roads there are none, or next to none. The mules, whose price varies
according to their qualities, from 100 to 1000 dollars, also perform,
in spite of indifferent usage, scanty care, and frequently poor
nourishment, journeys of great length over the arid sandy plains of
Peru. They are also amblers, and often as swift as the horses. Dr
Tschudi tells us of a priest at Piura, who, when he had to read mass
at a sea-port town, fourteen leagues from his residence, mounted, at
six in the morning, a splendid mule belonging to him, and reached his
destination at nine o'clock. At four in the afternoon he set off on
his return, and was home by seven or half-past. The whole of the road,
which led across a sandflat, was gone over at an amble. The priest
refused enormous sums for this beast, which he would on no account
sell. At last Salaverry, then president of Peru, heard of the mule's
extraordinary swiftness, and sent an aide-de-camp to buy it. The
officer met with a refusal; but no sooner had he turned his back, than
the priest, who knew Salaverry's despotic and violent character, cut
off his mule's ears and tail. As he had foreseen, so it happened. The
next morning a sergeant made his appearance, bearing positive orders
to take away the animal in dispute, with or without the owner's
sanction. This was done; but when Salaverry saw the cropped condition
of poor _mulo_, he swore all the oaths in the language, and sent him
back again. The priest had attained his end, for he valued the beast
less for his beauty than for his more solid qualities.
The Peruvian _cuisine_ has, not unnaturally, a considerable similarity
with the Spanish. The puchero or olla is the basis of the dinner, and
of red pepper, capsicums, and other stimulating condiments, abundant
use is made. The Limeños have some extraordinary notions respecting
eating and drinking. They consider that every sort of food is either
heating or cooling, and is opposed to something else. The union in the
stomach of two of these contrary substances is attended, according to
their belief, with the most dangerous consequences, and may even cause
death. A Limeño, who has eaten rice at dinner, omits the customary
glass of water after the sweetmeats, because the two things _se
oponen_, are opposites. To so absurd an extent is this carried, that
servants who have eaten rice refuse to wash afterwards, and the
washer-women never eat it. "I have been asked innumerable times," says
Dr Tschudi, "by persons who had been ordered a foot-bath at night,
whether they might venture to take it, for that they had eaten rice at
dinner!"
The market at Lima was formerly held upon the Plaza Mayor, and was
renowned for the great abundance and variety of the fruits,
vegetables, and flowers brought thither for sale. But it is now on the
Plazuela de la Inquisicion, and its glory has in great measure
departed. Along the sides of the gutters sit the fish and sausage
sellers, who may be seen washing their wares in the filthy stream
before them. The butchers exhibit good meat, but only beef and mutton,
the slaughtering of young beasts being forbidden by law. On the flower
market are sold Lima nosegays--_pucheros de flores_, as they are
called. They are composed of a few specimens of the smaller tropical
fruits, esteemed either for fragrance or beauty, laid upon a banana
leaf, and tastefully intermingled with flowers. The whole is sprinkled
with lavender water and other scents, and is very pretty to look at,
but yields an overpoweringly strong perfume. The price depends on the
rarity of the flowers employed, and some of these pucheros cost seven
or eight dollars. They rank amongst the most acceptable presents that
can be offered to a Peruvian lady.
"The city of earthquakes," would be a far more appropriate name for
Lima, than the city of the kings. On an average of years,
five-and-forty shocks are annually felt, most of which occur in the
latter half of October, in November, December, January, May, and June.
January is the worst month, during which, in many years, scarcely a
day passes without convulsions of this kind. The terrible earthquakes
that play such havoc with the city, come at intervals of forty to
sixty years. Since the west coast of South America is known to
Europeans, the following are the dates:--1586, 1630, 1687, 1713, 1746,
1806; always two in a century. It is greatly to be feared that ten
more years will not elapse without Lima being visited by another of
these awful calamities. Dr Tschudi gives a brief account of the
earthquake of 1746. It was on the 28th of October, St Simon and St
Jude's day, that at 31 minutes past 10 P.M., the earth shook with a
fearful bellowing noise, and in an instant the whole of Lima was a
heap of ruins. Noise, earthquake, and destruction were all the affair
of _one_ moment. The few buildings whose strength resisted the first
shock, were thrown down by a regular horizontal motion of the earth,
which succeeded it and lasted four minutes. Out of more than three
thousand houses only twenty-one remained uninjured. Nearly all the
public buildings were overthrown. At the port of Callao the
destruction was even more complete; for scarcely was the earthquake
over, when the sea arose with a mighty rushing sound, and swallowed up
both town and inhabitants. In an instant five thousand human beings
became the prey of the waters.[5] The Spanish corvette San Fermin,
which lay at anchor in the harbour, was hurled far over the walls of
the fortress, and stranded at more than five hundred yards from the
shore. A cross marks the place where she struck. Three heavily laden
merchantmen met the same fate, and nineteen other vessels foundered.
The town had disappeared, and travellers have related how, even now,
when the sky is bright and the sea still, the houses and churches may
be dimly seen through the transparent waters. Such a tale as this is
scarce worth refuting, seeing that the houses were overturned by the
earthquake before they were overwhelmed by the sea, whose action must
long since have destroyed their every vestige. But the old sailors
along that coast love to tell how on certain days the people are seen
sitting at the doors of their houses, and standing about in the
streets, and how, in the silent watches of the night, a cock has been
heard to crow from out of the depths of the sea.
Meteors frequently appear as forerunners of the earthquakes, amongst
whose consequences may be reckoned the sudden sterilizing of districts
previously fruitful, but which, after one of these convulsions of
nature, refuse for many years to put forth vegetation. No frequency of
repetition diminishes the alarm and horror occasioned by the shocks.
The inhabitants of Lima, although accustomed from their earliest
childhood to the constant recurrence of such phenomena, spring from
their beds at the first quivering of the earth, and with cries of
"misericordia!" rush out of their houses. The European, who knows
nothing of earthquakes but the name, almost wishes for the arrival of
one, and is sometimes inclined to laugh at the terror of the
Peruvians; but when he has once felt a shock, any disposition to make
merry on the subject disappears, and his dread of its recurrence is
even greater than that of the natives. The deeply unpleasant
impression left by an earthquake, is in Lima heightened by the
_plegarias_ or general prayers that succeed it. The shock has no
sooner been felt, than a signal is given from the cathedral, and
during ten minutes all the bells in the town toll with long, measured
strokes to call the inhabitants to their devotions.
A pleasant country to live in! Those who may feel tempted by the
doctor's commendation of the fascinating Limeñas--the delightful,
although not very healthy, climate--the luscious fruits, and gorgeous
flowers, and manifold wonders of Peru--to gird up their loins and
betake themselves thither, will perhaps think twice of it when they
learn that an earthquake might, and probably would, be their welcome.
Descriptions of tropical countries remind us of those pictures of
Italian festivals, where nymph-like damsels and Antinöus-looking
youths are gracefully dancing round grape-laden cars; whilst some fine
old Belisarius of a grandpapa, white bearded and benignant, sits upon
the shaft and smiles upon his descendants. One sees the graceful
forms, the classic features, the bursting grapes, and the bright
sunshine; all of which, like enough, are depicted to the life, but one
sees nothing of the filth, and nastiness, and crawling vermin, that
would awfully shock us in the originals of the picture. Not that we
mean to accuse Dr Tschudi of painting Peru in rose-colour, or
remaining silent as to its defects. He is a conscientious traveller,
and gives us things as he finds them. Besides the great nuisance of
the earthquakes, and the lesser one of dirt, already adverted to;
besides the armies of fleas, which render even the Lima theatre almost
unvisitable--not mild European fleas, but sanguinary Spanish-American
ones; besides the malaria in the swamps, the _piques_, _chinches_,
mosquitos, and other insect tormentors, he favours us with some
agreeable details touching the highwaymen who infest the whole coast
of Peru, but especially the neighbourhood of Lima and Truxillo. They
are usually runaway slaves, _simarrones_, as they are called, or else
free negroes, zambos, and mulattos. Now and then Indians are found
amongst them, who make themselves conspicuous by their cold-blooded
cruelties, and occasionally even a white man takes to this infamous
trade. In 1839 a North American, who had served on board of a
man-of-war, was shot for highway robbery. Shooting, it must be
observed, appears to be the usual way of inflicting capital punishment
in Peru. These banditti, well mounted and armed, are very bold and
numerous, and most of them belong to an extensive and well organised
band, which has branches in various directions. Sometimes they
approach the city in parties of thirty or forty men, and plunder all
travellers who leave it. They prefer attacking foreigners, and usually
spare the richer and more influential Peruvians, which may be one
cause that stronger measures are not adopted against them. Shortly
before Dr Tschudi's departure from Lima, they attacked the feeble
escort of a sum of one hundred thousand dollars, which were on their
way to the mines of Cerro de Pasco, and carried off the money. The
silver bars sent from the mines to the city they allow to pass
unmolested, as being too heavy and cumbersome. The unfortunate
peasants who come in from the mountains on jackasses, with eggs and
other produce, are marked for their particular prey, on account of the
money which they usually carry with them to make purchases in the
town. If no dollars are found on them, they are killed or terribly
maltreated. We pass over some stories of the cruelties exercised by
these bandits. Here is one of another sort. "One night that I found
myself at Chancay," says the doctor, "an Indian told me the following
anecdote: About half a mile from the village, he said, he had been met
by a negro, who approached him with carbine cocked, and ordered him to
halt. The Indian drew a large pistol, and said to the robber, 'You may
thank heaven that this is not loaded, or it would be all over with
you.' Laughing scornfully, the negro rode up and seized the Indian,
who then pulled the trigger of his pistol and shot him dead on the
spot."
When attacked by the police or military, the robbers display desperate
courage in their defence. Sometimes they take shelter in the bush or
thicket, to which, if the space of ground it covers be not too
extensive, the pursuers set fire on all sides; so that the bandits
have no choice but to perish or yield themselves prisoners. In the
latter case their trial is very short, and after they have been left
shut up with a priest for the space of twelve hours, they are brought
out and shot. They are allowed to choose their place of execution, and
must carry thither a small bench or stool upon which they sit down.
Four soldiers stand at a distance of three paces; two aim at the head
and two at the heart. A few years ago a Zambo of great daring was
sentenced to death for robbery, and he demanded to be shot upon the
Plaza de la Inquisicion. He sat down upon his bench--the soldiers
levelled and fired. When the smoke of the discharge blew away, the
Zambo had disappeared. He had watched each movement of the soldiers,
and at the very moment that they laid finger on trigger, had thrown
himself on one side and taken refuge amidst the crowd, some of whom
favoured his escape. In time of war a corps is formed composed chiefly
of these banditti, and of men who have made themselves in some way
obnoxious to the laws. They go by the name of Montoneros, and are
found very useful as spies, skirmishers, despatch-bearers, &c., but
are generally more remarkable for cruelty than courage. They wear no
uniform; and sometimes they have not even shoes, but strap their spurs
on their naked heels. In the year 1838, the Anglo-Peruvian general,
Miller, commanded a thousand of these montoneros who were in the
service of Santa Cruz. When war is at an end, these wild troops
disband themselves, and for the most part return to their former
occupation.
Abandoning Lima and its environs, Dr Tschudi takes us with him on a
visit to the various towns and villages along the coast, proceeding
first north and then south of the capital. In a coasting voyage to the
port of Huacho, he has the honour to reckon amongst his fellow
passengers, Lord Cochrane's friend, the celebrated Padre Requena, then
cura of that town. Of this ecclesiastic, of whom he, after his
arrival, saw a good deal, he draws a picture which may be taken as a
general type of the Peruvian priesthood, and is by no means creditable
to them. Requena's chief passion is coursing, and his greatest
annoyance, during Dr Tschudi's stay in Huacho, was, that ill health,
brought on by his excesses, prevented him from indulging it. He had
several magnificent horses, and a numerous pack of greyhounds, some of
which latter had cost him one hundred and fifty and two hundred
dollars a-piece. His seraglio was almost as well stocked as his
kennel, and the number of children who called him _tio_, or _uncle_,
the usual term in Peru in such cases, was quite prodigious. He took
great pride in talking of his friendship with Lord Cochrane. He died a
few weeks after his return to Huacho, and delayed so long to send for
a confessor that the Indians at last surrounded the house with
frightful menaces, and sent in a priest to render him the last offices
of the church. He had great difficulty in making up his mind to death,
or, as he expressed it, to a separation from his greyhounds and
horses. At almost the last moment, when his hands began to grow cold,
he made his negro put on them a pair of buckskin gloves.
This respectable priest was by no means singular in his love of the
chase, of which frequent examples are to be found in Peru. On reaching
Quipico, the most easterly plantation in the beautiful valley of
Huaura, Dr. Tschudi had scarcely entered the courtyard when he was
surrounded by upwards of fifty greyhounds, whilst from every quarter
others came springing towards him. They were the remains of a pack
that had belonged to one Castilla, recently the owner of the
plantation, and whose usual establishment consisted of two to three
hundred of these dogs, with which he every day went coursing. The
strictest discipline was kept up amongst this lightfooted multitude.
At stated hours a bell summoned them to their meals, and in the kennel
stood a gibbet, as a warning to the lazy or perverse. One day, when
Castilla was out hunting, an Indian came up, with an ordinary-looking
crossbred dog. In spite of his looks this dog out-stripped the whole
pack, and pulled down the roebuck. Castilla immediately purchased him
at the enormous price of three hundred and fifty dollars. A few days
afterwards he again went out with his best hounds and his new
acquisition. The leashes were slipped, and the greyhounds went off
like the wind, but the crossbreed remained quietly by the horses. The
same afternoon he was hung up to the gallows, an example to his
fellows.
The whole extent of the Peruvian coast, from its northern to its
southern extremity, presents nearly the same aspect; vast deserts of
sand, varied by fruitful valleys, with their villages and plantations;
seaport towns there where nature or commerce has encouraged their
foundation; alternate insupportable heat and damp fog; scarcity of
men; crumbling monuments of a period of riches and greatness. In the
sandy plains it is no unusual occurrence for travellers to lose their
way and perish for thirst. In that fervent and unhealthy climate,
human strength rapidly gives way before want of food and water. In the
year 1823 a transport carrying a regiment of dragoons, three hundred
and twenty strong, stranded on the coast near Pisco. The soldiers got
on shore, and wandered for thirty-six hours through the sand-waste,
out of which they were unable to find their way. At the end of that
time they were met by a number of horsemen with water and food, who
had been sent out from Pisco to seek them, but already one hundred and
fifty of the unfortunates had died of thirst and weariness, and fifty
more expired upon the following day. Forty-eight hours' wandering in
those arid deserts, deprived of food and drink, is certain death to
the strongest man. Rivers are scarce, and even where the bed of a
stream is found, it is in many instances dry during the greater part
of the year. The traveller's danger is increased by the shifting
nature of the sand, which the wind raises in enormous clouds, and in
columns eighty to one hundred feet high. The _medanos_ are another
strange phenomenon of these dangerous wilds. They are sandhills in the
form of a crescent, ten to twenty feet high, and with a sharp crest.
Their base is moveable, and when impelled by a tolerably strong wind,
they wander rapidly over the desert; the smaller ones, more easily
propelled, preceding the large. The latter, however, after a time,
prevent the current of air from reaching the former--take the wind out
of their sails, it may be said--and then run over and crush them,
themselves breaking up at the same time. In a few hours, what was
previously a level, is often covered with ranges of hillocks,
hindering a view of the horizon, and bewildering the most experienced
wanderers through these perilous regions. In November the summer
begins. The scorching rays of the sun break through the grey covering
of the heavens, and threaten to consume, by their intensity, the
entire vegetable and animal creation. Not a plant finds nourishment,
nor a beast food upon the parched and glowing soil; no bird or insect
floats upon the sultry air. Only in the upper regions is seen the
majestic condor, flying towards the ocean. All life and movement is
now confined to the coast. Troops of vultures assemble around the
stranded carcases of sea monsters; otters and seals bask beneath the
cliffs; variegated lizards scamper over the sand-heaps, and busy crabs
and sea-spiders dig into the damp shore. In May the scene changes. A
thin veil of mist spreads over sea and coast, gradually thickening,
until in October the sun again dispels it. At the beginning and end of
this winter, as it is called, the fog generally rises at nine or ten
in the morning, and is again dissipated at three in the afternoon. It
is thickest in August and September, when, for weeks together, it does
not lift. It never changes into rain, but only into a fine penetrating
mist, called the _garua_. On many parts of the Peruvian coast, it
never rains, excepting after a very violent earthquake, and even then
not always. The usual height of the fog from the ground is seven or
eight hundred feet. It never exceeds a height of twelve hundred feet,
nor is found at all beyond a few miles from the coast, at which
distance it is replaced by violent rains. The boundary line between
rain and fog may be determined with almost mathematical accuracy. Dr
Tschudi visited two plantations, one about six leagues from Lima, the
other in the neighbourhood of Huacho, one half of which was annually
watered by the _garuas_, and the other half by rain. A wall was built
upon the line where one mode of irrigation ceased and the other began.
The province of Yca, whose soil is sandy, and to all appearance
incapable of producing any description of vegetation, is devoted to
the culture of the vine, which perfectly succeeds there. The young
plants are set half a foot deep in the sand, and left to themselves;
they speedily put forth leaves, and yield a luxuriant crop of grapes,
remarkable for flavour and juiciness. These are mostly used for
brandy, with which the whole of Peru and great part of Chili are
supplied from the valley of Yca. It is of excellent quality,
especially a sort made from muscatel grapes, and called _aguardiente
de Italia_. Very little wine is made, except by one planter, Don
Domingo Elias, who has attempted it after the European fashion. The
result has been a wine resembling Madeira and Teneriffe, only much
more fiery, and containing a larger proportion of alcohol. The brandy
was formerly conveyed to the coast in huge earthen _botijas_, capable
of containing one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five
pounds weight of the liquor; but these were continually broken,
chiefly by the thirsty mules across which they were slung like
panniers, and who, when rushing in crowds to the watering-places,
invariably smashed a number of them against each other. To remedy this
the brandy-growers have adopted the use of goat-skins; and the manner
in which, upon many plantations, these are prepared, is as frightful a
piece of barbarity as can well be imagined. A negro hangs up the goat,
alive, by the horns, makes a circular cut through the skin of the
neck, and strips the hide from the agonized beast, which is only
killed when completely flayed. The pretext for this execrable cruelty
is, that the skin comes off more easily, and is found more durable. It
is to be hoped that the planters will have sufficient humanity
speedily to do away with so horrible a practice.
The negro carnival, which Dr Tschudi witnessed at Yca, appears to us,
of the two, a more civilized performance than the Creole carnival at
Lima. In various of the streets large arches, tastefully decorated
with ribands, are erected; the negresses and zambas dance beneath
then; whilst the allotted task of the men is to gallop through without
being stopped. If the women succeed in checking the horse, and pulling
the rider out of the saddle, the latter has to pay a fine, and gets
laughed at to boot. It is difficult to know which to admire most; the
speed of the horses, the skill of the riders, or the daring of the
women, who throw themselves upon the horse as he comes on at full
gallop. As the horsemen approach, they are pelted with unripe oranges,
which, thrown by a strong-armed zamba, are capable of inflicting
tolerably hard knocks. Dr Tschudi saw one negro who, during a whole
hour, galloped backwards and forwards without being stopped, and
concluded by giving an extraordinary proof of muscular strength. At
the very moment that he passed under the arch, he stooped forward over
his horse's neck, caught up a negress under each arm, and rode off
with them!
Opposite to the ports of Pisco and Chincha, lie a number of small
islands, noted for their large deposits of guano, or _huanu_, as Dr
Tschudi corrects the orthography of the word. The doctor gives some
very interesting particulars concerning this efficacious manure,
which, although but recently adopted in Europe, appears to have been
used in Peru as far back as the time of the first Incas. The Peruvians
use it chiefly for the maize and potato fields; their manner of
employing it is peculiar, and but little known in Europe. A few weeks
after the seeds have begun to germinate, a small hole is made beside
each plant, filled with huanu and covered up with earth. Twelve or
fifteen hours later the whole field is laid under water, and left so
for a few hours. The effect of the process is incredibly rapid. In a
very few days the plants attain double their previous height. When the
operation is repeated, but with a smaller quantity of the huanu, the
farmer may reckon upon a crop at least threefold that which he would
obtain from an unmanured soil. Of the white huanu, which is much
stronger than the dark-coloured, less must be used, and the field must
be watered sooner, and for a longer time, or the roots will be
destroyed. When the land is tolerably good, seven hundred and fifty to
nine hundred pounds of huanu are reckoned sufficient for a surface of
fourteen thousand square feet; with poor soil a thousand to twelve
hundred pounds are required.