The enormities committed by the first Spaniards who arrived in America were certainly unauthorized by the Spanish Monarchs, they were the effects of their own lust for riches. Isabella and her successors have been actuated by a zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith, and the most earnest charges respecting religious instruction and mild treatment to these their inoffensive subjects have been given to all persons in authority in the new world, and the same mild spirit breathes out in almost every page of the Recopilacion de leyes de Indias. Not only the civil magistrate and the military governor were charged with the protection of the Indians, but the bishops and other ecclesiastics; these injunctions are set forth in the tenth book of the Recopilacion, which points out the duty of these individuals, as guardians of the indians, commanding them to defend their persons and property against any oppression or usurpation. The bishops and other ecclesiastics are by the same Recopilacion empowered to inform and admonish the civil magistrates, in cases of oppression, and some of them have refused absolution to those Spaniards whom they knew to have treated the indians as slaves.
The avarice of individuals placed at a great distance from the personal control of their masters is however too violent to be restrained by laws and enactments; and many of the governors sent to the new world were as mercenary and rapacious as their countrymen over whom they presided; the lot of the oppressed was never regarded, if put in competition with their own private views, which led only to the amassing of riches, and of afterwards returning to old Spain loaded with the gold of America: this they often effected at the expence of incurring, as they richly deserved, the curses of the Americans.
CHAPTER III.
General Mode of Travelling from Lima to the different Provinces....British Manufactures fit for the last Provinces visited....General Character of the Inhabitants....Animals in the Provinces of Huailas, Caxatambo, Conchucos, and Huamalies....Pagi or Puma....Ucumari....Viscacha....Comadreja....Ardillas....Gato Montes....Alco....Llama....Paco....Huanaco....Vicuña....Mulita....Birds....Condor....Vegetable Productions....Mineral ditto....Antiquities....Diseases and Remedies....Hydrophobia.
During my stay in Huamalies, the news of the invasion of the province of La Plata, by the English, arrived; this induced me to return to Lima, instead of travelling through the country to the northward, because I knew that in the capital I should be less suspected by the government, than by the petty governors and magistrates in the inland towns. Before I quit the subject of the foregoing chapter I shall however make a few general observations.
The total absence of inns, or any similar establishment on the roads, or in the towns and villages, would present to an English traveller an almost insurmountable obstacle; and as this country is now (1824) likely to be frequented by many of my countrymen, I think it will not be uninteresting to those who may stand in need of some information, nor unentertaining to the public at large, if I give a concise description of the general mode of travelling in Peru.
If a resident in Lima wish to go to any considerable distance from the capital, the best plan he can pursue is to inquire at the tambos for requas, mules, which are from the country he intends to visit, and agree with the muleteers or carriers for the number of mules he may want. With an eye to comfort, the traveller must provide himself with a mattress, bedding, and an almaufres, leather bag, already described, sufficiently large to hold, besides the bed, his wearing apparel, because the cargo would be otherwise too light.
I always formed another load with a trunk, containing linen, books, and writing materials; also a canteen, holding two or three small pans, oil, vinegar, salt, spices, sugar, coffee, tea, knives and forks, spoons, &c., and thus equipped, having a good poncho, saddle, al uso del pais, bridle and spurs, a traveller has little to apprehend from the want of inns. The plan I usually followed was, to go to one of the principal houses in the town or village, and to ask if I could remain there during my stay in that place; this request was never denied me, and nine times out of ten I have had nothing to pay, with the addition, perhaps, of letters of recommendation, or kind messages, to persons residing in the town or village to which I was going. If it happened to be from one cura to another, I was not the less pleased, because their society in such places is generally the best, and their fare is certainly not the worst. It is much to be feared, that the political changes likely to take place in South America will be inimical to the general feeling of hospitality in the inhabitants; civilization will teach them refinements superior to such barbarous practices.