THE CAPITAL OF PERU
I THINK I have already said that I had an uncle in Peru whom I was
anxious to find during my stay in Callao. In the little time that the
smuggling had left me for my own leisure, I had been fortunate enough
to find him, and on the following day, when he came to see me, he told
me that he could find me plenty of work in Lima, if I cared to leave
the ship. This was just the chance I wanted, as I was always ready for
adventure or change, so I did not take long to make up my mind to run
away the first opportunity that should come across my path.
The next day being Sunday I rowed the captain ashore in the morning,
and he ordered me to come for him at ten that night. He was going to
spend the day at the agent’s, and in the afternoon they were all going
to see a Spanish bull fight, a sight which our captain was very partial
to. I returned to the ship, informed the mate of the time the captain
wanted the boat, and then went to my berth. As I was generally up half
the night, I was allowed to rest and sleep during the afternoon, so
I knew no remarks would be passed at my being in my berth. Here I
gathered a few things together and made them into a small bundle, got
what money I possessed, and then watched my opportunity and placed
everything in the boat all ready. At nine o’clock I got into the boat
and started to row towards the landing-place without a single regret
at leaving the “Stormy Petrel.” When I got well away from the ship,
I altered my course and pulled over towards the beach just off the
Pacific S.S. Company’s Engine Works. Here I got out of the boat, threw
one oar overboard, and pushing the boat out into the bay let her drift
wherever she liked.
Making my way to the railway station I took a ticket for Lima, the
capital. Here I ran a great risk of meeting the captain, but my usual
good luck favoured me again. When I arrived at Lima I at once made my
way to my uncle’s house, and kept in hiding for two weeks. Then he took
me to some friends of his own, who had a place a few miles out of Lima,
there to await the ship’s departure.
A few words here about Peru will, I think, not be amiss, although
it was some time later before I learnt what an interesting place it
was. The name at once brings back to memory the fascinating history
of the Inca kings, of the fabulous wealth of cities paved with gold,
the gorgeous temples, the tropical forests, and the brave exploits of
that great pirate chief Pizarro. It is in itself a remarkable country.
Situated on the western side of the Andes mountains, and bounded on the
north by Eucador, on the east and south by Brazil, and on the west by
the Pacific Ocean, the Andes run north and south, dividing the country
into high and low Peru. Between the mountains and the coast lies Low
Peru, forming an inclined plane from thirty to sixty miles in breadth,
which is mostly a sandy barren desert, owing to the total absence of
rain, and the climate here is very torrid. Above six thousand feet
of altitude vegetation flourishes, and at about ten thousand feet, a
mixture of perpetual spring and autumn prevails, and here there are
frequent showers of rain. At an altitude of fourteen thousand feet the
snow line is reached, and there the snow is to be seen all the year
round, although the successive summers’ heat do their best to melt
both ice and snow. The only animals I ever met with were the llama,
guanaco, vicuna, and the alpaca, but in the woods there are the jaguar,
puma and several other wild animals. In the woods, up the mountains
are found many very beautiful birds, and the rivers swarm with fish
and alligators. In the warmer regions, up on the mountains where there
is rain there is also an abundance of maize, cotton, indigo, yams,
cocoa, tobacco, some very fine fruits, bark, vanilla sarsaparilla,
and many other things. The mountainous districts are rich in metals,
gold, silver, copper, lead ore, white silver ore, and in places
virgin silver in threads, tin, quicksilver, coal and nitrate of soda.
Emeralds and other precious stones are also found, also the stone of
the Incas, a marcasite, capable of the highest polish. When first
discovered by the Spanish, the Peruvians were intellectually far in
advance of any other race on the American continent. They knew the arts
of architecture, sculpture, mining, the working of precious metals and
jewels, they cultivated their land, they were properly clothed, and
had a regular system of government, and both civil and religious laws.
It was in the year 1821 that, tired of the tyranny and intolerance of
Spain, they revolted, and again achieved their independence.
The glamour of those ancient days lingers around the capital of Lima,
but the illusion disappears quickly with a glimpse at the Spanish
capital, its narrow streets paved with cobble stones, its numerous
churches gaudy with coloured plaster and florid carvings.
The only attraction in Lima is found in the Cathedral Plaza. Here the
Gothic cathedral with its façade of innumerable pillars and carved
figures of saints, stands raised on a wide platform. The bronze bells
hung in either tower send forth mellow and sonorous tollings, but the
shadow of decay that lies like a blight over all things in Peru has
laid its hand on this imposing looking structure, and it cannot be
entered for fear the roof should fall in. But Peru has no money to
spare even to repair this, the chief place of worship of the faithful.
The cathedral and the archbishop’s palace take up the whole of the east
side of the Plaza, on the north side are the Viceroy’s Palace, Courts
of Justice and Public Offices, while on the west side are the Town Hall
and City Prison, and on the south side there are large private houses
with stone fronts and massive porticoes. A curious feature of their
domestic architecture are the “miradors” or carved wooden balconies,
projecting over the street from the second story of the houses. From
the seclusion of these lattice woodwork structures, seeing, yet not
seen, the Spanish ladies watch the life in the streets below. During
carnival week Lima is given up to wild revelry for three days and the
“miradors” are put to some curious uses, one being to rain down water
from a jug or basin on to the heads of the passers by. All this gaiety,
however, ends on Shrove Tuesday, and Ash Wednesday sees the churches
filled with black-robed women.
In the centre of the Plaza stands a very ornamental and massive
band-stand, where the town band plays choice selections every evening
from six until ten o’clock. Here all the beauty and talent of the city
gathers, and promenades up and down in the cool piazzas to the strains
of the music. Here the young, dark-eyed Castilian beauties, under
the protection of a black-hooded duenna stroll demurely through the
arcades, the transparency of the lace mantilla heightening the charm of
their liquid eyes, as with coquettish airs and graces they peep from
behind their beautiful fans, flirting with the young hidalgos as they
pass.
I spent three weeks altogether in Lima. The first was given entirely
to roaming about the city. It was, of course, all new, strange and
interesting to me, and I soon found that it was not nearly so large as
it looked, as every transverse street revealed the mountains at their
extremity, and the peaked foothills that fill the plain round the
city. Flagstaffs and crosses seem to be a kind of natural emblem, the
flagstaffs are used for decorating the streets with flags on Sundays
and festivals, and the latter satisfy the superstitious inclinations
of the people, who imagine that the shadow of a cross protects and
blesses the household. Most of the houses are built of wood and adobe,
the mud brick of the country; it is used for the houses, the public
buildings, and the churches; when these are plastered over with mud
plaster, they look like a whitewashed wall left in its natural state,
but it is simply a mud wall. The same material is used for the very
startling coloured fronts of the churches and the interiors, with their
cheap velveteen hangings, glass chandeliers, and gaudy paper flowers
are worthy of the exterior.
The Column of Victory with its handsome bas-relief surrounding the
base, in memory of the repulsed invasion of the Spaniards in 1866 is
worthy of better surroundings than the one storied adobe dwellings
amongst which it stands.
I found the native police a constant source of amusement. Each man
is armed with a side sword and musket, a chair is placed on his beat
for him to sit upon when he is tired, and when on night duty, he sits
and sleeps most of the time, while his wife sits on the ground at his
side. Gangs of British and American seamen play all manner of tricks
upon them, one being to tie them to the chair without their knowing it,
and also if the wife is asleep too they try to fasten her with a rope
to the sleeping husband, then they would steal the muskets from them,
and decamp, and after a while one of the number would return to find
the sleepers awake and trying frantically to get loose and follow the
intruders whose part in the escapade was to start running away as soon
as the policeman caught sight of them. Needless to say they were never
caught.
After a delightful three weeks spent between Lima and some friends who
lived a few miles out, my uncle sent me word that my ship had sailed,
and, as I had enjoyed my holiday, and seen all there was to be seen
in the capital of Peru, and now felt ready for work, he proposed to
introduce me to the officials of the famous Oroya Railway then in
course of construction from Monserrat on the outskirts of Lima, over
the Andes Mountains, through the valley of the River Rimac, and down
the eastern slope to the Indian City of Oroya at the headwaters of the
Amazon. I was delighted, and thanked him most heartily. I said good-bye
to the friends I had been staying with, also to the dark-eyed little
Peruvian signorita, to whose charms my boyish heart had fallen a victim,
and met my uncle at Lima. He at once took me to the superintendent
of the Oroya who engaged me to work on the bridges as a rigger of
scaffolding, etc., and I was told to be ready to go up the mountain on
the following day with a breakdown gang.