We must first tell them, however, a few words of the country itself. Peru is a hot and barren country. It is barren, because it seldom rains there. It has many dreary deserts. The lofty Andes pass through, and divide it. It abounds in gold, and silver, and mercury, or quicksilver. Here, too, is found Peruvian bark, which is so much used in this, and other parts of the world.
Peru is a large country; and yet it has but about a million and a half of inhabitants. They consist of Creoles, Mestizoes, and Indians, or natives of the country. The Creoles are natives of Spanish descent. They are well made, and of good stature, with lively, agreeable countenances. The Mestizoes are a mixed race. They are, also, generally well made, very robust, and quite tall.
By far the greater part of the inhabitants of Peru are Indians; but they are not now what they once were. Many years ago, the Spaniards conquered them. At that time, they were a rich and flourishing people. They understood several of the arts, and many of them lived in a style of magnificence.
At that time, gold was so common among them, that they used it, as we use iron and brass. Their sovereigns were called Incas. They believed the sun to be a god, and worshipped it as such. The glory of their former days has, however, passed away. They are now almost savages. They are well proportioned, and even strong; but are generally low in stature, and some of them remarkably so. They have deep black hair, which is thick, long, harsh and coarse, like that of a horse. The men wear theirs loose, but the women plait theirs behind with a ribbon. They set great value upon their hair; the greatest insult which can be offered to either sex, is to cut it off; and when this is done by way of punishment, they never forgive the disgrace put upon them.
Their dress consists of white cotton drawers, reaching to the calf of the leg, loose, and edged with lace. Instead of a shirt, they wear a black cotton frock, in the form of a sack, with two openings for the arms, and a third for the head to pass through; over this, they throw a kind of cloak, and cover the head with a hat.
This dress they never put off, even when they sleep. Some of the richer class distinguish themselves by the fineness of their drawers, and wear shirts with lace four or five inches broad, fastened round the neck like a ruff. Though they wear no stockings, they have silver or gold buckles in their shoes; and their cloak, which is of fine cloth, is often adorned with gold or silver lace.
Intemperance in England.—At a meeting recently held in Exeter Hall, London, the Hon. J. S. Buckingham stated, that £53,000,000 was the annual cost of intoxicating drinks to the people of that country. That this sum was fifty times as much as all the collections for the relief of the distressed, under every form of appealing to public sympathy.
In that land of distress and wretchedness, where thousands perish for the necessaries of life, and tens of thousands more gain a scanty subsistence, fifty-three millions of pounds, or 250 millions of dollars, are annually spent for poison to augment the poverty, misery, and death. Strange infatuation!—When will old England be alive to the interests of the great mass of her citizens, and place an everlasting quarantine upon this source of physical and moral disease, temporal and eternal death.