To conclude these remarks on the Indian’s condition, we have shown that evil example in high places, religious abuses, the exactions of the collector of revenue, and also of the priest, (whom, by the by, the state should deliver from this degrading necessity, by giving him an adequate income out of the tithes which it has appropriated to itself,) the arbitrariness of petty governors, alcaldes, and village captains, together with the restless and overweening ambition of military despots that allow their country no repose,—we have shown that these causes, collectively, tend to render the Indian race—which forms the bulk of the Peruvian nation—insecure in their persons and property, distrustful and cringing in their character, degraded in their morals, and heirs direct to civil and religious bondage.
The curates who reside in the mountain glens and deep corries feel assured, from the well-known feelings cherished by their flocks, that when the day arrives when these uneducated men of the hills shall understand what are their own political rights and physical strength, and shall be commanded by bold and sagacious leaders of their own blood and kind, they will fearfully and cruelly avenge their wrongs on all “advenedizos,” all exotics!—on their white oppressors and sable interlopers![26]
CHAPTER VI.
War of Independence.—Unsettled state of the country at the close of 1835 and early in 1836.—Gamarra’s Government.—Insurrections.—Guerilla and Freebooters.—Foreign Marines.—Lima invaded from the castles of Callao, under command of Solar.—Orbegoso enters Lima.—Castles of Callao taken by assault.—Battle of Socabaya.—Salaverry taken prisoner.—Execution.—Public tranquillity hoped for under the protection of Santa-Cruz.
Having in the preceding chapters attempted to give a correct idea of the general aspect of Peru, and of the social condition of its inhabitants, we will subjoin a brief sketch of the anarchy into which it fell about the close of the year 1835 and beginning of 1836.
From the year 1810, when first the Patriot flag was triumphantly carried into upper Peru by the spirited Buenos-Ayreans, the natives of lower Peru, or that which is now called the Peruvian Republic, had the path to freedom boldly pointed out to their view. But in Lima, where Spanish influence and loyalty were strongly concentrated, it was not until 1819, when Lord Cochrane appeared with a liberating squadron on the shores of Peru, and the Chilean and Buenos-Ayrean forces in the year following landed on the same coast under the command of General San Martin, that the national spirit of the Peruvian people declared itself in that joyful welcome, and effective support of their proposed deliverers and fellow patriots, which struck dismay into the councils, and confusion into the operations of their proud oppressors. Then, indeed, were kindled all the horrors of civil strife and warfare in this once opulent and peaceful country; and these sanguinary struggles never ceased, until, aided by the Colombian troops, and the directing mind of the great Liberator Bolivar, the Peruvians were at length enabled to throw off the chains of despotism which for more than three centuries they had submissively worn,—chains of which they will long bear evident marks on their national and domestic character; for the battle of Ayacucho, which was gloriously fought and won by the Patriots on the 9th day of December 1824, and which terminated the great liberating campaigns of Peru, has not yet secured prosperity to that distracted country. But the Peruvians, having thrown off the tameness of bondage, and assumed the name of freemen, have yet harder work before them than the expulsion of the Spaniards: they have to finish their own work of regeneration; to surmount all the intestine difficulties and reconcile all the discordant elements which originate among themselves; they have to free their community of noisy demagogues that poison the public press, and discontented agitators who, affecting the purest zeal for the commonwealth, have an eye only to their own interest, and whose object is change—they care not what, so long as it may benefit themselves. How far they are yet from having realized the final advantages they proposed to derive from their great, and, so far, successful revolutionary struggle, is plainly discovered in times of public disturbance, when all classes suffer more or less severely from grinding contributions and wanton exactions.
The wealth of the “hacendado,” or landed proprietor, is dissipated in every turmoil; and the less affluent farmer, or “chacarero,” is arrested in his labour, and has his arm paralysed by indigence and violence. Predatory troops, as well as government hirelings, seize and drive off his cattle, lead astray his slaves, press or frighten away his free labourers, destroy his crops, and pillage his granaries; and should the spoliated countryman, or country gentleman, be able to rally his spirits and renew his exertions so as to recover the shock of one year’s depredation, the repetition of the like violence, or an aggression yet more destructive, on the following year, consigns him to hopeless beggary. The miners likewise, though a greatly privileged corporation, are for the most part destitute of real capital; yet, in these times, misnamed patriotic, they are a prey to unjust collectors of tribute, who, on fixing any particular miner’s contribution at a certain sum in current money, which he is unable to pay, take care to recover the amount in piña. Now, the extortioner asserts that the miner’s piña, though truly excellent, is very badly purified,—that it is of “mucha merma,” or sustains great loss of weight in fusion; and, under this false pretence, again comes upon the miner, and obliges him to make up the alleged deficiency: this, in fact, is a surplus, over and above the demands of the government, which swaggering colonels, or other such commissioned pilferers, appropriate without scruple to their own unworthy purposes. Such acts of violence and villany in times of petty revolutions lead to the worst consequences; for they not only occasion great private distress, but create such a general distrust in the government and its rapacious agents, as frequently prevents the miners from remitting silver bars to Lima, when otherwise it might be their interest to do so; and this oppression causes a contraband trade, for which, indeed, the open coasts of the country afford all imaginable facility. Nor should it be here overlooked that, as a common consequence of the frequent public broils in this republic, the small merchant or retail dealer often feigns, on the convenient plea of bad times, an utter incapacity to pay the wholesale foreigner in Lima who credits him with goods. Should a person of this character once get into the interior with a respectable stock on hand, he is sure to play the part of a gentleman in feasting and dancing, &c.; and it may take some trouble not only to get him to render fair accounts, but to hunt him out of the town or village where, under the pretext of transacting business, he is pleased to locate himself. In short, so great is the disorder in every department of the social and political system in Peru, that, to express the sentiments of a friend of ours, and a distinguished Peruvian statesman, “In Peru there cannot for a long time to come be any other than a military government; every state pretends to regulate itself by a moral government; but, as we have little or no morality in our land, the bayonet must inevitably direct us. Here we have no industry; there is not more than one man in ten that labours for his bread: and putting out of the question the ‘empleados,’ or those who fill public stations under government, and who are supported at the cost of the state, there is not one in thirty of those mannikins who are daily seen loitering about the streets that live by their own proper industry. Give to the Indian, in whose arm rests our physical strength, an idea of his wants; let him know the conveniences of civilized life; in short, enlighten the mass of our people so as to let them understand something at least of the nature and end of government, and then we shall not have daily revolutions. But, situated as we are at present, we have neither capital, industry, nor private security. All is insecure; all is loose and common, unhinged, unprotected, and without order. Good men have nothing to hope for: the few individuals who have access to our rulers are guided by none but the most sordid motives. It is the ruin of my lacerated country, that no man looks beyond his personal interest; that no one attaches himself to the government with sound intentions, or with any view except that of plunder.”