Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
PERU IN THE GUANO AGE.
OXFORD:
BY E. PICKARD HALL AND J. H. STACY,
PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
PERU IN THE GUANO AGE
BEING A SHORT
ACCOUNT OF A RECENT VISIT
TO THE
GUANO DEPOSITS
WITH SOME
REFLECTIONS ON THE MONEY THEY HAVE PRODUCED AND THE USES TO
WHICH IT HAS BEEN APPLIED
BY
A. J. DUFFIELD
LONDON
RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen
1877
DEDICATORY LETTER.
Á
Señor Don Juan Espinosa y de Maldonado,
_Estimado y distinguido Amigo mio_:
It would be most pleasant to continue this letter in the language in
which it begins and which you taught me some five and twenty years ago,
but I wish others to read it as well as yourself.
I dedicate this little book to you for several reasons: not because
of our common friendship, extending now over more than a quarter of a
century, nor yet for the confidence which you have reposed in me under
many trying circumstances during that long period, but rather because
you are much interested in the country which the book describes, are
intimately acquainted with all the questions it raises, and more than
all because you have a thorough knowledge of Peru--its people and
history;--because further, it was you who first taught me how to regard
your countrymen, opened my eyes to their good and other qualities, and
because also you know that here I have set down nought in malice, have
said nothing that you do not know to be true, and drawn no inference
from the facts of past times or the doings of living men which you
would not sanction and endorse.
With one exception.
I am quite aware that you do not share in what I have said at page
118, but this is not my own opinion--it is the candidly expressed view
of the leading men of Lima. I know that you have always insisted upon
Peru paying her debts, not merely because you well know that she can
pay quite easily, but also because the effect on the moral life of
the country, if she should prove a defaulter, will be most disastrous.
It is pitiable beyond the power of human expression to find a single
thoughtful Peruvian holding a contrary opinion.
Since the following chapters were written several things have taken
place which have corroborated some of my statements, and fulfilled
more than one of my predictions. As you are aware a public meeting
was held, a month after my departure from Lima, at the Treasurer's
Office; at which were present the Minister of Finance and Commerce,
the Chief Accountant, and many other officers of departments, for the
purpose of receiving a communication from two Englishmen, setting forth
the discovery of fresh guano deposits on the coast, in the province
of Tarapaca. From all that could be gathered these new deposits may
be fairly estimated as containing three million tons of guano. This
confirms what I have said at page 101.
And yet we have heard nothing new from Peru regarding the payment of
her liabilities, nor has any official communication been made by the
Government regarding this important discovery. If General Prado does
not take care he will have his house pulled about his ears. One of
the most interesting revolutions yet to be made in Peru is one in the
interest of its honour and uprightness. If your friend General Montero
appeals to the country in that cause he might immortalize his name and
bring in the New Era. From the little I know of the General, however,
I should say that such a task is too much for him. It requires a man
broad of chest, of constant mind, of unimpeachable honour and absolute
unselfishness to make a revolution of that sort. Still it is a good
cry, and if Prado does not take it up himself he may come to grief when
he least expects it.
By the issue of Mr. Marsh's report from the British Consulate at Callao
you will notice how the Consul confirms what I have said about the
British sailor in Peru. Excessive drinking, licentious living, and
exposure are set forth as the main causes of a deterioration in our
merchant seamen which should attract the notice of Parliament. To send
unseaworthy ships to sea is to bring disgrace on the national name. The
national disgrace of sending unworthy seamen to sea appears to attract
little notice.
The chapter I read to you in MS. on 'Commercial Enterprise in Peru'
I have purposely omitted, as also my report on the riches of its Sea.
It will be time enough to talk of these things when the Chinese get a
firmer footing in the country than they have at present, or when the
Mormons have established themselves there.
Let me ask you to treat with leniency any unintentional wrong thinking
or wrong writing, but anything you discover here to be purposely
vulgar, purposely bad, or unjust, treat it as you would treat the creed
of a Jesuit, or a priest, or any other evil thing.
Believe me to be,
My dear Don Juan,
Your faithful friend and servant,
Q.B.S.M.
A. J. Duffield.
Savile Club,
_February, 1877_.
P. S. Let me publicly thank you for introducing to English readers
the works of RICARDO PALMA, certainly the best writer Peru has
produced, and eminently its first satirist. As you will see, I have
translated one of his _Tradiciones_. Some readers at first sight might
naturally feel inclined to suggest a transposition of the chapters
in the 'Law-suit against God,' or to look upon the second chapter as
altogether irrelevant to the story. But we who are in the secret know
better, and that the official corruption which is there set forth
is intimately connected with the catastrophe which follows, and is
a faithful representation of public life and morals, not only in old
Peru, but also in the Peru of the Guano Age.
_Hasta cada rata._
PERU IN THE GUANO AGE.
CHAPTER I.
Although Peru may boast of its Age of Guano, it has had its Golden
Age. This was before any Spaniard had put his foot in the country, and
when as yet it was called by quite another name. The name of Peru,
which signifies nothing, arose by accident or mistake. It was first
of all spelled Piru, no doubt from Biru, the native name of one of its
rivers. Time and use, which establish so many things, have established
Peru; and it is too late to think of disestablishing it for anything
else: and though it is nothing to boast of, let Peru stand. The country
had its Stone Age, and I have brought for the Cambridge antiquaries a
fair collection of implements of that period, consisting of lancets,
spear-heads, and heads for arrows, exquisitely wrought in flint,
jasper, opal, chalcedony, and other stones. They were all found in
the neighbourhood of the Pisagua river. It is to be regretted that no
material evidence of equal tangibility is forthcoming of the Age of
Gold. This is generally the result of comparison founded on historical
criticism.
In the Golden Age Peru had--
I. A significant name, a well-ordered, fixed, and firm government,
with hereditary rulers. Only one rebellion occurred in twelve reigns,
and only two revolutions are recorded in the whole history of the Inca
Empire.
II. The land was religiously cultivated.
III. There was a perfect system of irrigation, and water was made the
servant and slave of man.
IV. The land was equally divided periodically between the Deity, the
Inca, the nobles, and the people.
V. Strong municipal laws enforced, and an intelligent and vigorous
administration carried out these laws, which provided for cleanliness,
health, and order.
VI. Idleness was punished as a crime; work abounded for all; and no one
could want, much less starve.
VII. No lawsuit could last longer, or its decision be delayed more,
than five days.
VIII. Throughout the land the people everywhere were taught such
industrial arts as were good and useful, and were also trained by a
regular system of bodily exercises for purposes of health, and the
defence of the nation.
IX. Every male at a certain age married, and took upon himself the
duties of citizenship and the responsibilities of a manly life: he
owned his own house and lived in it, and a portion of land fell to him
every year, which was enlarged as his family increased.
X. Great public works were every year built which added to the strength
and glory of the kingdom.
XI. Deleterious occupations or such as were injurious to health were
prohibited.
XII. Gold was used for ornament, sacred vessels of the temple, and
the service of the Inca in his palaces. There is a tradition that this
precious metal signified in their tongue '_Tears of the Sun_.' Whether
this be an ancient or a modern tradition no one can tell us. It may be
not more than three and a half centuries old.
XIII. A man ravishing a virgin was buried alive.
XIV. A man ravishing a virgin of the Sun, that is, one of the vestal
virgins of the Temple, was burnt alive.
XV. It was accounted infamous for a man or woman to wear other people's
clothes, or clothes that were in rags.
XVI. Roads and bridges were among the foremost public works which bound
the vast country together.
XVII. Public granaries, for the storing of corn in case of emergency,
were erected in all parts, and some very out-of-the-way parts of the
kingdom.
XVIII. Woollen and cotton manufactures were brought to great
perfection. Examples of these remain to this day and will bear
comparison with those of our own time.
XIX. A thief suffered the loss of his eyes; and a creature committing
the diabolical act of altering a water-course suffered death.
And to sum up, here is the true confession of Mancio Sierra Lejesama,
one of the first Spanish Conquistadores of Peru, which confession he
attached to his will made in the city of Cuzco on the 15th day of
September, 1589, before one Geronimo Sanches de Quesada, escribano
publico, and which has been preserved to us by Espinosa in his
'People's Dictionary,' art. 'Indio.'
'First of all,' says the dying Lejesama, 'before commencing my will
I declare that I have much desired in all submission to acquaint His
Catholic Majesty, the King Don Philip our Lord, seeing how Catholic and
Christian he is, and how jealous for the service of God our Saviour,
of what touches the discharge of my soul for the great part I took in
the discovery, conquest, and peopling of these kingdoms, when we took
them from those who were their masters, the Incas, who owned and ruled
them as their own kingdoms, and put them under the royal crown. And
His Catholic Majesty shall understand that the said Incas governed
these kingdoms on such wise that in them all there was no thief or
vicious person, nor an idle man, nor a bad or an adulterous woman, [if
such there had been, be sure the Spaniard would have been the first
to find it out,] nor were there allowed among them people of evil
lives: men had their honest and profitable occupations, in all that
pertained to mountain or mine, to the field, the forest, or the home,
as in everything of use all was governed and divided after such sort
that each one knew and held to his own without another interfering
therewith: nor were lawsuits known among them: the affairs of war,
although not few, interfered not with those of traffic, nor yet did
these conflict with those of seed-time and harvest, or with other
matters whatsoever. All things from the greater to the less had their
order, concert, and good management. The Incas were dreaded, obeyed,
and respected by their subjects, for the greatness of their capacity
and the excellence of their rule. It was the same with the captains
and governors of provinces. And as we found command, and strength,
and force to rest in these, so had we to deprive them of these by the
force of arms to subject them to, and press them into, the service of
God our Lord, taking from them not only all command but their means
of life also. And by the permission of God our Lord we were able to
subject this kingdom of many people, and riches, and lords, making
servants of them as now we see. I trust that His Majesty understands
the motive which moves me to this relation, that it is for the purging
of my conscience by the confession of my guilt. We have destroyed
with our evil example people so well governed as these, who were so
far from being inclined to wrongdoing or excess of any sort--both men
and women--that an Indian with a hundred thousand dollars in gold and
silver in his house, would leave it open, or would place a broom, or
small stick across the threshold to signify that the owner was not
within, and with that, as was their custom, no one would enter, nor
take thence a single thing. When they saw us put doors to our houses,
and locks on our doors, they understood that we were afraid of them,
not that they would kill us, but that perhaps they might steal our
things. When they saw that we had thieves among ourselves, and men who
incited their wives and daughters to sin, they held us in low esteem.
So great is the dissoluteness now among these natives, and their
offences against God, owing to the evil example we have set them in all
things, that from doing nothing bad they have all--or nearly all--been
converted in our day into those who can do nothing good. This touches
also His Majesty, who will take care that his conscience has no part in
allowing these things to continue. With this I implore God to pardon
me, Who has moved me to declare these matters, because I am the last
to die of all the discoverers and conquistadores; for it is notorious
that now there exists not one other of their number, but I only either
in this kingdom or out of it, and with that I rest, having done all I
am able for the discharge of my conscience.'
This might be called the epitaph of the Golden Age, written by one who
knew it, and who helped to destroy it.
XX. Hospitality was a passion in that time, and what had been enjoined
and practised as a national duty became a private virtue, procuring
intense happiness in its exercise. Instances of this are on record that
are not equalled in the history of any other people.
Lastly--and these characteristics of our Golden Age have been taken
quite at random and as they have come to my recollection--the name by
which the Incas most delighted themselves in being known was that of
'Lovers of the Poor.' In this Golden Age gunpowder was unknown, and the
people for the most part were vegetarians. Animal food was eaten by the
soldiery and the labouring people only at the great religious feasts.
Fish, and the flesh of alpacas, were confined to the Incas and the
nobles. This will account for many things which subsequently occurred,
notably their easy conquest by the fire- and meat-eating Spaniard.
* * * * *
Let us now write down our comparisons of the Age of Guano with the Age
of Gold.
I. The name and form of Government, it is true, are reduced to writing,
but the Government is, and has been from the commencement of its
Republican history, as unstable as water. On the close of the Guano
Age things would appear to be improving: President Pardo has completed
the whole term of his presidential life, and this is only the second
instance of a Peruvian Republican President having done so. It would be
difficult to reckon up the number of revolutions which have taken place
in the Age of Manure.
II. The land is not cultivated: the things, for the most part, which
are taken to market, are those which grow spontaneously, without art or
industry. The people who supply the Lima market are chiefly Italians,
while the greater part of the land is barren and unproductive. Potatoes
and other vegetables, wheat and barley, flour, fruits, and beef, all
come from Chile and Equador, but chiefly from the former.
III. The great water-courses and system of irrigation which marked the
Golden Age are all broken up, and the fructifying water, once stored
for the use and service of man, first became his master, and then his
relentless tyrant.
IV. The land cannot be said to belong to any one. Certainly not to God.
Even the Church, once a great proprietor and holder of slaves, is as
lazy as the laziest drone in any known hive. Many of the large estates
which flourished in the pre-Guano period have perished for lack of
hands. The sugar plantations are exceptions for the present, but what
will happen to them when the Chinese are all free is very uncertain. It
may even be said to be a source of alarm to many thoughtful persons.
V. Of the municipal laws, which provide for cleanliness, health, and
public order, although great progress has been made in Central Lima,
all that need be said is, that it is a wonder the inhabitants have
survived, and that those who were not killed in last year's revolution
have not been carried off by a plague.
VI. Idleness among the upper classes, i.e. the whole white population,
the descendants of Spain--those who supply the Army and Navy with
officers, the Law with judges, the Church with bishops, and the rich
daughters of sugar-boilers with husbands--idleness among these is the
order of the day, and is punished by no one. Even the gods appear to
take no notice of it, being itself a sort of god, so far as the number
of his worshippers are concerned. To-morrow is the everlasting excuse
for almost everybody, and yesterday has done nothing but light fools to
dusty death; the to-morrow in which the useful and the good are to be
done, never comes.
VII. Going to law is not only an infamous passion in this Guano Age,
it is a means of living. There must be few if any people of substance
in Peru who have not known the bitter curse of the law's delay. I have
known lawsuits of the most vexatious and cruel nature, and which, in
any country where civilisation is not a mere name, could never have
been instituted, last, not five days, but five years, and, alas!
even fifteen years. I have myself tasted the bitterness of the law in
this land, and been very near being lodged in a loathsome jail at the
instance of a miscreant who had it in his power to demand my presence
before a bribe-gorged judge. I only escaped paying heavy toll or
hateful imprisonment by my friends obtaining the removal of the judge.
The second was a gross attempt at extortion, from which I was saved by
accident. Both these lawsuits, of the basest sort, had their origin
in an injustice which is ingrained in the complexion of the people.
The captain and crew of the _Talisman_ could bear testimony to the
difference between the administration of law in the Golden Age and in
the Age of Manure.
VIII. The education of the people has never been seriously attempted,
except in carrying a flimsy old musket. The Indians, who form the
great bulk of the population, do not vote. This would involve a slight
cultivation of the Indian's intellect, and he does not know what might
happen to further embitter his lot if he were to discover to his rulers
that he had a mind. He is perhaps the slyest of animals--more sly than
a fox, more obstinate than an English mule, and as timid as a squirrel.
IX. The marriage law is disgracefully abused and neglected for a
country which boasts that its religion is that of the Holy Roman
Apostolical. Civil marriage is illegal, and ecclesiastical marriage but
little observed, except among the Estratocracia, the sugar-boilers,
and such as mix in European society. The subject is one always
difficult for a traveller to handle. To speak plainly and publicly of
what has been acquired in private on this matter would justly provoke
displeasure and disgust, and would not fail to be misrepresented or
misunderstood. It may, however, be said, that if marriage be a public
virtue, large numbers of the Peruvians of the Manure Age are not
virtuous.
X. Of the great public works in Peru, the chief during this time has
been a penitentiary, and a railway to the moon not yet finished, all
built by foreigners and with English money. Emigration was one of
the most important transactions of the Golden Age. There has been no
serious attempt at promoting either emigration or immigration: the
migration of the native races is absolutely beyond the control of the
government.
XI. Of deleterious occupations and
XII. The use of gold, all that need be said is that each man in Peru
does what he likes in his own eyes, and what is allowed in the most
enlightened land under the sun: and in this regard she sins in the
universal company of the wide world; but the comparison with the Golden
Age is not on that account the less painful.
XIII. Incontinence is general, and the number of illegitimate children
greater than those born in wedlock. The crime punishable by the
terrible death awarded to it in the Golden Age has disappeared, for
reasons which need not be further noticed.
XIV. The scandals of the Temple or the Church have likewise changed in
their character. I have known a bishop of the Peruvian State Church,
sworn to celibacy, whose illegitimate children were more numerous than
the years of his life. I have known a parish priest who had living in
several houses more than thirty children by several women. All Peruvian
ecclesiastics are supposed to live celibate lives, bishops, priests,
monks and nuns; and if they do not, the irregularity is winked at, nor
is public morality shocked, however grossly and notoriously immoral the
lives of these persons may be.
XV. The people for the most part are well dressed, but with the
exception of the indigenous races, all wear ready-made clothing. The
dresses of all classes are ill-made, costly, and vulgar. The coffin in
which a Peruvian of the Guano Period is carried to his last home, is
about the best made suit he ever wears, and the best fitting.
XVI. Of roads and bridges of the present day, it would be amusing to
write if the recollection of those I have passed over was not too
painful. No man not born in an Age of Manure, who has travelled a
thousand miles in the interior of Peru, or for that matter a hundred
leagues, will ever wish to repeat the experiment. Many of these roads
are but ruins of roads, and carry the usual aspect of roads which lead
to ruin.
XVII. There are no public granaries. People live from hand to mouth on
what others grow for them and bring to them.
XVIII. There are no woollen manufactories. All the wool of the alpaca,
the llama, and vicuña is sent to England to be made into things which
the growers of the staple never see, much less wear. No Peruvian of
any social standing has had the pluck or the sense to do anything
towards extending the cultivation of alpaca wool. It is well known
that the produce of this beautiful and docile animal might easily
have been increased, just as the yield of merino wool has increased
in Australia, if only brains and industry had been brought to bear
upon the enterprise; and instead of a yearly income of a few thousand
dollars being derived from this source of national wealth, there might
have been, within the limits of the Age of Guano, a net annual income
of £20,000,000. This incredible statement is made by one who passed
four years of his life in studying the subject.
XIX. As for stealing--not that form of it which comes within the range
of petty larceny, but the wider and more awful range of felony--it may
be safely said, that nearly all public men have steeped themselves to
the neck in this crime, and the common people take to it as easily and
naturally as birds in a garden take to sweet berries. Nor is there
sufficient justice in the country to stamp out the offence. If the
punishment awarded to this crime in the Golden Age had been inflicted
in the Age of Guano, there would be a very limited sale for spectacles
in Lima or the cities of the Peruvian coast, or the towns and cities of
the mountains.
XX. It is delightful to turn to something in Peru that merits unlimited
praise. The Golden Age was noted for its hospitality, not only as a
social virtue practised by the people among themselves, but as extended
to strangers. Pizarro had not been so successful in his conquest of
Peru if he had not been so hospitably treated by the noble lady who
entertained him on his first visit to Tumbez. The exhortation of
Huayna Capac to his subjects to receive the bearded men--whose advent
he announced--as superior beings, has been interpreted as the cause
of the Spaniards' sudden success in a country that was well defended
as well by soldiers as numerous fortresses--'Those words,' exclaimed
an Inca noble some years afterwards, 'those last words of Inca Huayna
Capac were our conquerors.' Among themselves it was the custom to eat
their meals with open doors, and any passer by in need was welcomed
in. Princesses and high-born ladies received visits from the mothers
and daughters of the people, who provided the needle-work that was to
occupy the time of the visit. Among English families of the better sort
it is still a habit for a lady visitor to ask for some needle-work
to do during her visit if it lasts more than a day--a custom that
deserves to be enquired into. The prevalence of a similar custom in
our Golden Age increases its importance. The traveller, especially if
he be an Englishman, who has travelled through modern Peru, even in
the Guano Age, who does not bear a lively recollection of kindness
and open-hearted hospitality, is most certainly to be pitied, if
not avoided. I am quite aware that such persons exist. I have myself
travelled in the saddle more than two thousand miles on less than as
many pence. The story of the impostor Arthur Orton at Melipilla is
a case in point, and if the learned counsel who defended him is in
need of a livelihood which cannot dispense with some of the elegances
and charms of life, he cannot do better than follow the tracks of his
client. I have lived in every kind of house, rancho, posta, cottage,
quinta, and mansion, occupied by the various classes which make up the
population of Peru. I have lived with archbishops and bishops, priests
and monks, merchant princes, senators, judges, generals, miners,
doctors, professional thieves, and widows, and I should be an ingrate
indeed if I did not acknowledge with profound gratitude the kindness,
oftentimes the affection, which I received, the liberality with which
I was entertained, and the freedom I enjoyed. Here I am reminded of
an incident which occurred to me in the south of Spain, and as it will
suit a purpose it could not otherwise serve, let me relate it.
I was employed to take the level of a railway that was to connect the
Roblé with the shores of the Mediterranean. The proposed line passed
through one of the great estates of the Marquis de Blanco, and the
Marquis gave me a letter to his capitaz or overseer, who occupied a
house, the sight of which would have charmed the soul of an artist, on
one of the overhanging cliffs which rose above el Rio Verde. I arrived
late and, after twelve hours hard work beneath an Andalusian sun. I
was well received by the capitaz and his charming wife Doña Carmen,
who with her own hands and in my presence prepared for my supper a
partridge and other delightful things. If the day had been hot, the
night on the highest point of the royal road to Ronda was cold. A
glorious wood fire added to the universal beauty of everything. A
table was spread for me with a snowy diaper cloth. I can see it now--a
bottle of fine wine, most sweet bread, raisins and what not. Just as
my partridge was ready, a clatter of twenty horses' hoofs was heard
in the patio. The capitaz went out to see the new arrivals, who turned
out to be farmers of the district on their way to the horse fair, which
was to be held in Ronda the following day. In came the twenty pilgrims
to Ronda, to whom I was formally introduced, and Doña Carmen set to
work to prepare an enormous _Olla_ for the whole company. My partridge
was not served until the _Olla_ was ready, when we all set to work
and ate our supper in peace and good-will. An hour afterwards, whether
from the effects of the delightful wine--only to be enjoyed in Spain,
the fumes of my own pipe and the cigarettes of the twenty pilgrims,
the labours of the day, or all combined, I fell a nodding: whereupon
the good-natured capitaz enquired if I would not like to throw myself
into bed. On which I rose, and declared with great solemnity that for
my rudeness in having gone to sleep in such worshipful company, I was
ready to throw myself not only into bed but into the river below.
'Doña Carmen,' said the capitaz, 'shall take you to your room.'
And with a general good-night to the pilgrims and a shake of the hand
with the capitaz, away I went in the wake of Doña Carmen.
It was a spacious room, filled with implements of sport, the walls
adorned with heads of deer and other trophies of the gun, and there
were also unmistakeable signs of its being a lady's room.
'Doña Carmen,' I observed in an imperative tone, 'this is your own
room. I am an old traveller, and can sleep in a hay-loft or on the
floor, with my saddle for a pillow. At any rate, I will not sleep here.
I will not turn you out of your own room.'
'And,' she demanded, 'what would the Marquis say if he knew that you
had slept here in the hay-loft or on the floor, with your saddle for a
pillow?'
Other expostulations followed, which were answered with great eloquence
and stately determination, mixed with that grave humour which can no
more be acquired than can be acquired the wearing of a cloak as it is
worn by an ancient hidalgo, or the arrangement of a mantilla as it is
arranged on the head and shoulders of a high-born lady of Granada.
At last, as I caught up my satchel to leave the room, she caught me by
the arm, and nudging me with her elbow, she said with much archness, 'I
am coming back again,' and with that she swept out of the room, leaving
me no longer with my eyes half closed in sleep.
She never came back. Nor did I ever see her again. She never
intended to come back. Those who think so are incapable of making or
understanding a joke, and will never be able to appreciate the uncommon
wit and humour of Spanish women. That there are shallow fools in the
world who interpret everything they hear in a carnal and literal sense
is the reason why we have so many childish, not to say unpleasant,
stories from Spain and Peru regarding the questionable morals of the
fair sex of those countries. What is meant for fun and drollery is
mistaken for naughtiness, and much that is offered as a spontaneous
natural hospitality has been wilfully or ignorantly misconstrued.
I do not defend the method Doña Carmen took in putting her guest at
his ease, and making him feel at home; I think it was a daring act
of politeness, and it is not pretty to find so much knowledge of the
world in the possession of a woman, however dexterous her use of it
may be. There is, however, another kind of culture besides that which
comes from reading expensive novels, dressing for church or dinner,
and living in a climate somewhat cold, foggy, and changeable. The
ladies of Peru are beautiful, natural, very intelligent, and fond of
living an unconstrained life. Their climate is provocative of freedom,
ease, and delightful idleness. Their fair speech and delightful wit
partake of these characteristics. It is born of these. It can be
misinterpreted--but only by those who know not their language, and do
not respect their ways.
A common source of error on the subject of Peruvian hospitality
arises from the fact that in Lima, for example, a foreigner, even an
Englishman, is rarely or never invited to dine with a native family.
With us, if we meet a man in Bond Street, or anywhere on the wing, whom
we have not seen for a year, we ask him to come and take pot-luck with
us, and if he is a foreigner he generally does--and notwithstanding
the detestable anxiety of our wives, our pot-luck dinners are the best
dinners that we give. What is lacking in the mutton we can and often
do make up with the bottle or the pipe. This is the kind of thing we
expect in return when we visit Lima and pick up a man who has thus
dined with us at home. But the thing is impossible. In Lima a married
man dines with his grandmother, his wife's grandmother, his wife's
father and mother, together with his wife and the children, whom the
old people love to spoil with sugar-plums. The ladies are only half
dressed, the service is somewhat slatternly, the dishes, although
excellent in their way, are such as do not please the weak stomachs
of benighted Englishmen, much less the French, who have not made the
acquaintance of the puchero, the ajijaco, or the omnipresent dulces. In
short, a stranger at a Peruvian family dinner, unexpected and without
a formal preparation, would be as acceptable as a dog at Mass. And
when an Englishman is invited to one of these houses he never forgets
the things done in his honour--the loads of dishes--the floods of
wine--the magnificent dresses of the ladies--the elaborate display of
everything;--and oh! the stately coldness, the searching of dark eyes,
and the awful sense of responsibility which rests on the being for
whom all this has been done, and who is the solitary cause of it all.
He never accepts another invitation. And yet the people have strained
every nerve to please him; they have made themselves ill, have spent
an awful sum of money, and less and less believe in dining a man as the
most perfect form of showing him their respect or esteem.
But out of Lima, in El Campo--the country--where everybody is free as
the air, everything is changed, everybody is happy, nothing goes wrong.
The abundance is glorious, the ease and liberty delightful; there is
nothing to equal it in the riding, dancing, eating, drinking, laughing,
sleeping, dreaming, card-playing, smoking, joking world.
El Señor Paz Soldan, in his 'Historia del Peru Independiente,' says:
'Peru, essentially hospitable, admitted into her bosom from the first
days of her independence thousands of foreigners, to whom she extended
not only the same fellowship she afforded her own children, but such
was the goodness of the country that she considered these new comers
as illustrious personages. Men who in their native country had never
been anything but domestic servants, or waiters in a restaurant,
among whom there might perhaps be numbered one or two who, by their
superior ability, might, after the lapse of twenty years, come to be
master tailors or shop-men, have gained fortunes in Peru all at once,
have won the hand of ladies of fortune, birth, riches, and social
distinction. Those who have entered the army or navy have quickly risen
to the highest posts. If they devote themselves to business, at once
they become capitalists; and in civil and political appointments the
foreigner is hardly to be distinguished from the native. The first
decrees ever issued gave every protection and preference to foreigners
resident in the country. They have the same right to the protection of
the laws as Peruvians, without exception of persons, becoming of course
bound by the same laws, to bear the same burdens, and in proportion
to their fortunes to share in contributing to the income of the
State.... Such as have any knowledge of science, or special industry,
or are desirous of establishing houses of business, can reside in
perfect freedom, and have given to them letters of citizenship. He
who establishes a new industry, or invents a useful machine hitherto
unknown in Peru, is exempt for a whole year from paying any taxes. If
necessary, the Government will supply him with funds to carry on his
art; and it will give free land to agriculturists. And yet, strange
to say, and more painful to confess, many of these foreigners have
been the cause of serious difficulties to the country, plunging it
into conflicts which more or less have taken the gilt off the national
honour. They have wished for themselves certain distinct national
laws. They have thought themselves entitled to break whatever laws they
pleased, and when the penalty has been enforced they have applied to
their Governments, who have always judged the question in an aspect the
most unfavourable to the honour and interest of Peru.'
As regards this hospitality given to English tailors and tailors' sons
by Peru, it is quite true; true is it that they have married the rich
daughters of ancient families, and made marvellous progress in all
things that distinguished Dives from Lazarus. Men who would never have
been anything but lackeys in their own country have become masters of
lands and money in Peru. It is all true. Without wishing to disparage
my own countrymen, and still less my countrywomen, I am bound to
confess that the Peruvians have derived very little edification from
their presence and example. Within the Guano Age a British minister has
been shot at his own table in Lima while dining with his mistress. The
captain of an English man-of-war lying in Callao was murdered in the
outskirts of Lima while on a drunken spree: the murderers in both cases
never being brought to justice.
The English merchants were men noted for neither moral nor intellectual
capacity, utterly innocent of any culture, or regard for it; of no
manners or good customs that could reflect honour on the English name,
and who gained fortunes after such fashion as only the practices of
a corrupt government could sanction or connive at. Few English ladies
have ever been permanently resident in Lima. It has been visited by one
or two showy examples of the money-monger class; but the Lima people
have not had the opportunity of knowing by actual contact in their
own country the gentry of England. This has been a disadvantage to us
and to them of the greatest magnitude: for while we have accepted the
hospitality of Peru, we have not returned it in a manner worthy of the
English name.
Nor can it be said that English travellers who have written on Peru
make any very great figure in the cause of truth and honesty; whilst
the amount of literary pilfering has been almost as notorious as that
of the pillage of the public treasury by native officers of state.
The commanders and petty officers of the Steam Navigation Company in
the Pacific come more in contact with the better class of Peruvians
than any other portion of the English community. Among these numerous
officers there are a few to be met with who can speak grammatical
English. No doubt, grammar to a sailor is an irksome thing, at any rate
it is a thing of minor importance, and we rather like our sailors to
be free of everything except their courage, their gentleness, their
love of truth, and, above all, their glorious self-abnegation. But it
is a pitiable sight to see a British tar with lavender kid-gloves on
his fists, Havannah cigars in his great mouth, widened by an early
love for loud oaths, rings on his fingers, and other apings of the
fine gentleman; and it is disgusting to see him dressed in an authority
he knows not how to adorn, and placed in a position which he can only
degrade. Yet these British tars are looked up to as English gentlemen,
and, what is more, as English captains; and not a few Peruvians come
to the natural conclusion that it is no great thing to be an English
gentleman after all.
It is very grievous to make these remarks; justice demands, however,
that if we would criticise the Peruvians from an English standpoint,
we should take into consideration the English example which has been
placed before them during all the years of an Age of Guano.
An English sailor in every part of the commercial world which he visits
is too often a disgrace to himself and a dishonour to his country.
But in Peru he is a standing disgrace to humanity. When on shore, if
he is not drunk, he is kicking up a row. His language is foul, his
manners brutal, his associates the off-scouring of the people, and
his appearance that of a wild beast. We have of late been turning our
attention to unseaworthy ships, and the amount of wise and unwise talk
that this important subject has evoked has been great and surprising.
It is a pity that no one has thought it necessary to take up the
subject of the unworthy sailor, which should include not only the
ignorant, drunken, and grossly depraved seaman, but the oftentimes
illiterate, ill-conditioned, and brutal creature called a captain,
who commands him. There are many considerations why the captain
of a British ship should be a man of good character, and there are
imperative reasons why he should be compelled to earn a certificate of
good conduct, as well as a certificate of proficiency in the science of
navigation. The ability to represent the country whose flag he carries,
as a man well-instructed and of good manners, is not the least of those
reasons.
I recently had the opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with
nearly five hundred captains of merchant ships in the Pacific. I am
ashamed to confess that the French, the Italian, the North American,
and the Swede were everyway superior men to the English captains.
There were exceptions of course; the superiority was not in physical
force, but in intelligence, in manners, in the cleanliness in which
they lived, and the sobriety of their lives. If the Pabellon de Pica
may be compared to a pig-stye, the British sailors who frequent its
strand may be likened unto swine. Indeed, it is an insult to that
filth-investigating but sober brute to compare him with a being who at
certain times is at once a madman, a drunkard, and not infrequently a
murderer. It is not easy to escape the conviction that captains such
as these must be of use to their employers, and are needed for purposes
for which ordinary criminals would be unfitted. At the Pabellon de Pica
a choice selection of these British worthies may be seen daily getting
drunk on smuggled beer, winding up with smuggled brandy, wallowing
among the filthiest filth of that foul concourse of filthy inhuman
beings, a detestable example to all who witness it; and a living
ensample of what England now is to a guano-selling people.
All this has come of our trying to do some justice to the Peruvians,
and no doubt it will become us as quickly as possible to attend to the
mote which is in our own eye.
It should likewise be borne in mind that the Peruvians have
suffered the greatest indignities at the hands of successive British
Governments. Claims for money of the most vexatious, frivolous and
irritating nature have been pressed upon Peru with an arrogance
equal only to their ridiculous extravagance. When at last, with great
difficulty, our Government has been induced to submit one of these
claims to arbitration, judgment has invariably been given against
us--as it only could, or ought to have been given.
This chapter should not be closed without noticing the fact that
for nearly fifty years the English have had their own burying-place
at Bella Vista, which is midway between Lima and Callao, and their
own church and officiating chaplain. The Jews likewise have their
synagogue, the Freemasons their lodges, the Chinese their temples;
and although liberty of worship is not the law of the land, the
utmost toleration in religious matters exists. The women of Lima, who
have retained the old religion with ten times more firmness than the
men, are the sole opponents of all religious reforms in the Peruvian
Constitution. And because it is the women who stand in front of their
Church, guarding it with their lives, let us have some respect for
them. They are a powerful and determined body, as courageous as they
are beautiful, which is saying much. In times of great excitement
they will take part in the parliamentary debates! Not, indeed, in
a parliamentary and constitutional manner, but in a manner quite
effectual. These fair champions of their Church, when liberty of
worship, or liberty of teaching, or any question that touches the Roman
Catholic faith is being debated in the assembly, proceed thither in the
tapada attire, with only one eye visible, and from the Ladies' Gallery
will throw handfuls of grass to a speaker--intimating thereby his
relationship to one of our domestic quadrupeds--or garlands of tinsel,
just as it pleases them, and as the words of the speaker are for or
against their cause. Our own House of Commons should take knowledge of
this, and pause before they remove the lattice work from before their
Ladies' Gallery!