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BLACKWOOD'S
Edinburgh
MAGAZINE.
VOL. LX.
JULY-DECEMBER, 1846.
[Illustration]
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH
AND
37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
1846
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BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
No. CCCLXIX. JULY, 1846. VOL. LX
CONTENTS.
PERU, 1
LETTERS ON ENGLISH HEXAMETERS. LETTER I., 19
MARLBOROUGH'S DISPATCHES. 1708-1709, 22
THE AMERICANS AND THE ABORIGINES. PART THE LAST, 45
THE DEATH OF ZUMALACARREGUI, 56
NEW SCOTTISH PLAYS AND POEMS, 62
ELINOR TRAVIS. CHAPTER THE SECOND, 83
MORE ROGUES IN OUTLINE, 101
THE LAST RECOLLECTIONS OF NAPOLEON, 110
EDINBURGH:
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;
AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
_To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._
SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.
PERU.[1]
A clever book of travels, over ground comparatively untrodden, is in
these days a welcome rarity. No dearth is there of vapid narratives by
deluded persons, who, having leisure to travel, think they must also
have wit to write: with these we have long been surfeited, and
heartily grateful do we feel to the man who strikes out a new track,
follows it observantly, and gives to the world, in pleasant and
instructive form, the result of his observations. Such a traveller we
have had the good fortune to meet with, and now present to our
readers.
We take it that no portion of the globe's surface, of equal extent,
and comprising an equal number of civilized, or at least
semi-civilized, states, is less known to the mass of Europeans than
the continent of South America. Too distant and dangerous for the
silken tourist, to whom steam-boats and dressing-cases are
indispensable, it does not possess, in a political point of view, that
kind of importance which might induce governments to stimulate its
exploration. As a nest of mushroom republics, continually fighting
with each other and revolutionizing themselves--a land where
throat-cutting is a popular pastime, and earthquakes, fevers more or
less yellow, and vermin rather more than less venomous, are amongst
the indigenous comforts of the soil--it is notorious, and has been
pretty generally avoided. Braving these dangers and disagreeables, a
German of high reputation as a naturalist and man of letters, has
devoted four years of a life valuable to science to a residence and
travels in the most interesting district of South America; the ancient
empire of the Incas, the scene of the conquests and cruelties of
Francisco Pizarro.
"The scientific results of my travels," says Dr Tschudi in his brief
preface, "are recorded partly in my _Investigation of the Fauna
Peruana_[2] and partly in appropriate periodicals: the following
volumes are an attempt to satisfy the claim which an enlightened
public may justly make on the man who visits a country in reality but
little known."
We congratulate the doctor on the good success of his attempt. The
public, whether of Germany or of any other country into whose language
his book may be translated, will be difficult indeed if they desire a
better account of Peru than he has given them.
Bound for the port of Callao, the ship Edmond, in which Dr Tschudi
sailed from Havre-de-Grace, was driven by storms to the coast of
Chili, and first cast anchor in the bay of San Carlos, on the island
of Chiloe. Although by no means devoid of interest, we shall pass over
his account of that island, which is thinly peopled, of small
fertility, and cursed with an execrable climate; and accompany him to
Valparaiso, his next halting place. There he found much bustle and
movement. Chili was at war with the confederation of Peru and Bolivia,
and an expedition was fitting out in all haste. Sundry decrees of the
Peruvian Protector, Santa Cruz, had excited the ire of the Chilians,
especially one diminishing the harbour dues on vessels arriving direct
from Europe and discharging their cargoes in a Peruvian port. This had
damaged the commerce of Chili; and already one army under General
Blanco had been landed on the Peruvian coast to revenge the injury. It
had signally failed in its object. Outmanoeuvred and surrounded, it was
taken prisoner to a man. On this occasion the behaviour of Santa Cruz
was generous almost to quixotism. He sent back the soldiers to their
country, and actually paid for the cavalry horses, which he kept. The
Chilian government showed little gratitude for this chivalrous
conduct. The treaty of peace concluded by Blanco was not ratified; but
a second armament, far more powerful than the first, was got ready and
shipped from Valparaiso during Dr Tschudi's stay in that port. His
account of the Chilian army and navy is not very favourable. His ship
had hardly anchored when several officers of the land forces came on
board, and inquired if there were any swords to be sold, as they and
their comrades were for the most part totally unprovided with such
weapons. Swords formed no part of the cargo of the Edmond, but one of
the ship's company, acquainted, perhaps, from previous experience,
with the wants of these South American warriors, had brought out an
assortment as a private spec., and amongst them was a sort of
falchion, about five feet long, which had belonged to a cuirassier of
Napoleon's guard. The officer who bought this weapon was a puny
half-cast lad, who could hardly lift it with both hands, but who
nevertheless opined that, in case of a charge, it would play the devil
amongst the Peruvians. "Ten months later," says Dr Tschudi, "I met
this hero on the march, amongst the mountains of Peru. He had girded
on a little dirk, scarce larger than a toothpick, and behind him came
a strapping negro, laden with the falchion. I could not help inquiring
whether the latter arm had done much mischief in the then recent
battle of Yungay, and he was honest enough to confess that he had not
used it, finding it rather too heavy." The Chilian fleet, twenty-seven
transports and nine men-of-war, was, with one or two exceptions, in
bad condition; short of guns and hands, and manned in great part by
sailors who had run from English, French, or North American ships. The
officers were nearly all English. The shipment of the horses was
conducted in the most clumsy manner: many were strangled in hoisting
them up, others fell out of the slings and were drowned, and those
that were embarked were so badly cared for, that each morning previous
to the sailing of the fleet, their carcasses were thrown overboard by
dozens. The Chilian troops had no stomach for the campaign, and, in
great part, had to be embarked by force. "I stood on the landing
place," writes the doctor, "when the Santiago battalion went on board.
Ill uniformed, and bound two and two with cords, the soldiers were
actually driven into the boats." With such an army, what besides
defeat and disaster could be expected? But treachery and discord were
at work in Peru, and success awaited the reluctant invaders.
With unpardonable imprudence the captain of the Edmond had manifested
an intention of selling his ship to the Peruvians to be converted into
a man-of-war. A Yankee captain was suspected of a similar design; and
the consequence was an embargo laid upon all ships in the port of
Valparaiso, until such time as the Chilian army might be supposed to
have reached its destination and struck the first blow. A delay of
five-and-forty days was the consequence, particularly wearisome to Dr
Tschudi, as he was unable to absent himself for more than twenty-four
hours from the town, lest the embargo should be suddenly raised and
the ship sail without him. He found few resources in Valparaiso, whose
population, especially the numerous foreigners, have their time fully
occupied by commercial pursuits. The town itself, closely built and
dirty, is divided by _quebradas_ or ravines into three parts,
extending along the side of a hill, and designated by the sailors as
foretop, maintop, and mizentop. These quebradas, close to whose edge
run the badly lighted streets, are particularly dangerous in the
winter nights; and many a sailor, on shore for a "spree," finds his
grave in them. The police is good, better probably than any other
South American town; and although assassinations occasionally occur,
the perpetrators rarely escape. One curious institution is the
travelling house of correction, which consists of waggons, not unlike
those in which menagerie keepers convey their beasts. Each of these
contains sleeping accommodation for eight or ten criminals. Behind
stands a sentry, and in front of some of them is a sort of kitchen.
The prisoners draw the waggons themselves; and as they for the most
part work upon the roads, often at some distance from the city, there
is an evident gain thus in their conveying their dwelling with them.
The plan answers well in a country where there is, properly speaking,
no winter.
A common article of sale on the Valparaiso market is live condors,
which are taken in traps. A fine specimen is worth a dollar and a
half. In one court-yard, Dr Tschudi saw eight of them, fettered after
a peculiar fashion. A long narrow strip of untanned leather was run
through their nostrils, tied tight, and the other end fastened to a
post fixed in the ground. This allowed the birds liberty to move about
in a tolerably large circle, but as soon as they attempted to fly,
they were brought down by the head. Their voracity is prodigious. One
of them ate eighteen pounds of meat in the course of a day, without at
all impairing his appetite for the next morning's breakfast. Dr
Tschudi measured one, and found it fourteen English feet from tip to
tip of the wings.
Most joyfully did our traveller hail the arrival of the long-looked
for permission to sail. With a favouring breeze from the east, the
Edmond soon made the islands of Juan Fernandez, and Dr Tschudi was
indulging in pleasant recollections of Alexander Selkirk, Defoe, and
Robinson Crusoe, when the cry "a man overboard" startled him from his
reverie. Over went the hen-coops and empty casks; the ship was brought
to, and a boat lowered. It was high time, for a shark had approached
the swimmer, who defended himself with remarkable courage and presence
of mind, striking out with his fists at his voracious pursuer. So
unequal a combat could not last long, and the lookers-on thought him
lost, for the shark had already seized his leg, when the boat came up;
a rain of blows from oars and boat-hooks forced the monster to let go
his hold, and the sailor was snatched, it might truly be said, from
the jaws of death. His wounds, though deep, were not dangerous, and in
a few weeks he was convalescent. Without other incident worthy of
note, Dr Tschudi arrived in the bay of Callao. There the first news he
heard was that the Chilians had effected a landing, taken Lima by
storm, and were then besieging Callao. This magnificent fort, the last
place in South America that had held out for the Spaniards, and which
General Rodil defended for nearly eighteen months against the
patriots, had since been in great measure dismantled, and
three-fourths of the guns sold. Those that remained were now
wretchedly served by the Peruvians, whilst the fire of the besiegers,
on the other hand, did considerable damage. The siege, however, was
pushed nothing like so vigorously as it had been by the patriots. Both
the land and sea forces were too small. To the latter the Peruvians
had unfortunately no fleet to oppose. Several men-of-war had been
treacherously taken from them by the Chilians in time of peace, and
the only two remaining were sunk upon the approach of the enemy.
"One Sunday afternoon," says Dr Tschudi, "the Chilian brig-of-war,
Colocolo, sailed close in under the walls of the fort, and threw in a
few balls. The batteries immediately returned the fire with every gun
they could bring to bear; but all their shots went too high, and fell
amongst the merchantmen and other neutral vessels. Meanwhile the
Colocolo sailed to and fro in derision of the batteries. At last the
French commodore, seeing the danger of the merchant ships, sent a boat
to the fort, menacing them with a broadside if they did not instantly
cease firing. This the garrison were compelled to do, and to submit
patiently to the insults of the Chilians. Another instance of the
great prejudice which the vicinity of neutral shipping may be to
besieged or besiegers, was witnessed on the night of the 5th November
1820, in the bay of Callao, when Lord Cochrane and Captain Guise, with
a hundred and fifty men, boarded the Spanish forty-four gun corvette
Esmeralda. Between the Esmeralda and the fort lay a North American
frigate, the Macedonia, which completely hindered the castle from
covering the corvette with its guns. So enraged were the garrison at
this, that the next morning an officer of the Macedonia was murdered
with his whole boat's crew, the very instant they set foot on shore."
We shall not accompany Dr Tschudi through his "fragment of the modern
history of Peru;" for although lucid and interesting, it might become
less so in the compressed form which we should necessarily have to
adopt. We find at one time six self-styled presidents of Peru--each
with his share of partizans, more or less numerous, and with a force
at his command varying from one to five thousand men--oppressing the
people, levying contributions, shooting and banishing the adherents of
his five rivals. Let us examine the probable causes of such a state of
things, of the revolutions and rebellions which have now lasted for
twenty years--since the birth of the republic, in fact--and which must
finally, if a check be not put to them, bring about the depopulation
and total ruin of Peru. These causes Dr Tschudi finds in the want of
honour and common honesty exhibited by the majority of the Peruvian
officers. With the army all the revolutions have begun. As soon as an
officer reaches the rank of colonel, and if he can only reckon upon
the adherence of some fifteen hundred or two thousand soldiers, he
begins to think of deposing the president and ruling in his stead. In
so doing, he is actuated by avarice rather than by ambition. During
their short-lived power these dictators levy enormous contributions,
of which they pocket the greater part, and let the soldiers want.
After a while they abandon the helm of government, either voluntarily
or by compulsion, and take with them their ill-gotten wealth. When the
chiefs set such examples, it cannot be wondered at if, amongst their
inferiors, insubordination and mutiny are the order of the day. These,
however, are most prevalent amongst the subaltern officers, scarcely
ever originating with the soldiers, although their treatment, we are
informed, is inhumanly cruel, and their privations and sufferings of
the severest. There appears to be a great similarity in character
between the Peruvian infantry and the Spanish troops of the present
day; although the former are not of Spanish descent, but consist
chiefly of Indians from the interior and mountainous districts of
Peru. Dr Tschudi describes them as obedient, willing, and courageous;
unparalleled in their endurance of hunger and fatigue, capable of
sustaining for several days together marches of fourteen or sixteen
leagues. The officers, however, must be good, or the men are useless
in the field. If not well led, they throw away their arms and run, and
there is no possibility of rallying them. Moreover, no retrograde
movement must be made, although it be merely as a manoeuvre--the
Indians looking upon it as a signal for flight. The cavalry, for the
most part well mounted, is worthless. It consists of negroes--a race
rarely remarkable for courage. As cruel as they are cowardly, a
defeated foe meets with barbarous treatment at their hands.
With every Peruvian army march nearly as many women as it comprises
men. Unpalatable as such a following would be to European commanders,
it is encouraged and deemed indispensable by Peruvian generals. The
Indian women, as enduring and hardy as their husbands, set out two or
three hours before the troops, and precede them by about the same
time at the halting place. They immediately collect wood for fires,
and prepare the rations, which they carry with them, for their
husbands, sons, and brothers. Without them, in the more desolate and
mountainous districts, the soldiers would sometimes risk starvation.
They are no impediment to the rapid march of a column, which they, on
the contrary, accelerate, by saving the men trouble, and affording
them more time for repose. During a battle they remain in the vicinity
of the troops, but far enough off not to impede their movements; the
fight over, they seek out the wounded and take care of them. The lot
of these poor women, who go by the name of _rabonas_, is any thing but
an enviable one; for besides their many privations and hardships, they
meet with much ill usage at the hands of the soldiery, to which,
however, they submit with incredible patience.
The manner in which most of the officers treat the soldiers is
perfectly inhuman, and the slightest offences meet with terrible
chastisement. Every officer has a right, at least in war time, to
inflict, without a court-martial, any punishment he pleases. Some of
the chiefs are celebrated for the refinement of their cruelties; and
many soldiers prefer death to serving under them. During General
Gamarra's campaign against the Bolivians in 1842, several score of
soldiers sprang one day from the bridge of Oroya, to seek death in the
torrent that flows beneath it. With the scornful cry of "_Adios,
capitan!_" they took the fatal leap, and the next instant lay mangled
and expiring upon the rocks through which the stream forces its way.
"I myself have witnessed," continues Dr Tschudi, "how soldiers who on
the march were unable to keep up with the column, were shot dead upon
the spot. On the road from Tarma to Jauja, a distance of nine leagues,
I passed seven Indians who had thus lost their lives. It is true that
the commandant of that battalion, an officer whose sword was as yet
unstained with any blood save that of his own men, was accustomed to
call out when he saw a soldier straggling from fatigue--'_pegale un
tiro!_' Shoot him down! And the order was forthwith obeyed." When the
troops reach the halting-place, and the _rabonas_ learn the fate of
their sons or husbands, they mournfully retrace their weary footsteps,
and amidst tears and lamentations dig a last resting place for these
victims of military tyranny.
The sick are scarcely better treated. When they can no longer drag
themselves along, they are placed upon mules, and, through the
severest cold or most burning heat, are driven after the army. When
they die, which is most frequently the case, they are dropped at the
next village, to be buried by the alcalde.
"The major of a squadron of light cavalry," says our traveller, "once
asked me, during my stay at Tarma in the year 1842, to take charge for
a few days of his sick men. Of one hundred and twenty soldiers
composing the squadron, sixty-eight lay huddled together in a damp
dark hole, ill of the scarlet fever. Fourteen more were suffering from
the effects of punishment. What a horrible sight they presented! Their
backs were nearly bare of flesh and covered with the most frightful
wounds. A mutiny had taken place, and the major had shot six men, and
caused eighteen others to receive from one hundred to three hundred
lashes, with broad thongs of tapir hide--a punishment so severe, that
some of them died under its infliction. The survivors were compelled
immediately to mount their horses and follow the squadron. For nine
days they rode on in the most terrible agony, and during that time had
to cross the Cordilleras. Several of them refused to have their wounds
dressed; and it was necessary to use force to compel them. One man
implored me with tears to do nothing to improve his state, for that he
longed to die. Before they were nearly cured, a march was ordered, and
they again had to mount and ride. The consequences of this barbarity
were easy to foresee. Before another eight days had elapsed, the
squadron was scarcely sixty men strong."
Turn we from such horrors to a more pleasing theme. "Could I suppose,"
says Dr Tschudi, "that my readers are acquainted with the excellent
description of Lima which Stevenson gives in his Travels in South
America,[3] I would willingly abstain from any detail of the houses,
churches, squares, and streets of that capital. But as that esteemed
work was published twenty years ago, and is now almost entirely
forgotten, I may venture, without danger of repeating things
universally known, to give a sketch of the city of Lima." And
accordingly, the doctor devotes his fifth chapter to an account of the
capital of Peru--an account over which we shall pass lightly, for the
double reason, that our readers may be better acquainted with
Stevenson's work than Dr Tschudi's countrymen can be supposed to be,
and because, if we linger wherever we are tempted so to do in this
very pleasant book, our paper will run out beyond any reasonable
length. We must glance at the cathedral founded by Pizarro, and which
took ninety years in building. Its magnificence and riches are
scarcely to be surpassed by those of any other existing church. The
high altar boasts of seven silver pillars of the Ionic order, twelve
feet high, and a foot and a-half thick; the shrine is seven and a-half
feet high, carved in gold, and studded with countless diamonds and
emeralds; the silver candlesticks weigh one hundred and twelve pounds
each. In connection with the convent of San Pedro, a curious anecdote
is told. It belonged to the Jesuits, and was their "Colegio Maximo;"
it was known to possess immense wealth, for the richest plantations
and finest houses belonged to the order. In the year 1773, the king of
Spain, supported by the famous bull of the 21st June of that year,
"Dominus ac redemptor noster," sent orders to his South American
viceroys to arrest all the Jesuits in one night, ship them off to
Spain, and confiscate their wealth. The greatest secresy was observed,
and no one but the viceroy, and those in his entire confidence, was
supposed to know any thing of the plan. But the same ship which
conveyed to the viceroy the king's instructions in his own
handwriting, brought to the vicar-general of the Jesuits in Lima the
needful instructions from the general of the order at Madrid, to whom
his Majesty's designs had become known. In all silence, and with every
precaution the needful preparations were made; at ten o'clock on the
appointed night, the viceroy summoned his council, and communicated to
them the royal commands. No one was allowed to leave the room till the
blow had been struck. At midnight trusty officers were sent to arrest
the Jesuits, of whose names the viceroy had a list. It was expected
that they would be surprised in their sleep. The patrole knocked at
the door of the San Pedro convent, which was immediately opened. The
commanding officer asked to see the vicar-general, and was forthwith
conducted into the principal hall, where he found the whole of the
order assembled, waiting for him, and ready to depart. Each man had
his portmanteau packed with whatever was necessary for a long voyage.
In all the other convents of Jesuits similar preparations had been
made. The astonishment and vexation of the viceroy may be imagined. He
immediately sent off the whole fraternity to Callao, where ships were
ready to receive them. Inventories were then taken, and search made
for the Jesuits' money. But great was the surprise of the searchers
when instead of the millions which the order was known to possess, but
a few thousand dollars were to be discovered. All the keys, including
that of the strong box, were found, duly ticketed, in the
vicar-general's room. The Jesuits could hardly have taken a better
revenge for the treachery that had been used with their order.
It was supposed that the money was buried, partly in the plantations,
and partly in the convent of San Pedro. An old negro, in the service
of the convent, told how he and one of his comrades had been employed
during several nights in carrying, with bandaged eyes, heavy sacks of
money into the vaults beneath the building. Two Jesuits accompanied
them, and helped them to load and unload their burdens. The researches
hitherto made have been but superficial and imperfect; and Dr Tschudi
opines, with some naïveté, that the hidden hoard may yet be
discovered. We cannot partake his opinion. The cunning Jesuits who
concealed the treasure will have found means to recover it.
Lima was the principal seat of the Inquisition upon the west coast of
South America, and in severity the tribunal was but little surpassed
by that of Madrid itself. The building in which it was held still
exists, but was gutted by the populace when the institution was
abolished by the Cortes, and few traces of its internal arrangements
and murderous engines are now to be seen. More visible ones are yet to
be noticed in the persons of some unfortunate Limeños. "A Spaniard,"
Dr Tschudi tells us, "whose limbs were frightfully distorted, told me,
in reply to my inquiries, that he had fallen into a machine which had
thus mangled him. A few days before his death, however, he confided to
me that in his twenty-fourth year he had been brought before the
tribunal of the Holy Inquisition, and by the most horrible tortures
had been compelled to confess a crime of which he was not guilty. I
still shudder when I remember his crushed and twisted limbs, at the
thoughts of the agonies which the unhappy wretch must have endured."
Now and then, however, the most holy ruffians of the Inquisition met
their match, as the following anecdote serves to show. The Viceroy,
Castel-Fuerte, once expressed, in presence of his confessor, certain
opinions regarding religion which the good monk did not find very
catholic, and which he accordingly, as in duty bound, reported to the
Inquisitors. The latter, confident of their omnipotence, joyfully
seized this opportunity to increase its _prestige_, by proving that
their power extended even to the punishment of a viceroy. But
Castel-Fuerte was not Philip of Spain. At the appointed hour, he
repaired to the Inquisition at the head of his body-guard and of a
company of infantry, with two pieces of artillery, which he caused to
be pointed at the building. Entering the terrible hall, he strode up
to the table, drew out his watch, and laid it before him. "Señores,"
said he, "I am ready to discuss this affair, but for one hour only. If
I am not back by that time, my officers have orders to level this
building with the ground." Astounded at his boldness, the Inquisitors
consulted together for a few moments, and then, with eager politeness,
complimented the resolute Castel-Fuerte out of the house.
Lima was founded by Pizarro in the year 1534, on the 6th of January,
known amongst Roman Catholics as the Day of the Three Kings. From this
latter circumstance it has frequently been called the City of the
Kings. Like some tropical flower, urged into premature bloom and
luxuriance by too rich a soil and too ardent a sun, its decay has been
proportionably rapid, and the capital of Peru is already but the ghost
of its former self. Some idea of its rapid growth may be formed from
the circumstance that a wall built in 1585, only fifty years after its
foundation, includes, with the exception of a small portion of the
northern extremity and the suburb of San Lazaro, the whole of a city
capable of containing one hundred thousand inhabitants, and measuring
ten English miles in circumference. The dates of foundation of the
principal public buildings further confirm the fact of Lima's rapid
arrival at the size as well as the rank of a metropolis. The number of
inhabitants, which in 1810 was estimated at eighty-seven thousand, in
1842 was reduced to fifty-three thousand. It must be observed,
however, that the manner of taking the census is loose and imperfect,
and these numbers may need rectification. At the same time, there can
be no doubt that the population has long been, and still is, daily
diminishing. Of this diminution the causes are various, and may easily
be traced to the physical and political state of the country. Terrible
earthquakes have buried thousands of persons beneath the ruins of
their dwellings; the struggle for independence also swept away its
thousands; and banishment and emigration may further account for the
decrease. Epidemics, the natural consequence of an imperfect police,
and an utter neglect of cleanliness, frequently rage in the city and
its environs; and Dr Tschudi proves, by interesting tables and
statements, that the average excess of deaths over births has been,
since the year 1826, no less than five hundred and fifty annually.
Without entering into all the causes to which this may be attributed,
he pronounces the criminal, but, in Lima, too common, practice of
causing abortion to be one of the most prominent. So large a yearly
decrease menaces the Peruvian capital with a speedy depopulation, and
already whole streets and quarters of the city are desolate,--the
houses falling in,--the gardens run to waste. To the country, not less
than to the town, many of the above facts are applicable; and the once
rich and flourishing region, that extends from the third to the
twenty-second degree of southern latitude, and which, at the time of
its conquest by Pizarro, contained an enormous population, now
possesses but one million four hundred thousand inhabitants.
One can really hardly grieve over the possible extinction of a race
which, according to Dr Tschudi's showing, is in most respects so
utterly worthless and undeserving of sympathy. We refer now more
especially to the white Creoles,[4] who constitute about a third, or
rather more, of the population of Lima, where there are comparatively
few Indians of pure blood, but, on the other hand, a large number of
half-casts of every shade, and about five thousand negroes, chiefly
slaves. These white Creoles, with few exceptions the descendants of
Spaniards, seem to have clung to, and improved upon, the vices of
their progenitors, without inheriting their good qualities. Both
physically and morally they have greatly degenerated. Weak, indolent,
and effeminate, a ten hours' ride seems to them an exploit worthy of
registration in the archives of the country. Sworn foes of any kind of
trouble, if their circumstances compel them to choose an occupation,
they set up some retail shop, which gives them little trouble, and
allows them abundance of leisure to gossip with their neighbours and
smoke their cigar. The richer class pass their time in complete
idleness,--lounging in the streets, visiting their acquaintances, and
occasionally taking a lazy ride to their plantations near the city.
The afternoon is got rid of in the café, the gaming-house, or the
cock-pit--cock-fighting being a darling diversion with the Creoles.
Their education is defective, and the majority of them are ignorant
beyond belief. Dr Tschudi tells us of a Peruvian minister of war who
knew neither the population nor the area of his country, and who
obstinately maintained that Portugal was the eastern boundary of Peru,
and could be reached by land. Another Peruvian, high in place, was
heard to give an exact account of how Frederick the Great had driven
Napoleon out of Russia. There have been some brilliant exceptions to
this general darkness, but the list of them is very brief, and may be
comprised in a few lines. In their habits the Creoles are dirty,
especially at table; and the disgusting custom of spitting is carried
to an extent that would make even a Yankee stare. Their principal good
qualities are abstinence from strong drinks, hospitality to strangers,
and benevolence to the poor.
The ladies of Lima, we learn, are in most respects far superior to the
men. Tall and well made, with regular features, magnificent eyes and
hair, beautiful teeth, and exquisitely small feet, they are spoken of
by Dr Tschudi in terms almost of enthusiasm. Their dress is very
original; one usual part of it being a silk petticoat, made so narrow
at the ankles as to prevent rapid walking, and to render their kneeling
down in church and getting up again a matter of some difficulty.
During the revolution, when Lima was held alternately by the Spaniards
and the Patriots, a party of the former, in order to ascertain the real
sentiments of the Limeños, disguised themselves as Patriots, and
approached the city. As soon as their coming was known, a crowd went
out to meet them, and in the throng were many women with these narrow
_sayas_. When sufficiently near, the disguised Spaniards drew their
swords, and cut right and left amongst the defenceless mob. The men
saved themselves by flight, but the women, impeded by their absurd
petticoats, were for the most part sabred.
The Limeñas are good mothers, but bad housekeepers. Most ladies have
an unnecessarily numerous establishment of servants and slaves, each
of whom does just what he pleases, and is rarely at hand when wanted.
Smoking is pretty general amongst Peruvian women, but is on the
decline rather than the increase. They are passionately fond of music,
and most of them sing and play the guitar or piano, although, for want
of good instruction, their performance is usually but middling. Many
of them are skilled in needle-work; but they rarely occupy themselves
in that manner--never in company or of an evening. "Happy city!"
exclaims Dr Tschudi, thinking doubtless of his own fair countrywomen
and their eternal knitting needles, "where stocking making is unknown
in the social circle!" We do not find, however, that the doctor
supports his assertion of the moral superiority of the Creole ladies
over their _worser_ halves, by any very strong proofs. That assertion,
on the contrary, is followed by the startling admissions, that they
are confirmed gluttons, and ruin their husbands by their love of
dress; that they gamble considerably, and intrigue not a few, favoured
in this latter respect by a certain convenient veil of thick silk,
called a _manto_, which entirely conceals their face, having only a
small triangular loop-hole, "through which a great fiery eye flashes
upon you." We fear that these "flashes," frequently repeated, have a
little dazzled our learned traveller, and induced him to look
leniently on the sins of the lovely Limeñas. We do not otherwise know
how to reconcile the evidence with the eulogium.
Ardent politicians, and endowed with a degree of courage not often
found in their sex, these Peruvian dames have frequently played a
prominent part in revolutions, and by their manoeuvres have even
brought about changes of government. Conspicuous amongst them was Doña
Francisca Subyaga, wife of the former president, Gamarra. When, in
1834, her cowardly and undecided husband was driven out of Lima by the
populace, and stood lamenting and irresolute what to do, Doña
Francisca snatched his sword from his side, put herself at the head of
the troops, and commanded an orderly retreat, the only means by which
to save herself and the remainder of the army. A bystander having
ventured to utter some insolent remark, she rode up to him, and
threatened that when she returned to Lima she would make a pair of
riding-gloves out of his skin. She died in exile a few months later,
or else, when her husband went back to Peru four years afterwards, at
the head of a Chilian army, she would have been likely enough to keep
her word.
So much for the Limeñas, although Dr Tschudi gives us a great deal
more information concerning them; and very amusing this part of his
book is, reminding us considerably of Madame Calderon's delightful
gossip about Mexico. "Lima," says the Spanish proverb, "is a heaven to
women, a purgatory to husbands, and a hell to jackasses." The latter
unfortunate beasts being infamously used by the negroes, who,
especially the liberated ones, are the most cruel and vicious race in
Peru. In this latter category must be included the Zambos and Chinos,
half-casts between negroes and mulattos, and negroes and Indians. We
turn a few pages and come to the carnival; during which, judging from
the account before us, we should imagine that Lima became a hell not
only to ill-treated donkeys, but to man woman, and child. The chief
sport of that festive season consists in sprinkling people with water,
concerning the purity of which the sprinklers are by no means
fastidious. From nearly every balcony, liquids of the most various
and unsavoury description are rained down upon the passers by; at the
street corners stand negroes, who seize upon all who are not of their
own cast, and roll them in the gutter, unless they prefer paying a
certain ransom, in which case they get off with a trifling baptism of
dirty water. Troops of young men force their way into the houses of
their acquaintances and attack the ladies. First they sprinkle them
with scented water, but when that is expended, the pump, and even
worse, is had recourse to, and the sport becomes brutality. The
ladies, with their clothes dripping wet, are chased from room to room,
become heated, and are frequently rendered dangerously ill. Diseases
of the lungs, and other rheumatic complaints, are the invariable
consequences of the carnival, to whose barbarous celebration many fall
victims. Besides this, every year murders occur out of revenge for
this brutal treatment. One favourite trick is to fill a sack with
fragments of glass and earthenware, and fasten it to the balcony by a
cord, the length of which is so calculated, that when let down the
sack hangs at about seven feet from the ground. The sack is kept on
the balcony till somebody passes, and is then suddenly thrown out,
but, thanks to the cord, remains at a safe distance above the heads of
those below. Although it is tolerably well known that in most streets
there is at least one of these infernal machines; yet the sudden shock
and alarm are so great, that persons have been known to fall down
senseless on the spot. Horses are thus made to shy violently, and
frequently throw their riders. The practice is each year forbidden by
the police, but the prohibition is disregarded.
Heaven preserve us from a Lima carnival! If compelled to choose we
should infinitely prefer a campaign against the Chilians, which, we
apprehend, must be mere barrack-yard duty comparatively. No wonder
that the city is becoming depopulated, when the fairer portion of its
inhabitants are annually subjected to such inhuman treatment. In some
respects the Peruvians appear to be perfect barbarians. Their
favourite diversions are of the most cruel order; cock-fighting and
bull-fights--but bull-fights, compared to which, those still in vogue
in Spain are humane exhibitions. Peru is the only country in South
America where this last amusement is kept up as a matter of regular
occurrence. Bull-fighting in Spain may be considered cruel, but in
Peru it becomes a mere torturing of beasts, without honour or credit
to the men opposed to them, who are all negroes and zambos, the very
dregs of the populace. There seems a total want of national character
about the Peruvians. They are bad copies of the Spaniards, whose
failings they imitate and out-herod till they become odious vices. Add
to what has been already shown of their cruel and sensual
propensities, the fact that their habitations, with the exception of
the two rooms in which visits are received, bear more resemblance, for
cleanliness and order, to stables than to human dwellings, and it will
be acknowledged that not a little of the savage seems to have rubbed
off upon the Peruvian.
Ice is a necessary of life in Lima, and is brought from the
Cordilleras, a distance of twenty-eight leagues. So essential in that
ardent climate is this refreshment, that the lack of it for a few days
is sufficient to cause a notable ferment among the people; and in all
revolutions, therefore, the leaders cautiously abstain from applying
the mules used for its carriage, to any other purpose. The Indians hew
the ice out of the glaciers in lumps of six arrobas (150 pounds) each,
and lower it from the mountains by ropes. Other Indians receive and
carry it a couple of leagues to a depot, where it is packed upon
mules. Two lumps form a mule load, and thirty of these loads are sent
daily to Lima, where, by means of frequent relays, they arrive in
eighteen or twenty hours. During the journey the ice loses about the
third of its weight, and what remains is just sufficient to supply the
city for a day. It is chiefly used in making ices, composed for the
most part of milk or pine-apple juice.
The want of good roads, and, in many directions, of any roads at all,
renders carriage travelling in the neighbourhood of Lima exceedingly
difficult and expensive. Only southwards from the city is it possible,
at an enormous cost, to get to a distance of forty leagues. Sixty or
eighty horses are driven by the side of the carriage, and every half
hour fresh ones are harnessed, as the only means of getting the
vehicle through the sand, which is more than a foot deep. A Peruvian,
who was accustomed to send his wife every year on a visit to his
plantation, at thirty-two leagues from Lima, told Dr Tschudi that the
journey there and back cost him fourteen hundred dollars, or somewhere
about three hundred pounds sterling. In former days, during the
brilliant period of the Spanish domination, enormous sums were
frequently given for carriages and mules; and the shoes of the latter,
and tires of the wheels, were often of silver instead of iron. Even at
the present day the Peruvians expend large sums upon the equipments of
their horses, especially upon the stirrups, which are ponderous boxes
carved in wood, and lavishly decorated with silver. A friend of Dr
Tschudi's, a priest from the Sierra, had a pair made, the silver about
which weighed forty pounds! The saddle and bridle were proportionably
magnificent, and the value of the silver employed in the whole
equipment was more than 1500 dollars. Spurs are of enormous size.
According to the old usage they should contain three marks--a pound
and a half--of silver, and be richly chased and ornamented. The rowels
are one and a half to two inches in circumference. Besides the saddle,
bridle, and stirrups above described, the unfortunate Peruvian horses
are oppressed with sheepskin shabrack, saddle-bags, and various other
appliances. "At first," says our traveller, "the Peruvian
horse-trappings appear to a stranger both unwieldy and unserviceable;
but he soon becomes convinced of their suitableness, and even finds
them handsome." _We_ should not, nor, we dare be sworn, do the horses,
whose many good qualities certainly deserve a lighter load and better
treatment than they appear to get. Dr Tschudi speaks highly of their
endurance and speed, although their usual pace is an amble, at which,
however, they will outstrip many horses at full gallop. One variety of
this favourite pace, the _paso portante_, in which the two feet on the
same side of the body are thrown forward at the same time, is
particularly curious, and peculiar to the Peruvian horse. The giraffe
is the only other animal that employs it. In Peru a horse is valued
according to the goodness of his amble. Beauty of form is a secondary
consideration, and the finest trotters are thought nothing of, but are
sold cheap for carriage work. It is considered a serious defect, and
greatly depreciates a horse's value, if he has the habit of flapping
or lashing himself with his tail when spurred, or at any other time.
As this habit is found incurable, the sinews of the tail are sometimes
cut through, which, by crippling it, hinders the obnoxious flapping.
The breaking of a Peruvian horse occupies two years. The
horse-breakers are, for the most part, free negroes, of powerful
build, and they understand their business perfectly, only that they
ill-treat the animals too much, and thereby render them shy. They
teach them all sorts of ambles and manège tricks, one of the latter
consisting in the horse pirouetting upon his hind legs. This they do
when at full gallop, on the slightest signal of the rider. A
well-known Limeño, says Dr Tschudi, rode at full speed up to the city
wall, which is scarcely nine feet broad, leaped upon it, and made his
horse repeatedly perform this _volte_, the fore feet of the beast each
time describing the arc of a circle beyond the edge of the wall. He
performed this feat with every one of his horses. Further on in the
book, the doctor relates an incident that occurred to himself, proving
the more valuable qualities of these horses, their strength, courage,
and endurance. "I had occasion to go from Huacho to Lima," he says,
"and wished to accomplish this journey without halting. The distance
is twenty-eight leagues, (at least eighty-four miles,) and I left
Huacho at two in the afternoon, accompanied by a negro guide. At one
in the morning we reached the river Pasamayo, which had been greatly
swoln by the recent rains, and thundered along with a fearful uproar.
Several travellers were bivouacked upon the shore, waiting for
daylight, and perhaps for the subsiding of the waters. My negro
shrugged his shoulders, and said he had never seen the river so high;
and the travellers agreed with him, and denied the possibility of
crossing. But I had no time to lose, and made up my mind to risk the
passage on my good horse, who had often served me in similar dilemmas.
I cautiously entered the stream, which, at each step, became deeper
and stronger. My horse soon lost his footing, and, in spite of his
violent efforts, was swept down by the force of the current, until we
were both dashed against a rock in the middle of the river. Just then
the moon became clouded, and I could no longer distinguish the group
of trees on the opposite shore, which I had fixed upon to land at.
Luckily my horse had again found a footing; I turned his head, and
plunging into deep water, the noble beast swam back, with incredible
strength, to the bank whence we had come. After some search I found a
more favourable place, and my negro and I succeeded in crossing. Three
travellers, who were anxious to do the same, but did not dare venture
alone, called to us for assistance. I sent back the negro on my own
horse, and one by one he brought them over. Seven times did the good
steed achieve the dangerous passage, and then carried me without a
halt to Lima, where we arrived at the hour of noon."