-lands, carries in its course a vast number of rolling stones, the thundering noise of which rises far above the roar of the \ * By this embrace the victorious troops under General Bermudes forsook his cause, and at once terminated hostilities by changing sides and declaring themselves soldiers of Orbe- goso and the republic, which they ratified by embracing the troops that fled before them on the day of battle. 206 GRAND ELEVATION. white waters as these are thrown back, and resisted incessantly, by large blocks of rocky fragments that half-choke the narrow channel, which at this remarkable place is bordered by immense rocks looking as if they had been separated by violence, or rent to give de scent to the concentrated and united body of rivulets that come from many a snowy peak, mountain lake, and marsh. The hill along which runs the Cuesta road, rising on the face of the steep that overhangs this part of the stream, is of itself a grand object ; but that which is seen oppo site to it has the greatest elevation of any single mountain in these narrow glens : and nothing of the kind can be more strikingly magnificent than to behold it, girdled in verdure and capped in snow, from the sum mit of the Cuesta, where the traveller, tired with climbing, is invited to draw breath, and look around him from the cross planted here, as in almost every similar situation, MOUNTAIN ROUTE. 207 by the pious among the natives, who love to decorate this emblem of their faith with wreaths of fresh and fragrant flowers. But from the better route, which winds by the river underneath, nothing of this sort is to be seen ; for here the hills on each side shelve in towards their rugged foundations, until they come so close as completely to overshadow the stream. Here, too, the rider may strain his neck in looking overhead ; but his eye only meets, besides a strip of the sky, pendulous succulents and tangling plants on the face of the incumbent ledge, with now and then a flower-enamoured "pica-flor," (humming bird,) as he fans, with a gracefully tremulous wing, the expanding blossoms that yield him delicate food and pastime. These wilds of San Mateo reminded us forcibly of the miniature wilds of Glencoe, re markable in Scottish history; and we thought, as we passed them, of the bard of Cona (Ossian), who, in honour of the orb which the 208 the Indian's eyrie. Peruvians once adored, sung with sublimity and touching pathos, " O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers, whence are thy beams, O Sun ! thy everlasting light ? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty ; the stars hide themselves in the sky ; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave ; but thou thyself movest alone. Who can be a com panion of thy course ?" The Indian's eyrie on the summit of some steep and lofty mountain, (seldom visited by a white man, save the curate,) may be easily passed many times unnoticed by a stranger, who has occasion to go over the usual routes in any of the principal ravines and valleys of the Sierra, and who may never be led to suspect its existence till he one day meets a swift-footed Indian, closely fol lowed by a person on a well-accoutred and elegant mule, whose geer is all laden with silver ornaments ; and the rider, who sits at SIERRA CURATE. 209 his ease in a saddle of the country with a rich pellon, wears a large-brimmed hat, with a black silk cap emerging to view at the ears and temples. He has on at least a couple of ponchos (mantles) well-decorated and fringed ; his black or brown stockings are of warm Vicuna wool ; and the heel of a small shoe, half-concealed in a clumsy and costly, though wooden stirrup, is armed with a prodigiously disproportioned silver spur, with a large tink ling roller, used to keep his noble animal in mind that she is but the harbinger of death, and carries on her back the keeper of the sinner's conscience. This minister of peace to the miserable, hurries to save the soul of a dying Christian, whose abode, like the falcon's, overlooks the ordinary path of wayfaring men ; and which, when descried, seems, to the sight of an ob server underneath, to be indeed the loftiest earthly point between the ground he himself stands upon and that heaven for which, it is vol. i. k 9 210 SIERRA CURATES. believed, the anxious and fluttering spirit of the gasping Indian, only waits the curate's absolution and blessing to wing its immortal flight. It occurs to us here to remark, that in the remote curacies of the hills no friars are to be seen, as on the coast or more genial climates ; an important part of whose duty it is, wherever they locate themselves, to aid the Christian to die well, and to watch by his pillow, and exhort and comfort him, while the crucifix and taper are ever before his eyes, and the breath of life about to leave his animal frame. But, destitute of these helps, the curate or curate-substitute, whose calling renders him the most influential per son and only spiritual comforter in an Indian village, makes, in the appearance we have offered to describe, his rapid way over hiH and cliff, broken ravine and dangerous path, on a chosen traveller, whose movements are so gentle that she never wearies the rider. This mule seems not to make any trying SIERRA CURATES. 211 exertion, while she leaves all ordinary beasts of her kind behind her on a day's journey, and ascends a cuesta of three or four leagues without stopping once to draw breath, and again descends the same without missing a foot or slackening the " passo llano," the best of all travelling paces ; while, to her no small recommendation, where horse- shoers are not to be found, whether on hard ground or soft, in summer or in winter, she needs not a shoe on her massy and well- rounded hoof. The Sierra curates of a dreary pastoral district, or secluded Indian residence in the wheat-land temperatures, are men, at the age of forty, commonly much worn out in constitution. One of these gentlemen, to whom his home is irksome, is seen to read for weeks together on a stretch, merely to kill time ; or he longs for the more refined " tertulia," to which at one period he was no stranger; or he starts off, swayed by some sudden impulse, to the nearest town of 212 SIERRA CURATES. white inhabitants, where he enjoys a finer climate and more gratifying company. He not unfrequently resorts to a mineral " pueb lo" (village), under pretext perhaps of selling his " premicia" or first-fruits in grain, &c. which, to be sure, he does to some purpose ; for ten to one he will gamble with the extrayagant miners, day and night, till the product of the premicia is all swallowed up ; and the poor residentiary returns to his cheerless manse involved in a debt which he cannot pay for the next six months, even should his curacy be worth four or five thousand dollars a year, though it oftener happens that the income is much less. In his mountain curacy, wherein he endures sad periods of ennui and long and frequent fasts,* that debilitate and break down the best consti tution, (for before he can reach a distant church, and say mass, the day is often far ad- * On the day a curate performs church service, he does not breakfast until after mass. SIERRA CURATES. 218 vanced,) the curate complains of feeling him self an exile ; and is easily led to seek refuge from his self-weariness in various indulgences that far overstep the barriers of self-denial, and plunge him into the outskirts of that moral darkness which he is sent to enlighten. Here, if anywhere on earth, the draw backs of involuntary celibacy are felt by the priest. For such canonical privations he usu ally searches compensation in the less amiable society of a favourite " sobrina,'' or reputed niece, whose kindness hinges on a precarious friendship, and whose artful complacency " hardens a' within, And petrifies the feeling '.' But while we regret the evils thus en tailed on the curate by the established usage and Romish policy* of the sacred orders, we do with pleasure and grateful remem- * We say " Romish policy," because on this subject St. Paul's precept is, Quod si non se continent nubant. 214 SIERRA CURATES. brance assure our readers that, from the in dividual curates spread over the hill-land of this thinly inhabited country, the foreigner and traveller is always sure to meet with the greatest kindness and hospitality. Further to illustrate the moral and physical aspect of the Sierra, we would mention that once, when on a journey in the interior, we had the good fortune to fall in with a clerical gentleman, whose vigour of mind was not to be overcome by the dreariness of his residence at Cauri, a puna village of cold and shivering aspect. This active and spirited person came up to us as we crossed the celebrated road-way of the Incas, on the heights of Huamalies, and we descended together towards the village of Jesus, only a few leagues distant ; but before we could reach this place his fine mule began to trip, then tottered, and soon failed entirely in her hind-legs, as if struck by palsy. She was unsaddled, she imme diately stretched herself on the ground, SIERRA CURATES. 215 swelled out rapidly, struggled and groaned, and in less than half an hour died. The priest, who on this occasion showed himself to be not at all unacquainted with practical farriery, felt like one who had lost a tried and valued companion. He soon, however, reconciled himself to a misfortune beyond his power to remedy ; and ordering his Indian page to walk down hill, (after he had secured the saddle and trappings of the favourite animal here left to the hungry condors, on the back of the cargo- mule, or bed-mule, driven before us,) the jovial priest mounted the Indian's little rough poney, and we all arrived safely at our des tination early in the evening. The cattle every hoof — were in distant pastures, and the priest could not be provided with an other mule before next morning. We there fore passed the evening agreeably under the same roof, where a pretty-looking white mouse was caged, and kept as a precious 216 MOUNTAIN PLANTATIONS. remedy and charm against all diseases ; and some such wizard power as this timid crea ture was supposed to possess, these poor mountaineers stood much in need of, as no surgeon or physician ever resides among them. At the village of Jesus we arrived in the dry season, when its nearest plains wore a stunted and withered aspect, and when there was no crop in the ground — not their ordinary potato crop, which in deed is their only one ; and which in some years succeeds, while in other years it fails on account of the frost. But, during the rainy season, when frost is unknown in the deep ravines and lofty arable heights and acclivi ties of the inland country , — where the highest- perched houses are seen, on arriving at them, to have still higher back-grounds, — the Indians, each of whom cultivates his own patch of ground, drive all their cattle to the remotest pastures of their extensive com mon; because they cannot consent to have PRIESTLY CONTENTION. 217 them feeding near their doors, and crops, which have no proper enclosures. The Indians and curates have, for the most part, very opposite interests to sup port in worldly matters ; and they are often seen contending with one another in hard bargains when arranging the business of first-fruits, (for tithes are collected by the state,) marriages, burials, and religious fes tivals, which latter are closely interwoven with the entire social system of the country. These contentions tend to lower the respect ability and sacredness of the proper priestly character ; and there are not wanting ex amples of the Indian carrying his ill-will so far as to desire to be revenged of his ghostly father in a sly way. On one celebrated occasion the Indians of Huamantanga, situated on the western slope of the Andes, and not far inland from the capital, advised their curate that in a hamlet on a distant hill-top a man was vol. I. L 218 ANECDOTE. dying; so that, if the curate did not use much haste to assist him, he would neces sarily die without confession. The curate replied, " But how am I to reach him ? — There is no mule at hand ; they are all in the remote common." An Indian promptly answered, " I will fetch one." But the curate knew that at that time, on account of the numerous crops, no mule was or could be near. He therefore became sus picious respecting the good faith of those about him, for he was old, and had experi ence of the perverse and cunning disposition of Indians ; but, when the man came to him with a very good-looking mule, he sup pressed his sentiments, and asked if the ani mal was accustomed to be ridden by a curate. " Sabe la mula de cura ?" The Indian re plied, " La mula es buena," — the mule is a good one. " Yes," says the curate ; " but let us see if she have acquaintance with a curate." He now cast off his clerical habit, ANECDOTE. 219 and, having dressed the Indian as a curate, he made the wily rogue mount the beast ; when she reared, kicked, and flung violently, until she dashed him to the ground. To the crafty villager, now caught in his own snare, the churchman good-naturedly ob served, " You feel, my man, that the mule, though a good one, yet knows nothing of a curate ; and, as there is no other alternative, your friend must survive his present illness, or go down to the grave without confession." But to the grave he went not on this occa sion, for the whole was intended as a trick by which the curate might be deceived to his personal hurt or destruction ; but, as far as we could judge, our jolly acquaint ance at Jesus was quite a favoured indi vidual, who had nothing to fear from the mule next morning brought for his service. This gentleman had a great many occu pations besides the ordinary professional duties of saying mass, hearing confessions, L 2 220 PRIESTLY DISTILLER. and absolving sins. He supplied his people with whisky, of which he was the only distiller, and they the principal consumers. He considered it a proud discovery, (of which few of his neighbours were in the secret,) that ardent spirits could be made from barley, reared on the hills at compara tively little expense for the grain-grower; while the usual sugar-cane spirit, or " agua ardiente," extracted by the help of the in ferior copper, or the still worse earthen stills of the interior, had no superiority over it. On the other hand, the " pisco," or finer flavoured Italia, both of which are procured from the fermented juice of the grape, could only be got, and at great expense of land-carriage, from the coast. He therefore hoped to su persede by his whisky the use of the cane- spirit or pale rum, called " agua ardiente," or " agua ardiente de cana," because it was sometimes very expensive, and frequently bad ; not from any pernicious quality in PRIESTLY DISTILLER. 221 the saccharine juice, as some natives have imagined, but on account of the defective mode of distillation by poor people, who buy up from the sugar-growers molasses, and a coarse brown sugar, made into little cakes, called " chancaca," for the purpose of being converted into "agua ardiente," for which there is always great demand in the colder and mineral districts. Our speculative priest had a farm in the temperate neighbourhood of a place and cu racy called Caina, which lay convenient to his own spiritual flock. Here he cultivated abundance of grain, and possessed extensive pasture grounds. He purchased the " premi cia" (first-fruits) of his brethren in Conchu- cos, and other mountain ranges and elevated districts, wherein church-rates are paid in cat tle, as the staple commodity of lands chiefly fitted for pasturage. These cattle he placed on grass, when young and cheap ; and when they became in high condition, drove 222 PRIESTLY DISTILLER. them carefully along the least frequented paths on the verdant heights, to the clover or alfalfa fields in the headland vales of the coast, where they were in demand by the grazier and butcher. He also con tracted for so many thousand arobes of sugar yearly, with the planters in Huailas ; and by the aid of his Cauri friends and customers, had his sugar conducted to Cerro Pasco at a lower rate of land-carriage than any one else in this line of trade ; and, deal ing on a large scale, he believed that he could easily undersell the smaller trader. The Cauri muleteers employed by the priest are staunch hearty fellows who swig off a bottle of whisky, or " agua ardiente," as if it were less than a mouthful ; for they call a bottle a " gota," or a drop, which shows they hold it as too small a dose for their well-seasoned stomachs. Our priest also engaged to supply mines, in the adjacent country, with salt for bene- JACK OF ALL TRADES. 223 firing or preparing metals, which the Cau- rimen, with their little broad-backed and hardy nags, are used to convey from Hua- cho on the coasts of the Pacific, by the vale of Sayan, across the Cordillera. He was withal a watch-maker to the neighbouring villages within many leagues of his residence, and knew, if we forget not, how to put the church organ to rights when out of repair. His people were apparently fond of so stirring and general a speculator ; and as they can only grow for themselves, and that in the most sheltered corners, very bad po tatoes, with frequent failures in the harvest, (though their common yields good pasture,) their pastor supplied them with maize, (as the miner in isolated localities supplies, at large profits, maize and clothing, &c. to his workmen,) on which, with potatoes, cheese, eggs, and guinea-pigs, they principally sup port themselves. ' Butter they rarely know how to churn; and, as the milk is chiefly 224 PASTORAL HUTS. used for making cheese, it is not often drunk as an article of nutriment, save by those who live in small round booths, that are ever and anon guarded by a host of noisy curs, with hair as shaggy and matted as that which covers the heads of the urchins that feed them. These pastoral huts are scat tered over the distant plains and ranges of the mountains throughout the " estancias," or tracts of hilly pasture-land allotted for rearing and feeding cattle and sheep. At such estancias and huts, the traveller in the interior of Peru has frequently to rest for the night. The poor Indian owner of a few horned cattle, will rather languish with hunger than slaughter one head of his fold for his private consumption ; but he who owns a small flock of sheep can more conveniently sustain himself on meat and " caido," — mutton tea, (for vegetables are commonly MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 225 wanting to make that kind of broth which is to be found at the grain-grower's,) espe cially when any traveller passes that way, who buys one of his small sheep — much smaller on the hills than in the warm val leys — for use on the road, and employs the Indian himself to butcher it. These inha bitants of the snowy range, or lofty dales of the Andes, we frequently met, — and they are easily known by their warm clothing, capacious chests, and ruddy complexions, — descending from the frigid regions to the temperate and grain valleys, to barter for the vegetable productions of the agricultu rist fresh mutton, which, already skinned and free from offal, they carry on donkeys (animals which in the hands of the Indian escape the cruel stripes and goads inflicted on them by the merciless negro or zambo) ; and this meat, like beef, being previously dried in the sun, is laid up for use by the l5 226 DRIED MUTTON. dweller of the warm and narrow glen over hung by scorched and rocky acclivities, who places it before the traveller, under the usual name of " charque," of which we have often eaten with a good appetite. But to return to our priest: it is to be hoped that, in contributing as much as he did to supply the temporal wants of the hardy attendants at his confessional, he did not irretrievably overlook their Christian and spiritual necessities. From the combined re sults of his various undertakings, he che rished a glowing expectation of realizing a fortune; but, as we never heard of his success, we think it allowable to suppose that, like other speculators, he must have experienced some severe reverse or seri ous disappointment, as is quite usual in that country. When morning arrived, we had our good chupe, — a common and standard dish of the Sierra, consisting of potatoes sliced down MOUNTAIN FARE. 227 and boiled in water or milk, with an ad dition of eggs, cheese, and, when very nice, butter; but, on many occasions, especially in Huamalies, the traveller only gets yaco- chupe, or water chupe, consisting merely of potatoes sliced and boiled in water, with the addition of a little salt, and a leaflet of wild mint, if at hand, as a useful antidote against flatulency and uneasiness at stomach. After we had finished breakfast, and found our cattle in readiness, we were sorry to part with our agreeable acquaintance, whose pre sence and influence furnished us with better fare and accommodation than we usually ex perienced on our Sierra journeys. This re markable person was a native of Quito ; and Whatever may be thought of his enterprise and commercial spirit, like all Quitenos we were acquainted with in Peru, he was distinguished for his native talent and in genuity. Our way now lay among the ruins of an- 228 ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS. cient buildings and small towns, with here and there, along the higher ridges, some de tached and more stately-looking architectu ral remains. These relics of the olden times offer far finer samples of masonry than the dry stone and thatched houses of any modern Indian village. The old line of communication between Quito and Cuzco, where we met our Quitenian friend on the preceding day, is a wonderful monument of rude art and industry. This imperial road of the Incas is still per fect in many parts, where the stones appear well fitted and laid in good order, the pave ment rising above the level of the plain, and being of a spacious breadth.* * When the Spaniards took possession of Peru, the mon archy of the Incas, according to the tradition of the Indians, ascended to an epoch of about four centuries. " That country had been, time immemorial, inhabited by scattered, rude, and savage tribes, whose civilization originated from the austral regions, among the people who inhabited the vicinity of the great lake of Titicaca, in the district of Callao. These Indians were probably more warlike, active, and intel ligent than their neighbours ; and as there is scarcely any peo- ROAD OF THE INCAS. 229 We entered one of the houses in " Pueblo Viejo," or ruins of an old town so called, by the way-side, not far from the celebrated ruins of the ancient city Leon de Huanuco, deemed by the natives as only second to Cuzco — the capital of the empire of the Incas — in the wonders of its masonry. We found the walls of this house, except pie who do not, either from pride or superstition, trace them selves to a heavenly origin, so did the Peruvians relate, that there once suddenly appeared among them a man and woman, whose aspect, dress, and language inspired them with wonder and veneration. He called himself Manco Capac, she Mama Oello ; and they proclaimed themselves children of the sun, whose worship and adoration they inculcated." " The kingdom remained in the line of their descendants, who were ever regarded as the pure race of the sun ; the princes marrying their sisters, and the offspring of these unions being alone eligible to the throne. From Manco to Huayna Capac they counted a succession of twelve princes, who, partly by per suasion and partly by arms, extended their religion, dominion, and laws, through the immense region which runs from Chili to the Equator, gaining or subduing all the people they en countered, either in the mountains of the Cordilleras, or on the plains of the coast. The Inca who most extended the empire was Topa Yupanqui, who carried his conquests southward as far as Chili, and on the north to Quito ; although, according to most 230 RUINED HOUSE. where defaced by the mischievous hands of man, quite entire, and one angle of the building had yet retained the roof. The windows were small, but the outer door of good size. The walls were as perpen dicular as plumb and line in our days could make them, though two stories high. These walls were built with small stones, mostly flags ; and between them a thin authors, it was not he who conquered the latter province, but his son Huayna Capac, the most powerful, wealthy, and able of all the Peruvian princes." " In his reign were established, or greatly perfected, three grand mediums of communication, necessary to provinces so distant and various, — the use of a general dialect, the establish ment of posts for the prompt conveyance of intelligence, and lastly, the two great roads which extend from Cuzco to Quito, a distance of more than five hundred leagues. Of these two roads one passes over the Sierras, the other crosses the plains, and both were provided, at proper and convenient distances, with lodgings or quarters, which were called tambos, where the mon arch, his court, and army, even though amounting to twenty or thirty thousand men, might find rest and refreshment, and even renew, if necessary, their arms and apparel." — See pages 158-161 of the interesting work entitled, " Lives of Balboa and Pizarro, from the Spanish of Don Manuel Josef Quintana. " by Mrs. Hodson. RUINED HOUSE. 231 layer of mud or clay cement. There were, within, stone partitions rising to the level of the outward walls, making the compart ments of the house so confined that the roof was easily laid on by long and broad flags projecting from the sides, on which they were steadied by a top-weight, and, meeting at the centre, were so adjusted as to render the closing of the roof perfect. The same appeared to have been the man ner in which the floor of the second story had been laid. At the roof, the flags were observed to shoot forwards to some extent outside the wall, doubtless with a view to preserve a perfect equilibrium, — as we have frequently seen on the smaller houses of ancient Indian architecture, which abound near the village of Ambo on the heights of Andaguaylla. The lofty and wea ther-worn peaks of this estate go to form the ridge of the eastern Cordillera, where the path from these summits descends towards 232 PICTURESQUE SPOT. the pueblo of Yuramarca on the verge of the Montana, known in regal times as the asylum of the fugitive criminal. This hacienda, partaking of the climate of the torrid and frigid zones, and consisting of successive table-lands and steep hills, has frigid summits and ever-blooming dales. Its lakes of Rumichaca, so named because their waters escape under a natural bridge of rock ; its Indian moats and fortifications on the heights of Rucrun, and the ruins of which we have just made mention ; its woods of alder and perejil ; its bamboo thickets, numerous dingles, and silvery waterfalls; its rapacious puma ; its herds of deer ; its nar row pathways and slippery pastures, from whence the grazing ox so often rolls to the fathomless ravine, — are still present to our mind in one group, with the lovely conjunction of the cultivated vales of Huacar and Huaylas, and the watery cross formed by the confluence of their respec- HOUSES OF THE GENTILES. 233 tive streams, where the river of Huanuco commences its gently winding course. All these crowd into our retrospect, as they are viewed by the imagination in one splendid landscape from the commanding eminences of this fine estate, in contrast with all the boundless mountain- scenery stretching to the west. Of the houses of the Gentiles, as the na tives usually call the antiquated buildings we would wish to describe, (and in the hiding-nooks of which treasure is some times found,) the roof is rounded or finish ed off by stones and clay or earth, so as to throw over the heavy rains that at cer tain seasons of the year fall in these places. This species of building, as it needed no timber, was naturally recommended in frigid woodless plains and almost inaccessible hill tops, such as abound in the Sierra or moun tain-land of Peru ; but in situations like An- daguaylla, where wood surrounds the old 234 INDIAN HOUSES. Indian houses, they could only adhere to this form of building, on account of their higher perfection in masonry than carpentry, which required the use of tools and art that they evidently did not possess. In the temperate climate of Tarma, situ ated in the centre of the Andes in an east- north-east direction from Lima, where the houses are generally tiled, and the better sorts of them neatly floored with gypsum or stucco-plaster, the older houses are still seen covered in with mud or red brick-clay, underlaid and supported with strong timbers and a coat of cane or wattling. The most antiquated of these roofs are made with a very slight declivity, with outlets like a ship's scuttle-holes at the most pending angles, so as to give free exit to the rain when it falls heavily. The wall of this description of house they raise a foot or two higher than the roof, so as to give the latter the appear ance of a little inclined plane and enclosure ; TARMA. 235 and they leave triangular holes, like those of a dove-house, in this little parapet; within which, when the rains have passed away, and the crops are housed, the peasants stow peas, beans, and maize, until, by direct ex posure to a bright sun, these articles are so dried up as to be unhusked without trouble or loss.* Tarma is the favourite place of resort of sickly persons from differ ent parts, especially Lima, and the rigor ous climate at the mineral works of Yauli, whence the rheumatic miners, after their own hot springs fail to cure them, flock to the Estrada, or to the ball and tertulia of the blooming Tarmenians. All its peace ful inhabitants are agriculturists ; and most ly all the resident families emigrate during harvest-time to little farms in the vicinity of this pretty Cerrano town, which is con sidered one of the most agreeable and * To separate wheat and barley from the ear, it is custo mary to tread the grain by oxen or young cattle. 236 TARMA. civilized in all the Sierra, and wherein the better classes, even as in the provin cial towns on the coast, desire to adopt the manners of the capital as their stand ard. Near Tarma is a beautiful cascade, and many peach and apple orchards, with lanes lined with poplars, and perfumed with wild mint and many sweet and fragrant flowers in the wet season, when its hills are verdant, its air pure, and its people joyful. The po pulation of the town and suburbs is esti mated at eight thousand ; yet with all the sickness to which, notwithstanding the general salubrity of its climate, so large a population as that of Tarma must be subjected, this retreat of convalescents from the coast and mineral districts is with out a medical adviser of any consideration, except when chance throws among them one of the faculty of Lima, himself a confirmed invalid, or only in a state of recovery from consumption or spitting of blood. SEED-TIME AND HARVEST. 237 When the people of Tarma have put the seed into the ground, they usually occupy an entire month in mutual visiting and festivity : and they say of their neighbours of Jauja (eight leagues to the south of them), whose rejoicing is at harvest-home, that they distrust Providence, while they themselves piously rejoice and rest their hope in the Giver of their harvest ; hence, they infer the wheat crops of the Jaujinos (whose granaries are in favourable years the most plentifully stored in all Peru) are often blighted and frosted, while the Tarmenian barley always flourishes. We would not quarrel with these contented people for the moral of this anecdote to the prejudice of their neighbours ; but we wish they would themselves make better use of their advantages, and prepare good barley- bread, of which they know not the use, in stead of depending upon others for their flour and wheat, — for never did we eat such bad bread, made of putrid flour, as we 238 MOUNTAIN TORRENTS. did in Tarma. Perhaps the immediately preceding visitation of an armed force might have been the occasion of so bad a bread-market. But we can recommend their quails, too soon fatigued to escape by flight, and therefore taken by dogs and unarmed Indians ; and their pine apples, and coffee from the near Montana and haci enda of Vitoc, are both very good, the lat ter excellent. The centre land of Peru abounds in streams and mountain torrents, subject at certain periods to sudden and tumultuous swells from the bursting of heavy thunder clouds and continued pouring rain, or pelt ing hail and thick nocturnal snow-falls, which quickly melt before the shining sun, and fill the rivers to inundation. The con sequence of this is, that though the weather may soon after become so fair and shower less as to invite the traveller to proceed on INDIAN BRIDGES. 239 his journey, yet every now and then he may have deep rivers or foaming ravines to cross, .where bridges of some sort become indis pensable. Wlien the indigenous race in former times had to pass any river on their route, their engineers supplied, as best they could, the wants of science by that natural sagacity which belongs to their living posterity. When their particular course allowed, they placed their simple bridge near the origin of the stream, or outlet of the lake whence it happened to flow ; as we see at the lakes of Lauricocha and Pomacocha. As the waters of the lake can never rise many feet above the usual level, the purpose of a more scientific bridge is served by the Indian method of laying down large stones at short intervals from bank to bank ; and, as these stones rise high above the surface of the water, they serve as pillars or supporters, 240 INDIAN BRIDGES. over which are laid transversely large flags, that form an even and safe path for the passage of men and cattle. At the places mentioned, the single stones, too wide apart for stepping-stones, are still to be seen firm in their places ; though the transverse flags, probably removed by human hands, are no longer found ; at least, at Pomacocha not a vestige of them remains. A more ingenious bridge of ancient in vention, and still used in Peru, is the swing or soga bridge. It is made by ropes twined from the pliable bejuco, twigs of willow, or any other flexible and vegetable filaments; and these are well secured at the ends on the opposite banks of the water : on these, bundles of maguey leaves, broom, or other long-branched and yielding shrubs, are laid crosswise, and bound very closely and firm ly by tough ligaments or slips of the ma guey leaf ("cabuia"), which answer as well INDIAN BRIDGES. 241 as the best cordage. In this way the bridge is made of sufficient breadth for foot-pas sengers ; and a hand-rope runs along each side of it, by which the traveller can steady himself while walking across. A specimen of this sort is the soga bridge of modern Huanuco. At Oroya also, over the river Jauja, is a very strong one of this kind for cargo-mules to cross upon. The ropes, or rather cables, extending from bank to bank, are made of bullock's hide ; and the cross-bars, bound down with thongs, are of squared pieces of wood, and broad enough to allow the animals to pass with confidence. As this bridge is kept up at unusual expense, and situated on the post-road to the interior, we paid toll at it for passing our saddle- beasts. The rope or swing-bridge is very convenient where the river is too broad to be spanned by any trees to be found in the neighbourhood ; but where the stream is not much too wide to be crossed by VOL. I. M 242 INDIAN BRIDGES. long trees and beams, of which the tempe rate altitudes afford appropriate materials in the wood known by the name of perijil or roble, the natives manage to form a strong and pretty durable bridge, by con structing a large and massy stone breast work on each side the water. In these bulwarks they fix strong timbers, which are made to project over the stream as far as may be required, while the larger portion of the same timbers is covered by a heavy weight of stones and earth : a tree of ordi nary length is found sufficient to overlay the centre of the water ; as, thus placed, it rests its ends on the projecting timbers already well secured in the midst of the masonry at the opposite banks. These, the most common of all Peruvian bridges, are constructed and kept in repair by order of the prefect of each department, who issues the same to sub-prefects or governors of provinces; and these again send out the INDIAN BRIDGES. 243 entire community of adjacent villages to work under the direction of their respective alcaldes and regidores. There yet remains a very curious and portable bridge to be mentioned, now fall ing into disuse, but of which a specimen may be yet seen at Viroy, on the river- Hu- acar, in the department of Junin : this antique relic is named " Guaro." It is con structed by extending a single strong lasso from one side of the stream to the other, which is well secured to the trunk of a tree, or any such fixture, on the opposite banks : from this a leathern bag, not unlike in ap pearance to a canvass draw-bucket used aboard ship, is suspended, so as to run easily on the lasso ; the passenger sits in the bag, and slides himself quietly across. Bridges of this description are said to have been exceed ingly useful to the Montonera, or irregular patriot troops, during the late war that ended in the separation of Peru from Spain. m 2 244 AQUEDUCTS. Another contrivance for passing lakes and rivers in the Andes is the " balsa," a very small canoe made of rushes. Its sur face is level ; and when the paddler and only one passenger steady themselves upon it, the canoe is pressed down into the wa ter to within about an inch or two of its surface, — so, at least, was the only one we had occasion to enter ; as, upon a journey during the floods of the wet season, we swam our cattle, and crossed ourselves in a balsa of rushes over the river of San Juan, on the plains of Bombon, near Pasco. The water-courses of the ancient Peru vians are traced along the chasms of rocks and sides of arid eminences in the vicinity of the coast, and in the dry intermediate glens. These aqueducts sometimes appear marvellously constructed among the most rugged crags, and in some points are rais ed to an astonishing elevation. They are reared from very slender foundations here AQUEDUCTS. 245 and there among the now receding, now approaching, shelves of the rocks and cliffs. These piles of irregular mason- work are fabricated with small and thin stones, or light flags, leaning upon every favourable projection along the steep against the front of which the fabric rises ; and all the works thus constructed are so solidly and closely united, that after the lapse of ages, and in the land of earth quakes too, they are still in numberless instances nearly perfect. One of the most striking of these aque ducts is about eight leagues from Lima, on the low road to Alcacota by Caballeros, on a high rocky acclivity, along the base of which runs the road, close by the winding of the river Chillon or Carabaillo, which descends from the Cordillera, by Obrajillo. It is also very usual in the temperate valleys, where the hills are flanked .with soil, and clothed in vegetation, to meet here and there the 246 HANGING GARDENS. ruins of small villages with files of succes sively rising platforms on the hollow side of a hill. These tiers of artificial flats, or gardens, are generally only a few yards in breadth ; but in length greater or less, in proportion to the dimensions of the semi circular sweep of the recess capable of cul tivation. In rearing up and constructing these gar dens the one above the other, like the pews in the gallery of a church or boxes in a theatre, the ancient Indian must have begun his work by erecting a stone wall on the lower part of the slope, or more even ground, that formed the base of the series ; and, as it was in process of rising to the desired height, the earth must have been scraped down from the side of the acclivity, to fill up the space thus partitioned off into a level bank or platform : then, behind this first level was raised another stony • partition, and more earth again scraped down ; and so on sue- HANGING GARDENS. 247 cessively, till the uppermost and last tier of these little and tasteful gardens was com pleted.* By such means these industrious natives always preserved deep soil, which they might dig up and turn over at pleasure, bringing a new surface of earth to yield a new crop without necessity of manure ; and by the same contrivance they preserv ed from the washings of the frequent and heavy rains, the treasure of vegetable loam which they thus so laboriously and patiently amassed. As we descend from the inner regions of the country, and get down among the arid and naked granite mountains near the coast, we see the ruins of Pagan dwellings showing themselves in the crevices of the rocks, where no plant is seen on the waste • The Indian gardens on the hills of the Sierra are by the Spaniards called Andenes, whence Andes. VOL. I. M 4 248 PERUVIAN RUINS. land, save a few scattered cacti, and no moving creature except the lizard that basks, and the kite that waits its motions, on the crumbling ruins and circumjacent blocks which have been rolled from their original seats on the face of the steep. And as we approach still nearer the capital, where Glen Rimac unfolds its wide and fertile acres of deep alluvial soil, we see that this goodly land, when denied water, puts on a look of desert sterility ; but that it only re quires irrigation — it needs no manure — to yield productive sugar-cane, and to throw forth choice lucern and Indian corn, that waves above the head of the overseer as he passes on horseback through the fields, su perintending labourers. As we enter these plains, susceptible of in definite improvement and vast returns, we are everywhere surrounded with the ves tiges of antiquity, particularly with the ruins of guacas, that at a distance lopk like RELICS. 249 little hills or knolls scattered over the open plains ; but we think that they were once used as so many tombs of the Sun-worship pers of the land. In some of these moulder ing monuments there are yet to be found in ternal chambers or sepulchral vaults, entered by very narrow openings ; and, from these labyrinths, mummies, cloths of different co lours, various domestic utensils, and sacred figures and idols, have been not unfrequently extracted. We have in our possession a neat silver idol in the figure of an Inca, with a llama of the same material and workman ship, procured from a guaca, and presented to us by our friend the Rev. Dr. Don Lucas Pellicer, an eminent and classical Limeiio, of whose merits as a scholar and patriotic statesman his country feels justly proud. Many other curious relics of an ancient people are dug out from the same edifices, of which the assiduous Don Mariano Rivero has made the most extensive and inte- M 5 250 ANCIENT TEMPLES. resting collection which is now extant in Peru; and with correct drawings and de scriptions of these he has, for some time back, proposed to favour the public, and to enrich the history of his native country. The tombs from which relics of this kind are usually taken are not, however, con fined to the neighbourhood of Lima, Trux- illor or the coast in general, where their struc ture of moulded earth and sun-burnt clay is best preserved on account of the absence of rain. Such remains are still seen in some parts of the Sierra ; and in speaking of the guacas, (which he conceives to have been temples) in his " Historia natural y moral de las Indias," vol. ii. p. 128, Acosta tells us that " there were in Cuzco* more * Cuzco, situate in latitude 13° 32' 20" S. in a cool and bracing climate, in the midst of a valley, between the eastern and western chains of Cordillera, has in its vicinity warm and fertile ravines or glens. It is said to have been founded by Manco Capac, the first Inca, in the middle of the eleventh century; and Francis Pizarro took possession of it, in the name of Charles I. King of Castile, on the 13th March 1534. In the year 1590, this celebrated capital of the old Peruvian INDIAN THEOLOGY. 251 than four hundred temples of idols, looked upon as sacred earth, and all places were full of mysteries. As they" (the Incas) " went on with their conquests, so they introduced their own guacas and rites into all that state. The Great Being whom they adored was the Viracocha Pachayachic, who is the Creator of the world ; and after him the Sun ; and thus they said that the Sun, like all the other guacas, received vir tue and being from the Creator, and that they were intercessors with him." empire suffered from a violent earthquake, which ruined a great part of its ancient monuments. The architecture of the great Temple of the Sun, and fortress, close to the city, still ex hibit a different style of masonry from that which we have described above, and is most usual in the Sierra of Peru, where there are numerous ruins of villages and tambos, con structed with stone of very ordinary size. But, at Cuzco, the ruins of the temple and fortress yet remaining are formed of stones of vast maguitude, and of irregular shapes; yet, so exactly are they adjusted, that no void, or cement, is visible at their points of junction. 252 LEAVE LIMA. CHAPTER X. Journey from Lima to Pasco by Obrajillo Diversity of air and climate. — Canta, a locality favourable to consumptive indi viduals. — Obrajillo, residence of muleteers. — Relay of mules, and payment in advance.— Cultivation and crops. — Ascent to and pass of the Cordillera Veta, or Cordillera sickness. — Indian hut. — Muleteers' lodgings on the Puna. — Wallay Diesmo. — Pasco. We left Lima about noon, and rode along a broad and stony road-way by the skirts of the hills, now, in the month of January, dry and sterile masses of soil and rock. To our left extended the fine but neglected valley of Chillon, once highly cultivated, and susceptible of rich improve ment. We passed several Indian edifices, constructed of mud cast in huge moulds, which yet in some degree preserve their INDIAN EDIFICES. 253 forms, notwithstanding the ravages com mitted upon them by time and earthquakes. These always appear above the level of ir rigated land, as if intended wisely to avoid the reach of marsh effluvia, so eminently pernicious to the health of the aborigines. We arrived in good time at Caballeros, distant six leagues from Lima, and slept very soundly, in defiance of the ceaseless barking of dogs, tinkling of mules' bells, and noisy chattering of negroes. On the morn ing following we started at an early hour, with a hope that before the sun came out in his strength we might get over the parched ground of the Rio-Seco. From the heights of this hill-bound recess, — so dreary to the eye, gloomy to the imagination, and every where strewed with blanched bones and skeletons of wearied, foundered, and fa mished animals, left here to perish, — there opens suddenly and at once on the travel ler's delighted vision an unexpected view 254 THE RIO SECO. of the irrigated enclosures of the village of Yanga, close to the winding river, whose banks are clothed in vivid verdure, and gar nished with trees always shady and ever green. From this cheering eminence, in times of the greatest misrule, the traveller can indulge in the delightful feeling of secu rity, as he casts a backward glance over the dark furnace of the Rio Seco, so ap propriate for the infernal deeds of banditti for which it is celebrated, and then de scends in good spirits to Alcacota and Yanga, congratulating himself on having got safely through a desolate and perilous route, where wayfarers are often plunder ed and abused, and, when they offer ineffi cient resistance, sacrificed and murdered. Two leagues higher than Yanga are the church and ruins of Santa Rosa de Quive, overlooking the only habitable house of this stage, (a sort of tambo or tavern,) by the MOUNTAIN TORRENT. 255 banks of a mountain torrent which de scends to join the main river of the valley, from the high hills on the right, through an intersecting ravine. In the arid season on the upland, it is nearly dried up ; but, in the wet, its turbid waters roll with im petuous course, hurling immense round stones along their channel, and sending forth sounds that may be heard by the traveller at the tambo, — telling him he can not ford the stream till the river lowers, but must cross a bad bridge of pieces of timber with some earth and sticks, laid over a narrow part of the ravine, consider ably higher up than the usual ford. On the opposite side of this stream is Santa Rosa; here are several houses over looking a small wooded plain between it and the main river, where men are always employed in cutting and charring wood, which is sent to Lima, fourteen leagues dis tant. The disease which the natives call 256 PERVALENT DISEASES. Uta, a species of cancer well known among chimney-sweeps in England, prevails in this place. We have also seen here the most severe ague, originating at the season when it rains in the hills of the Cordillera (for here it never rains), and when the torrent alluded to inundates, and overspreads with large stones, sand, and slime, the flat ground near its disemboguement. Four leagues higher up than Santa Rosa is a place called Yaso, once a flourishing hacienda, with a garden where lucumas, pacays, guayavas, and sour oranges are still seen ; but where, in place of a flourishing estate, there are now but a few huts of cane and hurdles, partially bedaubed with mud, and furnished with open corridors, under which the muleteers and travellers stretch themselves to sleep : but as lucern is scarce, and as there is no natural pasture, few choose to pass the night here ; though many call for a glass of chicha, or country beer made yaso. 257 from maize, to quench their thirst while resting here at noon, when the sun is re flected powerfully from the towering and naked hills around. The river water being always turbid in time of inland rains, the traveller is tempted to drink of a pure and crystalline stream that here issues from the rock ; but the good-natured inmate of some wretched hut warns him of his danger, and assures him, if he drink that water, he will be seized with the severe disease called verugas, or a painful warty eruption, peculiar to certain quebradas ; and Yaso, it may be kept in mind, is one of the localities subject to this sore visitation. A couple of leagues still higher up the " quebrada," or glen, is the rest ing-place — Huaramayo; a little green spot, with a few neat huts surrounded with plots of lucern, and many rugged fragments from the neighbouring steeps. We observed that one of these humble 258 huaramayo. dwellings, made of mud, cane, and wicker, was thatched with a scrt pf living lichen ; a simple style cf architecture, which cf itself tells us that here the climate is still dry and warm, and the place sheltered frcm rude winds pr stprms. We have seen the cottager, who occupied the hut immediately at the foot of the ardu ous ascent which here commences, look with indescribable complacency as we, from his little corridor, gazed up in admiration at beholding the rain pour in torrents a few hundred yards above us, while his own snug retreat was hardly reached by a gentle sprink ling, which a Limenian would call " agua ben- dita," or holy water, which imparted softness and salubrity to the air, and gave longevity to the aged inmate of the cottage. This now bent and year-worn, but still active and lively octogenarian, was in his youth a shoemaker in Lima ; and being attacked with haemoptysis, or spitting of AN OCTOGENARIAN. 259 , blood, and pronounced incurable by the doctors, he sought for the benefit to be derived from change of climate, and found, after repeated trials, that as often as he returned to Lima his disease of the lungs was renewed, but again removed as often as he arrived at this elfin abode, twenty leagues from the capital. For these good reasons he resolved to settle here, a favoured site where even ague is unknown ; and had, when we saw him, already attained a ripe yet energetic old age. Were this spot a spacious plain like Glen-Rimac, enjoying the climate which it now does, it would be as calm and bright and beauteous as a druidical para dise, and we might even conceive how man might live in such a climate and on such a soil to an antediluvian mea sure of years. From Yanga to Huaramayo, the glen through which lies the road to Cerro Pasco vol. i. m 10 260 GRANITE MOUNTAINS. by Canta is extremely narrow and confined, except at Santa Rosa, where it is somewhat more open. The way often recedes from, though it is generally in sight of, the bed of the river ; and is bound in on each side by lofty and sterile granite mountains, which, on the left side of the river as we ascend, are frequently intersected with narrow, per pendicular veins that arise from the level of the water to the very summit of the mountain, and, from the road, present a ferruginous appearance, suggesting the idea of grand conductors of the electric fluid. It is only by continued irrigation that the few patches and strips of soil, which at this distance here and there relieve the tedium of a rugged way, are compelled to throw forth their vegetable luxuriance. At Huaramayo the temperature is inter mediate between that of Sierra and the coast ; and, as in the warm inland valleys in the cen tre of the Andes, so here, in a region of cor- THE TREE, MOLLE. 261 responding benignancy on the western accli vity of the same great mountain pile, we have the tree called molle, or mulli, in abun dance along the river's edge. This tree is much prized as fuel ; and the sugar-refiners of the interior use the ashes from it, in pre ference to those from any other wood, on account of their higher alkaline properties, and consequent efficiency in purifying the cane juice while being boiled down to a proper consistence to be cast in moulds. The Inca tribe, as we learn from Garcilaso de la Vega,* made a highly valued and me dicinal beer, which some of the Indians of the interior still occasionally prepare, from the clusters of small-grained fruit that hang gracefully and abundantly from this pretty tree. We have said that the climate here corresponds to that of the warm central valleys of the Andes ; but though analogous * Commentaries Reales de los Incas, lib. viii. cap. xii. 262 PECULIAR CLIMATE. in several respects, yet there is this marked difference, that at Huaramayo, and other headlands like Huaramayo, as, for exam ple, Surco, on the San Mateo route to the Sierra from Lima, there is neither winter nor summer, but one perpetual spring. It does not rain here for several months in the year, as in the more inland vales ; but it agrees with them in being out of the sphere of frosts, and exempted from the raw fogs and sultry heat of the coast. At Surco, Huaramayo, and other similar localities in narrow glens extending from the coast to the Cordilleras, the sun appears to rise late and to set early, for it is only for a few hours in the middle of the day that it shines strongly between the perpendicular and lofty hills of the valley ; and the mid-day heat arising from the pow erful reflection of the sun's rays on the bare rocks is succeeded by a cool and agreeable evening. Here then the atmospherical cur- SALUBRIOUS TEMPERATURE. 263 rents of mountains and coast meet and neu tralize each other, — the extremes of both disappear : and the result is a delicious cli mate for the convalescent, whose tender or gans require a gentle uniform temperature, alike removed from the extremes of heat and cold, dryness and moisture ; and he who has the precaution or prudence to keep in the shade while the sun crosses the vale in the middle of the day, may, in truth, enjoy undis turbed all the curative qualities of a delightful and renovating temperature. With this im portant fact the delicate inhabitants of Lima are perfectly acquainted, and they are accus tomed to resort to the cabezadas, or head lands of valleys, where these verge on the joint air of mountains and coast ; as, for ex ample, Matucana, the favourite resting-place of phthisical and haemoptic individuals, who find themselves obliged to retire from the ca pital, in order to recover health by visiting VOL. i. M 12 264 PERILOUS ROAD. those celebrated sites of convalescence — Tarma and Jauja. Close to Huaramayo, and by the old line of road, begin the steep ascents called the Pax- aron, because of the number of paroquets al ways seen about this place. The path along their acclivity is narrow, fatiguing, and preci pitous, to very near the village of Obrajillo, a distance of several leagues. On the airy hill tops, that overlook this way and the ravine below it, are several villages which are only to be approached by a zigzag and arduous track; and hereabouts, if anywhere on the Canta route, are to be seen examples of the terrific in scenery, for those whose eyes are unaccustomed to the native ruggedness of bold and alpine regions. A young gentleman of our acquaintance, who was familiar with nothing but downs and lawns, was affected at the steeps of the Paxaron with a giddiness that, for some time after, disordered his imagi- HOME OF MULETEERS. 265 nation ; and we have seen travellers clash at the worst passes with no small risk in the encounter, where the moving party on the outer verge of the declivity was obliged, for want of room, to brush rudely against the other party standing still on the higher and safer side of the road : and here too, when a weak or weary beast trips, the rider is in danger of toppling over the brink ; and the want of parapets makes the road all but im practicable in a dark night. Canta and Obrajillo are situated in the same opening among the mountains : the latter is entirely the residence of muleteers^ whose strong and active women share in the labours of the field ; while Canta, on an emi nence, is a provincial town, and the seat of a governorship. The village of Obrajillo is built in a sort of irregular hollow near the bed of a small river, surrounded by arable hills receding and VOL. I. N 266 PLENTIFUL HERBAGE. expanding as they rise towards the loftier summits, and therefore affording better ven tilation than is to be found in any part of the valley between this and Yanga. From Yanga to Huaramayo, the hills, as we formerly stated, are doomed to perpetual sterility, and are all unacquainted with the genial influence of dew or rain ; but across the summits of the Paxaron we meet with footsteps of that plentiful herbage, with which, at Canta and Obrajillo, the straths and steeps are richly covered. As Canta is considered a sort of hospital for the ailing people from Lima, it may be proper to remark, that in a medical point of view, it is invested with a great deal of interest, and that it is built on a hill whose base skirts the village of Obrajillo ; while, from the plaza of the lower village to the higher town, the ascent is no more than about thirty minutes' walk. Canta, how- CANTA. 267 ever, is considered to enjoy a far purer air than Obrajillo; and, as it is only twenty- five leagues from the capital, the hectic, phthisical, and slowly convalescent Lime nians, are wont to prefer this to remoter dis tricts. By the people of Obrajillo and Canta, alfalfa, or lucern, is everywhere cultivated near the river and in their little enclosures, and the surrounding hills are covered with pasture : the lower declivities and gentle slopes produce good crops of wheat, beans, potatoes, maize, &c. Here the culen is one of the most common shrubs, and the natives make a tea of its leaves which is deemed an excellent sto machic. During the wet season flowers and flowering shrubs are spread abroad with liberal profusion ; but the trees are too few to supply the wants of the inhabitants, whose houses are therefore constructed at great trouble ; being obliged to convey timber N 2 268 HOUSES OF THE SIERRA. from distant places and deep ravines. The stone or adobe walls and thatched roofs of the small villages or pueblos of the Sierra characterize, with only one exception, the buildings of Obrajillo. The dwelling-houses are employed for stowing potatoes, maize, and whatever eatables the residents may be blessed with ; and, when the family retire to rest, most of them lie down on sheepskins wherever they can find room in their dis orderly apartments. We need hardly ob serve that every traveller on these roads must carry with him his own blanket or ponchos to repose on at night. At Obrajillo there are in all about sixty families; and we saw a maudlin school master among them with only six pupils, whom he taught, sub Jove, in an open corral.* He was looked upon as a savant by the villagers, some of whom found him useful in * Corral means a cattle pen. VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER. 269 drawing up their accounts; and we observed that he spoke about the zoology of Aristotle when a friend of ours displayed his more practical zeal and science in collecting and preserving specimens of ornithology, in search of which he frequently waded the river, gun in hand ; and a pretty sight it was to see the delicately plum aged diving ducks exhibit wonderful agility, in passing the most foam ing rapids. This village of arrieros, or mule teers, is about half-way between Lima and that great source of mineral wealth the Cerro Pasco. From the capital to the Cerro a rider on a good traveller will arrive in four days without injury to himself or beast, and this is considered good work ; but we have known the journey from the Cerro to Lima performed in about fifty hours : this again is a work of over-exertion for the man, who is very likely to incapacitate one or perhaps two animals in the undertaking. It may be said, vol. i. n 3 270 RATE OF TRAVELLING. in general, that on a rough and hilly road a league an hour is a fair rate of travelling for a fresh beast on any ordinary journey in the interior of Peru. The traveller cannot have any dealing with the muleteers without discovering that he is entirely in their power ; and that they will furnish him no cattle for his journey, unless he pay them money on account, or " adelantado,'' beforehand. Of course he will have to advance some part of the mule- hire before he can budge on another man's beast ; but he should not be ignorant of the Peruvian rule on such occasions, which is, to suspect every man to be a cheat till very certain of the contrary, — a xule which is entirely indispensable. Acting upon the op posite English precept, — to believe every man honest till we find him a rogue, — we were once cheated by the military commandant of Junin, who, being paid " adelantado" for two beasts for the next morning's journey, PERUVIAN MAXIM. 271 furnished one of them with only three legs, the fourth being so contracted that it could not reach the ground. He maintained — and, as he was the first authority in the place, he did so successfully — that as he only agreed to provide two beasts, without respect to quality, he would neither replace the lame nag, nor return our dollars. The arrieros with cargoes usually take nine or ten days, and sometimes more, from Lima to Pasco, as they make short stages, consulting the ease of their cattle and con venience of lucern or pasture ; and at Obra jillo they commonly rest a day at least, to refresh or perhaps relay some of their cattle, before they proceed to brave the toils of the Cordillera. From Obrajillo to Culluai, a small village near the foot of the Cordillera, there are three leagues ; and the road leads through a rock-bound passage by the course of a river with a rugged bottom and ruffled stream. There are one or two bad passes to 272 ROCK-BOUND PASSAGE. be surmounted in this part of the journey, from the summit of one of which a panting pony laden with part of our baggage once fell over, and broke his neck in the fall. This narrow quebrada or break, is not destitute of interest to the botanist ; as in the rainy season, amongst the interspaces of the stones and crags, flowering shrubs of considerable beauty and variety present themselves : in deed, the highest Cordillera entrances are not without their hardy flowers amid the shelves of the rocks. We may remark that, between the cliffs in the neighbourhood of Culluai, may be seen samples of those tiers of gardens, built up one above the other on the face of the acclivity, to which we alluded in our preceding chapter, " on the general features of the Sierra," as surviving proofs of the industry of the ancient Peruvians. At this same altitude many susceptible persons begin to feel inconvenience from the " MANAM CANCHA." 273 rarefaction of the atmosphere, and from want of provision for the stomach, if they hap pen not to have their own alforjas, or sad dle-bags, properly provided with necessaries for the journey. It is only in the puna and table-lands that meat is sure to be had, with, perhaps, potatoes and cancha or toast ed maize ; but, should the traveller ask for any thing else, he is told " Manam cancha" — there is none. Between Culluai on one side, and Casa- cancha, an estancia with a mean hut or two, on the other side of the Cordillera, the dis tance is five leagues ; and about a league or more from Culluai we begin to ascend by the Viuda, or Widow, a towering mountain that stands out as it were apart from the other great masses that at this point group together to form a portion of the great Western Cor dillera : and it may be sometimes convenient to know, that on the right-hand side of the N 5 274 HAMLET OF YANTAC Viuda, as we ascend the road that winds round its flank^ there is concealed in a recess close to the line of snow the Indian hamlet of Yantac* Before the arriero attempts to as cend the Cordillera, he anoints, as we have seen him do, his cattle over the eyes and on the forehead with an unguent made of tallow, garlic, and wild marjoram, as a preventive against what he calls the veta ; attributing the effects of atmospherical rarefaction to a subterraneous veta, or vein of a noxious ore or metal, which, he believes, diffuses in the air of the cold summits and heights its me- phitic and poisonous particles. The Cordillera crossed at noon, and in dry weather, is a grand sight. When we first crossed it the sun was out in full blaze ; and, though the mountains of snow * Ignorant of this, and believing no roof to be near under which to take shelter, we have known travellers obliged to pass the night very miserably, and with no small risk of health, on the plain, or by the cascade at the base of the Viuda. MOUNTAINS OF SNOW. 275 lay on every side of our way, we felt quite warm, but we observed that in the shade the cold was very chilling. It was to us peculiarly exhilarating to gaze on so many snowy monuments reflected in all their sublimity from the green waters of the lakes beneath, thickly thronged with sportive ducks and cormorants. These re servoirs of rain and melted snow, which here and there challenge the traveller's ad miration, are like so many appropriate mir rors, successively disclosed to the eye among the concavities and basins that separate the majestic heads of the hoary Andes. In a neighbouring and far grander part of the Cordillera, to which on another oc casion we clambered by a narrow, rocky, and steep path, we were caught in a sud den fall of thick mist, which at once un rolled its folds, and threw over the broad light of a clear and frosty morning the dark obscurity of night. - This transition was ac- 276 SUDDEN OBSCURATION. companied by no thunder or lightning, or sensible commotion of any kind ; and after the darkness continued a few minutes, on looking upwards towards the firmament a scantling of rays began to shoot from among the clouds, and a certain though ill-defined body of light could be distinguished as the centre whence those rays seemed to emanate, when, in an instant after, the peak of a mountain — a crystallized pyramid of snow — glistened to view, and shone in the fullest blaze of brilliancy. With such celerity did the cloudy curtain drop and vanish on the face of the deep dark lake of Pomacocha, that the whole scene appeared but as a vision of enchantment. But to return : we safely crossed the last rib of the Cordillera, and descended into the plain of Casacancha, where we did not stop, but pressed forward" three leagues be yond this common halting- "-lace to take up CASACANCHA. 277 our night's quarters at Palcomayo, another common stage or resting-place for travellers on this unprovided though much frequented thoroughfare. But we had not left Casacancha far be hind, when one of our fellow-travellers ex perienced the most distressing headache : his face became turgid, the temporal arteries throbbed with violence, the respiration was difficult, and it seemed to him as if the chest was too narrow for its contents. The other gentleman complained less ; it was only a vexatious headache that disturbed him, but his eyes were blood-shot. The writer was still differently affected from either of his fellow- travellers. His headache was moderate ; but his extremities soon became quite cold as the sun declined ; the skin shrank, and then came on a sense of sickness and oppression about the stomach and heart, with a short, hurried, and panting respiration. His kind 278 CORDILLERA SICKNESS. associates on this occasion forgot their own ailments in attending to his more urgent wants. They had him carefully wrapped in warm sheep-skins, which formed the usual bedding of the poor Indian family within, and renovated his strength by a cordial ba sin of hot tea. In this manner, and im mersed at the time in the pungent smoke that filled the whole hut, the natural warmth of the extremities and surface was soon restored, so that he became comparatively easy, and passed a better night than either of his two obliging friends. The servant intrusted with the cargo- mule dropped behind ; and not being ac quainted with the route, or able to keep sight of us, he went off the road, wandered into a neighbouring valley, Caraguacayan, and did not appear till morning. The gentlemen alluded to had, therefore, to shift for the night as less provided travellers usually do. Their alforjas (saddle-bags) served them as pil- MISERABLE LODGING. 279 lows, their pellons and saddle-cloths for beds, and their ponchos as their best cover ing. They thus lay cooped up on the floor of a dirty little hovel, too small to allow them to stretch their limbs without risk of burning their toes in the hot ashes around the fire-place. The sharp wind pierced through a hundred crevices of the rude wall, and was ill excluded from the low and nar row door-way by a tattered sheep-skin fitted with thongs into a hurdle-frame. Restless, chirping guinea-pigs — constant inmates of every wretched hut, — persevered during the early part of the night in a bold attack on our bread magazines ; pulling at our wallets, placed under our heads, and nibbling at their contents with a degree of boldness and fearlessness which we believe hunger only could inspire. These assail ants had scarcely left us to repose in the silence of night, when the wakeful cock from a chink in the wall (originally occu- 280 UNCOMFORTABLE MORNING. pied by an image or household saint) began his repeated crowing at unmeasured periods till well on towards grey morning, when all were in motion : the shepherd rounded his flock, guarded all night against the hostility of the fox and other enemies by the faithful dogs inseparable from the sheep ; the mule teer shook himself in his poncho, and went to collect his mules ; and the housewife left her sheep and llama-skin bed, and com menced her daily task of boiling the caido, or soup, for breakfast, and smoking her guests from their uneasy couch. With so many incitements to bestir our selves, we were glad to turn out and breathe the fresh air, while things were getting ready for our departure on a fresh day's journey, with only a headache left for our common annoyance. The writer had frequent occasion after wards to cross this same part of the Cordil lera, and, profiting by his first lesson, he EVIL EFFECTS OF DAMP BEDS. 281 took care always to start early in the morn ing on his day's journey, so as to arrive early in the evening at his quarters for the night. He got refreshment, and turned into bed as soon as possible after his arrival ; and took care that he slept warm and dry. By thus avoiding cold and wet, which check perspiration and overload the deep-seated blood-vessels, he ever after on this route avoided the Cordillera sickness. More than once we have witnessed the most affecting scenes of moaning and suffer ing, without the additional misery of the veta, when some wet and cold traveller ar rived at Casacancha* at a late hour, and threw down as his couch his already half- soaked pellon on a damp mud floor, or earthen bench, and covered himself up for the night with his drenched ponchos. In the morn- * The name of this place is very appropriate, as it implies the fare it affords. Casa is the Spanish word for house, and cancha is the Quichoa name for toasted Indian corn : hence Casa-cancha, or the House of Toasted Maize. 282 TRAVELLING IN ing, a traveller so circumstanced may find his ponchos half-frozen over him ; and when he arises, and looks out, he often sees the plain covered with snow which has locked up the herbage from the reach of the shivering cattle that stand fettered on the plain. On these roads, especially at a season when there is reason to expect foul wea ther, it is best that the traveller should make use of a beast hired of the arriero, who is far more likely to take care of his own mule than of one belonging to another owner, and men are not always to be had to watch cattle let loose in these high pastures at night. The cold is almost sure to scare homeward any animal not seasoned to it ; so that, if the cattle be left to themselves, a traveller in the morning may be disap pointed by their escape, and unable to pro ceed on his journey. The arrieros usually encamp for the night wherever it best suits their cattle in the "puna" near the THE CORDILLERA. 283 huts of Casacancha or Palcomayo, and are so accustomed to it that they lie and slumber sweetly we will not say, but soundly enough, among bits of sheep-skin and jerga, or wool len sweating-cloths used to protect the backs and shoulders of the cattle, under whose " aparejos," or pads, placed standing on the ground, they creep in arid find shelter for the night ; but in such lodgings no one of acute olfactory nerves could possibly be induced to remain for a minute. From Palcomayo to Cerro Pasco is a roughly computed distance of fourteen or fifteen leagues, over hilly and frigid pasture- grounds, named "puna;" or over "pam pas," like the plains of Bombon, through part of which the road passes. This journey can rarely be performed in one day without inconvenience to man and beast, and there fore it is usually divided ; and the traveller may put up at the village of Hualliay, or the hacienda of Diezmo, — each of these places VOL. i. n 10 284 APPROACH TO CERRO PASCO. being about seven leagues from Cerro Pasco, and separated from one another by a range of low hills, and some very remarkable-look ing rocks, near the entrance into the table land of Bombon, which are usually covered with cattle and fleecy flocks. The higher, and, it is said, the shorter route from Palcomayo, is that by Hualliay, but it is fenny, and only practicable in the dry season ; the other route by Diezmo, though somewhat longer, is the safest and best, and is usually followed by the arriero. By either direction, rivers are to be passed, deep and dark in times of flood. By the Hualliay way the ride is rendered interesting on account of the frequently-heard whistle of the vicuna, keeping watch over his fellows and giving warning of the traveller's ap proach, when the whole herd leave their pasturage and bound away to more inacces sible heights. Geese, too, are very nume- APPROACH TO CERRO PASCO. 285 rous ; and there is a lake to be passed which is the favourite resort of the elegant flamin gos. To see a flock of them upon wing is a magnificent sight. 286 ANOTHER ROUTE. CHAPTER XL Account of another route between Pasco and Lima, by Junin, Huaypacha, Pucara, Tucto. — Mines of Antacona, Casapalca, Pomacancha, San Mateo, San Juan de Matucana, Surco, Cocachacra, Santa Ana, and lastly, Chaclacayo. Enume ration of a series of rocks, as they appear in succession from the pass of the Cordillera to the entrance into the Vale of Rimac. The most frequented route between Lima and Pasco is that which we have described in the foregoing chapter ; but, before we offer any particular account of Cerro Pasco, we may hastily run over the road which is sometimes taken from this place to the capital during the heavy falls of the periodical rains in the inland mountains, when several of the rivers on the road by Canta are deep and danger ous rapids. This route across a pass of the Cordillera at Tucto, near Yauli, is occasion- TO CERRO PASCO. 287 ally preferred, as being shorter than the post- road by Tarma. The traveller, who starts at an early hour from Cerro Pasco, passes by the villages of Old Pasco and Carhuamayo, and arrives in good time at the village of Junin, or Reyes. The ride is mostly by the lake of Chinchaycocha, and on pampa or nearly level ground. From Junin, he, on his se cond day's journey, which is only counted as seven leagues, traverses the spacious plain of the same name, so justly memorable in the annals of South American indepen dence, till he reaches that swampy ground, and crosses the very defile, where, in the year 1824, the Patriots were charged by the Spanish cavalry ; and now, leaving this field of glory behind, he crosses to Huay pacha along a hilly pastoral district, with scarcely any regular footpath, — a circum stance which often renders a guide neces sary. The silver ore of Huaypacha is too TUCTO. poor in the present day to allow its mines to be worked with spirit. Here the prin cipal metalliferous works are on the mine estate of Olevegoya and the well-informed Don Miguel Otero ; where also a consider able portion of alcaser, or green barley, is raised as fodder for the cattle employed at the works. The entrance into Huaypacha . is highly picturesque, from the striking con figuration of the limestone rocks in which the silver is deposited, and which overhang and everywhere surround this neat mining village. From Huaypacha we cross the river Jauja, over a soga-bridge of the same sort of ma terials with another at Oroya formerly de scribed.* The next day's ride, of about the same length with the preceding, is made over hilly pasture-ground to Tucto by Pu- cara, — the latter place, now in ruins, being once a famous mining establishment belong- * See p. 241. HEIGHTS OF TUCTO. 289 ing to Don Pedro Arriarte, the great miner of Peru. At T-ucto several Indian huts, and some of them of ridiculously small dimen sions, are to be seen near the road ; but lower down,, and situated near a lake at the base of the Cordillera, is a mining estate in good order, though its mines in these latter times have proved ruinous to the miner. The soil around this estate is of a yellowish tint, and is said to abound in gold (a gold mine being also close to the house) ; and the stones by the road-side are, in numerous instances, covered with crusts of iron pyrites, which impart to them a beautiful appearance, such as, in the imagination of many unac quainted with mineralogy, may serve to give a very flattering idea of the golden treasure of this place. On the heights of Tucto, to the extent of about hah° a league along the Cordillera, the surrounding rocks appear like vast masses of rusty iron, which, however, when a specimen vol. i. 0 290 ANTACONA MINES. is taken up and broken, presents the character of porphyry; but, as we proceed onward towards the summit of the Cordillera, no rocks are to be seen on the acclivity along which we travel, except we look high up, where, in form of mouldering projections, they rise amidst the debris which covers this part of the Cordillera down to the verge of the lakes beneath. The mule-road is a sort of track across the flank of this mass of loose and shuffling fragments> which consist of porphyry, and extend a considerable way towards Antacona, or the ruins of a mining village so called, on the very highest ridge of this mountain-pass. From the extent of the vestiges of industry still remaining, and the ruins of human dwellings seen among the weather-beaten cliffs, we may infer that these mines, like many others, abandoned for want of proper hydraulic machinery, at one time yielded useful metals and rich returns. On the Antacona side of the pass ANTACONA MINES. 291 there is no appearance of permanent snow, for here, as on the plains, though it fall, it soon melts away ; but just opposite, parallel to the line of road, and only separated by a marshy hollow in which several little lakes are contained, there are mountains or summits perpetually covered with snow of great depth, and tbe marsh and lakes just mentioned are supplied by rills which descend from the snow. At the mouths of the mines of Antacona, which are interspersed among rocks of porphyry or porphyritic green-stone, a great quantity of rubbish, extracted at a remote period from under ground, is to be seen. Among this rubbish there appears a large quantity of iron pyrites with quartz, and there is also a considerable quantity of loose calcareous matter separated from the ore by partial decomposition. We may mention that the famous mine of Alpamina, wrought in the present day in this vicinity, is embedded in a matrix of limestone. 292 CASAPALCA. Having descended some way from the cross on the highest point of the pass of Antacona, the surrounding rock (probably a variety of porphyry) has a reddish appear ance, and is continued for a considerable distance to the village of Casapalca ; and the soil also, at this part of the way, is of the same colour with the rock. We may likewise remark, that about the road-side, and in the river or mountain-stream, which is derived from the contribution of the num berless rivulets issuing from the heights, we see for the distance of about two leagues numerous large and small pudding-stones of the same reddish appearance. Casapalca, distant by common reckoning two long leagues from Tucto, is now con sidered as a village or pueblo, though it appears to have been originally merely a mining establishment. Here the attention is arrested by a pretty cascade, which, making a great perpendicular descent, is received SAN MATEO. 293 into the interior of a jutting rock ; and, after a subterranean passage of some extent, the concealed waters reappear, and in a gentle stream descend to join the river. From the foot of the Cordillera to Casapalca the llama thrives on the pasture, which it appears to find sweetest within a short distance of the snow-line. From Casapalca to the next village below it, called Pomacancha or Chicle, there are two leagues of good road ; and here green barley may be sometimes had to feed the hungry cattle^ that are often nearly famished by the time they have arrived this far, after having crossed the Cordillera. From Chicle to San Mateo, a distance of three leagues, there are two roads, — one by a famous steep or cuesta, and the other through a picturesque but rugged ravine along the windings of the river, — both of which we took notice of in describing the ge neral features of the Sierra. San Mateo is o3 294 ROCKS OF a muleteer village like that of Obrajillo al ready described, and very much resembles it in climate and productions, though the tem perature of the air may be a little colder here than at Obrajillo. In crossing by the high mountain-path from Chicle to San Mateo, we observed that where the ascent commences on the higher side, or that nearest the Cordillera, the rock at the base of the mountain consists of porphyry ; but, as we ascend the great cuesta, the precipice assumes the character of porphyritic green-stone. At the base of the descent on the lower, or San Mateo side of the mountain, there is by the road-side a projection of rock which has the appear ance of mica-slate, but of which none of our travellers took up a specimen ; as by this time the day was far gone, and both men and cattle were fatigued, and anxious to reach the lodgings for the night in time to provide convenient accommodation. THE ANDES, 295 From San Mateo to the next stage, or the village of San Juan de Matucana, the distance is four very long leagues, mostly through a narrow and rock-bound ravine. About a quarter of a league below San Mateo, green-stone rock discovers itself by the way-side ; and, soon after we pass this crag, we cross the first of three bridges that are thrown over the river within the dis tance of little more than half a league between the first and last, on account of the narrowness of the ravine, that some times on the one side, sometimes on the other, hardly leaves space for a mule-road. Before crossing, in our descent, the first bridge, the rock is of limestone ; but, on hav ing at this place passed the water to the opposite side, the rock which presents it self is trap, and it continues nearly all the way from the first to the third or lowest bridge, where we meet with quartz, ris- 296 ROCKS OF ing in very perpendicular and lofty masses. The rafters of the bridge rest on a pro jecting part of this towering cliff on the one side, and on the other on a corresponding projection of a formidable hill of porphyry opposed to it. The next variety of rock is one of trap formation ; it appears about half-way be tween San Mateo and Matucana, and throws off a great quantity of fragments- of a slaty appearance. On the lower side it is flanked by a hill of porphyritic green-stone, which continues to within half a league of Ma tucana. This mass also throws off an im mense quantity of debris. The porphyritic green-stone is followed by trachyte porphy. ry, the rock of which commences a short way above the village of Matucana, or San Juan de Matucana ; but, before the junc tion of these rocks takes place, the road way is intersected by a wedge or angle THE ANDES. 297 composed of syenetie gre^i-stone, or por phyry with actynolite. Having left Matucana (which is a con siderable village enjoying a mild atmosphere, with some open ground around it,) for Surco, two or three leagues lower down, porphyry continues all the distance be tween these two villages. It throws off large fragments or masses, that nearly block up the road and bed of the river. Surco is a small village, which possesses the temperature of Yaso on the Canta road ; and, like it, is notorious for its waters pro ducing the disease called verugas, or warty excrescences. From Surco to a league and a half, or thereabouts, below it, we have trachyte porphyry ; and, as we ride along, it becomes gradually coarser-grained, till each grain at length appears as large as a hazel nut. It is succeeded by felspar porphyry, which extends along the side of the ravine 298 ROCKS OF in which we travel to the extent of about two leagues and a half, or a league be- lqw^ihe village called Cocachacera, situated three leagues lower down the river or ravine than Surco. Cocachacera, within twelve leagues of the capital, is surrounded by fruit- trees ; and here the traveller may recline at his ease in the grateful shade, while refresh ment may be procured for man and beast. From one league below Cocachacera we have syenite extending the distance of half a league by our way. It is followed by syenetic granite, and continues for some distance with a varying aspect, till it runs gradually into the coarse granite, which also appears in large loose blocks heaped on the face of the naked mountains between Saint Ana and Chaclacayo as we enter the headland of the Vale of Rimac. The above-named villages of Chaclacayo (six leagues from the city), Cocachacera, Surco, Matucana, and San Mateo, afford THE ANDES. 299 successive stages, and gradations of changes' of air and climate to invalids from Lima, who are too enfeebled, or otherwise find it not convenient, to proceed beyond San Mateo, or to cross the Cordillera by Yauli for Tarma, nineteen leagues to the north-east of San Mateo. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. LONDON : PRINTED BT SAMUEL BENTLEY, Dorset Street, Fleet Street. YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 08837 2728