Peru is divided into seven intendancies, viz. Truxillo, Tarma,
Huancavelica, Lima, Guamanga, Arequipa and Cuzco, each of which is
governed by an intendant, nominated by the viceroy, a nobleman of the
highest rank, who is sent from Spain, and whose appointment is one of
the first consequence in Spanish America.
The population of Peru may be estimated at 1,300,000, of which 130,000
are whites, 240,000, mestizoes, and the remainder Indians and negroes,
the latter of whom are in very small numbers.
The missionary lands to the east have not been included in this
statement; of them we shall have occasion to speak hereafter.
In Peru the revenue is derived from the duties on imports, exports,
gold, silver, tobacco, liquors, the capitation tax on the Indians,
taxes on the clergy, &c. It is said to amount to 1,083,000_l._
annually, and it remits, in prosperous times, to Spain for the royal
coffers, 216,600_l._, to Panama, 70,000_l._, to Valdivia in Chili,
3750_l._, and to the island of Chiloe a similar sum to defray the
expences of their several administrations. The net revenue of the
colony, after defraying these sitaudos, or remittances, does not
amount to more than is sufficient to settle the expenses of its own
internal government.
The salary of the viceroy is 12,600_l._ a small sum, but which is
assisted by the monopoly of certain manufactures, by grants, and by the
colonial situations and titles he can confer.
Peru is the seat of two royal audiences, that of Lima and that of
Cuzco. The audience of Lima was established in 1543, and is composed
of a regent, eight oidores or judges, four alcaldes, and two fiscals,
the viceroy being president. It is divided into three chambers, and
is the superior court of appeal for the whole government. The royal
treasury is the next great office of state, composed of the viceroy,
the regent of the council, the dean of the tribunal of accounts, and
other officers, and the revenue appeals are determined by the tribunal
of accounts.
_Commerce._--The commerce of Peru is important, and on account of the
number of fine ports along its coast, it may be styled the maritime
province of the South American states.
The trade flows through three channels; by the straits of Magellan from
Europe, through the North Pacific from India and Mexico, or Guatimala;
and through the interior with the southern provinces of Chili and
Buenos Ayres. Since the trade was unshackled in 1778, its exports and
imports have doubled, and the principal branch of its commerce is that
carried on round Cape Horn.
The exports of Peru are chiefly gold, silver, brandies, sugar, pimento,
cinchona, salt, vicuna wool, coarse woollens, and other trifling
manufactures.
Its imports are European goods, linens, cottons, woollens, silks, iron,
hardware, superfine cloths, mercury, wax, paper, glass, medicines,
wines, liqueurs, books and furniture: from Buenos Ayres it receives
Paraguay tea, live stock and provisions, and from the other internal
provinces, coca leaf, indigo, tallow, cacao, timber, cordage, pitch and
copper.
Chili also supplies Lima with grain and fruits in immense quantities,
and salted meat, soap, wine, copper, saffron, &c.
The ports of Peru which are most frequented, are those named Arica,
Ilo, Iquique, and Quilca, in the intendancy of Arequipa, and Pisco,
on the south of Lima; Chancay and Guacho in Lima; and Guanchaco,
Pacasmayo, and Payta, in Truxillo, on the north.
With the southern ports, the trade is in wine, brandy, iron, dried
fruits, copper, tin, lead, &c.; with the northern, in wool, cotton,
leather, chocolate, rice and salted fish.
To the Rio de la Plata, the exports are maize, sugar, brandy, pimento,
indigo and woollens; these exports are said to amount to 2,000,000
dollars annually, and the imports from that government, to 860,000,
consisting in mules, sheep, hams, tallow, wool, coca leaf, Paraguay tea
and tin; and 20,000 mules arrive annually from Tucuman, for the service
of the Peruvian mines. A great trade is also carried on with Guayaquil
and Guatimala, but with Panama it is almost nothing.
From the Philippine islands, muslins, tea, and other East Indian goods,
are imported, amounting to 270,230 dollars annually, in return for
about 2,790,000, exported to Asia, in silver and gold.
The produce of the mines of Peru, including those of Chili, is about
1,730,000_l._ annually, whilst the value of European goods imported,
is nearly 2,492,000_l._ in the same period; and the value of the
agricultural produce exported, of Peru and Chili, is 866,000_l._
In this country the population is much scattered, and composed of
castes who have the greatest distrust of each other, the Indians being
the most numerous, and leading a life of indolence and apathy; the
natural resources of this fine region are unheeded; and its commerce,
far from being restricted by the government, suffers only from the
inactivity of its inhabitants.
_Mines._--The mines, which in general are very rich, are very ill
worked, and often abandoned from trivial causes; and the quicksilver
necessary to obtain the metal from the ore, is procured in insufficient
quantities, no exertions being made to clear the mines of that valuable
substance, which exists in the greatest profusion in the country.
The mines which produce the greatest quantity of valuable metals, are
those of _Lauricocha_, the province of Tarma, commonly called the mines
of _Pasco_ in the _Cerro de Bombon_, or high-table-land, in which is
the small lake De los Reyes, to the south of the Cerro de Yauricocha;
those of _Gualgayoc_, or _Chota_, in Truxillo, and the mines of
_Huantajaya_.
The mines of _Pasco_ were discovered by Huari Capac, an Indian, in
1630; they alone furnish two millions of piastres annually, and are at
an elevation of more than 13,000 feet above the level of the sea; the
metalliferous bed appears near the surface, the shafts being not more
than from 90 to 400 feet in depth; water then makes its appearance, and
causes great expence in clearing it. The bed is 15,747 feet long, and
7217 feet in breadth, and would produce, if worked by steam, as much
as Guanaxuato in Mexico; its average annual produce is however 131,260
_lbs._ troy.
_Gualgayoc_ and _Micuipampa_, commonly called Chota, were discovered
in 1771, by Don Rodriguez de Ocaño a European; but in the time of the
Incas, the Peruvians worked some silver vein, near the present town of
Micuipampa.
Immense wealth has been discovered at _Fuentestiana_, at _Comolache_
and _Pampa de Navar_; at the last of which, wherever the turf is moved,
for more than half a square league, sulphuretted and native silver, in
filaments, are found adhering to the roots of the grasses, and it is
also occasionally discovered in large masses.
All the mines in the partido of _Chota_, comprehended under the name of
_Gualgayoc_, have furnished the provincial treasury of Truxillo, with
44,095_lbs._ troy of silver annually; these minerals are richer than
those of Potosi, and are discovered mostly at the height of 13,385 feet.
The mines of _Huantajaya_ are surrounded with beds of rock salt,
and are celebrated for the quantity of native masses of silver they
produce. They are situated in the partido of Arica, near the small
port of Yquique, in a desart destitute of water, and furnish an
annual supply of from 42 to 52,000_lbs._ troy. Two masses, which were
discovered here lately, weighed, one, two, and the other eight quintals.
Gold was formerly procured by the Incas in the plains of _Curimayo_,
north-east of the city of Caxamarca, at more than 11,154 feet above
the sea. It has also been extracted from the right bank of the Rio
de Micuipampa, between _Cerro de San Jose_, and the plain called
_Choropampa_, or the Plain of Shells; so named, on account of a vast
quantity of petrified sea shells, found there, at the absolute height
of more than 13,123 feet.
At present, the Peruvian gold comes partly from _Pataz_ and _Huilies_,
in Tarma, and is extracted from veins of quartz, traversing primitive
rock, and partly from washings established on the banks of the _Maranon
Alto_, in Chachapoyas.
Cobalt, antimony, coal and salt, exist in this country; but as they
are, with the exception of the latter, chiefly found in the mountain
regions, the high price of carriage prevents their useful qualities
from being brought into general use.
The coinage of gold and silver in the royal mint of Lima, between 1791
and 1801, amounted to 5,466,000_l._ or 1,113,000_l._ _per annum_; of
which 3450 marcs were gold, and 570,000 silver.
The number of gold mines and washings worked in Peru is about 70,
and the number of silver mines 680, which includes all the different
works on the same spot. Of quicksilver, four mines exist, with four of
copper, and twelve of lead.
Emeralds and other precious stones are found in this country, with
obsidian, and the stone of the Incas, a marcasite capable of the
highest polish.
_Climate_, _Features_, &c.--The climate of Peru is singularly various.
The mountains which extend on the west side of America, cause a
division of this country into three distinct parts, the maritime
valleys, the barren summits, and the plains or uplands between the
ridges. The chain of the Andes, arresting the clouds, which dissolve on
the mountain districts into rain and vapours, accompanied with storms
of thunder and lightning, whilst between 5° and 15° south latitude,
on the coast, rain is unknown, and the dry winds from the Antarctic
constantly pervade this region, from the desert of Atacama to the gulf
of Guayaquil, a distance of 400 leagues. In this tract, the houses are
covered only with mats, sprinkled with ashes, to absorb the night dews,
and the soil, being moistened only by these dews, is rather sandy and
barren.
On the uplands vegetation nourishes, and to the height of 10,000 feet,
the Sierra or High Peru, enjoys a climate composed of a mixture of
perpetual spring and autumn. Beyond 14,000 feet, the Sierra is covered
with eternal snows, and consequently an everlasting winter reigns in
its neighbourhood.
The cultivation of these different tracts is little attended to; along
the coast, desarts of thirty or forty leagues in extent are frequent;
and the immense forests which cover the maritime plains, prove that the
inhabitants are not numerous; these forests contain acacias, mangle
trees, arborescent brooms and ferns, aloes, and other succulent plants,
cedars, cotton or ceiba trees of gigantic growth, many kinds of ebony,
and other useful woods, ten or twelve species of palms, and the maria,
an enormous tree used in ship building. These forests are thickest at
the distance of seven or eight leagues from the coast, and the trees
then become covered with parasitical plants, which reach to their very
top, mixing their beautiful and lively flowers with the dark green
foliage, so peculiar to the tropics.
In the forests and in the plains of the coast, are found the cabbage
palm, the cocoa nut, the cacao nut, the cotton shrub, the pine apple,
canna, amomum, turmeric, plantain, sugar cane, &c., on the sides of the
Andes, and in its great plains, are the precious cinchona, coffee tree,
the cardana alliodora, a large tree, whose leaves and wood emit an
odour resembling garlic. Twenty-four species of pepper, five or six of
capsicum, and several of potato, tobacco and jalap exist in Peru, and
the green and hot houses of Europe owe most of their beautiful flowers
and plants to this country.
The llama, the guanuco, the vicuna, and the alpaca, or the different
species of American camel, find their native climate in the cold
districts of Peru; the jaguar, the cougar or puma, and several other
wild animals, inhabit the thick forests; while the elk, the ant-bear,
deer, monkeys, the great black bear of the Andes, and armadillos, &c.,
are very numerous. The woods abound in beautiful birds, the rivers in
fish and alligators, and numerous tribes of reptiles infest the warm
districts of the coast, in which venomous insects are also common.
The mountains of Peru do not yield in height to those of Quito,
the great chain of the Andes dividing itself into several parallel
branches, forming as in Quito, long and narrow valleys, near its
summits; it is very precipitous towards the east, and seems to form
a natural barrier between the kingdoms of La Plata and Peru. It here
gives birth to the Maranon, the Guallaga, the Tunguragua, and a variety
of smaller rivers, which either lose themselves in these or in the
Pacific Ocean.