The chacras, plots of ground distributed to the indians by the government, and held during life, are supposed to be an equivalent for the tribute; and indeed they are an excellent compensation, for the produce is usually worth six times more than the sum paid, leaving at least five-sixths for the expences or trouble of cultivation. To the great credit of the indians no land is any where kept in better condition, nor more attention paid to the crops, which generally consist of wheat, maize, beans, camotes, yucas, pumpkins, potatoes, and many kinds of vegetables. There is an abundance of fruit trees, the produce of which is often carried to Lima. The hedges are almost entirely composed of those trees, such as the orange, lime, guava, pacay, palta, &c. In some places the vine and the granadilla are seen creeping about, craving support for their slender branches, as if unable to sustain the burthen of fruit they are destined to bear. The maguey is much cultivated in the hedges; besides this destination it produces cordage for general uses, and the flower stems growing twenty feet high serve as beams for the houses, and other similar purposes; being, if kept dry, of almost everlasting duration.

I had an excellent opportunity here of observing the character, manners, and customs of the indians, with whom I was very much pleased. They are kind and hospitable, but timidity and diffidence make them appear reserved and somewhat sullen. Their maxims are founded on their own adage—convince me that you are really my friend, and rest secure: has ver que eres mi amigo, y hechate a dormir. Whether this distrust be a natural characteristic trait, or whether it be the result of the privations they have suffered since the Spaniards became their masters, it is difficult to decide; but at all events it surely cannot be called a crime.

The indians on the coast of Peru are of a copper colour, with a small forehead, the hair growing on each side from the extremities of the eyebrows; they have small black eyes; small nose, the nostrils not protruding like those of the African; a moderately sized mouth, with beautiful teeth; beardless chin (except in old age) and a round face. Their hair is black, coarse, and sleek, without any inclination to curl; the body is well proportioned, and the limbs well turned, and they have small feet. Their stature is rather diminutive, but they are inclined to corpulency, when they become inactive, and it is a common saying, that a jolly person is tan gordo como un cacique, as fat as a cacique. The perspiration from their bodies is acetous, which some have supposed to be caused by a vegetable diet. In the colder climates, although in the same latitude, the complexion of the indians is lighter, owing perhaps to the cold; however, the Araucanians, who enjoy a much colder climate, are of a dark copper colour.

I shall here endeavour to refute some of the aspersions thrown by several writers upon the character of the Peruvian indians, whom I hope to place, in the estimation of unbiassed men, in a situation more honourable to human nature than they have yet enjoyed; and thus one of my principal objects for publishing this narrative will be obtained.

M. Bouguer says, that "they are all extremely indolent, they are stupid, they pass whole days sitting in the same place, without moving, or speaking a single word." I believe I may state, that in all hot climates an inclination to indolence is common, nay even natural; a hot climate precludes bodily exertion, unless the cravings of nature are satisfied with difficulty, and as this is not the case in Peru, half the vice, if it be a vice, disappears at once; add to this, that they have no motive to exertion above supplying the wants of nature—no stimulus—no market for an excess of produce, or the supplying of artificial wants—and the cause for indolence exists as necessarily as a cause for industry is found where the contrary happens. If a climate demand only a shade from the sun or a shelter from the rain, why should men build themselves stately or close habitations? Where nature spontaneously produces the requisite articles of food, competent to the consumption of the inhabitants, why should they exert themselves to procure a superfluous stock? and particularly where an introduction of new articles in succession is entirely unknown. What to M. Bouguer and others has appeared stupidity, perhaps deserves the name of indifference, the natural result of possessing all the means for satisfying real wants, and an ignorance of artificial ones. But if real stupidity be meant, I must aver that I never observed it either among the wild tribes of Arauco on the river Napo, or in those of the coasts of Choco. I recollect very well an indian, called Bravo, who was accused at Pomasqui of having stolen the mule which he had brought from the valleys to the eastward of Quito, laden with fruit. At the moment the accusation was laid before the alcalde, the indian threw his poncho or mantle over the head of the mule, and then desired the challenger to say of which eye his mule was blind? He answered, of the left. Then, said the indian, taking off the poncho, this mule cannot be yours, because it is blind of neither. That any beings endowed with speech should "sit whole days without speaking a word," is indeed the acme of taciturnity; but as M. Bouguer was perhaps ignorant of the language of the people he describes, he may probably deserve the same compliment from them. I found the Araucanians prone to talk; indeed eloquence is considered an accomplishment among them, and extremely necessary among the mapus, or chiefs. The Peruvians are neither silent in their meetings nor when travelling; however, they have little inquisitiveness, nor do they break out into soliloquys on the beauties of the surrounding scenery; but they converse freely on common place topics, particularly with a white man, if they find that he deigns to enter into conversation with them. Several of the tribes in Archidona and Napo, who are in their free state, certainly did not merit the accusation of dumb stupidity; for although unacquainted with their languages, I tried to converse with them in Quichua, aided by signs, and I really discovered more intelligence among them than I had a right to expect. What is often considered a step towards civilization or to social life, is a pastoral one; but if we search for it in a country where animals capable of domestication do not exist, we have no right to consider the inhabitants as barbarous, because they are not possessed of flocks and herds; nor do human beings deserve that epithet, who will share what they are possessed of with a stranger; and such hospitality I have frequently experienced. The kindness which these men show to the dog is no small proof of their sensibility; they will take long journeys to procure one, and value it as much as a lady esteems her lap dog. The utility of the animal may perhaps be said to be the chief motive of the indian's attachment; and what other motive has the shepherd or the herdsman?

M. Bouguer continues, "they are totally indifferent to wealth and all its advantages. One does not know what to offer them to procure their services; it is in vain to offer money, they answer, that they are not hungry." Wealth, in the general acceptation of the word, can procure no advantages to men who have no means of disposing of it. Where there is no market, money can purchase nothing; and where the natural wants are abundantly supplied, and men's desires have not created artificial ones, a market is superfluous and useless; but wherever the indians can exchange the produce of the country they inhabit for whatever pleases them, they are always anxious to do it. The Logroño indians trade with the city of Cuenca; the Yumbos, Colorados, and Malabas with Quito; the Chunchos, Pehuenches, Huilliches, and other tribes with Conception; the Orejones with Huanuco; and numerous other tribes frequent the settlements nearest to them, for the purpose of bartering their commodities for others which are either useful or ornamental. Had M. Bouguer offered them beads, hawks' bells, machetes, large knives, bows, arrows, or poison for their darts, he would have obtained their services.

Dr. Robertson considers the indians to have been, at the time of the conquest by the Spaniards, less improved and more savage than the inhabitants of any part of the globe; but he afterwards limits this charge to the rudest tribes; a limitation which was very necessary, for the purpose of palliating what I cannot help believing to be a false accusation. He could not mean the tribe of the Muysca indians, who have left the fewest remains of their ingenuity, much less the Peruvians; and in Mexico, some of their cities were equal to the finest in Spain, according to the accounts given by Cortes, in his reports to the Emperor Charles V. These reports, and the yet existing monuments of labour and ingenuity, speak strongly in opposition to Robertson's statement.

Ulloa says, "one can hardly form an idea of them different from what one has of the brutes." Paul III. thought differently, when, by his celebrated bull, he declared them worthy of being considered as human beings. Ulloa might have said, with more truth, one can hardly form an idea of treatment more brutal than that which many of them receive. In the interior of Peru, as Ulloa speaks of the Peruvians, they were degraded by the mita, a scion of the law of repartirnientos, distribution of indians at the time of the conquest. By this law, the men were forced from their homes and their families to serve for a limited time an imperious master, who, if he approved of their labour, took care to advance them a little money or some equivalent above what their wages amounted to, and then obliged them to serve him until the debt was liquidated. By this time another debt was contracted; and thus it was that they became worse than slaves, except in the name. I have been on several estates in different parts of Peru and Quito where the annual stipend of an indian was no more than eighteen or twenty dollars; with which pittance he had probably to maintain a wife and family, besides paying his annual tribute of five or seven dollars and a half to the King. The result was generally this:—the father died indebted to his master, and his children were attached to the estate for the payment. I would now ask Don Antonio Ulloa, who are the brutes? The hut of one of these miserable indians consists of a few stones laid one upon another, without any cement or mortar, thatched over with some long grass or straw, which neither defends the unhappy inmates from the wind nor the rain; and such is the case on the paramos, or bleak mountains. One small room contains the whole family; their bed, a sheep skin or two, their covering, the few clothes which they wear during the day, for they have no others; their furniture, one or two earthen pots; and their food, a scanty provision of barley. Who that is possessed of Christian charity could witness this, and, instead of pitying their miserable condition, call them brutes? If of these Ulloa says, "nothing disturbs the tranquillity of their souls—equally insensible to disasters and to prosperity," his observation is just. Born under the lash of an imperious master, subject to the cruelty of an unfeeling mayordomo, they had no disasters to fear, because their condition could not possibly be rendered worse: with prosperity they had been totally unacquainted, it was a blessing which had fled the land they were born to tread, or rather it had been transferred to usurpers.

Ulloa continues, "though half naked, they are as contented as a monarch in his most splendid array." And does the Spaniard imagine, that these miserable men are destitute of corporal feeling as well as of intellectual sensibility? Does neither the bleak wind nor the cold rain make any impression on them? Can content be the companion of the half-naked, half-starved slave? It may be the gloom of despair that hangs on their countenances; but it is certainly not the smile of content. "Fear makes no impression on them, and respect as little." This rhapsody is taken from the mouth of some Spanish master, as a palliative of his own cruel conduct. "Their disposition is so singular, that there are no means of influencing them, nor of rousing them from that indifference, which is proof against all the endeavours of the wisest persons. No expedient which can induce them to abandon that gross ignorance, or lay aside that careless negligence which disconcert the prudent, and disappoint the care of such as are attentive to their welfare." If a man be so oppressed by a tyrannical and proud master, that he finds himself lower in his estimation than the cattle which he tends—so worn down with hunger, cold, and fatigue that he is only anxious for the approach of night or of the grave,—what can rouse him from that indifference or despondency which Señor Ulloa describes? Now this has been the state of the South American indian on the large farms, and in the obrages, manufactories. He dreads to finish his task early, fearful of an increase of labour; he dares not appear cheerful, because it might be called impudence by his overseer; he dares not be cleanly or well clothed, because the first condition would be considered a negligence of his duty to his master, or an attention to his own comforts, and the second the result of theft. Then, what, let me ask, is left, but misery in appearance, and wretchedness in reality? I well remember what the pious Dr. Rodrigues said to me at Quito:—"Not half the saints of the Romish Church, whose penitent lives placed them in the calendar and on our altars, suffered greater privations, in the hopes of enjoying everlasting glory, than one of these indians does through fear of offending a cruel master, or for the purpose of increasing his wealth." "How dear," added he, "has the religion of Christ cost these once happy innocent creatures, and at what an usurious price it has been sold to them by the proud pedlars who imported it. Oh! heaven," exclaimed he, "till when! till when! hasta quando! hasta quando!" Well too do I remember, when passing, with the Conde Ruis de Castilla, by the cloth manufactory of San Juan, near Riobamba, an old indian woman, who was tending a flock of sheep, and spinning with her distaff and spindle, her head uncovered, her grey locks waving wildly in the wind, and her nakedness not half concealed by an old coarse anaco, running to his excellency, and on her knees exclaiming, with sobs and tears, "bless your worship, I have seen seven viracochas who came to govern us, but my poor children are still as naked and as hungry as I was when I saw the first; but you will tell the King of this, and he will make me happy before I die; he will let us leave San Juan; oh! taita ya, taita ya—oh! my father, my father."

"No expedient can induce them to lay aside their gross ignorance," says el Señor Ulloa. What expedients have been tried? No schools have been established for them; no persons employed to teach them, except an old man or a friar, who once a week teaches them their prayers; and I can safely aver, that thousands of indians employed by white people live and die in their service without ever seeing any other book than the missal on the altar, or their master's account book on his table.

But let us turn from this loathing sight, and look to indians where they are blessed with a greater portion of rational liberty, where they are considered more on a level with their white neighbours, and have more opportunities of evincing that they are not a disgrace to human nature, nor beneath the merited name of men.

The towns of Huacho and Eten, inhabited almost exclusively by indians, may serve to pourtray the character of these people when in society. I have already mentioned their employment at Huacho; to which may be added the manufacture of many articles of cotton at Eten, such as napkins, tablecloths, and counterpanes, some of which are remarkably fine, and ornamented with curious figures interwoven, somewhat like damask. I have seen their felt or frieze counterpanes sell for twenty or twenty five dollars each. They also make large floor mats of junco, a species of fine rush, and they manufacture hats. These are sufficient proofs, that when an indian reaps the benefit of his labour he is not averse from work.

Ulloa has also mistated the character of the American indian, in asserting, "that he will receive with the same indifference the office of an alcalde or judge, as that of a hangman." An indian alcalde is as proud of his vara, insignia of office, as any mayor of England is of his gown, and always takes care to carry it along with him, and to exact that respect which he considers due to him in his official capacity. When the Oidor Abendaño passed through the indian town of Sechura, in 1807, he had neglected to take the necessary passport from the Governador of Paita; the indian alcalde requested to see it; the Oidor informed him that he had not one; adding, that he was one of the ministers of the royal audience of Lima; and I, said the indian, am the minister of justice of Sechura, and here my vara is of more importance than your lordship's. I shall therefore insist on your returning to Paita for your passport, or else of sending some one for it: two of my bailiffs will wait on you, my lord, till it is procured, as well as for the purpose of preventing you from pursuing your journey without it.

The number of indians who receive holy orders, natives of the coast as well as the interior, is a convincing proof that they are not destitute of understanding, nor incapable of at least becoming literary characters, if not learned men. Some have also shone at the bar, in the audiences of Lima, Cusco, Chuquisaca, and Quito; among these was Manco Yupanqui, of Lima, protector-general of indians, whom I knew. He was a good Latin scholar, was well versed in the English and French languages, and considered the only good Greek scholar in the city. I knew also Don Jose Huapayo, Vice-rector of the college del Principe, a pasante of San Carlos, a young man of natural talents, which were well cultivated.

Extreme cowardice has also been attributed to the indians; but this imputation very indifferently accords with the tribes of Araucania, Darien, &c. During the present contest in South America the indians have sustained more than their share of fighting; and had the unfortunate Pumacagua of Cusco, or Pucatoro of Huamanga, been supplied with arms and ammunition, they would not have been subdued by Ramires and Maroto.

The indians who reside among the creoles and Spaniards on the coasts of Peru and in the province of Guayaquil are docile, obliging, and rather timid. Their timidity has been the cause of their being supposed totally indifferent to what passes; indeed, as I have before said, there does not appear to be any eager curiosity about them, they have little to satisfy; but at its lowest ebb, this disposition surely can only be termed apathy. They are industrious in the cultivation of their farms and gardens; attentive to their other occupations, and faithful in their engagements; they know the value of riches, strive to obtain them, and are fond of being considered rich, although they never boast of being so. Infidelity between man and wife is very rare; they are kind parents, which generally makes their children grateful as well as dutiful. Robertson says, that "chastity is an idea too refined for a savage." I must beg leave to state, that his compilation, founded on Spanish writings, is not always deserving of credit. Had Dr. Robertson travelled over half the countries he describes, or observed the native character of the people which he has depicted, he would have expressed himself in very different terms. Chastity is more common, and infidelity more uncommon, among the Peruvians than in most countries of the old world. The same author remarks, "in America, even among the rudest tribes, a regular union between husband and wife was universal, and the rights of marriage were understood and recognized." This surely is a proof that chastity was known among these savages; and I cannot conceive that polygamy, when sanctioned by law or custom, is any objection to chastity.

They are cleanly in their persons, and particularly so in their food; abstemious in general, but at their feasts inclined to gluttony and drunkenness; although disposed to the latter vice in a considerable degree, they are not habitual drunkards, and the females are so averse from it, that I never saw one of them intoxicated. I often observed, when living among the indians, that they slept very little; they will converse till late at night, and always rise early in the morning, especially if they have any work that requires their attention; such as irrigating their fields, when water can only be obtained at night, or tending their mules on a journey. In such cases they will abstain from sleep for three or four nights successively, without any apparent inconvenience, and they seldom or never sleep during the day. Both males and females adhere to one kind of dress, which varies little either in towns or villages. The men of Huacho wear long blue woollen trowsers, waistcoat, and sometimes a jacket; a light poncho, and a straw hat, but they are without either shoes or stockings, except some of the old men who have been alcaldes, and who afterwards wear shoes adorned with large square silver buckles when they go to church or to Lima. The alcaldes also usually wear a long blue Spanish cloak. The dress of the females is a blue flannel petticoat, plaited in folds about half an inch broad, a white shirt, and a piece of flannel, red, green, or yellow, about two yards long and three quarters of a yard broad; this they put over their shoulders like a shawl, and then throw the right end over the left shoulder, crossing the breast. They wear ear-rings formed like a rose or a button, the shank being passed through the aperture made in the ear, and secured by a small peg passed through the eye of the shank; they have also one or more rosaries, which like the ear-rings are of gold, and hang round their necks with large crosses, medals, &c. They seldom wear shoes, except when they go to church, and then often only put them on at the door; stockings they never wear. The hair both of the men and women is generally long; the former have one plat formed with the hair of the forehead, at the top of the head, and another with the rest behind, and both are fastened together at the ends; the women plat their hair in a number of very small tresses, but comb the whole from the forehead backwards. There is a considerable portion of superstition among them; old women are always afraid of being considered witches, and when a person dies his death is generally attributed to witchcraft. A widow will often, while lamenting the death of her husband, throw out a volume of abuse against some female who, as she imagines, had cast an evil eye on him. When a person praises a child or even a young animal, a by-stander will exclaim, God protect it! Dios lo guarda! to avert its being withered by an evil eye. They are considered as neophytes, and the inquisition has no power over them, nor are they included among the bull buyers. As to their religion, they are particularly attentive to all the outward forms, and strict in their attendance at church; but an instance of cunning in evading a reprimand from the rector happened at this town. An indian being questioned by the cura, rector, why he did not attend mass on a day of precept, to hear mass and work, replied, "that he had fulfilled the commandment of the church, for as he did not intend to work, mass was undoubtedly excused by the precept."

I observed at Huacho one of the ancient rites of the Peruvians; it was the ñaca feast. A child never has its hair cut till it is a year old, or thereabouts; the friends then assemble, and one by one take a small lock and cut it off, at the same time presenting something to the child. This ceremony among the ancient Peruvians was practised at the naming of the child, and the name was generally appropriate to some particular circumstance which occurred to the child on that day. The seventh Inca was called Yahuar Huacar, weeper of blood, because on that day drops of blood were observed falling from his eyes; and Huascar, the fourteenth Inca, was so named because the nobles on this day presented him with a golden chain called a huasca, after the ceremony of cutting the ñacas.

At this village I heard for the first time the oral tradition of the first Inca, Manco Capac; it was afterwards repeated to me by indians in various parts of the country, and they assured me that it was true, and that they believed it. A white man, they say, was found on the coast, by a certain Cacique, or head of a tribe, whose name was Cocapac; by signs he asked the white man who he was, and received for answer, an Englishman. He took him to his home, where he had a daughter; the stranger lived with him till the daughter of the Cacique bore him a son and a daughter, and then died. The old man called the boy Ingasman Cocapac, and the girl Mama Oclle; they were of a fair complexion and had light hair, and were dressed in a different manner from the indians. From accounts given by this stranger of the manner in which other people lived, and how they were governed, Cocapac determined on exalting his family; and having instructed the boy and girl in what he proposed to do, he took them first to the plain of Cusco, where one of the largest tribes of indians then resided, and informed them that their God, the sun, had sent them two of his children to make them happy, and to govern them; he requested them to go to a certain mountain on the following morning at sunrise, and search for them; he moreover told them that the viracochas, children of the sun, had hair like the rays of the sun, and that their faces were of the colour of the sun. In the morning the indians went to the mountain, condor urco, and found the young man and woman, but surprised at their colour and features, they declared that the couple were a wizard and a witch. They now sent them to Rimac Malca, the plain on which Lima stands, but the old man followed them, and next took them to the neighbourhood of the lake of Titicaca, where another powerful tribe resided; Cocapac told these indians the same tale, but requested them to search for the viracochas on the edge of the lake at sunrise; they did so, and found them there, and immediately declared them to be the children of their God, and their supreme governors. Elated with his success, Cocapac was determined to be revenged on the indians of Cusco; for this purpose he privately instructed his grandchildren in what he intended to do, and then informed the tribe that the viracocha, Ingasman Cocapac, had determined to search for the place where he was to reside; he requested they would take their arms and follow him, saying, that wherever he struck his golden rod or sceptre into the ground, that was the spot where he chose to remain. The young man and woman directed their course to the plain of Cusco, where having arrived, the signal was given, and the indians here, surprised by the re-appearance of the viracochas, and overawed by the number of indians that accompanied them, acknowledged them as their lord, and the children of their God. Thus, say the indians, was the power of the Incas established, and many of them have said, that as I was an Englishman, I was of their family. When H. B. M. ship Breton was at Callao, some of the officers accompanied me one Sunday afternoon to the Alameda at Lima; on our way we were saluted by several indians from the mountains, calling us their countrymen, and their relations, begging at the same time that we would drink some chicha with them.

There is a curious analogy between this tradition and one that I had from the mouth of Don Santos Pires, at Rio de Janeiro, in 1823. He told me, that before the discovery of the Brazils, an Englishman had been shipwrecked, and fell into the hands of the Coboculo indians; he had preserved or obtained from the wreck a musket and some ammunition, with which he both terrified and pleased the indians, who called him Camaruru, the man of fire, and elected him their king. He taught them several things of which they were before ignorant (as did Manco Capac and Mama Oclle the Peruvians); he was alive at the conquest of the country, and was carried to Portugal, when Emanuel granted him a valley near to Bahia, independent of the crown. Don Santos is the brother of the Baron da Torre, both lineal descendants of Camaruru, of which he boasted not a little, adding, that to the present time none of the lineal descendants had ever married a Portuguese.

The Muysca indians of the plains of Cundinamarca have a white man with a beard, called Bochica, Nemquetheba, or Suhé, for under these different names he is spoken of, as their legislator. This old man, like Manco Capac, taught them to build huts and live in communities, to till the ground, and to harvest the produce; as also to clothe themselves, with other comforts; but his wife, Chia, Yubecayguaya, or Huythaca, for she is also known by three different names, was not like Mama Oclle, who taught the females to spin, to weave, and to dye the cloths. Chia, on the contrary, opposed and thwarted every enterprize for the public good adopted by Bochica, who, like Manco Capac, was the child of the sun, dried the soil, promoted agriculture, and established wise laws. The Inca did not separate the ecclesiastical authority from the political, as Bochica did, but established a theocracia. The first opened an outlet to the lake Titicaca, for the benefit of his subjects, at a place now called Desaguadero, the outlet; while the latter, for the same purpose, opened the lake of Bogotá, at Tequendama. The Inca bequeathed his sovereign authority to his son, while Bochica named two chiefs for the government, and retired to Tunja, holy valley, where he lived two thousand years, or, as other traditions state, where his descendants governed the Muysca tribe for two thousand years. The first of these successors was called Huncahua, and the rest Huncas, which was the name of the holy city; but the Spaniards have changed the name to Tunja.

The Mexicans have likewise a bearded white man as a legislator, called Quatzalcoatl; he was the high priest of Cholula, chief of a religious sect, and a legislator; he preached peace to men, and prohibited all sacrifices to the Deity, excepting the first fruits.

We have here the tradition of four white men distinguished by the people of the new world, as having beards, a circumstance as remarkable to them, as it was visible, for they being beardless, would consequently be surprised at seeing men whose faces bore what they would be led to consider a feature so distinguishing. Two of these are said to have been Englishmen. Of the laws established by Camaruru I have no information, but those established by Manco Capac I know have no analogy, nor do they bear any resemblance to those of any of the northern governments, except, setting aside lineal descent, the papal, where the spiritual authority is exercised by the King of Rome. This coincidence of four men, bearing the same mark of a beard, three of whom were priests and legislators, occurred at places the most distant from each other, the one at Rio de Janeiro, in latitude 22° 54´ 10´´ S., longitude 42° 43´ 45´´ W.; one at Cusco in lat. 13° S., long. 81° W.; one at Cundinamarca in latitude 4° 35´ N., long. 74° 8´; and the other at Cholula in latitude 19° 4´ N., longitude 98° 14´ W.

The traditions of Manco Capac, Bochica, and Quatzalcoatl agree in predicting the arrival of bearded men at some future period, and the conquest of the different countries by them; which predictions operated strongly in favour of Pizarro, Benalcazar, and Cortes, and produced that submission of the Peruvians, Muyscas, and Mexicans, which finally laid the foundation of the degraded state of their descendants.

From some accounts of the government of the Incas of Peru, it is easy to observe how well acquainted they were with the natural character of the people whom they had to govern. The whole empire was modelled like a large monastic establishment, in which each individual had his place and his duty assigned to him, without being permitted to inquire into the conduct of his superiors, much less to question the authority of the high priest, or to doubt the justness of his mandates. Passive obedience to the decrees of their master could not but crush the germ of enterprize and ambition. Thus it is that the Peruvian indians are destitute of an active love for their country, and incapable of any exertion, unless roused by the orders of a Superior. Patient in adversity, and not elated with prosperity, their most indifferent actions are regulated by almost superstitious precision. Their veneration for the memory of their Incas is beyond description, particularly in some of the interior districts, where his decollation by Pizarro is annually represented. In this performance their grief is so natural, though excessive, their songs so plaintive, and the whole is such a scene of distress, that I never witnessed it without mingling my tears with theirs. The Spanish authorities have endeavoured to prevent this exhibition, but without effect, although several royal orders have been issued for the purpose. The indians in the territory of Quito wear black clothes, and affirm that it is mourning for their Incas, of whom they never speak but in a doleful tone. I cannot quit this subject without again saying, that from the unconquered tribes to the east and the west of Quito, both from those who were subject to the laws of the conquerors, as well as the warlike tribes of Arauco, I received the kindest treatment, and a degree of respect to which I was in no way entitled; and I hope I shall never permit ingratitude to guide either my pen or my tongue when their character is discussed.

Among the feasts which the indians of Huacho celebrate, that of Corpus Christi deserves to be spoken of. Besides the splendid decorations of the church, at the gratuitous expence of the indians, there are at the houses of the Mayordomos, Alfereces, and Mayorales sumptuous dinners, from the feast to the octave, provided for all persons who choose to partake of them. They consume an enormous quantity of their favourite beverage, chicha, of which I have been assured, that a thousand jars, each containing eighteen gallons, have been drunk at one feast; and I do not doubt it, for besides the natives, numbers of people flock to the feast from the surrounding villages, and many come from Lima. At these dinners there are always several dishes of guinea pigs, stewed, and seasoned with an abundance of capsicum. Indeed, an indian of the coast of Peru never dispenses with this picante at a feast; and I must acknowledge that I became almost as partial to it as any indian.

During the week the village is enlivened with different companies of dancers: one called huancos is composed of eight or ten men; they have large crowns of ostrich feathers (from the plains of Buenos Ayres) on their heads; the quills are fastened in a roll of red cloth, which contains not less than five hundred long feathers dyed of various colours, but particularly red. They have small ponchos of brocade, tissue, or satin; on their legs they wear leather buskins, loaded with hawks' bells; their faces are partly covered by a handkerchief tied high above their mouths; and they carry as arms a cudgel, and bear on the left arm a small wooden buckler. They dance along the streets to the sound of a pipe and tabor, keeping pace to the tune, that the bells on their legs may beat time to the pipe and tabor.

When two companies of these dancers meet, neither will give way for the other to pass, and the result is, the cudgels are applied to open it. Some of their skirmishes produce broken heads and arms, although they are very dexterous in guarding off the blows with their small bucklers; but no intreaties nor threats from magistrates, who have sometimes interfered, can appease or separate them, until the criollaos appear, when, as if by magic, each party dances along quite unconcerned.

The criollaos go by pairs, accompanied by a pipe and tabor. They have small helmets on their heads, a poncho like the huancos, and a short petticoat; they carry in their right hands a small wooden sword, in their left a bunch of flowers, and they dance to a melancholy tune, while that of the huancos is very lively. They are the peace makers, and such respect is paid to their interference, that not a blow is struck after their arrival; but neither threats nor intreaties will hurry them on to the place of action.

The chimbos are very gaily dressed: they have crowns ornamented with all the jewellery which they can borrow; necklaces, ear-rings, bracelets, and rosaries are fastened on them in abundance, and when these cannot be procured, they have holes drilled in doubloons and new dollars, with which they load them. I have seen fifty of each on one crown. Their dress is a gay poncho, with wide Moorish trowsers; and their music consists of one or more harps or guitars. For the purpose of dancing along the streets, two boys support the bottom of the harp, whilst the top is fastened with a handkerchief tied round the neck of the player.

All these dance before the procession, which, considering the smallness of the town, is very splendid. A double row of indians, the men on one side and the women on the other, with large lighted wax tapers, often as many as two thousand, go before; in the centre are indian boys and girls, burning perfumes in small incense burners, and strewing flowers. A rich pall with six silver cased poles is carried over the priest bearing the host, by the Mayordomos, Alfereces, and Mayorales; and the procession is closed with all the music they can muster. In the course of the procession, as well as every night during the octave, great quantities of fireworks are burnt.

Longevity is common among the Peruvian indians. I witnessed the burial of two, in a small village, one of whom had attained the age of 127, and the other of 109; yet both enjoyed unimpaired health to a few days within their decease. On examining the parish books of Barranca, I found, that in seven years, eleven indians had been buried, whose joint ages amounted to 1207.

The diseases most incidental to the indians, both along the coast of Peru and in the interior, are of an inflammatory nature—consumptions in puberty, and pleuritic affections in old age. With what certainty the origin of syphilis has been traced to America, I know not; but the wild tribes of Arauco, Archidona, Napo, in the vicinity of Darien, and several others, as well as those that live in small settlements among the Spaniards, are totally unacquainted with it; and although I have been particularly inquisitive on this head, I never could hear of one solitary instance of the disease, except in large towns and cities, and then it was limited to a certain class, where it was likely to be most prevalent.

The great decrease of indian population in Peru may almost be called alarming; many theories have been published respecting it, but in my opinion none have given the true cause. Some have attributed it to the introduction of the small pox; but the virulence of this disease was mitigated, as in Europe, by inoculation, and latterly by the introduction of vaccination, which at a great expence was carried from Spain in 1805, by the order of Charles IV. Not less than eighty boys were sent over in a vessel of war, for the purpose of preserving the fluid by transferring it from one to the other; and a tribunal was formed in Lima, of which the Viceroy was the president, having professors with competent salaries, for the preservation of this magnum Dei donum, as it was justly called in the royal order. On examining some church books, I found that the number of deaths was not uncommonly augmented when the small pox was prevalent, although undoubtedly for several years after the conquest many people died of it through ignorance of the method of treatment. Perhaps, too, superstition and fear made the healthy abandon the sick, to avoid the contagious effects of what appeared to them to be a disease brought by the Spaniards for their destruction. Of this idea they were doubtlessly possessed, for while Valdivia was at Talcahuano, several indians took up their residence in the town with the Spaniards, until on the arrival of a vessel from Peru with provisions, a barrel of lentils fell on the ground and burst; the grains appeared to the terrified indians to be a new importation of the small pox, on which account they all immediately fled, and carried the appalling news to their countrymen.

Others have attributed this decrease to the number of indians who died in the mines, being driven there by the laws of repartimiento, distribution, and mita, temporal labour: these also belong to the first years after the conquest. Some have fancied that a social life does not agree with their nature; but this is equally trifling, because the comforts, conveniency, and regularity of such a life cannot be detrimental to human nature; besides, those who were latterly subject to the Spanish domination in Peru, were formerly subject to that of the Incas, and the decrease was as visible on the coast, where the indians may be said to be their own masters, as in the interior, where many are not. Perhaps the introduction of spirituous liquors may have tended to diminish the population; if so, this is almost an incurable evil; and certainly the division of the country, or the cultivated lands into large estates, as they were granted to many of the conquerors and first settlers, was a pernicious error, the fatal effects of which are often felt, and are inimical to the increase of population.

About three leagues to the south of Huacho are the salinas, or plains of salt. This natural production is covered with sand, in some places thicker than in others; under this is a stratum of solid salt, from eight to twelve inches thick. For the purpose of taking it up, it is marked out into square pieces, by chopping it gently with an axe; a bar of iron is then introduced underneath the salt, and the squares are turned over to dry; beneath the solid salt the ground is quite soft and rather watery, which allows the salt to separate from the bed with much facility. After three years have expired, the salt is again in a state to be cut; and from this small plain, which is not more than five miles square, salt enough is extracted for the consumption of the greater part of Peru and Chile. It is carried into the interior on the backs of mules, and to different places on the coast by shipping, for which there is an excellent port called de las Salinas, though some go to that of Huacho, which is not so commodious.

CHAPTER XVI.

Villa of Huaura....Description....Village of Supe....Ruins of an Indian Town....Huacas, Burying Places....Bodies preserved entire....Village of Barranca....Earthquake in 1806....Barranca River....Bridge of Ropes....Village of Pativilca....Sugar Plantation....Produce and Profit....Cane cultivated....Mills....Sugar-house....Management of Slaves....Regulations, &c. of Slaves.

Two leagues to the northward of Huacho is the villa or town of Huaura; it consists of one long street and about two thousand inhabitants, some of whom are respectable creole families; it has a parish church, a convent of Franciscan friars, and a hospital. Owing to the situation of this town, having a range of high hills between it and the sea, and which keep off the sea breeze, it is very sultry; to this circumstance a cutaneous disease is attributed, which leaves a bluish mark on the skin. It is most prevalent among the mulattos; and on those negroes who are affected by it a stain is left which is almost white, and is called by the natives carati.

Near to Huaura is a plantation, the ingenio, formerly belonging to the Jesuits; here the cane is crushed by cylinders put in motion by a water wheel, which is said to be the first ever constructed in Peru.

A very handsome brick bridge of one arch, the centre of which was forty-seven yards above the bed of the river, and the span twenty-six yards wide, was erected at the entrance of the town; it was thrown down by an earthquake on the 1st of December, 1806, and the old wooden bridge, which had formerly a redoubt to guard it, has been repaired.

The English pirate Edward David took Huaura and sacked it in 1685, putting to death the alcalde de la hermandad, Don Bias Carrera, whom he had made his prisoner; this so terrified the inhabitants that they immediately abandoned the town, nor could they be persuaded to avail themselves of the drunken state of the sailors during the night to revenge the injuries they had suffered; they were fearful of being captured and treated in the same manner as their alcalde. The charter of villa was taken from the town by the King, but afterwards restored.

The valley of Huaura extends about twelve leagues to the eastward, and contains many excellent farms, plantations of sugar cane, and about three thousand slaves.

Seven leagues from Huaura is the village of Supe, with a parish church and eight hundred inhabitants, the greater part of whom are indians. Between these towns there is a large plain, called pampa de medio mundo, which before the conquest was under irrigation; the vestiges of the old canals, asequias, are still visible, and bear witness of the enormous labour of the ancient Peruvians, as well as of their uncommon skill in conveying water for the purpose of watering their fields to immense distances, without the aid of engines; the principal asequia here took its water from the Huaura river, and winding round the foot of the mountains conveyed it to the distance of ten leagues, irrigating in its course some very beautiful plains, which are now only deserts of sand.

Near to Supe are the remains of a large indian town, built on the side of a rock, galleries being dug out of it, one above another, for the purpose of making room for their small houses; many remains of these are still visible, and also of small parapets of stone raised before them, so that the hill has the appearance of a fortified place. At a short distance are the ruins of another town, on an elevated plain, where water doubtless could not be procured for irrigation; for, as I have already observed, the indians never built on land that could be cultivated.

I was fully convinced here that the indians buried their dead in the houses where they had resided, as I dug up many of them. They appear to have been buried with whatever belonged to them at the time of their death; I have found women with their pots, pans, and jars of earthenware, some of which are very curious. One kind is composed of two hollow spheres, each about three inches in diameter; they are connected by a small tube placed in the centre, and a hollow arched handle to hold it by, having a hole on the upper side; if water be poured into this hole till the jar is about half full, and the jar be then inclined first to one side and then to the other, a whistling noise is produced. Sometimes a figure of a man stands on each jar, and the water is poured down an opening in his head, and by the same means the noise is occasioned. I saw one of these at the Carmelite nunnery at Quito, having two indians upon it carrying a corpse on their shoulders, laid on a hollow bier resembling a butcher's tray; when the jar was inclined backwards and forwards a plaintive cry was heard, resembling that made by the indians at a funeral. The jars and other utensils were of good clay, and well baked, which, with the ingenious construction just alluded to, prove that the indians were acquainted with the art of pottery. I have also found in these huacas long pieces of cotton cloth, similar to that which is made by the indians at the present time, called tocuyo; many calabashes, quantities of indian corn or maize, quinua, beans, and the leaves of plantains; feathers of the ostrich from the plains of Buenos Ayres, and different dresses; some spades of palm wood, similar to the chonta of Guayaquil, and of which none grow near to Supe; lances and clubs of the same wood; jars filled with chicha, which was quite sweet when discovered, but became sour after being exposed to the air for a short time. I have also found small dolls made of cotton, their dress similar to that worn at present by the females of Cajatambo and Huarochiri: it consists of a white petticoat, anaco, a piece of coloured flannel, two corners of which are fastened on the left shoulder by a cactus thorn, the middle being passed under the right arm, girt round the waist with a coloured fillet, and open on the left side down to the bottom; this part of the dress was called the chaupe anaco; a piece of flannel, of another colour, of about two feet square, was brought over the shoulders and fastened on the breast with two large pins of silver or gold, called topas: this part of the dress is called the yiglla. The hair is divided into two side tresses, and these are fastened behind, at the extremity, with a coloured fillet. The principal motive for digging the huacas is to search for treasure; I have found rings and small cups of gold; they are beat out very thin, and their size is that of half a hen's egg-shell; it is supposed that they were worn in the ears, for a small shank is attached to them, like the buttons worn by the indian females at present. Slips of silver, about two inches broad and ten long, as thin as paper, are also frequently dug up. Any small piece of gold which was buried with them is generally found in their mouths.

Owing to the nitrous quality of the sand, and to its almost perfect dryness, the bodies are quite entire, and not the least defaced, although many of them have been buried at least three centuries: the clothes are also in the same state of preservation, but both soon decay after being exposed to the sun and air. I dug up one man whose hair grew from his eyebrows, covering his forehead, or rather he had no visible forehead; a great quantity of dried herbs had been buried with him, some small pots, and several dolls: the indians who saw him assured me, that he had been a brujo, a wizard or diviner; but I was inclined to believe him to have been a physician: however, the two sciences might be considered by them as somewhat similar.

Many persons are persuaded that these huacas were only burying grounds, and not places of residence for the living: if so, it shews the respect which the people had for their dead; but as some of the tribes of wild indians bury their dead in the house where they lived, and then abandon it, building for themselves another, this appears to be a sufficient reason for suspecting that such was the practice with the ancient Peruvians.

I resided several months at the small village of la Barranca, and I here witnessed the great earthquake that happened on the 1st of December, 1806, supposed to be one of the periodical shocks felt in Lima and its vicinity; they have occurred in the following years:—1586, 1609, 1655, 1690, 1716, 1746, and 1806. This earthquake, however, did not extend its desolating effects to the capital; these appear to have been limited by the rivers of Barranca and Huaura, an extent of about ten leagues; but the shock was felt at Ica, a hundred leagues to the southward, although it was not perceived at Huaras, thirty leagues to the eastward.

No hollow sound was observed to precede this shock, a circumstance particularly remarked by several of the old people, who said, that it came on so suddenly, that the dogs did not hear it, nor the pigs smell it, before every one felt the shock. I inquired their reason for thus expressing themselves, and was informed, that it had always been found when the shocks were severe, that they were announced by the howling of the dogs and the squealing of the pigs. This effect, I think, can only be accounted for by the dogs lying on the ground, and either hearing the noise or feeling the motion before either become perceptible to the people; and probably if any gaseous vapour be ejected the olfactory nerves of the pigs may be affected by it. Immediately after the earthquake many people saw red flames rising out of the sea, and others burning over a low piece of ground on the shore called the Totoral. The cattle which were feeding here at the time, died shortly afterwards from the effect produced on the grass by this burning vapour.

The motion of the earth during the shock was oscillatory, resembling the waves of the sea; and the sensation which I experienced was similar to that which is felt in a boat when approaching the land. The motion was so great, that some bottles of wine and brandy, placed on a shelf about two yards high and three from the door, were thrown from a shop into the street to a distance of more than two feet from the door; if, therefore, they fell from the shelf without any projecting impulse to impel them forward, the wall must have inclined so as to form with its natural base an angle of 25 degrees.

The ground was rent in several places, and quantities of sand and a species of mud were thrown into the air. Trees were torn up by the roots; the church and several of the houses, both here and at Supe, were destroyed; while Pativilca, a town at only two leagues distance, on the opposite side of the river, suffered very trivially. The undulations of the earth lasted twenty-one minutes; but there was no repetition of shocks, nor was any subterraneous noise heard. The perpendicular height of the land on the sea side is fifty-three yards, notwithstanding which several canoes and boats were thrown by the waves nearly to the top, and left among the trees, and for more than two months afterwards enormous quantities of fish drifted daily on the beach.

Perhaps the effect produced on the grass at the Totoral, and this on the fish, may throw some light on the problem of the sterility occasioned by earthquakes, which I have already noticed—in particular, as the gaseous matter having become condensed was left on the surface to produce its effect on the ground, where it could not be washed off by the rains.

An old mulatto, one of the four men who escaped at Callao in 1746, when that city was submersed in the sea, assured me, that the convulsion there did not appear to him so terrible as the one I have just mentioned.

Near to this village is a convenient port and landing place, called de la Barranca, and about a mile to the northward of the village is the river de la Barranca. During the rainy months, in the mountainous districts of the interior, it is so filled with water, that its passage is attended with considerable danger without the assistance of the chimbadoros, ferrymen. The bottom is very stony, which also occasions much danger, if the horses are not sure-footed and accustomed to ford rivers. The rapidity of the current precludes the use of boats or canoes, and its width would render the construction of a bridge extremely expensive. I have often crossed it when the water covered the space of half a mile, and was divided into thirteen or fourteen branches, through some of which the horse on which I was mounted had to swim. About six leagues from the main coast road, and the usual fording place of the river, there is a bridge of ropes, made from the fibres of the maguey leaves. These are first crushed between two stones, immersed in water till the vegetable matter easily separates from the fibres, when they are taken out, beat with a stick, washed, and dried; the ropes are then twisted by hand, without the assistance of any machinery, the fibrous parts of the leaves being inserted when the diminished strength of the rope requires them. This bridge is called de Cochas, from the small village which stands near to it: it is thirty-eight yards across. On one side, the principal ropes, five in number, each about twelve inches in circumference, are fastened to a large beam laid on the ground, secured by two strong posts buried nearly to their tops: on the opposite side the beam is secured by being placed behind two small rocks. Across these five ropes a number of the flower stalks of the maguey are laid, and upon them a quantity of old ropes and the fibrous parts of leaves are strewed, to preserve the stalks and the principal ropes. A net-work, instead of railings, is placed on each side, to prevent the passengers from falling into the river. Although the whole construction appears so flimsy, the breadth being only five feet, I have seen droves of laden mules, as well as horned cattle, cross it; and I have repeatedly done so myself, on horseback, after I had reconciled myself to its tremulous motion.

These swing bridges, which are common in South America, are called puentes de maroma, or de amaca; and by the indians, cimpachaca, bridge of ropes, or rather, of tresses—as cimpa signifies a platted tress. Some persons, however, call them huascachaca, huasca being more properly a twisted rope; but I apprehend that they were originally made from platted ropes, in which the insertion of leaves is more easy.

Bridges of this description were general in Peru before the conquest, and they are unquestionably the best calculated for a mountainous country, where some of the ravines requiring them are very steep, and the currents impetuous. Bridges were likewise formed by the indians by laying large beams across stone piers; but these were not so common nor so appropriate as the rope bridges. The largest of them was over the river Apurimac, which runs between Lima and Cusco, and is crossed by travellers who frequent this road to and from the ancient and modern capitals of Peru. The bridge was two hundred and forty feet long, and nine feet broad; the ends of the principal ropes were fastened on one side the river to rings of stone, cut in the solid rock: one of these was broken in 1819, when the stream rose so high that it caught the bridge, and dragged it away.

Two leagues to the northward of Barranca is the neat village of Pativilca, without any indian population: it was formerly a country covered with wood, and a place of retreat for malefactors; but the Viceroy Castel-forte sent people to form a village, and ordered a church to be built, offering an indult to all persons who should leave the bush, and build themselves houses in the town. By this wise policy he accomplished his end—reclaiming many outcasts, and rendering the road secure to travellers.

While residing at Barranca I had an excellent opportunity of judging of the condition of the slaves on the plantations; and I shall here give a brief account of one of the best regulated that I visited, which was Huaito, the property of Doña Josefa Salasar de Monteblanco.

This plantation is principally dedicated to the cultivation of cane and the elaboration of sugar; but a part is destined to ordinary agricultural pursuits, such as the growth of maize, beans, camotes, pumpkins, &c., beside some pasture land for cattle. The number of slaves employed on it, including all descriptions, is six hundred and seventy-two; and the weight of sugar produced annually, according to the statement given to me by Don Manuel Sotil, who superintended the manufactory, is as follows:—

The result of this statement is, that after defraying all the expences of the cultivation of the cane, and the elaboration of the sugar, the profit amounted to 49550 dollars.

Besides this profit, another of considerable importance was derived from the feeding of cattle on extensive fields of lucern, and the breeding of hogs. There was also generally, a surplus of maize and beans beyond the consumption of the estate; but without this, according to the valuation made of the whole estate, including buildings, slaves and utensils, which amounted to 962000, the clear profit on this capital exceeded five per cent.; which, with the assistance of the requisite machinery for cultivating and harvesting the cane, and manufacturing the sugar, might be doubled.

I have made no deductions for the food of the slaves, because they were maintained by the produce of the estate, leaving a great surplus for sale; probably as much in value as would defray the expences of their clothing.

The cane usually cultivated in Peru is the creole; but in the year 1802 plants of the Otaheitean cane were first introduced at Guayaquil, by Don Jose Merino, who procured them from Jamaica, whence in 1806 they were brought to some of the plantations of Peru, and from the advantageous result which has been experienced in the growth of this cane, it would follow that the creole will soon be exploded, notwithstanding the assertion, that the sugar obtained from the cane of Otaheite abounds more in mucilage than in essential salt, and that it is susceptible of but a feeble consistency, which exposes it to decomposition on long voyages, or if it be warehoused any considerable length of time. But the Peruvian cultivator has neither of these drawbacks to fear, because there is always an immediate demand for it at home, or the longest voyage to which it is subjected is to Chile.

The Otaheitean cane, on the same land, and with equal labour with the creole, grows to the height of nine or ten feet in eighteen or twenty months, while the creole only grows six in thirty-five or thirty-six months, at which times they are respectively in a state of maturity. The large canes of the former are from seven to eight inches in diameter, but those of the latter seldom exceed three and a half, and the same measure of juice produces nearly the same weight of sugar: besides this, the saving of labour at the mills and manufactory is very great. The cane of Otaheite is more tenacious, and comes from the cylinders whole, while the creole is frequently completely crushed, and incapable of being returned to the operation of the cylinders, on which account a considerable portion of the juice is lost; the pressed cane of Otaheite is also conveyed to the furnace with much more facility than the other.

The cane is usually planted in the foggy season, that it may have taken root before the dry weather commences; the land is prepared by repeated ploughings, and by breaking the lumps of earth with clubs, harrows and rollers for this purpose being unknown. The ploughs are similar to those used in Chile, and which I have already described. If suitable ploughs and other utensils were introduced, it is easy to conceive what great relief would be given to manual labour; and if the horse or mule were substituted for the drowsy, slow-paced bullock, the result would be much more favourable.

The canes are planted in drills made with hoes, so formed, that when the water for irrigation enters the upper end of a field it can flow without any hinderance to the lower; but before this operation of watering takes place the earth is hilled up to the plants. According to the dryness of the season, and the quality of the land, irrigation is repeated three or four times during the summer, and owing to the disposal of the furrows it is neither laborious nor troublesome. The water is generally allowed to remain on the ground twenty-four hours.

When the cane is ripe it is cut close to the ground, and all the leaves are stript off, which with the rubbish are left until the whole field be cut, when they are burnt; and immediately afterwards the roots are irrigated. The cane is carried to the mill on the backs of asses; but for this purpose carts might be used with much saving of labour.

In some parts of the province of Guayaquil and on the coast of Choco the natives, who cultivate the cane for their household consumption of molasses, guarapo, and rum, cut all that is ripe, leaving that which is green; they next bare the roots, mix the soil so obtained with the soil in the furrow, by digging and turning them over, and then hill up the cane again. By repeating this operation every time they cut their cane, they have a constant succession of crops, and the plantation never fails; while in Peru a plantation only yields two crops, for the third is often scarcely sufficient to plant the ground for the ensuing harvest.

The general method of pressing the cane is by means of three vertical grooved brass cylinders, which are put in motion by two pairs of oxen, yoked to two opposite points of a large wooden wheel, placed above the cylinders, and attached at its centre to the axle of the central cylinder, the cogs or teeth of which communicate the rotatory motion to the other two. This tardy method of pressing is used on many plantations; but on the one I am now speaking of vertical water-wheels supply the place of the bullocks, one wheel being attached to each mill. There is however great room for improvement, particularly in the adoption of iron cog and lantern wheels, or at least of metal cogs to the large wheels, iron axletrees, &c.; but rude as the present plan is, the expence of keeping a considerable number of oxen is avoided.

The juice of the cane is received in the boiling house, in a large bell-metal pan, a small quantity of lime being first thrown into it; from this receiver it is carried in large calabashes to a pan ten feet deep, where it is evaporated to a proper consistency, and at intervals caustic ley is added to it, prepared at a considerable expence from the ashes of the espino, or huarango. After throwing into the pan about half a pint of this ley, a considerable quantity of fecula rises to the top, which is immediately taken off with a skimmer made of a large calabash, bored full of holes. When the syrup has become cool it is put into another pan, and evaporated to a proper consistency for crystallization; it is then poured into the moulds, made of common baked clay, in which it is repeatedly stirred, and on the following day it is transferred to the purging house, where the plug is taken from the bottom of the mould, and the coarse molasses run from the sugar. It is next removed to the claying house; each mould, like an inverted cone, is placed on a jar, and soft clay of the consistency of batter poured on the sugar. This operation is repeated three or four times, or till the loaf is purged from the molasses it contained, when it is taken out of the mould and carried into the store to dry. The whole process requires a month or five weeks, according to the season, for it is much sooner ready for the store house in damp weather than in dry. Unlike other countries, where the cane is only cut during a certain season, on the plantations on the coast of Peru it is cut and sugar is made from it during the whole year.

The pans for boiling the juice are of brass, being a mixture of copper and tin; the lower pan is generally three feet in diameter at the bottom, five feet at the top, and five feet deep; the rim which is placed above this is three feet deep, and above that the brick and wood work commences, making the whole boiler ten feet deep. The pans, cylinders, and receivers are cast on the estate by the slaves, and by them also all the carpentery and blacksmith work are performed.

I have been rather more particular on this subject than some persons may think necessary; but it has been with the view of opening another outlet to British manufactures, namely, that of iron machinery and implements of agriculture. If the evaporation of the cane juice were effected by heat communicated by steam, or by preventing atmospheric pressure on the surface of the liquid while boiling, a considerable quantity of sugar which is burnt by the present method, and which constitutes the molasses, would be saved: it would be an advantage of at least thirty per cent. At the same time that I advert to iron machinery for the mills, as an article worthy the attention of mercantile speculators, I would also recommend some stills on an improved principle, for the brandy distilleries at Pisco, Ica, Cañete, and other vine countries, as well as those of rum; because the political change in South America will annul the prohibitory colonial law, and because the sugar manufacturer would be glad to convert to his advantage that refuse from which the rum is distilled; at present it is a nuisance to him, or if applied to any use, it is thrown to the oxen and asses, and they eat it with great avidity.

The management of the slaves here is worthy of the imitation of every planter, both with regard to the comfort of the negroes, and the profitable result to the owner. I shall describe the laws established, and mention some other regulations which I suggested to Doña Josefa, which she approved, and put in practice: she afterwards frequently told me, that they deserved to be generally adopted, because they would eventually tend to ameliorate the condition of the slave and benefit the proprietor.

A slave was never flogged at Huaito without the consent of the mistress, who, having heard the complaint made by the overseer or other task-master, adjudged the number of lashes to be inflicted, or else determined on some other means of punishment, which she thought more proper. Her motive for this regulation was, to prevent their being improperly chastised by any one during the heat of passion, or perhaps under the influence of revenge. The slave was never questioned as to the imputed delinquency, because, as she observed, it would only induce them to disregard the overseer, if he were not implicitly believed, or the slave were allowed to contradict him. When any doubt presented itself, she would sometimes send for some other slave, who had either been present or was near at the time, and make the necessary inquiry; but she would often say, that she trusted very little to what they said about each other, quoting the old Spanish proverb as a reason, la peor cuña, is del mismo palo, the worst wedge is from the same block.