XXII.

An Overland Journey from Valparaiso to Gibraltar, viâ the Isthmus of Panama.

16th May To 1st August, 1859.

Departure from Valparaiso.—Coquimbo.—Caldera.—Cobija.—Iquique.—Manufacture of saltpetre.—Arica.—Port d'Islay.—Medanos, or wandering sand-hills.—Chola.—Pisco.—The Chincha or Guano Islands.—Remarks respecting the Guano or Huanu beds.—Callao.—Lima.—Carrion crows, the principal street-scavengers.—Churches and Monasteries.—Hospitals.—Charitable institutions.—Medical College.—National Library.—Padre Vigil.—National Museum.—The Central Normal School.—Great lack of intellectual energy.—Ruins of Cajamarquilla.—Chorillos.—Temple to the Sun at Pachacamác.—River Rimac.—Amancaes.—The new prison.—Bull-fights.—State of society in Peru.—The Coca plant, and the latest scientific examination respecting its peculiar properties.—The China, or Peruvian-bark tree.—Departure from Lima.—Lambajeque.—Indian village of Iting.—Païta.—Island of La Plata.—Taboga Island.—Impression made by the intelligence of Humboldt's death.—Panama.—"Opposition" Line.—Immense traffic.—The Railway across the Isthmus.—Aspinwall.—Carthagena.—St. Thomas.—Voyage to Europe on board the R.M.S. Magdalena.—Falmouth.—Southampton.—London.—Rejoin the Novara at sea.—Arrival at Gibraltar.

Five days after the departure of the Novara, I left the roads of Valparaiso on board the mail steamer Callao. The weather was exceedingly unfavourable, the rain falling in torrents, while a heavy tumbling sea made the embarkation of the numerous passengers and their effects a process anything but agreeable. I have, therefore, the greater pleasure in expressing my gratitude for the courtesy of the Captain of H.M.S. Ganges, who sent his own gig to take me off to the steamer, and to the numerous friends, who despite the stormy weather had assembled on board to bid me a last farewell, and provide me with letters of introduction to the authorities and most influential persons of the more important of the localities I was about to visit. At 2 P.M. the shore bell sounded, a little boat made its appearance on the port side, pitching heavily in the swell, and a long thin figure stepped on deck. This proved to be Captain Stewart of the Louisa, whose acquaintance I had formed at the island of Tahiti, and who now, half breathless, handed me a small packet with the following endorsement,—"These are the extracts you requested from my journal, and which I promised to prepare for you on my first voyage from Norfolk Island to Pitcairn." They consisted in fact of those remarks upon the latest phase of the strange destiny of the Pitcairn Islanders, which have already appeared in a previous chapter. The worthy Captain had kept his word with true John Bull punctuality. A few moments more and the Callao was steaming out of Valparaiso Roads, on her voyage northwards.

Although the boats of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company plying between Valparaiso, Callao de Lima, and Panama, are tolerably large, clean, and elegantly fitted, yet the number of passengers for intermediate ports make them anything but a comfortable mode of travel. For, notwithstanding the high fares,[120] it is necessary to crowd three or four passengers into each state-room, which in the heat of the tropics is most inconvenient, and at times almost intolerable. Personally, however, I had no reason to complain on this score, as all the captains of the various steamers in which I journeyed north, so soon as my connection with the Novara Expedition was known, at once, with the most marked courtesy and attention, secured to me a state-room for my own exclusive use, and whenever we reached a port, placed their own boats at my disposal during our stay.

The morning after we left Valparaiso, we reached Coquimbo, where, a few weeks before (24th April, 1859), a severe action had been fought between the Chilean troops and those of Pedro Gallo, the former proving victorious. Coquimbo is a small town of about 2000 souls, whose sole claim to importance is its proximity to some rich copper-mines. M. Longomasino, one of the many victims of the coup d'état of the second December, who, the reader will recollect, received permission to make the voyage from Tahiti to Valparaiso on board the Novara, was among our passengers; he left the steamer at Coquimbo, intending to go to the adjoining mining town of Serena (20,000 souls), where, through the kindness of friends, he had been invited to edit a political paper.

Here I went on board the British corvette Amethyst, which just a year before had been lying alongside of the Novara in Singapore harbour, and was received by her excellent commander with a most cordial welcome. To my astonishment I found a number of civilians on board: refugees, who had taken an active part in the late insurrection, and who now, when all hope of success was over, sought an asylum on British soil, for such is the deck of an English man-of-war, and, thanks to British political proclivities, had been cordially received there.

About 11 P.M. the same night we were off the insignificant little harbour of Huasco, and about nine next morning ran into Caldera, a dreary-looking little place of some 2000 inhabitants, built upon one of a succession of sand-slopes. There is not a trace of vegetation; no foliage, no shrubs, no patches of grass,—all around as far as the eye could reach was a cheerless waste of sand. Only extraordinary opportunities for money-making could have induced the inhabitants to settle in this desolate wilderness, deficient in the very first necessity of life—fresh water. Every drop of this most important beverage has at present to be brought from 90 miles inland, so that a cask containing some 15 gallons costs 31 cents or 1s. 4d. English. The charge for supplying water alone to 90 or 100 workmen amounts to 40 dollars, or £8 8s., a week! At the time I visited it, the people were negotiating for the erection of a steam distilling apparatus, for procuring fresh water from the sea, at a less cost than was paid previously. From Caldera, a locomotive line of rail leads to the mining town of Copiapó, 71 miles inland, in the vicinity of which are rich mines of silver and copper. This enterprise has proved so remunerative, that, although its construction cost 2,500,000 dollars (£525,000 or about £7400 a mile), the shareholders receive an annual dividend of 16 per cent.

I visited the copper-smelting kilns, which belong to an English company, and produce annually from 1800 to 2000 tons of almost virgin copper (90 to 96 per cent.), in ingots and pigs, as they are termed, an ingot weighing from 16 to 18 lbs avoirdupois. The ore, as at first found in the mines of Copiapó, has barely 18 to 36 per cent. of copper, and has to undergo six or seven smeltings before it becomes sufficiently pure to be sold at a profit in the markets of Europe. The smelting-furnace produces about seven tons of copper per diem, at a consumption of 60 tons of coal,[121] which is imported from Swansea, partly from Pennsylvania, and is worth 12 to 15 dollars per ton of 2240 lbs. The rate of wages at Caldera remains pretty steady at two to three dollars per diem, and this is the reason why the enterprise is less remunerative than would be the case if wages were lower.

The total annual yield of the copper and silver mines of the department of Copiapó is worth about 14,000,000 dollars, and gives employment to from 6000 to 7000 labourers, or one-third the entire population of the district.

On 20th May we anchored off Cobija, the sole harbour possessed by Bolivia on the west coast, and with a population of 1000. The state of affairs in Bolivia affords a marked example of how closely the development of a country is connected with the fact of its possessing more or less of sea-coast. How great is the commerce, the. prosperity, and the civilization of Chile, a proportionally small strip of not over-fertile soil, but the entire extent of which is sea-coast, compared with the poverty and barbarism of the interior state of Bolivia, so admirably fitted by nature for raising all manner of valuable produce, but whose sole means of communication with the rest of the world is through one insignificant harbour!

The same day we reached Iquique, the southernmost harbour of Peru, with a population of about 4000, and which quite recently has increased greatly in importance, owing to the trade in saltpetre, which is found in immense quantities all along this rainless coast, and of which 1,000,000 hundredweight (50,000 tons) are exported annually to England, North America, and Germany, in which countries it is extensively and beneficially used for manure.[122] Here we found lying at anchor a large merchantman, the Victorine of Bordeaux, 3000 tons burthen, which was taking in a full cargo, exclusively, of this valuable product. The saltpetre is found between beds of clay from one to six feet below the surface, boiled in large vats to free it from impurities,[123] and dried in the form of cakes, which are packed for shipment in sacks of 250 lbs. It is worth, if purified, 21 reals (about 11s. 4d.) per cwt. on the spot, and fetches £16 to £17 per ton in England. Upon a rough calculation, the quantity of saltpetre along the coast of Peru at an average breadth of 30 miles amounts to 60,000,000 tons, enough to maintain the existing supply[124] for at least another thousand years. The rate of wages of the men engaged in the trade, owing to the scarcity of labour, is from two to three dollars per diem! The scarcity of water at Iquique is so great, that the town has to be supplied by means of a distilling apparatus, an undertaking the gross daily receipts of which are six hundred dollars! For the precious element has to be purchased not merely for men but animals; the price, for example, for a male to drink ad libitum is one real, about 8 ¹⁄₂d.

Tincal, or Biborate of Soda, is also largely found all along the coast, but the export was long prohibited, the suspicious jealousy of the Peruvian Government seeking to obtain first of all conclusive evidence of the value of this natural product, and the best means of making it contribute to the State treasury. At present about 200 tons, worth from £16 to £20 per ton, are exported annually. As we lay at anchor off Iquique, numbers of natives shot about with arrow-like rapidity in their exceedingly primitive boats, made of seal-skins fastened together in canoe-fashion. To avoid overturns, these curious specimens of naval architecture have bladders attached on either side!

The heat now began to be very perceptible. The bare, treeless, almost perpendicular sand-bluffs along the coast, impart to it a dreary aspect, which even the rocky chain immediately behind, rising some 2000 to 4000 feet, scarcely succeeds in softening. A great number of the passengers, mostly Peruvians, indemnified themselves for the cheerless monotony of the prospect on deck, by intense devotion to the mysteries of the green table in the saloon. All through the day, till far on in the night, the painted pasteboard flew from hand to hand. The favourite game was Rocambor, something like Ombre, diversified with Monte and dice, and for very high sums. I saw ten condors (£21) laid upon a single card. A few elderly gentlemen sat regularly in a distant corner of the saloon, where they played assiduously from nine in the morning till midnight without interruption. One wealthy Peruano, well known along this coast, in the course of a single voyage is said to have lost 80,000 dollars (£16,800)!!

On 20th May we anchored in Arica, an elegant seaport of some 7000 inhabitants, surrounded by beautiful luxuriant gardens, and which, though belonging to Peru, may be considered as the chief outlet for the produce of Northern Bolivia, since Tacna, the most important manufacturing town of that State, with a population of 12,000, is only nine English miles distant, lying at the foot of the Cordillera, while La Paz, the capital of the Republic, with a population of 75,000, is 288 miles distant, and is easiest reached from Arica. The political division of Bolivia is a crying injustice to that lovely country and its industrious population. The harbour of Arica belongs by natural position to Bolivia and not to Peru; commercial interests and general intercourse unite it far more intimately with Northern Bolivia than with Peru. The chief exports of Arica are silver, copper, alpaca wool, cinchona bark, chinchilla furs, cotton, and tin. There are also two steam flour-mills within the little town in full operation; the grain comes from the interior, and is shipped as flour to the various harbours along the coast. A railroad from Arica to Tacna greatly facilitates traffic and commerce, but further in the interior all intercourse is carried on by means of narrow mule-paths.[125]

The houses, constructed for the most part of sun-dried bricks all along the coast of Peru, where rain is absolutely unknown, and even the dew-deposit is trifling, are flat, barely roofed in with thin strips of cane, and consequently when seen from the street have a very untidy appearance. Unfortunately these terrace-like roofs are likewise the sole receptacles for the refuse of the house, and any one who, in order to get a better view, ventures to ascend one of the adjoining dazzling white sand-heaps, will long remember the filthy but unique spectacle which greets his eye.

Immediately outside of the suburb of Chimba, the desolate nature of the country comes conspicuously into view. I next walked to one of the nearest sand-hills, because I was assured that there were numerous graves of queens to be found there, as well as quantities of mummies. Owing to the extreme dryness of the atmosphere, the skulls of the dead which here lay scattered upon the surface of the soil, seemed as though they were so many anatomical preparations. Even some dead bodies of animals showed no symptoms of decomposition, but had been perfectly dried. The peculiarity of the meteorological conditions, the extreme dryness of the atmosphere, and the saline impregnation of the soil, have very much more to do with these marvellous antiseptic appearances than any indigenous skill in embalming the Indian corpses; since, even now, when the brown Catholicized Peruvians have lost none of their old superstitions, though they have abandoned most of their former arts and customs, the dead committed to the earth without further preparation, present the same mummified appearance when disinterred. I took away with me the skull of an Indian, from the neighbourhood of Arica, which was remarkable for the singular malformation resulting from compression by circular bandages.

This artificial disfigurement of the skull has its origin in the peculiar customs of several Indian races of both North and South America, of mechanically altering the form of the cranium in the new-born infant. Of the difference in point of beauty of the different Indian races along the west coast of North America, a clear indication is afforded by the profile of the head of a native of Puget Sound, Oregon territory, for which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Ried of Valparaiso, he having been presented with it in 1856, by the medical officer of an American man-of-war. Here, in strong contrast with the oblong form of the cranium of an Indian from the neighbourhood of Arica, it appears that the skull has been flattened transversely, by pressure between two boards.

At first one is disposed to attribute the squeezed-in appearance of the head, remarked in different Indian races, here lengthened in an unsightly degree, there hideously flattened, to some freak of nature; but more accurate investigations leave no doubt that the deformity in question, in whatever form, is the result of pressure artificially applied, and that this displacement of the brain is not confined to individuals, but is characteristic of entire tribes, yet without any sensible diminution of the intellectual faculties, or morbidity in their exercise.

The valley of Azapa, three Spanish leagues (nine miles English) distant from Arica, is very fertile, and a good soil, but badly supplied with water. However, at an expense of a few millions of dollars, a communication might easily be established with the waters of the river Arica, the expense of which would be amply repaid by the increased productive power thus given to the valley. Sugar-cane, vintage-grape, oranges, pine-apples, olives, and vegetables of every description, could forthwith be raised, and advantageously disposed of at Arica.

Among the Germans resident in Arica, we formed the acquaintance of M. Colmann, a merchant, and Consul for Chile, as also of Dr. Mittendorf, the latter of whom is physician to the Railway Company here. By the latter gentleman we were told that cuticular diseases, dysentery, and intermittent fevers were the most common ailments, but that on the whole the climate of Arica is healthy, and that many cases of illness were solely attributable to the irregular, licentious mode of life of the natives. Although it hardly ever rains, yet during the summer season (January to March), when the snows begin to melt in the interior, and tremendous falls of rain occur on the Cordillera, the beds of the rivers become torrents, wheeling along vast volumes of water to the sea, and partly sinking into the soil, so that, at a depth of two or three feet, one comes upon water, or, at all events, moisture, while the surface remains burned to a cake. A little canalization of the river-bed, and damming up the water, so as to have a permanent reservoir, would not merely secure a better supply of water, but would most beneficially influence the salubrity of the neighbourhood. The river dries up entirely every year in the months of July and August, during which accordingly occur the largest number of cases of sickness, and it seems the more necessary that measures of some sort should be at once taken to control the water, as otherwise there is reason to fear that unless artificial dykes and dams be constructed, the bed of the river will gradually be sanded up, when the whole district will be worse off for water than ever; since with each successive year's floods, as they dash down from the mountains, a perceptible falling off in quantity has been remarked, so that whereas ten years ago the bed of the river was full for four or five months together, at present it is rarely full so long as two months in all.

On 22nd May, we entered the little harbour of Port d'Islay, the access to which is very difficult. The settlement itself stands on a steep rock, 150 feet high, descending almost perpendicularly into the sea on all sides, so that the only landing-place is a mole, which communicates with the village above by an iron ladder. The well-known traveller, Count Castelnau, who in the course of a scientific expedition through South America visited this port in 1848, prophesied a splendid future for it; but I do not believe that its commerce has materially increased since then.

The sole claim to consideration of Port d'Islay consists in its proximity to Arequipa, a city of 40,000 inhabitants, and the variety of valuable natural products which abound in that fertile section of country, from which, however, the port is separated by a sand-barren, 36 miles in width and 120 in length, the city of Arequipa itself being 7500 feet above the sea, at the foot of the volcano of the same name,[126] and amid a magnificent scenery.

The dreary waste between Port d'Islay and Arequipa is continually swept by drift sand, which, by constantly obstructing the road, renders travelling thither absolutely unsafe, and indeed frequently dangerous to life. For the unfortunate who misses his way amid these wastes is lost beyond all possibility of succour. The wandering sand-columns or medanos,[127] formed of drift sand, present a singular appearance as they spin along before a S.E. wind, admirably described by Tschudi in his valuable Sketches of Travel in Peru. These extraordinary pillars, which constantly change both their form and position, and complete the perplexity of the traveller, are usually semi-circular, 8 or 10 feet high, and from 20 to 50 feet wide, but occasionally they are seen 50 feet in height, when their diameter is about 150 feet. They are of most frequent occurrence in the hot season, when the parched sand obeys the slightest impulse of the atmosphere, whereas in winter, owing to the deposition of a fine penetrating dew (garua), which all along the coast of Peru supplies the place of rain, which is never seen, the sand increases in weight, and the basis of the column is solidified, so to speak, by the moisture absorbed. Between Port d'Islay and Arequipa, the medanos are first encountered about 18 miles inland, or nearly half-way across the sand-barren.

In the dells near the harbour volcanic ashes are occasionally found at certain spots, whereas they are never discovered further inland, nor near the volcano of Arequipa, which since the memory of man has never been known to be in a state of activity, and whose beautiful cone, not unlike that of Ometepec in Nicaragua, seems to be densely wooded up to the very summit. Apparently these are the remains of former eruptions of a neighbouring volcano, which have been borne towards the coast by the prevailing winds. The ashes themselves have no saline constituents, and are used by the natives in the manufacture of sun-dried clay-bricks (adobes), the quality of which they materially improve.

We made an excursion to a churchyard in the vicinity of d'Islay, where the skulls of some half a hundred human beings lay exposed to view. They all seemed to have been bleached by exposure, and were in good preservation, so that on many might still be discovered heavy heads of hair. The eyes had shrivelled up into the skull, and were by no means gleaming and crystal-like as is alleged of those found in Indian graves, and offered for sale to strangers. These so-called "crystallized human eyes," of which an Italian curiosity dealer of Arica possessed one or two sacks-full, belong to a species of mollusca (Loligo gigas), and were used by the Indians to adorn their dead. To this circumstance must be attributed the great number that are to be found in the graves in the neighbourhood of Arica.

We continued to coast along during the entire night. The number of passengers, especially of those on the "'tween decks," had again increased. Among the late arrivals was an Austrian, a Tyrolese, from Iquique, who was travelling into the interior of Peru. This man, seduced by dazzling promises, had in 1856 emigrated to Peru with 293 of his fellow-countrymen, and after two years of the most terrible hardships and privations, at last succeeded in finding employment at the salt mines of Iquique. He was now earning 3 dols. a day (12s. 6d.), and was on his way to fetch his family away from the colony of Pozúzu, and taking them with him to the scene of his labours. That none of his countrymen did not follow him was, as he explained to us, in consequence of one of the colonists, "a half student," dissuading them from doing so, and himself leading them to try their luck at another spot, where unfortunately they had to battle with want in its severest form. I have rarely seen any man so excited and agitated at the sound of his native tongue as this hearty specimen of the sons of the Alps, when I addressed him "in good Austrian," and shook him by the hand. The reader will find further on, in the account of my stay at Lima, a more full account of the Tyrolese colony at Pozúzu, its present condition and possible future.

On 23rd May, at 6 A.M., the steamer anchored off Chala, which first attained the dignity of a seaport in 1857, being intended to facilitate intercourse and increase the trade with Cuzco. Chala is the nearest harbour to the ancient capital of the Incas, 240 miles distant. Though singularly ill-adapted for a port, being, in fact, nothing but an open roadstead, Chala bids fair to become a place of some importance, so soon as the country is at peace, and a good road is constructed hence to Cuzco, so as to be able to convey with dispatch the numerous valuable products of Cuzco. When we visited it, the little settlement, barely a year old, had 212 inhabitants, in some thirty wooden huts extending along the sandy shore. The chief exports are wool and copper, the latter being found at Chaipa and Atiquipa, nine miles N. of Chala.

The following morning, after passing the Barracoon of Pisco, a rather dangerous passage beset with low islands between Barraca Head (on Sangallan Island) and Huasco Head (a projecting headland of the mainland), we reached Pisco, also nothing but an open roadstead, the tremendous surf in which does not admit of ships approaching within two or three miles of the shore. Several years before a Mr. Wheelwright had commenced to construct a mole here, to project some hundreds of feet into the sea, so as to facilitate the loading and unloading of ships and the embarkation of passengers, but the works were still unfinished, and indeed would need to be very largely added to ere the object aimed at could possibly be obtained. On the declivity of Barraca Head sloping seaward are visible three marks in the form of crosses, which, according to tradition, were made in the sand by the pious monks of former centuries. Their size must indeed be colossal, since, though we passed from four to five miles off, the outlines of the three figures were plainly visible. Well-known as this phenomenon is to everybody, no one has ever had the curiosity to make an excursion thither from Pisco, so as to clear up the fact of their being actually the work of human hands, or, as seems more probable, simply columns of drift sand, like the medanos of Arica, thrown into this fantastic shape by the caprice of some passing storm.

The chief staple of cultivation at Pisco, and throughout the province, is the vine. I never tasted such delicate, juicy, luscious grapes as those I got there. They are chiefly used in the manufacture of the well-known "Pisco," a sort of "Aguardiente" (burning water, sc. brandy), the consumption of which is extraordinarily great. There were also fruits in most diverse profusion, chirimoyas (a species of anona), bananas, aguacales, mangoes, pine-apples, lemons, oranges, peaches, apples, pears, &c., which are grown here of the most delicate description for the market of Lima.

Pisco is the first point along the entire barren coast at which the traveller, since leaving Valparaiso, sees the shores covered once more with vegetation. With inexpressible relief the eye rests upon the green carpet which, on all sides, gleams forth, even between and among the houses. The place has about 3000 inhabitants, and possesses numerous churches, whose lofty belfries impart to it quite the appearance of a large town. About 45 miles inland, in a lovely and fertile valley, lies the large city of Ica, with which there is considerable traffic, and the chief product of which is also the grapevine. Ten English miles N. of Pisco, and, in fact, opposite the town, are the renowned Chincha or Guano Islands, and towards these our course was now directed. These are three small islands rising close to each other out of the bosom of the sea, the most north-easterly of which has been the most stripped. Here also is the chief village, consisting of upwards of 100 wooden huts, inhabited by some 200 to 250 persons. In 1858 there were some 2000 men living on the islands, while several hundred ships at a time would be lying at anchor in the harbour, loading with the valuable excretions of innumerable sea-fowls, of which the islands chiefly consist. When we visited them, the depredations had somewhat fallen off, the number of labourers was diminishing, and there were only a few vessels in the harbour.

The islands have a melancholy, naked, barren look; the same substance which, in smaller quantity, contributes so powerfully to promote the productiveness of the soil, to which it is applied, here stifles all vegetation, by reason of its very abundance, and fails to show any trace of that fertilizing principle which lies concealed within it.

The northern island is about 4200 feet long, and 1500 to 1800 feet wide. Its height is from 150 to 180 feet. The Huanu,[128] consisting of the excrement of various descriptions of sea-birds, chiefly sea-mews, sea-ravens, divers, and laridæ, forms strata, sometimes of a greyish-brown, sometimes of a rusty red colour, which at some points attain a thickness of 120 feet. The huts of the settlers are erected on the very guano beds. A handsome, comfortable hotel has latterly been added. All the necessaries of life, even drinking-water, have to be brought from the mainland, 14 miles distant. Living, consequently, is very expensive on the island, though there is anything but privation, or even lack of enjoyment. One of the inhabitants, a Swede, who has a small store on the island, observed to me, "We live as well and comfortably on the Chincha Islands as anywhere on the globe, and have occasionally even music and a dance!"

In May, 1859, the population consisted of 50 Europeans, 50 Chinese, and 250 Peruanos and Negroes. The majority were labourers, who were in great request as "Mangueros" or "Abarrotadores," and were busily engaged in excavating the indurated excrement, and transporting it to the various points for lading. The daily wages of the free labourers was 1 dollar 50 cents (about 6s. 3d.) per diem; the Chinese, on the other hand, received only 5 dollars per month, and a daily ration of rice. One Peruvian planter, Domingo Elias, had imported at his own cost several hundred Chinese coolies, who, like those in the West Indies, were to pay in labour for the expense of their voyage. The remuneration given to these hardy sons of the Middle Empire was of the scantiest. While they had to work alongside of convicts, longer and harder than any other class of labourers, they only received one-tenth of the pay of the latter.

The sanitary condition of the settlement was described to me as exceedingly favourable. The guano-getters contribute the smallest contingent to the sick list, and even the strong, penetrating, and exceedingly disagreeable stench of the substance, impregnated as it is with ammonia, seems to have not the slightest prejudicial effect upon the lungs, pulmonary complaints hardly ever making their appearance among the workmen. So far from this being the case, it is even contended that persons suffering under affections of the lungs derive benefit in the first stage of the malady from a residence in the Huanu Islands, and find themselves in improved health on their return to the mainland.

The centre island has been only partially excavated, but the works there have been discontinued. At present it is entirely uninhabited, though there are still visible on its summit a few wooden huts, which formerly sheltered the workmen, as also some of the "shoots" or slides used for facilitating the collection and shipment of the guano.

The southernmost of the three islands is quite in its primitive state, never having been touched. No sign indicative of man's presence on it is anywhere visible.

The earliest attempts to export guano to Europe as a manure were made in 1832, but they proved so losing a speculation, that not till eight years later did the Peruvian mercantile house of Messrs. Quiros again direct attention to the importance of guano as an article of export, when the Government of Peru granted them, for a fixed sum, the exclusive privilege of exporting guano for six years. This gave an opportunity for instituting, on a sufficient scale, those experiments which, it will be remembered, Mr. Meyer of Liverpool was making at that period, and which was followed by such surprising results.

From March to October, 1841, 23 vessels conveyed 6125 tons of guano to England, Hamburg, Antwerp, and Bordeaux. In November of the same year, the English barque Byron brought to Peru the cheering intelligence that a ton of guano was selling in England for £28 per ton. This totally unexpected and startling result induced the Government, by a decree of 17th November, to declare that the agreement with Messrs. Quiros was cancelled, and fresh offers for the privilege of shipping guano were invited from speculators.

Since that period the exportation of this important manure has attained unprecedented dimensions in every part of the globe. Of late years it has reached the enormous amount of 500,000 tons from these islands alone, and the revenue to the Government has been 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 dollars.

The contractors sell the guano in Europe for account of the Peruvian Government, and receive for it a commission fee of from 3 ¹⁄₂ to 4 ¹⁄₂ per cent. of the gross amount; for this they get, moreover, paid 5 per cent. of interest for outlays and pecuniary advances (pretty considerable) which they make to the native Government. The contracts are generally entered into for four years.

A complete exploration and survey of the islands was made in 1853 by M. C. Faraguet, a French engineer. According to his report, which was pretty comprehensive, and drawn up under the co-operation of several other scientific gentlemen, the quantity of guano on the northernmost island, in September, 1853, was 4,189,477 Peruvian tons (about 3,740,866 tons English); the middle island about 2,237,954 English tons, and the southernmost 5,072,032 English tons; or the entire cubical mass was at that period about 11,050,852 tons English. Assuming an average price, this would imply a money value of about £120,000,000. Since 1841, when the first considerable shipment was made, to 1861, there had been exported from the Chincha Islands 3,000,000 tons of guano, worth about 135,000,000 dollars (£29,250,000).

At first, owing to the enormous mass of guano left to accumulate undisturbed for centuries, the very natural error was made of reckoning the quantity deposited at too high an estimate, and the amount annually taken at too low a figure.[129] Hence it happened that a few native and many foreign writers have spoken of these islands as affording a supply which only centuries could exhaust. It is now, however, ascertained that, supposing the export proceeds at its present rate, only 25 to 30 years will elapse ere the entire strata of excremental manure of all the three Chincha Islands will have been carried off!

Notwithstanding ample supplies of guano have been discovered besides all along the west coast of South America, on uninhabited islands and promontories, and upwards of 7,000,000 tons of this valuable commodity been found on the islands south of Callao alone,[130] yet, even should this statement turn out correct, it would only supply the existing demand for other 10 or 15 years, while the formation of beds of guano must year after year become more and more confined to solitary, inaccessible islands of the Southern Ocean. For so soon as such beds of guano begin to be explored, they are quickly abandoned by the birds, which are gradually retreating from the islands along the coast and the usual channels of commerce.

The Peruvian Government does not seem to realize the calamity impending over the country on the exhaustion of the guano beds, which would dry up one of its principal sources of revenue. Certainly it seems impossible to make a more unwise use of the immense sums which are flowing into the State treasury. Nothing is done for making roads or railways so as to furnish intercourse with the fertile provinces of the interior, or to raise and encourage agriculture or commerce. Just as this revenue does not result from the energy or industrial activity of the people, it is expended without any object of utility to show for it. The Government pockets the dues as a monopoly, and expends the sums thus obtained in avaricious schemes of aggrandizement, or warlike expeditions against Ecuador and Bolivia, which keep the country in perpetual hot water, and only add to its burthens. The guano duties go in gunpowder! Lightly won, as lightly gone!

During the nine days of our voyage between Valparaiso and Callao de Lima there were some musicians on board, who gave us a concert on deck every evening. As we left the Chincha Islands some frolicsome young Peruvians, disregarding the discord of the flute and violin, and unmindful of the timeless tuneless twanging of the two harps, got up a dance.

In the course of the night we ran into Callao harbour, and when I came on deck, in the cool of the morning, I found we were already lying at anchor in this spacious and secure port. The tradition that with a calm sea and a clear sky it is possible to perceive the ruins of the old town, with its houses and church-towers, which sank here suddenly in 1746 by the shock of an earthquake, has survived to the present day, and is told to every new-comer, who greedily swallows it down, though not one of the narrators has ever beheld the marvel with his own eyes! Earthquakes, indeed, are by no means so frequent as at the beginning of the present century, when it was rare for a fortnight to elapse without at least one temblore or horizontal oscillation. The vertical shocks (terra-motos), the most dangerous kind of earthquake, have not occurred here since 1828. The season at which earthquakes most frequently occur are the months of March, April, and September, whence the latter month has received from the people the jocular name of "Se tiembla!" (it trembles!) One Peruvian who has long occupied himself with scientific observations has repeatedly witnessed that a magnet, freely suspended, regularly lost its attractive powers a few minutes before each shock, and that a piece of steel held by the magnetic force fell to the ground. If this be confirmed by a series of observations the magnet might ultimately become a sort of earthquake-monitor.

The Callao of the present day is a dirty, ugly hole, with narrow streets, and low houses built principally of mud and cane, with flat roofs. Only a few of the houses of foreigners, erected out of hearing of the hubbub of the port, form a grateful exception. The entire population will be about 20,000 souls.

The most interesting building of the port is undoubtedly the new Custom House with 31 colossal magazines, each capable of containing six to eight entire ships' freights. I repeatedly heard complaints made of the slovenliness of the attendants, in consequence of which it frequently happened that days elapsed ere goods, paid for, were delivered out of bond. The warehouse charge is very small, and consists chiefly of stamp-duties, which are imposed on the money paid for goods. The trade of Callao is apparently on the increase, and, considering the productiveness of the country, would be even greater, were internal order restored, when peace and confidence would follow in its train.

As I had to prosecute my journey northwards by the next steamer, I hastened on to Lima, so as to satisfy my curiosity as to this the most important city of Peru in modern days. A few hours after my arrival in Callao, I found myself on the road to the "City of the Kings."[131] Only a few years back the journey from Callao to Lima, though only six English miles, was an exceedingly arduous and even dangerous undertaking. The road lay through a shadeless desert of deep sand, between uncultivated fields and low scrubs, and was absolutely unsafe owing to attacks of robbers. Now it is a frequent excursion, a tolerably good railroad performing the distance in about half an hour.

By the kindness of Mr. Wilhelm Brauns, the Consul-General of Hamburg, and head of the distinguished English house Huth, Grüning, and Co.,[132] to whom I brought letters of introduction, and who was most kindly in waiting for me. I was speedily and pleasantly conveyed from the station in Lima, to take up my quarters in his house till I took my leave. Owing to this fortunate event, I found myself unexpectedly brought into the very thick of the very best German society. Nowhere in the course of many years of travel in various countries, all over the globe, did I meet with more cordial hospitality, or a more delightful reception, than during my 19 days' stay in the "City of the Kings."

On our way from the station to the house of Mr. Brauns, I remarked that the houses in every part of the city that we passed were painted with variegated stripes, and heard, to my intense astonishment, that, in consequence of a recent decree of the Government, every householder in each quarter was ordered, with a view to facilitating the identification of their houses, to paint them of a colour corresponding with the coloured official plans of the city! Accordingly in one quarter all the houses were green, in another yellow, in a third white, in a fourth reddish, and in a fifth sky-blue. As in all Spanish American cities exposed to earthquakes, most of the houses in Lima also are but one storey high. The larger buildings are constructed of sun-dried bricks or fire clay, the smaller of cane set up double, with the space between filled up with clay, and the whole whitewashed. Their most singular feature is the flat roofs, which consist of a layer of cane and straw mats, which, for better security, occasionally have a coating of clay. Thus an open space (Azotea), surrounded by balustrades, is secured, which is used as a playground by children, and serves as a promenade for the grown-up portion of the community. Some of the windows communicate with the roof by a sort of trap-door, which instead of sashes of glass has shutters of wood, which communicate with the rooms beneath by a long cord, so that they can be opened or shut from below at pleasure. Many of the chambers in the interior of the house get light and air solely through these apertures (called Ventana de Teatinas, because first introduced by the Theatine monks), while windows properly so-called are less numerous, and when looking towards the street are usually provided with large, broad, sometimes richly-gilt iron shutters. We saw these curious cords for opening and shutting the trap-doors in the roof hanging down in the middle of even elegantly-furnished apartments, and not even the circumstance of being made of silk prevented their having a peculiar and ungraceful effect.

The mode of constructing the houses, together with the elegant ornamentation of the open courts (patìo) of the interior, speedily remind the stranger that he is in a place where rain (at least according to Northern ideas) is an unknown phenomenon, since one single, even down-pour must inevitably do immense damage in the Lima of the present day. During the winter months, however, as they are called, viz. June to November, fogs (garuas) are very frequent, which, albeit light, are sufficiently penetrating thoroughly to soak the pedestrian or horseman who happens to be surprised by them. I have myself repeatedly experienced in Lima fogs of such density, that it was quite practicable to count each separate drop. During these winter months, fine, clear days free of all cloud are comparatively rare; but the statement one occasionally hears, that for five months together the sun is invisible in Lima, is an exaggeration. The temperature of Lima is much lower than we could expect from a city within 12 degrees of the Equator, and seems to be affected principally by the proximity of the eternal snows of the Andes, and the prevailing atmospheric currents. The thermometer never rises higher than 85°.8 Fahr., nor falls below 68°.2 Fahr. The average temperature during the hot season is 77°, and during the cold 63°.5 Fahr. Such a climate renders fires superfluous, and it is more habit than necessity that induces some Spanish families to carry about copper or iron pans (Brasero) filled with live coal, with which to warm their hands or feet.

The exteriors and internal equipments of the dwellings are very simple and devoid of ornament, only a few of the older buildings, such, for instance, as the house of Torre Tagle, near San Pedro, forming the exception. Among the architectural decorations, which preserve to the present day the tradition of the glories of the Peruvian kingdom, one may marvel at majestic designs and beautiful mosaics, which even in their ruin tell of the magnificent luxury that was once indulged in here.

The streets are wide and tolerably regular, but the absence of gutters and the wretched foundation of the roadway prevent their being used by carriages or horsemen, or by pedestrians even more than they can help. The open ditches at either side are full of filth and animal impurities, which are continually being thrown in, and but for the services of numerous carrion crows (cathartes fœtens), who perform the duties of scavengers, Lima, owing to the supineness of the native authorities, would be one of the filthiest and most unhealthy cities in South America. But the gallinazos, as these black-headed birds are called by the natives, although lazy and unwieldy, nevertheless are in such immense numbers here, that they suffice to keep the streets comparatively free from putrescent odours. Everywhere, even in the thick of places of public resort, one sees these birds, which no one injures on account of their usefulness, and which even the rising generation never think of disturbing in their disgusting avocations, hopping about upon the bare ground, and gorging themselves on the garbage around.

One of the greatest improvements to the city is its almost universal illumination by gas, which in the evening imparts a peculiar charm to the streets and fashionable shops of Lima, and enables them, in this particular at least, to vie with those of the capitals of Europe.

The largest buildings in Lima are, as we might expect from a country conquered and colonized by Spaniards, the churches and monasteries, of which there are in this capital no fewer than eighty. Many of these Spanish memorials, of a religious epoch more bigoted than sincere, are at present decayed, and even those which are still preserved in something like good order fail to charm the eye by any graces of architecture or majestic simplicity in their interior fittings up. The Cathedral even, which takes up almost the entire east side of the chief square, is no exception to this rule, and, though it was 90 years in erection, is after all a very indifferent edifice. The interior is lofty and spacious, but owing to the choir having its proportions curtailed by a wide altar in the midst, one perceives on entering the church only the smaller half, so that the impression is destroyed, which, but for this interposed erection, would undoubtedly be made by the high altar, richly overlaid with gold and silver, seen through the vista of the entire building. The ornaments, the sacred vessels, and censers used in performing mass are exceedingly rich and valuable, but are too much overlaid to please an æsthetic taste. In the catacombs of the Cathedral repose the remains of Francisco Pizarro. Few strangers omit to visit this spot, and usually feel as much surprised as pleased at finding offered them for sale by the sacristan, various sorts of relics of the renowned conqueror of Peru, though all cannot hope to be so fortunate as an English lady at Lima, who informed me with all gravity that she had purchased from a guide a slipper taken from the coffin of Pizarro. Should this mania for relics on the part of visitors, and readiness to humour it on the part of vergers, continue unchecked, there will remain ere long in the catacombs only an empty shell, in which once lay the celebrated Conquistador. Perhaps, though, the speculative sacristan contents himself with gratifying the wishes of curiosity-loving visitants, by means similar to those of the artful cicerone who accompanies the enthusiastic stranger in his rambles among the ruins of classic antiquity.

The monastery of San Francisco is more worth notice for its immense extent, which equals in size many an old imperial walled city of Suabia, than for elegance of style or tasteful artistic interior. The façade, painted in various colours, and overlaid with ornament, resembles by far more a Buddha temple than a Roman Catholic church. The corridors are the finest part of the building, their wooden ceilings being very richly carved. On all the walls of the passages are suspended drawings illustrative of the lives of various holy men, which, however, singular to say, are hung with their faces to the wall, and are only turned round on appointed festivals to charm the eyes of believers!

The church is very roomy within, but quite bare of ornament. The sacristan with evident pride directed our attention to San Benito, a "black" saint, who was held in high esteem by the negroes, probably on account of his colour. Quite close to the monastery is the "Casa de Ejercicios," whither the monks repair at certain periods of the year to perform the prescribed religious exercises. The cells here have a more comfortless look than in the cloister proper. A bed-frame with a skin stretched upon it, a hard stool, a plain table, a crucifix, and a human skull, comprise the entire inventory. The latter, the cranium of a departed brother, was covered with numerous aids to religious meditation, some written, some carved on the substance of the bone.

The lay-brother who escorted us round had not long been a denizen of this gloomy monastic abode. Though still very young, he was leaving behind him a tolerably enlarged experience of the world. Starting as a gold-digger in California, he became a gambler and speculator, when he quickly lost all he had so laboriously wrested from the soil, and returned to Lima, where, more for the sake of change and comfort than for any special vocation or imperious spiritual necessity, he had entered the order of Franciscans. His temperament being much more that of a man of the world than a monk, he must have felt himself sorely hampered by the restrictions of monastrism, were it not for the lax morality which is the standard of convent life in the capital of Peru; but the monk's cowl is in Lima not only the attire of humility and resignation, it is likewise the cloak for all manner of licentiousness and hypocrisy—the "surtout" which conceals many a lapse from virtue!

The monastery of San Pedro was the wealthiest in Lima, so long as it remained the property of the Jesuits. When, in 1773, the order went forth for the suppression of the Order throughout South America, it was not executed without the Spanish viceroy's cherishing certain secret hopes of obtaining large riches. The Jesuits, however, on this occasion vindicated their reputation for subtlety, which has become proverbial among mankind. When the inventory was taken, nothing but empty boxes were to be found, and the most strict investigations and inquiries led to no more favourable result.

Among the hospitals which we visited, that of San Andres deserves foremost notice for its size and comprehensiveness. It has room for 600 patients, who are tended by 50 Sœurs de la Charité, the majority of whom are French. The yellow fever, which, introduced in 1852 by immigrants, penetrated deep into the interior, though of a milder type, had of late carried off numerous victims, and indeed had seriously weakened the hygienic good name[133] of Lima; the small-pox also had annually committed fearful ravages; for vaccination is not made imperative by law, and inoculation is therefore neglected. Besides the hospital of St. Andrew, there are others for female patients, for the military, for incurables and imbeciles, an asylum for orphans,[134] and one for foundlings.[135]

The best managed hospital apparently is that of Santa Anna, the wards of which are roomy, light, and airy, and make up about 350 beds. On the other hand, a portion of the above hospital set apart for those mentally afflicted, as also the regular Lunatic Asylum (casa de Locos), were in a state of filth and neglect, that are a positive disgrace to the present century. It is, in fact, a singular consideration that in every quarter of the globe men have only now begun to bethink them of their duties to those unhappy fellow-creatures, whose wretched lot should have commanded their most active sympathies! The reform of hospitals, and even of prisons and penitentiaries, had long been carried out in Europe, before asylums especially designed for the treatment of lunatics were projected. I must not, however, omit to add, in justice to the philanthropic society (Sociadad de Beneficiencia), to whose management the whole of the hospitals and poor-houses of the capital are intrusted, that a new Lunatic Asylum was in course of construction, the cost of which will amount to 85,000 dollars (about £17,800).

The Hospital de los Locos (Hospital for the Insane) in the Cercado is all on the ground-floor, with chambers used at once for sitting-room, dining-room, and bed-chamber, but with accommodation for about 200 patients. Twenty of the cells are set apart exclusively for refractory patients. The institution is in charge of Dr. Ulloa, one of the most skilful of the native physicians, who studied both in France and England. The patients are tended by the Grey Sisterhood, which has only recently reached the country.

The old university buildings, on what formerly was called the Square of the Inquisition, now named Independence Square, are at present only used for festivities, examinations, conferring of degrees, &c. &c., while the different lectures are read in various buildings. I visited the School of Medicine, of which at that time Dr. Cajetano Herredia was rector, a gentleman more respectable for his zealous discharge of duty than by his scientific attainments. There are some good lecture-rooms, a chemical laboratory, a small museum, consisting mainly of pathological specimens, and a very fair library, which boasts several really valuable and little-known prints and books, especially such as relate to the history of Peru. One of the Professors, Don Antonio Raimondi, a Neapolitan by birth, bids fair to raise the reputation of the School of Medicine of Lima by his extensive knowledge and excellent mode of instruction. This gentleman teaches several branches of Natural History, and, during the short period he has been in Lima, has already given practical proof of his activity in a variety of fields.

Unfortunately Professor Raimondi, with a number of his pupils, was absent on an excursion for practical scientific instruction, so that I was deprived of the opportunity of making his personal acquaintance. In his studio I saw two very remarkable skulls of Indians, which, owing to artificial pressure, had assumed a most singular form, one of which had belonged to an Indian of Cuzco, the other to a native of the Chincha tribe, who reside between Pisco and Cañete. I was also shown on the same occasion a female skull in such excellent preservation, that one could still easily perceive the expression of the face. This was the skull of a half-breed Indian woman, named Maria Palacel, aged 25, who had died in the hospital of Santa Anna, 27th Sept. 1856, of dysentery, and on 1st March, 1859, nearly two and a half years later, had been disinterred in a state of complete preservation. Nature had in this case taken on herself the process of embalming, and had, owing to the dryness of the atmosphere, and the quantity of saline matter in the soil, secured results which in Europe could only have been obtained artificially and at a considerable expense.

Adjoining the Escuela de Medecina is the National Library, a large building containing some 30,000 volumes, treating of every department of human knowledge, but which, owing to want of means, has of late years received hardly any accession. The librarian is Don Francisco de Paula Vigil, a highly intelligent and liberal-minded priest and man of the world, who had been excommunicated by Pio Nono on account of his learned work, "Defence of the Principles of Secular Authority against the Pretensions of the Holy See." Nothing daunted by the fulmination of this penalty, the excellent old gentleman is prosecuting his researches yet farther, and is energetically defending his principles; and what is still more surprising, he has anything but fallen off in public estimation in consequence. This is due to the fact that, unlike the female population, the Peruvians are very tolerant in religious matters, and rather averse from those pre-disposed to spiritual matters, whence there results the very small influence of the Peruvian clergy, everywhere visible, and the obstinate virulent enmity with which also, since the Spanish yoke was cast off, the priestly party oppose the progress of liberal ideas. This feeling is moreover powerfully aided by the ghastly testimony of history, that it was the monks who first introduced the rack and the Inquisition into the country.

Father Vigil received me with much cordiality, and we had a long talk upon a variety of subjects. At last it turned upon his own well-known work, and the painful position in which he felt himself with respect to the See of Rome. This was the most interesting portion of our conversation. "It is not Catholicism that has made the majority of Catholic nations lag so woefully in the career of progress," exclaimed the venerable priest, "but that which Catholicism has suffered to be mixed up with it,—the Inquisition and Monasticism. It is marriage and labour that make individuals moral and useful, and nations great and powerful. Human society can get on very well without monks or nuns, but not without morals, not without matrimony and labour."

Had I not transcribed these words almost at the moment they were spoken, I should hardly have dared to repeat them here, for I durst not have trusted to my memory, that a Spanish American priest, should have made such a remark in the "city of the Three Kings." These revelations, which are far from being solitary, but find a responsive echo in the bosoms of a portion at least of the male population of the capital, are highly important in arriving at a conclusion respecting the actual religious sentiment of the Peruvian Republic, and are very marked indications that an immense movement is likewise preparing in the Catholic Church on the further side of the Andes; and that Peru also has found its "Father Passaglia." Nay, it would not surprise me in the least, should South America, which for upwards of three centuries has been dumbly obeying the behests of spiritual intolerance, suddenly emit letters and propositions which would amount to a virtual separation from the Roman Catholic Church! It is but a few years since Catholic priests in the Legislative Assemblies of Nicaragua and Honduras recorded their votes in favour of repealing the ordinance of celibacy, and from their pulpits harangued their flocks on the advantages of revolutionary insurrection!

In a wing of the Library buildings is the National Museum, which, however, merely fills two moderate-sized apartments. The Natural History collection is in such a wretched neglected state that it is in imminent danger, the ornithological department especially, of being entirely eaten up by insects.

Amongst the most valuable are some Peruvian antiquities, such as weapons, mummies, and what are called Huacos, earthen jars, pots, and other utensils from ancient Indian graves. To the historical student the portraits of the whole of the Viceroys and Governors of Peru, which are suspended on the walls of the first apartment in chronological order, will prove extremely interesting. The finest head of the series, the one which most clearly tells of manly vigour, acuteness, and energy, is that of Francisco Pizarro, the natural son of a Spanish nobleman, who tended swine in his boyhood, and ended his life as Viceroy of Peru, having been slain by an assassin in the 64th year of his age.

Of the educational institutions, the only one deserving special remark is the "Escuela Normal Central" (Central Normal School), established by Government, at an expense of 160,000 dollars (£33,600), and opened in 1859. Its object is to provide suitable school instruction for industrious children of poor or aged parents; but hitherto the prefects of the provinces have, by protection, presented almost exclusively children of persons of means and position, and sent them on to the capital. Owing to the great want of good schools hitherto, it happens that every one crowds towards this new institute, which seems to promise to its pupils a more complete education and better training than any other. The number for which it was destined was 40 boarders and 200 day-scholars, the former of whom are well taken care of.

The system of education pursued is the Lancasterian, and is carried out by five professors. The estimated annual expenditure is about 20,000 dollars. One of the directors, Mr. J. C. Braun, a German by birth, who not long before had come to Lima to settle, and taught Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, accompanied me throughout the extensive building, and specially pointed out a class-room comfortably and even elegantly fitted up, as also a small museum of Natural History, with an excellent geological collection, and a small library attached to it. Singularly enough, the latter comprises a great number of school-books in much request among Protestant pedagogues. Apparently an order had been sent, without specifying any particular writers, to purchase good school-books at some German publishing-house, and now the Catholic youth of bigoted Lima is taught from the works of Protestant teachers! Various surveys and maps covered the walls of this class-room, all bearing evidence of their German origin in the names of publishers and places, most of them having been sent out from the distinguished house of Justus Perthes in Gotha.

One very remarkable and characteristic incident occurred at the opening of the school, at which were present the President of the Republic, Don Ramon de Castella, so hated and dreaded for his despotism, together with several senators and deputies. The Rector, Don Miguel Estorch, laid considerable stress, in the course of his address, upon the importance of really effective schools in a State, and maintained that, when children are well brought up, there is no longer any need of so large sums being spent for police and standing army to keep up security and order in the country. This remark, which made a deep impression on all present, nevertheless gave much offence to the President, who rose and replied, in a tone of considerable asperity, that the Rector's view was erroneous, and that a proper military force was as indispensable as a good system of education; that it least of all became the Rector to touch upon such a topic in that place and such presence.

Under the present political régime, it is out of the question to look for anything like intellectual vigour in Lima, so sparse are the elements of such. There is an utter absence of that sympathy, interest, and support which is necessary to its existence, alike on the part of Government and of society at large.[136] Works, such as Manuel Fuentes' valuable "Estadistica General de Lima" (General Statistics of Lima), can only be considered as solitary special performances. Also in the field of Journalism there is no person of mark visible, and even the few journals which appear in Lima, such as the Comercio and the Independiente, have a very limited circulation. As only a small proportion of the population can read or interest itself in politics, the principles advocated in those journals exercise no influence, so that Government has less difficulty in acting up to them than would otherwise be the case.

One thing that particularly struck me was the hostility displayed to Austria, which, during my stay in Lima, manifested itself in the daily press and a fraction of the population. The politics of Austria were discussed with a bitterness of hate, which was the more surprising in a nation which is itself a prey to intestine disorders, and suffers itself to be led about a willing captive, in the fetters of a half-Indian despot. I found, however, the clue to this excited language, when I learned on one occasion, that there are upwards of 8000 Piedmontese in Lima and Callao alone, chiefly shop-keepers and shipping-owners, who exercise a certain influence upon the native population. The war in Europe had so raised anew the pride of country in each Italian, and filled him with such sanguine patriotic aspirations and hopes of a united Italy, that his heated fancy beheld in every incident of the war the most righteous struggle that ever was engaged in, and in the opposite party the most detestable and inhuman of opponents.

Among such an auditory as those in which such opinions were ventilated, there was no difficulty in finding adherents. The ignorance of the native population respecting all countries on the other side of the Andes became conspicuously evident in the course of the discussion. Of Italy and her plains they had at least heard tell, since Peru maintains a pretty active trade with Genoa. If I am not mistaken, the great revolutionary leader and popular idol of Italy was once captain of a ship along the Peruvian coast, and left here many a friend and well-wisher to his cause and himself. Of Austria, on the other hand, there were simply dim rumours flitting about as of some shadowy land, or the vanished empire of the Incas. Singular to say, it was precisely the renowned Concordat made with the Papacy which had brought such discredit on Austrian policy among the Roman Catholic population. I dare not repeat here the strong language which was used, not alone in the journals but to myself personally, by educated Peruvians and foreigners settled here.

In fact, all the misery that Peru has suffered since its subjugation by the Spaniards, and its present drooping condition, is here universally ascribed to the overwhelming influence of Spanish monks and priests in secular affairs. It has not yet been forgotten that monks stood at the head of the Inquisition,—that for centuries the people groaned under their oppressive sway. Conscious of their own fate, and the condition to which the clerical weapons reduced the puerile half-civilized races which inhabit Mexico and Central America, the lively imagination of the Peruvians led to consequences resulting from such a state-policy far more disastrous than could possibly be the case among a free-souled people like the Austrians. For it is the chief merit of European civilization, that every political measure threatening to impede the march of ideas by any process of fettering men's minds, only serves to evoke a more restless activity, as in our actual state of human culture enlightenment and science form far too formidable a bulwark for reaction to obtain any permanent success, or even to succeed in overleaping.

Among the excursions which I made during my stay in Peru, there were two of special interest,—a ride to the ruins of Cajamarquilla, and a visit to the Temple of the Sun at Pachacamác, the erection of which dates from a period antecedent to the dynasty of the Incas.

The ruins of Cajamarquilla are about nine English miles distant from the capital. Owing to the insecurity of life and property even in the region immediately around the capital, these ruins are but rarely visited. But very few strangers settled in Lima knew these ruins, and it required a long time ere I could procure the slightest information respecting them. My excellent host, Mr. Braun, who very soon perceived how much my heart was set on visiting these ancient Indian ruins, exerted himself to make up a party for me. It was a piece of real friendliness undertaken with the very kindest intentions, but unfortunately scientific objects do not usually admit of being mixed up with pleasure-parties, it being very difficult to unite the two. About twenty horsemen, chiefly English, had assembled to make the excursion. Among our company there were also a few ladies, whom the difficulties and dangers could not deter from joining us. As we had to take with us provisions for the entire party, a string of mules heavily laden with prog had been sent off early in the morning to the goal of our excursion. These preparations seemed to be by far the most important in the eyes of a majority of the cavalcade, after their arrival at the ruins themselves, an examination of which was evidently the last thing they had thought of when they bestrode their steeds in the morning.

The road to the ruins of Cajamarquilla is excessively fatiguing, rough, and rocky: nothing but climbing over rocky hills, upon which close to the very edge of the precipice is a faint Indian track, or crossing torrents, where the horse sinks to his crupper in the water, so that only a practised horseman can save himself from a thorough soaking.

Immediately on leaving the city begins a tract of desolate sterile stone-fields, in the midst of which one reaches what is known as the Hacienda de Pedrero, a lonely farm, where, it being as usual a fête-day of some Peruvian saint, a dozen field labourers had collected under the shadow of the verandah round the farm-house, blissfully occupied in doing nothing. No two of these were of the same breed; there were men of every variety of race and shade of colour; whites, Indians, Chinese, Negroes, Mulattoes, Mestizoes, Chinos, Sambos, Quadroons, &c. &c., and this specimen in little of the population of Peru would lead any observer to conjecture correctly as to the main reason of the low position held by the country in the scale of nations. As in the Hacienda of San Pedrero, so throughout the country one encounters fifty coloured men of all shades for one full-blooded white. In Chile, on the other hand, one has to penetrate deep into the interior before one finds any traces of the Indian stock, while of negro population, (and this is the greatest advantage enjoyed by that Republic over Peru,) there is absolutely none. In the settled parts along the coast of Chile there are none but whites, and even the working classes are Spaniards, English, German, Italians, and North Americans. The preponderating white element in the population, their greater intelligence, energy, and perseverance, form the principal source of that intellectual and political activity which has placed Chile far in advance of the other Southern and Central-American Republics, and is opening a brilliant future to that State, far surpassing that of any of the neighbouring republics.

From the Hacienda de San Pedrero it is half an hour's ride to that of Guachipa and the Neveria of Don Pablo Sassio, where we engaged a guide, who accompanied us a couple of miles further to the goal of our excursion.

Cajamarquilla is an ancient Peruvian hamlet in the valley of and close to the river Rimac, which waters the whole district and makes it productive. The remains of the dwellings are built exclusively of sun-dried bricks, and the laying out of each single apartment differs little from the mode of constructing Indian huts at the present day. It must to all appearance have been an extensive place once, as the ruins cover eight to ten acres. Considering the little space which the Indian of the present day requires for his household gods, it may be assumed that this was a place of from 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. I saw no buildings of very remarkable dimensions, nor indeed any one the laying out of which designated it as once intended for religious purposes. The ruins are for the most part, relics of simple mud-huts, all similarly laid out in single chambers, differing from each other mainly in the greater or less dimensions of the apartments. Nothing here told of the existence of any buildings intended for public meetings, temples for worship, sacrificial altars, &c., such as one meets with in the ruined cities of Central America, in Copan, Quiriguá, Petén, Palenque, and so forth. One perceives that each of these huts, like those inhabited by the Indians at the present day, consisted of two compartments, the entire superficial area being from 36 to 42 feet square. The larger of the two apartments is about 60 feet, the smaller from 12 to 18 feet in width and depth. Nowhere could we discern a trace of that special construction which is observable among the Indian races of the high lands of Guatemala, and is there usually employed for taking vapour-baths (Temaskal.)

To form any notion of the antiquity of these buildings is doubly difficult in a climate where it never rains and the temperature is the same throughout the year, and where consequently buildings are not exposed to the destructive alternations of cold, damp, and scorching heat, as in other less favoured countries. Even earthquakes are here not so much to be dreaded as where houses are of brick or stone, since the Adoba possesses far more elasticity than intractable building material, and is therefore better able to withstand the repeated undulations of the earth's surface.

The site of the town, which lies in a long deep valley surrounded on all sides by hills of the most fantastic shape, rising to a height of from 8000 to 10,000 feet, is exceedingly grand. Unfortunately when we visited it, all the peaks and hills of the country around were naked, barren, and bleak-looking. But in winter after the first dews have fallen, those slopes and table-lands that now looked so desolate are covered with dense deep-green verdure, when they make a far more agreeable impression on the beholder.

Of trees I saw only a few kinds of bamboo and acacia, which, more spreading than lofty, were visible in the swampy ground along the edges of the torrents. Some of the hills around seem at first sight like artificial fortifications, but when we approach closer there is not the slightest indication of Cajamarquilla having ever been a fort or place of defence. To all appearance the spot, at the time of the Spaniards first coming to Peru, was inhabited by the Quichua Indians, who afterwards either abandoned voluntarily their peaceful abodes through dread of their pursuers, or were driven thence by violence. None of the present inhabitants of the vicinity, to whom I spoke, could give us any definite information as to the ancient history of the ruins, and one hoary Indian, named Pablo Plata, who lives in the village of Guachipa, and remembers some wild traditions respecting Cajamarquilla, which he received by word of mouth from preceding generations, I unfortunately missed seeing owing to the shortness of my stay.

Quite close to the remains of the town, is at present a large Hacienda, with magnificent clover pasturages, fertilized by the river Rimac. It was at one of these green oases that our company sat down to a comfortable pic-nic, which spoke volumes for the preparations that had been made for creature comforts. No small portion of what had been brought with us was left on the field, to be gobbled up by the clouds of negroes that crowded round, glad of the opportunity of tasting something cooked in the European fashion, though they do not like them as well as the product of their own wretched native kettles. Thus, for example, our guide, a negro, preferred vegetables and dulce (sweets) to meat, and declared sherry and cognac offered him to be "too strong."

If not in ease and comfort, at any rate in scientific interest, I found my excursion to Cajamarquilla surpassed by that made to Pachacamác in the valley of Lurin, which I made in company with some friend, and in the course of which I stayed behind the rest of my party, in company with the flag-lieutenant of the since world-renowned frigate Merrimac.

My visit to Pachacamác was, however, in so far less interesting than that to Cajamarquilla, that the greater part of the road, as far as Chorillos, was accomplished by railroad, the remainder of the way being over sand barrens, abhorred by both steed and rider.

Chorillos, about nine miles from Lima, and a favourite watering-place of the inhabitants of the capital, with salt-water baths and gaming-tables, lies in a small romantic cove, but is of rather difficult access, owing to the steep sand-hills which, 150 to 200 feet in height, bar all access from seaward. Formerly the ride to Chorillos, like that from Callao to the capital, was performed under considerable difficulty and danger, whence it has not seldom resulted that visitors to the watering-place, who have made money at the tables of Chorillos, have on their homeward ride to Lima been eased of their winnings by some of their previous companions over the board of green cloth! At present one bowls thither over a well-made road, easily and without dread of being called on to "stand and deliver," since, even in Peru, people have not yet succeeded in amalgamating railroads and robbery.

The little place itself boasts of a few good dwelling-houses, and some 100 to 150 Ranchos of wood and adobes, or constructed of mud and reeds, in which delectable abodes the good folk from the capital are content to pass the hottest and most unhealthy months of the year (from January to May). These Ranchos, very unsightly without and exceedingly poorly furnished, are sometimes most habitable within-doors, and fitted with delightful verandahs or open porches, in which the free-and-easy occupants loll about in grass hammocks or rocking-chairs, fanned by the cool sea-breezes, in a state of dreamy dolce-far-niente. Altogether Chorillos is a very unpretending and altogether uncomfortable place, in which there is little room for elegancy or self-assertion, the President of the Republic himself occupying a wretched, dirty Rancho. Don Ramon passes most of his time in the gaming-room, where he is a much-desired and most welcome guest, on account of the large sums which he is in the habit of wagering.

On a lovely June morning, about 6.30 A.M., we rode out of Chorillos, and three hours later reached the ancient Pachacamác,[137] a Quichua village close to the sea-shore, with the temple of the Sun there existent at a period antecedent to the Incas, and which was afterwards dedicated by the Incas to the service of the invisible God. These ruins are much older than those of Cajamarquilla. They are partly of clay-tile, but by far the largest part consists of hewn stone, held together by mortar, the whole presenting, even in its ruined state, a lasting and massive aspect. Of the temple which once stood here, there is, however, no trace at present visible beyond mere indistinct traces of the foundation.

In the midst of a spacious Indian village there is seen a hill about 400 feet high, with artificial terraces in regular gradation, and surrounded by lofty walls, that look as though they had been battlemented. On this rising ground once stood the temple which the Yuncas had built in honour of their chief god. Somewhat later, when this wild race had been subdued by the Incas, these consecrated the temple in honour of the Sun, flung out the idols of the Yuncas, and designed a number of royal virgins for its service. Pizarro, however, completed the work of destruction, when, with his fanatical followers, he penetrated, in 1534, into the valley of Lurin, hitherto the most populous and peacefully prosperous of the entire Peruvian coast. The villages were laid waste, the temple overthrown, and its virgin priestesses delivered over to the brutal soldiery, and afterwards put to death.

Quite close to the ruins, as they lie scattered along the coast, the island of Pachacamác, or Morosolar, rises from the bottom of the ocean, scarcely accessible owing to its steep, precipitous sides, and on which there is not a single architectural memorial of any sort to be found, as erroneously stated, or copied, by several authors.

From the summit of the hill the visitor finds a surprising landscape, stretching over the beautiful and fertile valley of Lurin; it is difficult to imagine a more vivid and delightful contrast than is presented by the greyish-brown, sandy, far-extending ruins, and the soft verdure of the surrounding plain, variegated with the hues of every description of tropical plant. The attention is further arrested by the singularity of the abounding vegetation beginning close to the sea, where sugar-cane and grass flourish in the most luxuriant superabundance, while scarcely a half-mile distant the landscape resumes the barren, sandy features, which extend for miles inland. Not till the Lurin valley is reached does the magnificence of tropical vegetation again enliven the scene.

After a cursory examination of the locality, we passed the night at an adjoining Hacienda, a large sugar plantation and refinery, which employs 180 Chinese coolies. Each Chinese labourer receives rations of rice and vegetables, besides four dollars a month, and binds himself to stay eight years with his employer, to repay the latter's outlay for his voyage, &c. The speculator, however, who imports the coolies from the northern provinces of China receives a premium of 300 dollars for every coolie imported. The Chinese whom we saw at Lurin, as indeed all those we encountered throughout Peru, were very filthy and depressed-looking, but seemed in good health, and, on the whole, better off than in Brazil or the West Indies. We were told that two Chinese will not get through so much work as one negro. There are at present about 10,000 Chinese in Peru, who have been imported by speculators during the last ten years, to some of whom their deportation has been a vast benefit, since, after their eight years' service, they are free, and may and do begin to work zealously on their own account. In Peru, as in the Indies, Java, and indeed wherever they are employed, the Chinese cling close to each other, and mutually assist each other, should any of their number fall into poverty.

The following morning early we paid a second visit to the ruins of Pachacamác, and took with us from the Hacienda a number of negroes, with working implements, for the purpose of digging up and examining the graves. At various points, especially close to the hill on which stands what probably was once a fort, we found a great number of skulls lying about. Most of those we picked up had been artificially compressed, though they did not all seem to have had the pressure applied at the same place, thus affording unmistakeable proof that artificial pressure had been resorted to here. Many of the skulls, though they had been interred for centuries, were still thickly covered with hair. There cannot be a doubt that most of those buried here belonged to the race which occupied this part of the country when the Spaniards first visited it, for after the occupation and the subsequent wholesale baptisms which the proselytizing monks performed upon the ignorant brown natives in droves, it is improbable that any of the Christianized Indians would thereafter be interred in unconsecrated earth.

The Peruvian Indians, as is well known, were accustomed to envelope their dead in coarse cloths, after which they were buried in basket or sack-shaped straw-plait work, certain objects and utensils being placed by their side, preference being given to those the deceased had most used in life. Thus, fish-nets, baskets, &c., were placed in the grave, and in the case of a chief, weapons, staffs with golden knobs, pots of wood or burnt earth, and so forth. The head usually reposes on a sort of pillow of grass or cotton. I brought away with me from Pachacamác about half a dozen of the most remarkably shaped of these skulls, as also some portions of mummified corpses, which the negroes had disinterred in my presence. All these objects were in excellent preservation, about three or four feet under the surface, some in simple graves, others in longish sepulchres of hewn stone, such as we might imagine were occupied by the wealthier class of the community. It is usual to find several skeletons (probably members of the same family) in each separate grave. I also found layers of woven stuffs, some of very superior design and finish, interposed between various corpses.

While the negroes were engaged in further excavations, I once more ascended the hill on which the Temple of the Sun must once have stood, and which to this day is called by the neighbouring inhabitants "Castillo del Sol." On the side next the sea, there are still visible a number of buttresses, which seem as though they had formed part of an older line of fortifications. There was nothing resembling a sacrificial altar, or to tell of the religious ceremonies that must once have been performed here. Here and there the material of the wall was still covered with a reddish tint, just as if it had been but recently painted. In several portions of the wall still standing, there were pieces of wood alternating with layers of mortar, now quite decayed, and affording unmistakeable evidence of the antiquity of the buildings. We also remarked in the walls of several of the Indian huts niche-shaped depressions, about 1 ¹⁄₂ feet deep by 1 ¹⁄₂ feet in length and width, the use of which has never been even plausibly conjectured. While the whole of the buildings of Cajamarquilla consisted of sun-dried tiles and bricks, those of Pachacamác seem to have been almost entirely built of stone hewn into the shape of tiles. So much of the wall as still remains is very strong and solid. According to tradition the walls of ancient Pachacamác once stretched as far as Cuzco, 240 miles distant E.N.E.!

The proprietor of the sugar plantation in the Lurin valley told me that he himself, about ten years previous, had seen mummies disinterred in the neighbourhood of Pachacamác, in the mouths of which were gold ornaments, while various objects were buried with them, such as small idols of gold and silver, staffs with golden buttons, earthen jars and vessels filled with Chicha (the well-known favourite intoxicating drink of the Indians), and fruits, the Chicha and fruits having remained in a wonderful state of preservation.[138]

On our way back to Chorillos we passed the beautifully situated village of Susco, environed with neat country-houses, which was a favourite summer retreat of the inhabitants of Lima, before Chorillos reached its present development. At present Susco is dreary and forsaken-looking.

When I reached Lima on my return from this interesting excursion, I had only a few days more left before I was to take steamer again en route to Panama, which I employed in riding about to examine all that was best worth seeing in the environs, and making a few parting calls.

One of the finest promenades in Lima is the Alameda Nueva, opened about two years previous, which lies on the road to Amancaes on the further bank of the Rimac, which divides the city into two unequal parts, of which, however, far the larger one, constituting indeed the city proper, lies on the left or southern bank. After the romantic descriptions I had read of the Rimac, I found myself woefully undeceived by the reality. Of the thundering rapids below the bridge, of which Castelnau gives us such a picturesque sketch, I found not a trace visible, the greater part of the river-bed, 150 to 200 feet wide, being quite dry, with a wretched little driblet of water trickling through it. The season of the year may, however, have contributed to this disenchanting prospect, and in August and September, when the melting snows and violent rain-storms of the neighbouring Cordilleras swell the brooks and rivers, they possibly impart a more imposing and lively aspect to the Rimac. The stone bridge over the river, which forms the communication with the suburb of San Lazaro, is a handsome structure, built in 1638-1640, from the designs of an Augustine monk, and cost nearly half a million dollars.

The Alameda Nueva consists of a long, wide lane, with pretty garden nurseries and flower-beds on either side, interspersed with tasteful marble statues life-size, the whole enclosed in an elegant iron railing richly ornamented. In the winter season, more particularly (June to September), this beautiful promenade is in great request, when, after a few heavy falls of dew, the hills and valleys of the environs are covered with verdure of the most delicate shades, and the residents of the capital wander through the lovely glades of Amancaes, which is so overrun with the yellow blossoms of the Amaryllis (Ismene Hamancaes of Herbert), that this fine plant has given its name to the whole valley. On such occasions quite a colony of booths is extemporized, where eatables and drinkables are consumed, and giants and dwarfs, panoramas and art-saloons, are thronged with visitors, while ballad-singers, musicians, rope-dancers, mountebanks, jugglers, gamblers, and thieves, are never weary of plying their various trades, to the lightening of the purses of the pleasure-seeking crowds.

Of public amusements and places of resort there are but few in Lima, and these not of a very refined description. The theatre is an old and downright ugly building, where Spanish comedians play indifferent pieces. An Italian operatic company proved a failure owing to want of subscribers, even the highest talent barely succeeding in gaining sufficient to charter a ship to carry the troupe back to Europe. The sole amusement, which never fails to collect a delighted multitude, is a bull-fight. These come off at intervals during the summer in the Plaza del Acho, in an uncovered amphitheatre specially built for the purpose, and constructed of sun-dried brick. On these days all Lima is in a state of excitement, and an incalculable crowd of curious sight-seers of both sexes are hastening through the Alameda Nueva to the arena, there to gloat over the bloody scene. Fully 12,000 to 15,000 human beings throng into the confined area; each hastily deposits his half dollar (2s.) of entrance-money, so as to get the chance of a better seat. One would think it must be to a splendid soul-elevating drama that they are flocking to listen to, whereas it is but the torture of a wretched herbivore that excites their depraved curiosity. The reader will excuse me for not reiterating the loathsome details of an often-told spectacle.

It is a fact of considerable historic interest that bull-fights are now confined to the Spaniards and to their coloured descendants, in the various regions of the globe whither her dominion has extended, and it seems but a fit pendent, that the laws of the same nation should, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, condemn to the galleys Roman Catholics who venture to embrace Protestantism.

We wish here to add one single remark of our own on a feature of the entertainment which we have not seen mentioned elsewhere, viz. what becomes of the flesh of the animals thus killed. It is forthwith cut up in quarters quite close to the arena, and sold at a reduced price to the populace, although it is a well-known physiological fact, that the meat of any animal killed in a state of rabid agony cannot be eaten without prejudice to the health. The negroes, however, erroneously maintain that meat thus killed is far more tender than that of cattle slaughtered in the ordinary mode, and the Government of Republican Peru finds it best to leave each to decide the physiology of the question by his own digestive powers.

Of the state of society in Lima I have little to say. A stranger finds it difficult to obtain a footing among the better families, especially if his stay be as limited as mine necessarily was. The high-pressure existence of the capital has of late years obliterated much of its former originality and poetry. He who saw Lima twenty years ago would hardly recognize it now-a-days. The "Saya" and the "Manto," those singular but in Lima once indispensable articles of apparel of the Limañas, which enabled them like masks to attend church or market, to join processions, in short, never left their face in the street or at the promenade, have entirely disappeared, and with them have necessarily gone many other peculiar habits and customs. Formerly no lady durst venture into the street without a "Saya" or "Manto;" now, on the contrary, she would run the risk of being insulted, or at least stared at, should she appear in public in this peculiar mask-like disguise. The ancient usages peculiar to the country must give way to French manners; the Saya, the close-fitting, usually black or cinnamon-coloured upper garment, which once was the customary attire, and consequently rendered a more careful toilette unnecessary, has made way for the voluminous crinolined silk dress, while the Manto, that heavy veil of a thick black silken material, which was thrown over the back, shoulders, and head, and drawn so close that there was only a small triangular space left through which peeped one eye, has been displaced by the long black head-dress which the Spanish women are accustomed to wear.

The ladies of Lima are usually of elegant, slight, graceful appearance, their chief attractions being brilliant complexion, large dark gleaming eyes, dazzling white teeth, rich black hair, and very neat little feet. They greatly reminded me of the Havana ladies, with whom they have much in common so far as regards the passion for personal adornment, while in figure and intelligent expression of face both lag far behind the ladies of Chile.

The gentlemen of Lima, by which term I allude chiefly to the white Creoles or pure descendants of the Spaniards, who constitute about one-third of the population,[139] do not leave that impression of a splendid future resulting from a prosperous development of the resources of the country, which might be reasonably expected if there were more intellectual movement, and more industrial and commercial activity apparent among their number. The state of affairs in Peru since its separation from Spain in 1822, the constant squabbles and civil wars, as also the fact that a mere mestizo, like Ramon Castilla, devoid of intellectual or moral pre-eminence, should have succeeded in getting himself declared President for life of the Republic,[140] are the best proofs of the political and moral degradation of the Republic of Peru. All the splendid territories from Peru to Mexico have, after three centuries of Spanish rule, sunk into a state of demoralization and degeneracy, owing to the listless, labour-hating, sluggish mestizo races that inhabit it, such as only the immigration of one of the hardy northern races can ever adequately remedy. In a previous visit to Central America, I have wandered through its rich scenery, clad in the hues of perpetual summer, and smiling in exuberance of fertility, and everywhere the same impression was made upon me. Almost the only effect this wealth of nature seems to exercise upon the Indian or negro mestizo is to incapacitate him from mastering by any effort of his own the lethargy that preys upon him. Where a few rare exceptions occur, as, for instance, in Costa Rica, in which a sounder policy is preserved, it is invariably found that they are of purer Spanish descent than their sister republics in tropical South America.[141]

Owing to their political organization, these various states can scarcely fail to be powerfully affected by the impulses of our time. They have no other prospect than that of becoming either an integral portion of the immense North American Federation, or of once more being consolidated into a monarchy under the sceptre of some scion of a European royal family. In all probability, whether they be North Americans, or English, or Germans, they will always be children of some of a more powerful race, who must ultimately subvert the races of the Southern type, awaken a new spirit of energy, and so carry out that which the lazy mixed races of the present time have neither the power nor the inclination to effect. An immigration of stilled Northerners can alone raise these countries politically and commercially, develope their natural resources, and restore them to the grade of civilized states.