The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

The constant drain put on the resources of Peru by the Spanish kings during the entire period of the viceroyalty could have been supported only by a country of inexhaustible wealth and a people of long-suffering loyalty. Each successive viceroy came to his office with instructions to increase the king’s revenues, while the protection and aid from the mother country diminished as its demands grew more urgent and arrogant. Philip III. died in 1621 and Philip IV. ascended the throne, naming as viceroy of Peru the Marquis de Guadalcazar, a descendant of El Gran Capitan. During his administration and that of his successor, the Count de Chinchon, the demands of the court were so excessive that one wonders the colonists did not rebel against the extortions. The taxes were doubled, the sale of offices and privileges was increased, donations were solicited, duties were placed on vicuña wool, salaries were reduced, expenditures curtailed, and all manners of means resorted to in order to raise the sum required by the King of Spain for his fruitless enterprises and his extravagant pastimes; for although new mines were discovered in Cerro de Pasco and Cailloma, Potosí and Huancavelica began to show symptoms of decline, owing to the primitive and wasteful mining system employed.

The name of the Count de Chinchon is associated with the important discovery of quinine. His countess, who suffered from malarial fever, was cured by using a remedy that one of the corregidores had received from the Indians, a preparation made from the bark of a tree, and now popularly known as Chinchona bark. It is said the Indians had known its merits from time immemorial. The Count de Chinchon returned to Spain in 1640, and the Marquis de Mancera, of the illustrious family of Toledo, occupied the throne of the viceroys in Lima for the nine years following, during which he gave to Peru the best squadron in the Pacific and protected Buenos Aires, Paraguay, and southern Chile from invasion by building strong fortifications and providing weapons of defence. His successor was the Count de Salvatierra, formerly viceroy of Mexico, during whose administration the capital was beautified by many improvements. The handsome bronze fountain which still adorns the plaza in front of the government palace was erected by his order. He died in Lima soon after the arrival of the viceroy named to succeed him, the Count de Alva. The funeral of the Count de Salvatierra was an occasion of magnificent ceremony, the widowed countess observing with great pomp and formality the strictest court etiquette of mourning.

The Count de Alva and his successor, the Count de Santisteban, gave especial attention to the reform of laws affecting the Indians employed in the mines. The discovery of new mines at Laicacota, in the province of Puno, which produced one hundred thousand dollars in one night, revived abuses that had been quelled in other districts, and resulted in terrible fighting and bloodshed. In the midst of these conditions news was received that Philip IV. was dead and that his son Charles II. had ascended the throne. A few months later the Count de Santisteban died and the pious Count de Lemos, who is said to have lacked only the frock to make him a perfect Jesuit, was appointed viceroy of Peru. He came, accompanied by his wife and two children, with a retinue worthy of one of the royal families of Europe, both the count and countess being descendants of Pope Alexander VI. When the viceroy made his official entry, the keys of the city were presented to him on a gold salver, and he received a gold-headed staff encrusted with diamonds, that cost five thousand dollars. The triumphal arch through which he passed was made entirely of silver plate, and the space beneath it was paved with five hundred and fifty bars of silver, worth more than a million dollars. During an absence of six months, which the count spent in Alto Peru, the countess ruled as vicereine, her sagacity and energy being called into requisition on more than one occasion during that time. The greatest labor of the viceroy was devoted to the interests of the Church, and the religious festivals held during his administration were of surpassing pomp and splendor. Not even the gorgeous display that attended a royal progress under the Inca dynasty rivalled in magnificence the processions of the Virgin in Lima, held by order of the Count de Lemos. His successor, the Count de Castellar, viceroy of Peru from 1674 to 1678, possessed little of the temperament of a religieux, though he was an experienced statesman and an able financier; during the four years of his government he secured for the treasury of Lima twelve million dollars, and sent seven million dollars to Spain.

As the wealth and importance of the viceroyalty increased, the Court of Spain sent representatives to the colonial capital whose rank and previous services to the Crown entitled them to the most exalted position in the realm, next to that of the sovereign himself; the salary of a viceroy was seventy thousand dollars, his official income being double that amount from various other sources. The Duke de la Palata and Prince of Masa, who succeeded the Count de Castellar, had held high offices of state for thirty years prior to his appointment as Viceroy of Peru. He belonged to the royal house of Navarre and had been a member of the council of regency during the minority of Charles II. of Spain. With such prestige and renown, it was to be expected that his reception in the colonial capital would be of the most magnificent description. The chronicles of the period state that the noble duke was welcomed with such pomp and splendor as his royal master might have envied, the street along which he was conducted to the palace being paved with ingots of silver, while the triumphal arch through which he made his entry to the city was supported on silver pillars. The robes of the high functionaries who received the viceroy and his suite sparkled with costly jewels, and in the Cathedral and the palace enough gold and silver were displayed to pave another calle. And all this wealth existed in spite of the millions sent annually to Spain, and the misfortunes the colony had suffered from time to time in consequence of interruptions in the working of the mines, epidemics, earthquakes, and attacks from filibustering expeditions, that increased as the precious galleons of Spain were more and more heavily laden with gold and silver to attract their cupidity.

The Duke de la Palata spent the first years of his viceroyalty in resisting the powerful attacks of a party of a thousand filibusters who arrived on the Pacific Coast with a fleet of ships under the command of a Flemish captain named Davis. The viceroy sent a squadron of six ships, provided with one hundred and sixteen cannons and abundant ammunition, to disperse them, and when their scattered forces formed in groups and sacked the ports of Guayaquil, Paita, Pisco, Arica, and others, the duke sent out additional ships, a squadron of volunteers formed of merchants and capitalists gave their aid to the royal authorities, and the enemy was completely vanquished and driven from the coast. In order to be secure against disasters from future attacks, a wall was built around the cities of Lima and Trujillo, by order of the viceroy. The wall of Lima covered about six miles in extent, and had five bastions, and six gates, the work having been completed in three years. In the year 1687 a disastrous earthquake visited Lima, causing the destruction of many edifices and the loss of some lives. The Cathedral was destroyed, and the damage to property was tremendous. But the city recuperated with astonishing rapidity and was soon as gay as ever.

ENTRANCE TO A COLONIAL INN, CUZCO.

The question of rebuilding the Cathedral led to a clash of opinion between the viceroy and the Archbishop of Lima, the latter refusing to employ any of his enormous revenues in the work. The viceroy had a powerful enemy in the archbishop, who had held the office of viceroy during the three years that elapsed between the departure of the Duke de Castellar and his own arrival, and the quarrels of these two great dignitaries furnished abundant material for scandal and gossip in the gay capital. Lorente, who has given a graphic and charming description of social life under the viceroys, relates several amusing incidents. On one occasion, during a great national fiesta, when the duke was witnessing the bull fight from the viceregal box, under the crimson canopy of state, it was called to his attention that the Archbishop of Lima sat under a crimson canopy also; the duke at once sent him word that that honor was exclusively reserved for the viceroy of His Catholic Majesty, and the archbishop was obliged to retire from the scene. The state coach, drawn by six horses, which presented an imposing spectacle of luxury in those days, was another object of envy to the eminent ecclesiastic, who realized that as vice-patron of the church his rival exerted an authority which otherwise could not have been claimed by the viceroy. But the archbishop possessed great power and used it effectively in thwarting the viceroy’s plans for various reforms, though the administration was marked by consistent and resolute efforts to improve the condition of the colony. The Real Audiencia was enabled to exercise its authority with greater freedom, and the entire country was brought under a more systematic order of government.

The death of Charles II. of Spain, which took place in 1700, was the occasion of impressive mourning ceremonies throughout the vast empire over which the House of Austria had maintained its sway for nearly two centuries. The Duke de la Palata had died ten years before at Panamá, where he was attacked with yellow fever while on his way to Spain, and his successor, the Count de la Monclova, a nephew of the Cardinal Portocarrero, had already won the clergy of the colony to his support and coöperation by his protection and liberal donations. He was greatly beloved and esteemed, and remained in Peru as viceroy after the fall of the Austrian dynasty and the accession of the House of Bourbon in the person of Philip V., grandson of Louis XIV. of France; his government was marked by tolerance and the encouragement of social and commercial development throughout the colony.