THE PEOPLE AND THEIR INCREASE
_Density of Population in Time of the Incas--Three Million
Inhabitants Now Probable--Census of 1876--Interior Country
Not Sparsely Populated--Aboriginal Indian Race and Mixed
Blood--Fascinating History of the Quichuas--Tribal
Customs--Superstition--Negroes and Chinese Coolies--Immigration
Movements of the Future--Wages--European Colonization--Cause
of Chanchamayo Valley Failure--Climatic and Other Conditions
Favorable--An Enthusiast’s Faith._
In the times of the Incas the territory which is now Peru supported
a dense population. The vestiges which remain of the intensive
cultivation of the land show that it must have sustained a very
large number of inhabitants. This population extended from the
Sierra and its sides to the coast, and took little account of
the forest region stretching to the Amazon. The enumeration made
by the Spanish colonial officials in 1793 has little value as a
basis of estimating the increase, because it was not limited to
the present Peru. It is interesting only as showing that out of a
total of 1,077,000 inhabitants there were 618,000 Indians, 241,000
_mestizos_, 136,000 Spaniards, and 82,000 negroes and mulattoes.
Another estimate made at that period was of 1,250,000 persons.
It is difficult to figure out that the population of Peru at the
end of 1905 exceeded 3,000,000 to 3,250,000, though an estimate of
4,000,000 was attributed to the Geographical Society of Lima a
few years ago. The last census was taken in 1876. It gave a total
of 2,673,000 persons. The enumeration admittedly was deficient,
and an open question was whether the semi-civilized tribes in the
trans-Andine region had been underestimated or overestimated. In
subsequent years the Province of Tarapacá was ceded to Chile, and
Peru suffered not only the losses caused by the war with that
country, but also from the complete industrial prostration which
supervened and from the intestine struggles of the revolutionary
factions.
Only within the last decade a basis of normal growth of population
may be said to exist, and, with reference to the natural increase,
the high rate of infant mortality both in the cities and in the
Sierra has to be kept in mind. A long period of comfortable existence
and of hygienic education must elapse before this mortality will
be sensibly diminished. In many communities the birth rate and the
death rate are evenly balanced, while there are districts in which
the grave claims more than the rude cradle.
By the national census of 1876 Lima had 101,000 inhabitants. In
November, 1903, a municipal count fixed the population at 131,000.
Lima has received the cream of the immigration in recent years,
and has drawn to itself all the floating elements. The smaller
coast cities have shown no such growth, while in the interior the
towns appear almost stationary as to their inhabitants. If the
rate of increase were 30 per cent for the whole country, as with
Lima, and if the census of 1876 could be accepted as a safe basis
of calculation, the total population to-day would be approximately
3,500,000. The notable increase of Peru’s foreign trade in recent
years is evidence of improved consumptive capacity, due to industrial
prosperity, rather than of an increased number of consumers. It
came too swiftly to be accounted for by the growth in population,
and therefore does not support the theory of upward of 3,500,000
inhabitants.
I have taken into account the statement of travellers in the
interior, who have found the people more thickly distributed than
they had thought. Two young Americans, Messrs. Whitehead and
Peachy, who in 1902 travelled through northern Peru to the Amazon,
encountered a relatively dense population. The engineers who in
1895 made the Intercontinental Railway Survey from the border of
Ecuador to Cuzco, calculated the number of inhabitants along the
route to be 482,000, substantially in agreement with the national
census and with no signs of a marked increase. The location was
through the Sierra and directly on the line of many of the most
populous Andine towns. Engineers for private companies who made a
reconnaissance of a route along the left bank of the Marañon, were
surprised to find every little stretch of plain or valley between
the glaciers occupied and cultivated by an Indian family, yet when
they came to estimate the aggregate of the inhabitants the total
was not a large one. This inter-Andine population may be numerous
enough to justify the belief that the census of thirty years ago was
not wide of the mark, but it is impossible to find grounds for the
assumption of an increase of 30 per cent since then. The population
of Peru at the beginning of the Panama Canal epoch reasonably may
be placed at 3,250,000.
In the enumeration of 1876 the estimate was that of the inhabitants
57 per cent were pure Indian, 23 per cent _mestizos_, and, except
for a fraction of negroes, the remaining 20 per cent was Caucasian,
chiefly Spanish. The aboriginal proportion is now smaller than it
was thirty years ago, since European immigration has added to the
white population, and the mixed blood also has been augmented.
[Illustration: Group of Peruvian _Cholos_]
There is no more fascinating history than that of the Quichuas, the
aboriginal population of Peru which still survives. The distinctions
are yet marked between this basic race and the races which were
subjected, such as the Yuncas, who dwelt in the northern part
and along the coast and whose language is still spoken by their
descendants. Some of the tribes around the shores of Lake Titicaca
are not of pure Quichua descent, being sprung from the rival race
of the Aymarás, while in the forest region the Chunchos and others
of the uncivilized tribes have little of the Quichua traditions
or customs and speak dialects of their own. But the great mass of
the population of Peru to-day is Quichua. The Spanish and other
intermixtures which have produced the _cholos_, or half-breeds,
have had four centuries to work out the blood mingling, and the
_cholo_ in every community is very easily distinguishable from the
pure Quichua.
The Quichua is of the soil. Under the Incas the communal system of
land cultivation prevailed, and the natives, even in the loftiest
recesses of the mountains, were agriculturists. They found means
to irrigate the most barren spots. On the plains and valleys they
cultivated the land. The fondness for the freedom of the country
still survives, and many of them prefer this life to being grouped
in villages.
On some of the great haciendas the crops are apportioned on shares
almost as in the times of the Incas. The natives are born shepherds,
and the pastoral life suits them. In the Cordilleras, wherever there
is a pass or a valley, the cabins of the Indians are scattered about
as thickly as the producing qualities of the land will permit.
Much of the work in the mines is done by the _cholos_ or _mestizos_.
These also are the freighters who handle the droves of llamas,
burros, and mules that bring the ore from the mines and take back
the supplies. On the coast the population might be called chiefly
_cholo_, for here the intercourse with other races has made the
conditions different from those in the Sierra.
In the forest region the tribal customs are observed almost as
before the Spaniards came. Many of the tribes are still restricted
to bows and arrows, and as they are hostile to the government and
accept its rule unwillingly, the authorities take pains to see
that they are not encouraged in procuring fire-arms and learning
the use of modern weapons. The marriage relation is primitive, but
the traditions are rigidly maintained. An Englishman who had spent
some years in the basin of the Ucayali told me that in one tribe
polyandry was practised. An epidemic of smallpox had left many more
men than women.
The owner of an hacienda on the edge of the forest region gave
me an account of the marriage customs which had prevailed almost
immemorially. One instance which had come to his attention was
of a girl of nine who was married to a boy of eleven. When the
child-wife was eleven years old, she was a mother. The gentleman
had verified this incident himself and had no question of the age
of the husband and wife.
The native is deeply attached to his surroundings and does not take
readily to labor elsewhere. The climate has something to do with
this unwillingness to move. It has been found by experience that
the inhabitants on the _punas_, or table-lands 5,000 feet above the
sea-level, do not work well when taken up another 5,000 feet. They
are not only homesick; they suffer from real physical illness. It
is the same with those who are brought down to the lower plains.
Alcohol is the worst drawback to their physical well-being and moral
advancement. The coca leaf, the essential principle of cocaine,
which they use as a food, is far less responsible for their lack
of physical stamina than cane rum.
In many of the villages of Peru which I visited I formed an
impression that the natives were further advanced than in similar
villages in Bolivia and Chile. There was more cleanliness, more
evidence of good order and of wise local administration. They are a
brooding, solitude-loving race, though not altogether spiritless.
How far they still preserve the traditions and sorrow over the
Incas I do not profess to know, but their gentle resistance makes
it more difficult to impose civilization on them than would be
sullen opposition.
While the army is distasteful to the Indian population, and while
they evade the conscription wherever possible, it is one of the
strongest civilizing forces. The discipline is good, and the change
of environment also is advantageous. Obedience has been so fixed
a habit of the natives since the Spanish conquest that they never
think of questioning authority. As to the degree of superstition
which is mingled with the nominal adhesion given by the Indian
populations to the Church, I do not profess to judge.
The Peruvian government seeks to enforce a good school system, and
in the larger towns and villages with some success. But on the
part of the mass of the Quichuas there is still inextinguishable
hostility to learning Spanish, not the less effective because it is
passive. The suggestion has been made that the authorities provide
a system of primary schools where Quichua shall be the language
and shall be taught systematically. It is the _lingua general_, or
common speech, of a large majority of the inhabitants.
At Huanuco, where a German agricultural colony was established forty
or fifty years ago, the sons of the early colonists still speak
German, and many of the Quichuas in the neighborhood have acquired a
smattering of that language. Apparently they distinguished between
the tongue of the conqueror and another strange tongue.
Under good industrial and administrative conditions a natural
increase on the basis of the present Quichua and _cholo_ population
may be expected. More comforts of life, a little rudimentary
knowledge and practice of hygienic conveniences, will help to
alter the disproportion between the birth rate and the death rate.
Somewhere in their nature a spark of ambition may be kindled.
The negro element in the population in Peru is sometimes remarked
by strangers. They are told that it has become thoroughly intermixed
with the native race. In the early days of the viceroys, when African
slavery was exploited by the two great Christian powers, England
and Spain, many Africans were brought to Peru. It is thence that
the name Zambo or Sambo came. They are yet called Sambos. Though
the Spanish and Indian intermixture is said to be thorough, there
seems to be much of the African racial identity still preserved.
One day in Lima I watched the religious procession in honor of
Our Señor of America. Nearly all the processionists were negroes,
unmistakably so.
The Chinese coolies were brought to Peru in the fifties. They still
work in the sugar plantations and the rice fields and a few of them
also in the cotton fields. The coolie in the second generation,
however, becomes a storekeeper and a property-owner. On some of
the sugar estates the Chinese steward in the course of a few years
leases the plantation and later becomes the owner. There are many
wealthy Chinamen in Peru, and not all of them made their money as
merchants at Lima. The policy of the government is not to encourage
coolie immigration.
For the industrial and political future of which Peru dreams there
must be immigration as well as the natural increase of the present
native population. The potter’s clay is not all at hand. Some of
it must be brought in. This immigration will be along three lines,
which may be called topographical or geographical,--first, on the
coast; second, in the Sierra; third, in the trans-Andine country and
the vast basin of the rivers that feed the Amazon. A phenomenal
growth in the population of the latter region during the present
generation is not probable, though it has enormous colonization
possibilities which gradually will be utilized, especially with
the opening up of the means of communication. Some of them, too,
are European or Caucasian possibilities, for the explorations of
numerous scientists and their studies have shown that the European
can live and thrive in these regions. These climatic and similar
observations may be had from a score of books giving the experiences
of individuals.
In the development of its mines Peru necessarily must add to the
population of the Sierra. Mining labor now is hardly sufficient,
and the preference of the natives for agriculture and for service
as freighters makes the problem one of increasing difficulty. The
wages in the mines are good, varying according to locality. In
the Sierra day labor can be had for about half a _sol_, which is
equivalent to 25 cents gold. The American syndicate, in building
the Cerro de Pasco Railway, paid the natives a _sol_, or 50 cents,
and got satisfactory returns. But for the mining development of the
future miners from Spain and Italy should supply the deficiency
that will exist so long as sole reliance is placed on the natives.
They may come in considerable numbers.
Irrigation of the region between the Sierra and the coast is
assured, and this is going to furnish the basis for the largest and
earliest increase in population. A portion of this increase should
also come from Italy and Spain and perhaps also from Germany, for
the Germans are highly successful in semi-tropical agriculture.
The Italians have been very successful in Peru in retail trade
and in some of the mechanical employments, but the conditions also
are favorable for them in the agricultural pursuits. The vineyards
in the region around Pisco and Ica seem to afford an especially
inviting field for them. By the time the Panama Canal is open the
big transatlantic liners from Genoa and Naples which now come to
Colon should be bringing a full quota of Italian immigrants through
the waterway to the Peruvian ports.
The government has enacted liberal legislation providing for
immigration and colonization, but it does not follow the theory of
government-aided colonies. Its course is sound. It grants lands to
private enterprises for colonization, and in the industrial plans
which are now a part of its political policy there is a certainty
of an increased population to be drawn from abroad. An old law
authorizes an annual appropriation of $50,000 for encouraging
immigration, and the passage of immigrants may be paid, but this
is the limit of state aid.
Colonization plans by private enterprise received a check a few years
ago, when the Peruvian Corporation abandoned its efforts. Of the
total grant of 2,750,000 acres in the region of the rivers Perene
and Ene and the Chanchamayo valley, more than a million acres were
set aside for immediate peopling. The corporation began to attract
settlers to the lands, but the movement was feeble and was not
sustained. The complaint made was that instead of inviting fresh
and virile European immigration it drew the dregs from neighboring
countries, taking colonists who had proven their own worthlessness
in the places where they first settled. The experiment was still
another instance of ignorant London directors and incompetent
management.
Many of the earlier colonists in this district went into
coffee-growing with fair success. The climate, the soil, the slopes
of the Cordilleras, all were favorable. Good crops were raised and
found a profitable market. But this market was obtained at the
period when Brazil was changing from the Empire to the Republic, and
when through that and subsequent disturbances the supply to meet
the world’s demand was interrupted. When the Brazilian crop became
abnormal in its productiveness, weighting the price down below the
level of profitable production, coffee-raising no longer was business
for the colonists in Peru. They themselves did not clearly perceive
the cause of their distress. Many of them, instead of turning to
other products, got discouraged and went away. But merely because
of this failure there is no ground to believe that in the future
colonizing movements in this region, intelligently directed by the
Peruvian Corporation or by any private company, will not succeed.
The climatic and soil conditions are inviting, and the only question
is the means of utilizing these gifts of Nature. The entire Pichis
zone is favorable to European colonization. When it is connected
with the Pacific by the extension of the present railroad to Port
Bermudez or some other river point, its colonization capabilities
will be appreciated; for the lack of access has been the drawback.
This rich region lies within 300 miles of the coast.
A similar observation may be made concerning the northern districts.
From any one of half a dozen little seaports the valleys of the
Marañon and its tributaries are less than 200 miles distant. But
the Continental Divide lies between, and this mass of mountain wall
must be pierced by the railroad. Once this is done, the immigration
possibilities of northern Peru will develop rapidly.
For all this there must be faith, and resolution, and definite
measures. It is not a question of settling a new land, for Peru
is an old, old country. Nor is it the problem of reconstructing
the ancient civilization of the Incas, or the civilization which
twentieth-century iconoclastic antiquarians charge the Incas with
stealing from other races. In its economic aspect the matter is
simply one of getting more people into a country which has plenty
of room for them.
During a stay in Lima I spent an afternoon with the Rev. Dr. Wood,
a Methodist Episcopal missionary, who had been in South America for
thirty years, and who had made the most discriminating study of
social conditions of any Yankee living in the Andes. I came away
permeated with some of Dr. Wood’s enthusiasm and, I hope, with some
of his devout faith. The South American continent, he declared, had
been held in reserve by Providence for a time when the population of
other countries would press for room and for means of subsistence.
The present Peru, he thought, was easily capable of supporting
20,000,000 inhabitants in conditions of life and comfort similar
to those enjoyed by dwellers in the Alps and the Apennines.
But if, in the years pending the completion of the Panama Canal,
Peru by natural increase and by immigration can add 1,000,000 to
her population, that modest addition will determine her industrial
future. A million more people during the next ten years will mean
an extra 2,000,000 in the decade that follows. The horizon does
not need to be extended farther.