A CHOLO OF AREQUIPA.From a Photograph. See page 80.
A CHOLO OF AREQUIPA.From a Photograph. See page 80.
JOURNEY ACROSS THE CORDILLERA TO PUNO.
Inthe region of the cordillera of the Andes, in Northern and Central Peru, the country is broken up into deep warm valleys and profound ravines, separated by lofty precipitous ridges and snowy peaks, which combine to form some of the most magnificent scenery in the world. Vast flocks of sheep and alpacas find pasture on the upland slopes, while abundance of wheat is grown lower down. Indian corn generally flourishes at a still lower elevation, though it is grown as high as 13,000 feet on the islands of lake Titicaca, and sugar-cane is cultivated in the deep valleys. This is the nature of the country between Ayacucho and Cuzco, and in the valley of Vilcamayu, which extends from the foot of the Vilcañota range until it subsides into the vast tropical plains to the north and east of Cuzco.
But the southern part of the interior of Peru, and the northern portion of Bolivia, present a very different character. From the Vilcañota mountains the Andes separate into two distinct chains, namely, the cordillera or coast-range, and the Eastern Andes, which include the loftiest peaks in South America, Illimani and Sorata, or Illampu. The region between these two ranges contains the great lake of Titicaca, and consists of elevated plains intersected by rivers flowing into the lake, at a height never less than 12,000 feet above the sea. The magnificent scenery of Northern and Central Peru is wanting in this southern part of the country, which composes the department of Puno, and is usually called theCollao. It, however, possesses features of its own which are at once striking and imposing, while the land which isdrained by the lake of Titicaca was the cradle of the civilization of the Incas.
The journey up the "Alto de los huesos" is very fatiguing, and the change from the pleasant exhilarating air of Chihuata, to the chilling icy blasts which constantly sweep over the upper region of the cordillera, was severely felt. As the afternoon advanced a drizzling mist came on, and added to the cheerless desolation of the plains it was necessary to traverse before reaching the post-house of Apo. Occasionally a drove of llamas, with their Indian driver, loomed for a moment through the mist, and at nightfall we arrived at the post-house of Apo (14,350 feet), tired, drenched, and cold.
The rainy season of the cordilleras commences in November, and continues until the end of March, and during most of that time the discomfort of travelling is so great, and the rivers so swollen, that a journey is seldom undertaken by an ordinary traveller. In March, however, the rain does not fall continuously or in any quantity. The early morning is generally clear, but in the afternoon mists, rain, or snow begin to fall, and continue until far into the night. From April until October is the dry season, and in May, June, July, and August a cloud is scarcely ever seen in the sky.
The post-houses in the desolate mountains between Arequipa and Puno are all of the same character. They consist of a range of low stone buildings surrounding a courtyard on three sides, and consisting of five or six rooms with mud floors, a rough table, and a platform of stone and mud at one end, which is intended for a bed-place. The roof is badly tiled or thatched, and the doors are so roughly fitted that it is impossible to close them. Both man and beast are subject to a most distressing illness, caused by the rarefaction of the air at these great altitudes, which is calledsorochiby the Peruvians. I had suffered from a sharp attack of illness at Arequipa, so that I was probably predisposed to a visitation fromsorochi, which I certainly endured to its fullest extent. Before arriving at Apo, a violent pressure on the head, accompanied by acute pain, and aches in the back of the neck, caused great discomfort, and these symptoms increased in intensity during the night at the Apo post-house, so that at threeA.M., when we recommenced our journey, I was unable to mount my mule without assistance.
A ride of seven hours across grassy plains covered with herbage, with patches of snow here and there, and ranges of hills with fine masses of rocks, forming a setting to the distant peaks of the cordillera, brought us to the post-house of Pati. During this ride we had to ford the river, which flows past Arequipa as the Chile, more than a dozen times. The only living creatures are thelecca-leccas, a bird which frequents the numerous streams, and the graceful flocks of vicuñas. Thelecca-leccais a large plover, with red legs, white head, grey body, white under the breast and tail, and wings and tail broadly edged with black. It incessantly utters a wild shrill scream. The vicuñas, a species of llama with the habits of an antelope, are very beautiful and graceful creatures. They have rich fawn-coloured coats, with patches of white across the shoulders and inside the legs, and long slender necks. They are constantly met with in the most desolate parts of the cordillera, browsing on the tender shoots of the tufts ofychu, or galloping along with their noses close to the ground, as if they were scenting out the best pasture.
At Pati a range of abrupt porphyritic cliffs rises from the plain, up which a rough zigzag pass leads to the "Pampa de Confital,"[128]the loftiest part of the road over this pass of the cordillera. A storm of hail began to fall, which turned into snow as we reached the pampa, and a ride of many hours over a succession of wild desolate plains, in an incessant snow-storm, brought us to the "alto de Toledo," the highest part of the road, and 15,590 feet above the level of the sea.[129]Some glorious snowy peaks appeared through the gloom at sunset, and after several weary hours in the darkness we at length arrived at the post-house of Cuevillas.
In the neighbourhood of Cuevillas there are large sheep-farms, one called Toroya, near the "alto de Toledo," and another called Tincopalca farther on. The sheep, at this enormous height, lamb in March and July, and, of the March lambs, usually about fifty per cent. survive. Beyond Cuevillas there are two large Alpine lakes, whence a river flows down into Titicaca, and we thus passed the watershed between the Pacific and the great lake. The scenery is grand and desolate, reminding me, in some respects, of the interior of Cornwallis Island in the Arctic regions. The road passes between the two lakes, and we reached the post-house of La Compuerta as the afternoon rain commenced. The hills are covered with tufts of coarse grass (Stipa ychu), of which the llamas eat the upper blades, while the sheep browse on the tender shoots underneath; and with two kinds of shrubby plants, one a thornycompositacalledccanlli, and the other calledtolaorccapo, which is a resinousBaccharis,[130]and is used for fuel.[131]
The gorge in which the La Compuerta post-house is situated is the only outlet for the waters of the lake. Mountains of great height rise up on either side, clothed, at this season, with herbage of the richest green, while ridges of scarped cliffs of dark porphyritic rock crop out at intervals.The river dashes noisily over huge boulders, and near its left bank are the rough stone buildings of the post-house. Great quantities of ducks, gulls, coots, godwits, and sandpipers frequent the shores of the lake. The postmaster suppliedalfalfafor the mules, and achupéconsisting of potatoes and salt mutton for the travellers, at exorbitant prices; the mules were freed from their cargoes, which were placed within the porch, ready lashed up in theirredecillasor hide nets; and we were soon rolled up in blankets and ponchos, while the snow continued to fall unceasingly through the early part of the night. When we got up next morning the thermometer was at 31° Fahr. indoors.
Starting at dawn, we descended the gorge, passing two ruined mining establishments, San Ramon and Santa Lucia, into green plains with large flocks of sheep scattered over them.
In these uninhabited wilds it is an event to meet a traveller, and his appearance is the signal for a succession of questions and answers. We here passed acavallero, in whose dress and general appearance we saw a reflection of our own, excepting the comforters. He wore a large poncho of bright colours, reaching nearly to his heels; a broad-brimmed felt hat with a blue cotton handkerchief passed over it, and tied in a knot under his chin; an immense woollen comforter passed round his throat and face, until nothing appeared but his eyes; a pair of woollen gaiters, bright green, with black stripes; and huge spurs. He was an officer on his way to Arequipa, and complained of the severity of the weather and the heaviness of the roads. After a short conversation the traveller passed on, followed by his cargo-mules, and soon became a speck in the distance.
In the afternoon we came to the first signs of cultivation, since leaving the valley of Cangallo, in the neighbourhood of the great sheep-farm of Taya-taya—patches of quinoa, barley, and potatoes, with the huts of Indians scattered amongstthem; and, crossing a rocky ridge, we came in sight of a vast swampy plain, with the little town of Vilque, at the foot of a fine rocky height, in the far distance, which we reached at sunset. The long rows of thatched brown huts dripping with rain, and the muddy streets, looked melancholy. But at the time of the great fair, in June, Vilque presents a very different appearance. The plains, for several miles beyond this little town, were so swampy as to be rendered almost impassable. It was with the greatest difficulty that we made our way across them, constantly wading and splashing through water, and in some places sinking so deep in the adhesive mud, that it was not without desperate exertions that the mules could extricate themselves. At length we came to a rocky ridge which bounded the vast pampa of Vilque, and continued our journey over rather drier ground.
Since leaving La Compuerta we had been continually descending; the vicuñas had disappeared, as they confine themselves to the loftiest and wildest parts of the cordillera; but, in the lower region between Vilque and Puno, the feeling of desolation and solitude is dissipated by the numbers of birds which enliven the country, and by the increased quantity and variety of wild flowers.
Thelecca-leccasor plovers were very numerous, screaming shrilly as they flew in circles, or ran along the ground. In the clefts of the rocks there were many birds, like creepers, calledhaccaclloby the Indians, andpitoin Spanish—beaks curved downwards, black on the top of the head, white underneath, red at the back of the neck, speckled wings, white breast, and a black line from the beak to the back of the neck. We also saw many small green paroquets, bright yellow finches calledsilgaritos, a kind of partridge calledyutu, and, above all, the gloriouscoraquenqueoralcamari, the royal bird of the Incas, whose black and white wing-feathers surmounted the imperialllautuor fringe of thesovereigns of Peru. Thealcamariis a large and noble-looking bird of prey, with a scarlet head, black body, and long wing-feathers of spotless white. Wherever the plains are intersected by ridges of rocky cliffs, which is frequently the case, there are swarms of large rodents, calledbiscaches, which sat on their hind legs, and looked about inquisitively as we rode past.
Riding over several wide grassy plains, and passing the village of Tiquillaca, we arrived at the banks of the river Tortorani, which was so swollen as to be quite impassable. By following its course for about half a mile, we came to a place where the whole volume of water precipitates itself down a sheer declivity of 250 feet, and forms a magnificent cascade. A league below the falls we found a bridge, and, at sunset, we came in sight of the great lake of Titicaca, with the snowy range beyond. A steep zigzag descent leads down to the city of Puno, which is close to the shores of the lake, and hemmed in by an amphitheatre of argentiferous mountains.
Puno, the capital of the department, owes its origin and former prosperity to the rich veins of silver-ore in the surrounding country. It is approached, from the north, by a stone archway built over the road by General Deustua, who was prefect in 1850; and the streets slope by a gradual descent towards the lake. The houses are built of small-sized brownadobes, with roofs of thatch or red tiles, and courtyards very neatly paved with round pebbles and llama's knuckle-bones in patterns. There are scarcely any with more than a ground-floor, and the rooms open on to the court; but, though at this elevation, 12,874 feet above the sea, it is extremely cold at night, stoves are unknown; and the unusual luxury of a fireplace, which exists in one house, is merely a luxury to the eye, for it is never lighted. The streets are clean and well paved, and the stone churchin thePlaza, dating from 1757, has an elaborately carved front and two towers. In another plaza is the college, a large building with an upper story, also built by General Deustua; and both these public squares have bronze fountains erected by the Government of General Echenique, the late President, besides drinking fountains in the corners of several of the streets. The water is excellent.
Puno is surrounded by heights covered with patches of potatoes, barley, and quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), the huts of Indians being interspersed amongst them; and immediately over the town there is an isolated rocky ridge of carboniferous limestone perforated by several natural caverns, called the Huassa-pata. The shores of the lake are a few hundred yards from the town, and at the little port there are always a number of balsas, made of large bundles of reeds tied together, with a reed sail.[132]The view to seaward is, however, confined by the peninsula of Capachica, and two islands at the mouth of the bay of Puno. A canal to enable balsas to come up nearer the town was made by the Spanish Intendente Gonzalez Montoya in the beginning of the present century.[133]
The flora of a country which, though within the tropics, is at an elevation of nearly thirteen thousand feet above the sea, must necessarily be meagre, and the few plants are lowly and inconspicuous. I noticed the following in the immediate vicinity of Puno. The only tree was one of stunted growth, with a pretty pink and white flower, and dark-green leaves, almost white underneath, called "oliva silvestre" by the Spaniards, andccolliin Quichua (Buddlea coriacea); and of these there were not more than a dozen, sheltered behindwalls. By far the greater number of plants areCompositæ: of these I observed three species ofTagetes—one with a small yellow flower; another very sweet, called by the Indianshuaccatayandchicchipa, and used to flavour their chupes; and a large shrubby marygold, calledsunchu;[134]also the common sow-thistle, aHieracium, and thetolaandccanllibefore mentioned, used for fuel. I found two Verbenas and a Solanum, all with purple flowers; a clover, a creeping cucurbitaceous plant, two Cacti, a large dock, three Geraniums, all with pink flowers; three Crucifers, very small herbs, one with a white flower, one with a yellow flower, and the third the common shepherd's-purse; a Gilium with a minute white flower, a small legume with tomentose leaves, a pretty little creeping Adoxa, a Statice, a wild Chenopodium, a Veronica, a minute Stellaria, a Rhinanthus, a mallow, a plantago, and three species of wild Oxalis, two very minute with white flowers, and one with a yellow flower. There were also two ferns, one a very beautiful Gymnogramma with silvery fronds; nine grasses, the most abundant of which was the coarseStipa ychu; and a few mosses. On the shores of lake Titicaca I saw rushes in great quantities, a Mimulus, a Ranunculus, a Rumex, and three grasses. These plants, though lowly and unpretending, are in sufficient abundance to cover the country with verdure and pretty wild flowers, and brighten those parts which are not cultivated. The cultivation consists of quinoa, cañahua (bothChenopodia), barley, potatos, ocas (Oxalis tuberosa), and wheat in very small quantities, which does not ripen.
Close to Puno, on the south, are the famous silver-bearing mountains of Cancharani and Laycaycota, to which Puno owes her existence: and to the discovery and working of theLaycaycota mine in the middle of the seventeenth century a very curious history is attached; which is always talked of by the people of Puno as one of the principal events in the annals of their city.
In about 1660 an exceedingly rich vein of silver had been discovered on the hill of Laycaycota, by one José de Salcedo, which was called the "Veta de la Candelaria." One account says that the secret of its existence was revealed to Salcedo by an Indian girl. José de Salcedo, and his brother Gaspar, continued to work this vein, and several others which were opened on the Cancharani and Laycaycota hills; enormous quantities of silver were extracted; and the fame of his enormous wealth, and its source, attracted crowds of unruly people to the spot, from the various towns of Peru.[135]Salcedo is said to have been generous and open-handed in finding employment for applicants, but, from some unexplained cause, tumults took place at the mines in 1665, which, from first to last, are said to have caused 450 violent deaths. The governor of the district, Don Angelo de Peredo, seems to have taken part against the Salcedos, who retired to the village of Juliaca, with a body of armed followers, in November, 1665. In March, 1666, they attacked the governor's people who had possession of the mines; Salcedo neglected repeated orders to come to Lima; and was accused of having threatened to extort a general pardon from the Viceroy, at the head of a thousand men. Salcedo himself, however, appears to have been absent at Cuzco when the attack was made on the mines. These tumults, accompanied by much bloodshed, continued until 1669, when the Viceroy Count of Lemos came to Puno in person, and settled the question by sending José and Gaspar de Salcedo to Lima, where José was tried, condemned,and executed. Gaspar was detained a prisoner in Callao castle.
It was the general impression at the time, and is so still at Puno, that jealousy and envy of their riches occasioned the persecution of these men; for not only were the charges against them most frivolous, but the Count of Santistevan, the predecessor of the Count of Lemos, had caused the Bishop of Arequipa to publish a general pardon of all offences in 1666. The accusations against José Salcedo were that he went about with armed men, took a seat next to the corregidor at a bull-fight in Cuzco, and neglected to obey the order to come to Lima.[136]
A petition was afterwards sent to Spain, representing that the Salcedos were the victims of injustice, and not guilty of disloyalty; that the Viceroy's proceedings were irregular; and that the heirs of the Count of Lemos were bound to make reparation for the evils caused to these deserving men. The petition also prayed that the President of the Council of the Indies might not be allowed to decide the case, because he was related to the Count of Lemos.[137]This petition seems to have received favourable consideration; for I find that the son of José de Salcedo was afterwards created Marquis de la Villa Rica de Puno, and that he took a leading part in subsequent mining operations.
The most remarkable part of this story is that on the day of Salcedo's death the mine became full of water, and the Viceroy was thus disappointed in his expectation of succeeding to the wealth of which he had deprived his victim. This curious coincidence made a great impression on theIndians, which is not yet effaced; and they still point out a small lake or pond that is said to cover the once rich vein or "Veta de la Candelaria."
Salcedo's son, the Marquis of Villa Rica, attempted to reach his father's source of wealth by cutting a horizontal adit orsocabonin the side of the hill looking on lake Titicaca; and he is said to have penetrated nearly 700 yards, and within sixty yards of his father's perpendicular shaft; but his funds failed him, and he died mad. In spite, however, of the filling up of the "Candelaria," great numbers of other shafts were sunk, and much silver was extracted, both by the Marquis, and by other speculators. A report, dated 1718, mentions as many as forty-six shafts on the hills near Puno, which were then being worked.[138]In 1740 a native company attempted to finish thesocabonwhich had been commenced by the Marquis, but their workmen were unable to cut through the masses of porphyry, and, after vast expense, it was abandoned a second time.
From 1775 to 1824 the mines near Puno yielded ores worth 1,786,000 marcs of silver, at seven to nine dollars the marc; the richest year being 1802, when the yield was 52,000 marcs; but since 1816 it has been steadily decreasing, and in 1824, the year after the expulsion of the Spaniards, it had sunk very low. In 1826 themantomine, to which the socabon leads, which was excavated by the Marquis of Villa Rica, was granted to General O'Brien, a gallant and enthusiastic old Irish hero of South American independence, who resumed the work, but without any success. Mr. Begg, an enterprising English merchant, undertook the completion ofthesocabonin 1830. He imported expensive machinery from England, employed an intelligent engineer named Patterson, and continued to work themantomine until 1839. He built himself a house furnished with every English comfort, and lived in very good style; but the speculation was a failure, and he left the country a poor man in 1840, and died in Chile. After the departure of Mr. Begg, some Peruvian speculators continued to work at the same mine, but without any energy; and, at the time of M. de Castelnau's visit in 1845, only thirty workmen were employed.[139]When Lieut. Gibbon, U.S.N., passed through Puno in 1851, themantowas still being worked, but at the time of my visit it had been entirely abandoned since 1858.
It is one of the great evils arising from the political condition of Peru since the independence that there is a complete want of confidence in each other amongst the moneyed classes, and an absence, to a great extent, of the spirit of enterprise; so that any combination on a large scale for mining, or other purposes of a similar nature, is almost impossible. Peru is still a very young country, and there is reason to hope that this state of things will not continue; but now a feeling of suspicion, added to a want of energy, prevents the formation of native companies. Thus themantois abandoned, and the numerous mines which once covered the hills of Cancharani and Laycaycota, and actually created the city of Puno, which nestles at their feet, are not worked. At present there is only one small mine at work, high up on the hill of Cancharani, called the Cachi Vieja. Its proprietor, Don Manuel Ferrandis, is an upright, intelligent, and most kind-hearted old gentleman, who has had much experience in mining operations; and on the 29th ofMarch he took me to visit the abandonedmanto, and his own works at Cachi Vieja.
About two miles south of Puno is the establishment built by Mr. Begg, at the foot of the Laycaycota mountain, and facing the lake. The buildings stand round a long courtyard, containing four trees of theoliva silvestre, probably, as the only trees in the country, once carefully tended by the former English residents. There is a steam-engine which turns a large stone wheel, twelve feet in diameter, for grinding the ores; and the quicksilver was separated by the heat of fires of llama-dung andtola,[140]the only fuel to be had. In the house there were papered rooms, fire-grates, and English conveniences, now all in ruins, and the rooms used as stables for donkeys. At a short distance from Mr. Begg's ruined house, and a little higher up the mountain, is the entrance to the famous "Socabon de Vera Cruz" of themantomine, commenced by the Marquis of Villa Rica, and finished by Mr. Begg. The "socabon" penetrates into the mountain, in a generally south-west direction, for a distance of a mile and a quarter; the first 900 yards having a depth of some feet of water, which is dammed up at a little distance outside the entrance. This part of the gallery is navigated by an iron canoe about a foot and a half wide; but the canal is so narrow that the canoe frequently grates on both sides at once against the rocks. The roof of the excavation, too, is very low, and several times we actually had to crouch down in the bottom of the canoe, to avoid knocking our heads. Thus we penetrated into the bowels of the earth by this subterranean navigation, with an Indian holding a burning torch in the bows. From the entrance, for about 300 yards, the excavation traverses a mass of grey porphyry. In the 900 yards of navigation there are six locks; and when thewater terminates, the gallery continues for a hundred yards, where there is an iron tramway laid down. The metal was dragged down to the head of navigation in cars, by two old mules, one of which had not seen daylight for fifteen years when they ceased to work the mine. At the point where the tramway comes to an end, the gallery still continues for 1200 yards; but this part is very narrow and tortuous, and the metal was carried down to the cars on the backs of Indians. The rock at the extreme end of the excavation is a very hard green porphyry, with quartz and veins of silver ore.
The Cachi Vieja works are high up on the Laycaycota hill, and not far from the famous "Veta de la Candelaria." The mouth of the shaft is in a building opening on a courtyard, where women were sorting the ores in small heaps. The most abundant ore is calledbrosa, containing forty marcs of silver in the cajon of fifty quintals (cwts.); other ores are calledrosicler,pavonado, andpolvarilla. Therosicler, or ruby silver, is a most beautiful rose-coloured mineral, containing a considerable quantity of silver.[141]
Besides Cachi Vieja in the immediate vicinity of Puno, there are some very productive silver-mines at San Antonio de Esquilache, twenty miles south-west of that town, which have been worked since 1847 by Don Manuel Costas, one of the most influential citizens of Puno, and my host during my stay in that city.
Wool and silver are the great staple products of the department of Puno; the whole value of exported articles being about 1,200,000 dollars.[142]The population is rather under 300,000 souls; that of the town of Puno 9000.[143]Upwards of 1,500,000 dollars come into the department yearly, either in payments for wool, or in salaries for officials, without counting the expenditure for the troops; and it is calculated that more than half this sum eventually finds its way into the hands of the Indians, who bury it. Thus, in considering the mineral wealth of Peru, the enormous quantities of coined money, and vases or other articles made of the precious metals, which have been buried by the Indians, must be taken into consideration; for this practice has been going on since the time of the Incas. Now that the currency consists almost entirely of the debased half-dollars of Bolivia, if a Spanish dollar or any other good coin is accidently received by an Indian, it is immediately buried.
The principal people in Puno, during my visit, were General San Roman, in command of the army of the South, an old man with the face and head of a pure Indian, and plenty of white hair brushed off his forehead, who has been mixed up in all the wars since 1822, and from whom I received much information respecting the Indian rebellion of Tupac Amaru in 1780, and of Pumacagua in 1815; Señor Garces, the Prefect; Don Juan Francisco Oviedo; Don Manuel Costas; and Don Manuel Ferrandis, the proprietor of the mine on the Laycaycota hill. Every evening there was a party assembled at the house of the latter to drink coffee, and talk over the news of the day. On these occasions, amongst other topics of conversation, the possibility of forming a company for the navigation of lake Titicaca was frequently discussed. Costas had first been struck by the immense good that steam navigation on the lake would bring to the department of Puno in 1840, and in 1846 he purchased a small steamer called the 'Titicaca,' and had her sent out in pieces. He sold her to the Government, on condition that they would defray the expense of sending her up to the lake; but this was never done. It is considered that any steamers which may hereafter be ordered for this purpose should be about forty tons, drawing four and a half feet, withpaddles (as a screw would inevitably foul amongst the rushes), and accommodation for passengers on deck. They would take all the products of the Bolivian forests, bark, timber, chocolate, coca, fruit, and arnotto, to Puno; European manufactured goods, sugar of Abancay, and aguardiente of the coast, from Puno to Bolivia; provisions and traffic of all kinds amongst the Indians of the shores; and copper of Coracora to Puno. Timber in vast quantities might be felled in the forests of Caravaya, and floated down the rivers of Azangaro and Ramiz during the rainy season, which, with the coal on the island of Soto, would furnish supplies of fuel. Markets and easy means of communication having been formed, the trade would rapidly increase on all sides. The face of the country would be entirely changed; the people, finding new wants, would become more civilised; and Puno, instead of a city with empty silent streets, and half a dozen balsas at its anchorage, would be a flourishing and busy port.[144]These bright prospects, however, will require time, and a total change in the political condition of Peru, for their realization in a somewhat distant future.
It is also a very important question whether larches, firs, and birch-trees might not be naturalized in the more sheltered ravines of these lofty treeless regions; where large plantations might be formed for the supply of timber and fuel. The Indians are now entirely dependent, for the framework of their roofs, on the crooked poles of thequeñuatree (Polylepis tomentella); and for fuel on llama's dung and thetolashrubs (Baccharis). The winters, from May to September, are not nearly so cold as in Scotland, though very dry; and, during the summer or rainy season, though it is cold, there is plenty of moisture. The introduction of these plantations wouldchange the whole face of the country, and the introducer would confer an inestimable blessing on the inhabitants.
I remained for some time at Puno, in order to collect information, and come to a determination respecting the best course to pursue in the performance of the service on which I was employed. The supply of the bark ofChinchona Calisayatrees is now entirely procured from the forests of Munecas, Apollobamba, Yuracares, Larecaja, Inquisivi, Ayopaya, and theyungusof La Paz in Bolivia; but I found that the difficulties in the way of making a collection of plants and seeds in these districts would be very great, and it afterwards turned out that these difficulties would have been insurmountable. As a considerable part of the revenue of Bolivia is derived from the bark trade, which is not the case in Peru, the Bolivians are exceedingly jealous of their monopoly; and the nature of my mission was already suspected. Moreover there was an imminent prospect of a war between Peru and Bolivia; a large army was massed in three divisions—at Puno under General San Roman, at Vilque under Beltran, and at Lampa under Frisancho; and, as soon as hostilities commenced, it would have been next to impossible for a private person to preserve his mules from seizure. This war did not actually take place, but Linares, the President of Bolivia, issued a decree on May 14th prohibiting all traffic, or the passage of travellers, from one country to the other;[145]a decree which was strictly enforced, and which would have rendered it impracticable at that time to have conveyed myself and companion, with laden mules, from Bolivia to the coast, without long delays and detentions. One of the pretextsfor this threatened war is perhaps the most extraordinary that has ever been alleged in modern times; namely, that the Bolivian Government persisted in coining and deluging Peru with debased half-dollars. A strange way of settling a financial difficulty!
While these objections weighed against an attempt to collect plants in the forests of Bolivia, I found that, with regard to the chinchona forests of the Peruvian province of Caravaya, on the frontier of Peru and Bolivia, the facilities for such an enterprise would be much greater. I had reason to believe, though I afterwards found myself in error, that, as there was no bark trade in Peru of any importance,[146]no jealousy would be felt at the nature of my mission. Any hostile proceedings on the Bolivian frontier would not materially affect the route between the Caravaya forests and the coast; and, above all, Caravaya is much nearer and more accessible, as regards an available seaport, than any part of the chinchona forests of Bolivia. This latter point was of the very greatest importance, because success depended chiefly on the rapidity with which the plants could be conveyed across the frozen plains of the cordilleras. I knew from Dr. Weddell that, though the bark trade from Caravaya has now ceased, and bark from that district is of no market value, owing to a foolish habit of adulteration amongst speculators in former times, yet that young plants, and trees bearing fruit, of theChinchona Calisaya, and other valuable species, were abundant in the forests of that province, as far north as the valley of Sandia.
I, therefore, after much anxious consideration, determined to proceed direct from Puno to the forests of Caravaya.
During my stay at Puno I had opportunities of examiningsome interesting ruins, and of collecting information respecting the Indian population of Peru, especially with regard to the great insurrections of Tupac Amaru and Pumacagua in 1780 and 1815. Much of this information is quite new; and I, therefore, trust that a description of ancient ruins near Puno, and an account of some of the most stirring events connected with the Indians since the Spanish conquest, may prove of sufficient general interest to justify a halt on the road to the chinchona forests, and a brief digression from the principal subject of the present work.
BALSA ON LAKE TITICACA.See page 95.
BALSA ON LAKE TITICACA.See page 95.
LAKE TITICACA.
The Aymara Indians—Their antiquities—Tiahuanaco—Coati—Sillustani—Copacabana.
The Aymara Indians—Their antiquities—Tiahuanaco—Coati—Sillustani—Copacabana.
Theregion which is drained by rivers flowing from the maritime cordillera and the eastern range of the Andes into lake Titicaca consists of elevated plateaux, seldom less than 13,000 feet above the sea, which were originally inhabited by the Aymara race of Indians, a people differing in some respects from the Indians of Cuzco and further north, and whose civilization dates from a period far anterior to that of the Incas. Their language is different from the Quichua of the Incas, though evidently a sister tongue, and it is still spoken by the Aymara Indians from Puno to the central parts of Bolivia, including all the shores of lake Titicaca. I did not, however, observe much difference between the Indians of Puno, who speak Aymara, and the Quichua Indians of Cuzco. The men are, perhaps, somewhat stouter; but they are the same race in all essential points.
The lake of Titicaca, the great feature in the region inhabited by the Aymara Indians, is about eighty miles long by forty broad; being by far the largest lake in South America. It is divided into two parts by the peninsula of Copacabana; the southern division, called the lake of Huaqui, being eight leagues long by seven, and united to the greater lake by the strait of Tiquina. A number of rivers, which are swollen and of considerable volume during the rainy season, flow into the lake. The largest of these is the Ramiz, which is formed by the junction of the two rivers of Pucara and Azangaro, and enters the lake at itsnorth-west corner. The Suchiz, formed by the rivers of Cavanilla and Lampa, also flows into the lake on its north side, as well as the Yllpa and Ylave; while on the eastern side are the rivers Huarina, Escoma, and Achacache, all flowing from a low lateral chain, parallel with the great eastern Andes, whose gigantic peaks of Illimani and Sorata form the principal feature of the views from all parts of the lake. Much of the water thus flowing in is drained off by the great river Desaguadero, which flows out of the south-west corner, and disappears in the swampy lake of Aullagas, in the south of Bolivia; and perhaps a greater quantity is taken up by evaporation; for the volume of water which flows in during the rainy season, when the sun travels north, is drunk up again when the tutelar deity of the lake returns, between April and September.[147]Indeed it is evident that the waters are steadily receding, under the combined influence of evaporation and of the sediment brought down by the rivers. Lake Titicaca is very deep in some places, the deepest part being on the Bolivian side; but in others it is so shoal that there is only just room to force the balsas through the rushes. The winds blow from the eastward all the year round, sometimes in strong gales, so as to raise a very heavy sea, during the day-time; but at night they are occasionally westerly. Along the western shore there are acres of tall rushes, and the east winds blow all the dead rushes to the western side, mixing with the living beds, and forming a dense tangled mass. The lake abounds in fish of very peculiar forms, and in aquatic birds.
The principal islands of the lake are those of Titicaca and Coati, near the peninsula of Copacabana; that of Campanario in the east, opposite the town of Escoma, and nine miles from the shore; Soto, also in the northernpart, which is said to contain coal;[148]and Esteves, in the bay of Puno, where the patriot prisoners were confined by the Spaniards during the war of independence; besides a small archipelago in the lake of Huaqui.
A very ancient civilization existed on the shores of lake Titicaca long before the appearance of the first Inca of Peru; the principal remains of which are to be found at Tiahuanaco,[149]near the southern shore of the lake of Huaqui. An extensive tract is here covered by huge blocks of carved stone. It was with much regret that I was obliged, by my duty, to give up my intention of visiting these interesting remains. M. de Castelnau mentions two colossal statues of a man and a woman, crowned with a kind of turban; a colossal head and a lizard carved on blocks of stone; a great conical artificial hill; and a monolithic doorway, the upper part of which is covered with very curious sculpture. In the centre there is a figure, probably representing the Sun, and on each side a number of figures all turned towards it, with wings, and sceptres in their hands: those on one side with their heads crowned, and those on the other with heads of griffins, and the bodies adorned with garlands of human heads.[150]All who have visited these ruins consider them to be of a distinct character from those of Cuzco, and other works of the Incas. The stones are more richly carved, and many of them have been united by means of a metal poured into transverse grooves. M. de Castelnau considers that the chief characteristic of Aymara ruins is the minute detail in the carving on the stones, while that of the Incas consists in the grand simplicity of the masonry.[151]
THE TOWERS OF SILLUSTANI.Page 111.
THE TOWERS OF SILLUSTANI.Page 111.
On the islands of Titicaca and Coati there are also extensive ruins, the remains of temples and convents of virgins dedicated to the worship of the Sun and Moon; and Dr. Weddell mentions that there is a kind of phlox on these islands (Cantua buxifolia), its very elegant long scarlet flower being called by the Aymara Indians the "flower of the Incas."[152]
Although I was unable to visit either the ruins at Tiahuanaco or those on the islands, I found time to examine ruins of the same character on the shores of the lake of Umayu near Vilque, where the great cemetery of the chiefs of the Aymara tribes of the Collao appears to have been. These ruins are at a place called Sillustani, on the north side of the lake of Umayu, where a high rocky table-land juts out so as to form a peninsula, which is literally covered with places of sepulture. Four of them are towers of finely-cut masonry, equal to that of Cuzco, with the sides of the stones dovetailing into each other. On climbing up the steep rocky path which leads to the table-land, the first on the right-hand side is perched on the very edge of the northern precipice. Half of it is destroyed, the other half is of well-cut stones, with a broad rounded cornice near the summit, and a vaulted roof, part of which remains entire. In the interior, near the foundation, there is a vaulted chamber entered by a small aperture, and full of human bones. The rest of the tower was filled up with small stones and earth, leaving a narrow shaft which ascended from the chamber to the summit, down which the bodies may have been lowered into the chamber.
On the left there is another smaller tower of exactly similar construction. Further on, and near the verge of the southern precipice, there are two other towers close together. One is thirty-six feet high, and built of the same well-cut masonry, with a cornice and vaulted roof, and a great lizard carved in relief on one of the stones near the base, whichmeasures six feet by three.[153]The other tower was apparently exactly similar, but it is now in a very ruinous state.
Besides these more remarkable edifices, the table-land is covered with other towers of rough unhewn stone and earth, and there are the remains of two square edifices built of cyclopean stones. The fallen parts of the towers were covered with masses of bright yellow compositæ calledsuncho, and a purple solanum; and they were frequented by the creepers calledhaccacllo, little green paroquets, a small quail calledpucupucu, and the little ground-dovecullca; numbers ofbiscacherabbits burrowed in the ruins, while two or three lordlycoraquenquessoared in circles over the table-land. After carefully examining the old towers of Sillustani, I passed the night in a very small hut, close to the lake of Umayu, the waters of which were smooth as glass, an island in the centre, and blue ranges of mountains capped with snow in the distance. To get into the hut it was necessary to go on hands and knees, the doorway being only three feet high, with a hide door stretched on a wooden frame. The hut was built of rough stones and thatched with barley-straw; but inside there was a hospitable welcome and good cheer: the old Indian who dwelt there, and his young daughter, providing excellent boiled potatoes, cream-cheese, and fresh milk.
The ruins of Tiahuanaco, and on the islands in the lake, and the towers of Sillustani, are the principal remains of ancient Aymara civilization. Nothing is known respecting the people who raised these imperishable monuments, except that, in the middle of the eleventh century, a man and woman, declaring themselves to be children of the Sun, are said to have first appeared on the shores of the great lake, and, marching north, to have founded the empire of the Incas.The circumstance that Manco Ccapac, the first Inca of Peru, originally appeared in the country of the Aymaras, has led to the belief that he was himself a chief of that nation; but I am more inclined to the opinion that he was one of a band of adventurers who had been brought from Asia, or her vast archipelago of islands, by the westerly winds of the South Pacific, and the southerly breezes of the coast, to the port of Arica; that he thence made his way to the banks of the great lake, where he became indoctrinated in the religion of the people; and that, for some reason, he continued his wanderings, until he finally collected a sufficiently numerous following to found an independent state at Cuzco. It seems certain, from emblems found carved upon the ruins, and from tradition, that the worship of the Sun and Moon was established amongst the Aymaras for ages before the conquest of their country by the Incas of Cuzco.
It was not for several generations after the foundation of the empire of the Incas, that their conquests were extended over the Aymara nation of the Collao; and it was not until about the middle of the eleventh century that the country on the shores of lake Titicaca became part of the great empire whose centre and capital was at Cuzco. From that time the islands of Titicaca and Coata, and the peninsula of Copacabana, became the most sacred and venerated spots within the dominions of the Incas; as the localities where their great progenitor Manco Ccapac was believed to have made his first appearance.
Copacabana means "the place of a precious stone,"copabeing a precious stone, andcavanaa place where anything is seen.[154]A rock called Titicaca gave its name to the island and lake:titibeing Aymara for a cat, andcacaarock, for on this rock a cat is said to have sat with fire shooting from its eyes.[155]In Quichuatitimeans lead. On this rock, which is at the west end of the island of Titicaca,[156]there was an altar where the Aymaras adored the Sun, and near it there were three idols joined in one, calledApu Ynti(the Chief Sun),Churip Ynti(the Son's Sun), andYntip Huauqui(Brother of the Sun). The Inca Tupac Yupanqui (A.D.1439-75) founded a palace and a village about half a league from the rock, and established a convent of virgins there.[157]
The island of Coata, a league to the eastward of Titicaca, was dedicated to the Moon, the name being derived from Coyata, the accusative of Coya, a queen; the Moon ranking as wife to the Sun. The ruins of theAccla huasi, or convent of virgins, on Coata island, are 120 feet long, the interior being divided into numerous cells, with rows of niches in the walls. They are now overshadowed by queñua-trees, whose dark foliage adds to the sombre melancholy of these silent memorials of the past. On both the islands there were, in the time of the Incas, large establishments of Virgins of the Sun, who were divided into three grades, according to their beauty. The most lovely were calledGuayruro; the nextYurac Aclla, or white maidens; and the plain onesPaco Aclla, or beast maidens. Each grade was governed by aMamaconaor nurse, and anApu-panacaor governor lived near the convent, who guarded it, and supplied its inmates with provisions. The occupations of the virgins were weaving, embroidery, and brewing sacrificialchicha, to be poured out on the altar of the deity.[158]
After the conquest, the Spanish Viceroys handed over the province of Chucuito, and the islands in the lake, to the Dominican friars, who succeeded in introducing far grosser and more degrading superstitions amongst the Indians than they had ever practised on the islands of Titicaca and Coata; and in establishing, on the adjacent peninsula of Copacabana, a shrine, the pretended sanctity of which attracted devotees and rich presents from all parts of Spanish America.
Its origin appears to have been as follows:—A member of the family of the Incas, named Francisco Titu Yupanqui, not having money enough to buy an image of the Virgin for his church, painted a very bad picture, and the cura, Antonio de Almeida, either to please the Indian, or because there were few images or pictures in the country, allowed it to be placed near the altar. But the next cura, Antonio de Montoro, seeing that it caused more laughter than devotion, ordered it to be put in a corner of the sacristy. The poor artist then went to Potosi to learn to paint, and, after much labour, he succeeded in completing a picture which, the moment it was placed in the church at Copacabana, began to work miracles. It was set up in 1583, and the Inca painter died in 1608. The first thing the picture did was to banish all devils out of the province, and to cure many Indians of their diseases; and its fame became so great that in 1588 the Count of Villar, viceroy of Peru, solemnly delivered it to the care of the Augustine friars by a royal edict. Between 1589 and 1652 it is said to have performed 186 miracles. One Alonzo de Escote, for favours received, saved up money for the purpose of giving the Virgin a lamp, and at length he presented the richest then to be found in the Spanish colonies, twenty feet long, with sockets for as many candles as there are days in the year, all of solid silver. Even as late as 1845, when Dr. Weddell saw the church, it was very richly gilt.
"Other images," says Father Calancha, "in Europe and Asia perform miracles in their own towns or provinces, but this picture of Copacabana performs them all over the new world, and in parts of Europe!"[159]
Thus the Spanish conquerors supplied the Aymara Indians of the shores of lake Titicaca with an object of devotion in the shape of this old picture; which was to replace their former simple worship of the Sun and Moon on the sacred islands of the lake. It will be interesting to examine briefly the way the Spaniards treated the people they subjected, in other respects, and to glance at the kind of government which they substituted for the mild rule of the Incas.
The forefathers of the present Aymara Indians established a civilization of which we have no record save the silent evidence of those cyclopean ruins which have just been described. Subsequently, for nearly four centuries, from the middle of the twelfth to the sixteenth, they formed a part of the empire of the Incas, and their land was then called Collasuyu. During this period the Incas followed their constant policy of superseding the language of the conquered land by their own more polished Quichua; and they so far succeeded that the Aymara, which once extended and was spoken all over the Collao, as far as the pass of Ayaviri, on the road to Cuzco, has been entirely superseded in all parts north of Puno by the Quichua, and is now only spoken between Puno and La Paz, and farther south. Nevertheless the people enjoyed a long period of tranquillity and prosperity during the happy rule of the Incas, and the population continued to increase. With the introduction of Spanish rule a blight fell upon them: and we shall now see how the beneficent laws of the sovereigns of Castile were administered by their unworthy servants.
THE PERUVIAN INDIANS:
Their condition under Spanish colonial rule.
Inreviewing the deplorable results of Spanish domination in South America, it may at once be conceded that the legislation which originated from the councils of the kings of Castile was always, except in matters connected with religion, remarkable for beneficence and liberality in all that concerned the natives; and that, in the words of Mr. Helps, "those humane and benevolent laws, which emanated from time to time from the Home Government, rendered the sway of the Spanish monarchs over the conquered nations as remarkable for mildness as any, perhaps, that has ever been recorded in the pages of history."[160]It may also be allowed that the Viceroys of Peru were generally earnest and zealous statesmen, who conscientiously strove to enforce the regulations which they from time to time received from the council of the Indies.
But it was almost as impossible for the viceroys to exercise efficient personal supervision over the government of so enormous a country, while residing at Lima, as it would have been if they had remained at the council-table in Seville; and their subordinates were, as a body, untrustworthy, extortionate, rapacious, and often remorselessly cruel. Thus the benign laws of the Spanish kings became a dead letter inSouth America, and the natives groaned, for three centuries, under a yoke which crashed them to the earth, and converted vast tracts of once thickly populated country into uninhabited deserts.
Yet the humane intentions of the Spanish government, and the labours of the Peruvian viceroys, were not wholly without results; and it is partly due to them that a system of worse than African slavery was not established in Peru, and that the native race has not long ago become entirely extinct.
At the time of the Spanish conquest Pizarro was empowered, in 1529, to grant "encomiendas," or estates, to his fellow-conquerors, the inhabitants of which were bound to pay tribute to the holders of the grants; and in 1536 theseencomiendaswere extended to two lives. The consequent exactions and cruelties were so intolerable that the good Las Casas, and other friends of the Indians, at length induced the Emperor Charles V. to enact the code so well known as the "New Laws," in 1542; by which theencomiendaswere to pass immediately to the Crown after the death of the actual holders; all officers under government were prohibited from holding them; all men who had been mixed up in the civil wars of the Pizarros and Almagros were to be deprived at once; a fixed sum was to be settled as tribute to be paid by the Indians; and all forced personal labour was absolutely forbidden.
The promulgation of these beneficent laws excited a howl of furious execration from the conquerors,—the wolves who were thus to be dragged away, when their fangs were actually fixed in the flesh of their victims. Gonzalo Pizarro rose in rebellion in Peru, and defeated and killed Blasco Nuñez de Vela, the viceroy who had arrived to enforce these "New Laws;" while the more politic Belalcazar, at Popayan, though professing obedience, contrived to evade the execution of hisorders, after a fashion which gave rise to the well-known saying—"se obedece, pero no se cumple"—"he obeys, but does not fulfil." Their unpopularity was so great that it was considered unsafe to persist in the attempt to enforce them, and they were revoked in 1545. The President Gasca re-distributed the "encomiendas" in 1550, and they were granted for three lives in 1629. Gasca, who showed more regard for his own safety and convenience than for the public service, arranged that his settlement of theencomiendasshould not be promulgated until he had sailed for Spain, and he suspended the law prohibiting the forced personal service of the Indians. The latter enactment, however, was boldly promulgated by the Judges of the Royal Audience in 1552, and was, as might have been expected, immediately followed by a ferment amongst the conquerors and a formidable rebellion. Finally the Marquis of Cañete arrived in Peru, as viceroy, in 1554; and, by a mixture of severity and prudent conciliation, trod out the last sparks of revolt amongst the Spaniards.
In 1568 the viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo established the system under which the native population of Peru was professedly ruled for the two succeeding centuries. Toledo was a bigot, without pity, and inexorably cruel. Justice or humanity had no weight with him if they stood in the way of any policy which he deemed to be advisable, as was shown in the judicial murder of the young Inca Tupac Amaru. But he was a faithful servant of his sovereign, and resolutely determined to enforce the edicts of the Council of the Indies; a statesman of considerable ability and untiring industry. He was so prolific in legislation that, on the subject of coca-cultivation alone, he issued seventy ordinances; and future viceroys referred to his rules and enactments as to a received and authoritative text-book. The viceroy Marquis of Montes Claros, in 1615, declared that"all future rulers of Peru were but disciples of Francisco de Toledo, that great master of statesmanship."
By hisLibro de Tasas, or Book of Rules, Toledo fixed the tribute to be paid by the Indians, exempting all men under the age of eighteen, or over that of fifty. The Indians were governed by native chiefs of their own people, whose duty it was to collect the tribute, and pay it in to the Spanish corregidor or governor of the province, as well as to exercise subordinate magisterial functions. These chiefs, calledCuracasin the time of the Incas, were ordered by Toledo to be namedCaciques, a word brought from the West Indian islands;[161]and under them there were two other native officials—thePichca-pachacas, placed over 500 Indians, and thePachacasover 100. These offices were inherited from father to son, and their possessors enjoyed several privileges, such as the exemption from arrest, except for grave offences, and they received a fixed salary. The native Caciques were often men of considerable wealth; some of them were members of the royal family of the Incas; they were free from the payment of tribute and from personal service; and thus occupied positions of importance amongst their countrymen.[162]They wore the same dress which distinguished the nobles of the Inca's court, consisting of a tunic calleduncu, a rich mantle or cloak of black velvet calledyacolla, intended as mourning for the fall of their ancient rulers; and those of the family of the Incas added a sort of coronet, whence a red fringe of alpaca-wool descended as an emblem of nobility. This head-dress was calledmascapaycha. They had pictures of the Incas in their houses, and encouraged the periodical festivals in memory of their beloved sovereigns, when plays were enacted, and mournful music was produced from the nationalinstruments, drums, trumpets, clarions, andpututus, or sea shells.[163]All these customs were left unchanged by Toledo, and the system so far resembles that which now prevails in the Dutch colony of Java.[164]
But, in addition to the tribute, the amount of which as established by Toledo was not excessive, and which was rendered still less objectionable to the Indians from being collected by their native chiefs, there was themitaor forced labour in mines, manufactories, and farms,[165]which became the instrument of fearful oppression and cruelty. Toledo enacted that a seventh part of the adult male population of every village should be subject to themita, and ordered that the Caciques should send thesemitayos, as they were called, to the public squares of the nearest Spanish towns, where they might be hired by those who required their services; and laws were enacted to regulate the distance they might be taken from their homes, and their payment.[166]It appears, however, that this seventh part of the working men who were told off for forced labour was exclusive of those employed in the mines, so that, even in theory, themitacondemned a large fraction of the population to slavery.[167]
There was a class of Indians, numbering about 40,000 souls in the time of Toledo (1570), calledYanaconas, who were scattered over Peru, and forced to work on the lands ofSpaniards, or as domestic servants. They may have been descendants of captives in war, or of persons who had been condemned to slavery in the time of the Incas, and thus became the property of the conquerors; but in 1601 an enactment was promulgated to ameliorate their condition, and fix the terms of their service.[168]
In matters connected with religion the Spanish legislators allowed of no temporizing policy. All signs of idolatry must disappear, and with the new religion came additional exactions, in the shape of fees for masses, burials, and christenings. Toledo enacted many laws for the suppression of the old religion of the Incas: any Indian who married an idolatrous woman was to receive one hundred stripes, "because that is the punishment which they dislike most;" the people were prohibited from using surnames taken from the names of birds, beasts, serpents, or rivers, which was their ancient custom; and no Indian who had been punished for idolatry, joining in infidel rites, or dancing the dance calledarihua, could be appointed to hold any public office.[169]
On the whole, however, the legislation of the Spanish kings, and the reports of the viceroys of Peru, display an earnest desire to protect the Indians from tyranny, and to render their condition tolerable. In 1615 the Marquis of Montes Claros impressed on his successor the importance of obliging all classes of Spaniards to treat the Indians well, and of chastising oppression with rigour. In 1681 the Count of Castellar states that one of the points most dwelt upon in the instructions given to the viceroys, and in repeated royal enactments, was the humane treatment of the Indians; andhe declares that he always sought to enforce these orders from the day that he landed in Peru; and words to the same effect are to be found in the reports of most of the other viceroys.[170]
But side by side with these evidences of the good intentions of the Government, is the testimony of the viceroys that their efforts to comply with these beneficent orders, and enforce these humane laws, were fruitless, and rendered of no effect by the unworthiness of their subordinates; and almost all complain of the rapid depopulation of the country. In 1620 the Prince of Esquilache reported that "the arm of the viceroy was not powerful against the negligence and maladministration of the corregidors;" in 1681 the Count of Castellar said that he had to correct and punish the excesses both of the corregidors and the curas; in 1697 the Duke of La Palata speaks of the depopulation of the villages and towns, caused by the forcible detention of the Indians to work at the mines, in cloth and cotton workshops, and in farms; and another viceroy attributes the rapid depopulation of the country to the same causes, and also to drink, and urges a closer supervision of the conduct of the corregidors and curas.
I have, in a former work, given a brief account of the treatment of the Indians, and of the way in which the laws intended for their defence were evaded; from the evidence of the brothers Ulloa, who were commissioned to make a special and secret report on the subject to the King of Spain in 1740.[171]I have since collected abundant testimony to the same effect, printed and in manuscript, both at Madrid andin Peru; but I have only space for a few brief notes, which must serve to illustrate this part of the subject.
The mines of Potosi were supplied with labourers from the nearest provinces, by enforcing amitaof a seventh of the adult male population. In 1573 thismitaconsisted of 11,199 Indians, in 1620 of 4249, and in 1678 of 1674,[172]a decrease which marks the rapid depopulation of the country; and, at the latter date, when the authorities at Potosi failed to receive a sufficient number of labourers by the ordinarymita, they kidnapped people in their homes, and on the roads, and carried them off to forced labour in the mines. The law was that themitayosshould be paid for coming and going, and that they should not be forced to work at night; but these laws were habitually set at nought, and Potosi became an exhausting drain to the surrounding country.[173]
The mines of Huancavelica, which supplied the quicksilver necessary for extracting the silver of Potosi from its ores,[174]also desolated the ten adjoining provinces. In 1645 themitaor seventh part of the adult male population amounted to 620, and in 1678 to only 354 Indians. Themitawas a service which was abhorred and dreaded by the people, and mothers maimed the arms and legs of their children to deliver them from this slavery. Don Juan de Padilla relates that, in 1657, when he was at Santa Lucia, in the province of Lucanas, he saw the women of the village go out to assist each other in sowing their fields, and, at the end of their labour, they returned hand in hand, singing a most melancholy song, and lamenting the cruel fate of their husbands and brothers, who were slaving in themines of Huancavelica, while they were obliged to work in the fields like men. They declared that when a man was once taken for themitahis wife seldom or never saw him again, unless she went herself to the place of his torments.[175]
The oppression of the owners ofobrajesor manufactories of coarse woollen and cotton cloths, in enforcing themitas, was as crushing as that of the miners. These people employed men, calledguatacos, to hunt the Indians, and drive them into theobrajes. If they could not find the particular men for whom they were in search, they took their children, wives, and nearest neighbours, robbed them of all they possessed, and frequently violated the women and young girls.[176]The masters, in theobrajes, then forced their victims to get deeply in debt to them, and thus obtained an excuse for keeping them in perpetual slavery. In manyobrajesthere were Indians who had not been outside the walls for forty years and upwards. The law was that the natives should be free from tribute and personal service until they attained the age of eighteen; but it was the general practice to drag children from their homes at the ages of six or eight, force them to work hard at twisting woollen and cotton threads, and flog them cruelly.[177]