Twenty-four species of pepper, five or six of capsicum, and several of potatoe, tobacco, and jalap, exist in Peru; and the green and hot-houses of Europe owe most of their beautiful flowers and plants to this country. The lama, the guanuco, the vicuna, and the alpaco, or the different species of American camel, find their native climate in the cold districts of Peru; the jaguar, the cougar or puma, and several other wild animals, inhabit the thick forests; while the elk, the ant-bear, deer, monkeys, the great black bear of the Andes, and armadillos, &c. are very numerous. The woods abound in beautiful birds, the rivers in fish and alligators, and numerous tribes of repthes infest the warm districts of the coast, in which venomous insects are also com mon. Peru trades with Europe, the East Indies, coastwise with Mexico, Guatimala, and Chili, and over land with the provinces of the Rio de la Plata. Its exports are chiefly gold and silver, wine, brandy, sugar, pimento, Jesuit's bark, salt, vicuna wool, course woollens, and some other manufactures of little value; and it receives in re turn European goods, live stock, provisions, tallow, cacao, Paraguay tea, cocoa leaf, indizo, timber, cordage, pitch, and copper. The exports of Peru to Potosi and the other provinces of the Rio Plata, are valued at more than two millions of dollars annually, and the imports at 860,000 dollars; so that the balance in favour of Peru is near 1,200,000 dollars, independent of the profits on the carriage of the goods, which belangs also to Peru, as the carriers are Peruvians. Cuzco and Arequipa are the routes through which this trade passes. The chief exports to the Rio Plata are brandy, wine, maize, sugar, pimento, indigo, and woollens. The brandy alone amounts to near a million of dollars. The woollens, which are next in value, are chiefly made in Peru, but part of them are brought from Quito. The provinces of the Rio Plata used formerly to take woollens to a great amount from Quito; but it is now found more economical to procure these articles from Europe by the way of Buenos Ayres. The indigo exported from Peru is previous ly imported from Guatimala. The chief imports from the Rio Plata are mules, sheep, hams, tallow, wool, cocoa leaf, Paraguay leaf, and a small quantity of tin from Oruro; 20,000 mules are imported annually from Tucuman, for the service of the mines. The chief exports from Peru to Chili are European goods, previously imported at Callao; sugar, coarse woollens made in Peru, indigo from Guatimala, salt, cotton, pita yarn, and some other trifling articles. The imports are chiefly wheat, copper, ne gro slaves, some of them natives of Chili, but the greater part from Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Ayres; tallow, wine, Paraguay tea, salt meat, timber, cordage, and leather. Part of the copper is used in the mint at Lima, and the remainder, except a small quantity sent to Guayaquil, re-exported to Spain. The ports of Chili that trade with Peru are Valparaiso, Concep tion, and Coquimbo; but Valparaiso alone carries on three times as much trade as the other two. The timber is brought from the isle of Chiloe. Three-fourths of the exports to Guayaquil consist of European goods, and the remaining fourth of flour, wine, brandy, and copper. The imports are chiefly cacao and timber. There is also imported into Peru, on account of the government, a considerable quantity of tobacco, the growth of Guayaquil, which is afterwards re-exported to Chili. The trade with Panama, which was formerly of such magnitude, has declined since the middle of the last century, and is now reduced to a small importation of timber and cacao, and to the remains of a slave trade, which is every day diminishing. The exports from Peru to Panama are coarse woollens, sugar, flour, and brandy. There is also a remittance of 300,000 dollars a year from the treasury of Lima, to pay the garrison and civil government of Panama, without which that city must have fallen to still greater insignificance. Indigo is the principal article of import from Guatimala. Small quantities of logwood, pitch, timber, and cacao, are also imported. The exports, which are very trifling, consist chiefly of wine and woollens. The wines and brandies of Peru might be exported with advantage to San Blas, for the consumption of Cinaloa, Sonora, and California; but though permission has been frequently solicited from the government, it has been constantly refused, from an apprehension of interfering with the trade of the mother country in these articles. From the Philippine islands, muslins, tea, and other East Indian goods, are imported, amounting to 270,230 dollars annually, in return for about 2,790,000, exported to Asia, in silver and gold. The ports of Peru which are most frequented are those named Arica, Ilo, Iquique, and Quilca, in the intendancy of Arequipa, and Pisco on the south of Lima; Chancay and Guacho in Lima; and Guanchaco, Pacasmayo, and Payta, in Truxillo, on the north. The trade of the mother country to Peru was, according to the approved colonial po licy of the European states, originally op pressed by the most galling restrictions. This system was relaxed considerably when, in 1718, register ships were substituted for the galleons, and were dispatched to South America by the direct route of Cape Horn. But the trade, though somewhat emancipated, was still clogged with unnecessary expence and delay, and was subjected to an arbitrary licence, which might be withheld altogether, or burdened with restrictions at the caprice of men in power. At the peace of 1783, the system of free trade began at length to be carried into effect in the South sea. According to this system, an unlimited intercourse, without licence or restriction, was permitted between certain ports of Spain and certain ports of South America; and among the privileged ports of Peru, Arica and Peru were both included. The salutary effect of this liberal policy soon became visible in the increasing commerce of the colonies. The cheap rate at which they were enabled to purchase European goods gave a new stimulus to their industry; the value of their exports has been since greatly increased, and the produce of the mines has been nearly doubled. The following table of the exports from Peru, at different periods, before and after the free trade commenced, will shew the great improvement which has taken place in its commerce: Annual exports of Peru to Europe, from 4,260,479 From 1785 to 1794, since the The mountainous districts of Peru abound in metallic wealth. They are richly interspersed with veins of gold, and of heavy silver ores, in which pieces of pure silver, solid copper, and lead ore occur, frequently intermixed with white silver ore, and virgin silver in threads. In many parts there are rich veins of gold ore in quartz, and gold is obtained by washing, and silver and other metallic ores occur, of which no use is made. "In short (says Helms, when speaking of Guancavelica), so much do rich ores abound here, that the mines, if worked with a moderate industry and knowledge of metallurgy, might yield considerably more than the quantity necessary for the supply of the whole world." Quicksilver also abounds in many parts. These rich mines are, however, under the worst possible management. Those which are worked for the government, are the subject of every spe cies of malversation. There is in every department, not only the greatest ignorance of the art of mining, and of the best methods of extracting the metal from the ore, but the most shameless and glaring corruption. In the royal quicksilver mine of Guancavelica, the governor charged the king 166 piastres for every hundredweight of quicksilver produced; though the same quantity had under other management cost only 100 piastres. Mr Helms found the most unskilful and expensive methods universally in use for extracting the silver from the ore, by which not only a great proportion of the metal was left with the dross, and consequently lost, but an enormous and unnecessary quantity of quicksilver was consumed in this imperfect process of extraction. These methods were, however, so obstinately adhered to, that when Mr Helms proposed a new construction of furnaces, by which, with a smaller quantity of quicksilver, the process of extraction would have been more completely accomplished, he was opposed by the whole host of those employed about the mines, not only by the superintendants, but even by the lowest miners, who were persuaded that he was to introduce machinery, by which their manual labour would be superseded; and no sooner had he triumphed over one misrepresentation, than others were resorted to, for the purpose of thwarting every attempt at improvement, and in this unfortunately they succeeded in almost all cases. The sub-delegates, or judges in the mining districts, says Helms, are more especially the greatest villains, who enrich themselves by their unjust acts of tyranny, and continually accuse the subjects of sedition and rebellion; while the viceroy, who resides in the capital, and is a stranger to the extensive region committed to his care, gives himself little trouble about the burdens and oppressions under which the people groan. In many parts productive mines are overflowed, which might be easily drained by the use of proper machinery; and there is throughout the whole management of the mines, a degree of negligence and sloth which is scarcely conceivable. Some of the quicksilver mines are worked for the benefit of the king, or rather to his injury, seeing that he sells cach hundredweight of quicksilver to the miners at the rate of 13 piastres, while it costs at the rate of 166, by which traffic on the royal quicksilver mine of Guancavelica, about 200,000 pistres are lost annually. The ores in Peru are frequently extremely rich, producing from 5 to 50 lbs. of silver for every hundredweight of ore. The province of Guancavelica contains many extraordinary rich strata and veins of gold, silver, copper, and lead ores; the greatest part of which lie quite neglected, or the pits are not sunk to à sufficient depth. The mines which produce the greatest quantity of valuable metals, are those of Lauricocha, in the province of Tarma, commonly called the mines of Pasco in the Cerro de Bombon, or high table-land, in which is the small lake De los Reyes, to the south of the Cerro de Yauricocha; those of Gualgayoc, or Chota, in Truxillo; and the mines of Huantajaya. The mines of Pasco were discovered by Huari Capac, an Indian, in 1630: they alone furnish two millions of piastres annually, and are at an elevation of more than 13,000 feet above the level of the sea. The metalliferous bed appears near the surface, the shafts being not more than from 90 to 400 feet in depth; water then makes its appearance, and causes great expence in clearing it. The bed is 15,747 feet long, and 7217 feet in breadth, and would prodace, if worked by steam, as much as Guanaxuato in Mexico; its average annual produce is, however, 131,260 lbs. troy. The mountain of Jauricocha, where those mines are situated, about six miles from Pasco, contains a prodigious mass of ore, of fine porous brown iron-stone, which is throughout interspersed with pure silver. This iron-stone contains about 9 marks of silver for every 50 hundredweight, of which, by the unskilful modes practised in that country, only from 4 to 7 marks are gained. But a friable white metallic argil, in the middle of the mass of ore, about ote quarter of an ell in thickness, yields from 2 to 10 lbs. of fine silver in every hundredweight. The immense value of this vein has induced a number of needy and ignorant adventurers to perforate the mass of ore, with innumerable holes, without order or regulation; so that it is wonderful the whole mine had not long ago fallen in. Single pits, from the unskilful ness with which they are worked, fall in every day, and kill the workmen; but so common are those accidents, that they are very little regarded. Gualgayoc and Micuipanipa, commonly called Chota, were discovered in 1771, by Don Rodrigues de Ocano, a European; but in the time of the incas, the Peruvians worked some silver yein, near the present town of Micuipam All pa. Immense wealth has been discovered at Fuentestiana, at Coinolache, and Pampa de Navar; at the last of which, wherever the turf is moved, for more than half a ver, in filaments, are found adhering to square league, sulphuretted and native silthe roots of the grasses, and it is also occasionally discovered in large masses. the mines in the partido of Chota, comprehended under the name of Gualgayoc, have furnished the provincial treasury of Truxillo with 44,095 lbs. troy of silver annually. These minerals are richer than those of Potosi, and are discovered mostly at the height of 13,385 feet. The mines of Huantajaya are surrounded with beds of rock salt, and are celebrated for the quantity of native masses of silver they produce. They are situated in the partido of Arica, near the small port of Iquique, in a desert destitute of water, and furnish an annual supply of from 42,000 to 52,000 lbs. troy. masses, which were discovered here lately, weighed, the one two, and the other eight quintals. Gold was formerly procured by the incas in the plains of Curimayo, northeast of the city of Caxamarca, at more than 11,154 feet above the sca. It has also been extracted from the right bank of the Rio de Micuipampa, between Cerro de San Jose and the plain called Choropampa, or the Plain of Shells; so named, on account found there, at the absolute height of more of a vast quantity of petrified sea shells than 13,123 feet. vian gold comes partly from Pataz and At present, the PeruHuilies, in Tarma, and is extracted from veins of quartz, traversing primitive rock, and partly from washings established on the banks of the Maranon Alto, or higher Amazons, in Chachapoyas. Two In the business of mining in Peru, three classes of traders find employment, the speculator in the mines, who is often a practical miner; the habilitador, who acts as a sort of banker to the miner; and the rescatador, who buys pina, i. e. silver bullion, freed from the quicksilver with which it is amalgamated, but not smelted. Of these three persons, the miner is generally needy, and he becomes in this case an easy prey to the banker, who lends him money, and who oppresses him not only by usurious exactions, but in various other ways. He forces him to take his advances in goods which are often not fit for use, and always overcharged. He has him also generally bound to repay his advances in pina, in the course of 4 months, which he always takes at 6 dollars per marc, though it is worth 7. The rescatador, who purchases pina, takes advantage of him by buying it at an under price; and though at the great mines, and in the vicinity of the capital, the competi tion of the different purchasers secures the miner against imposition; in the remote parts of the country, and during the rainy season, when the communications between different parts are interrupted, the miner is completely at the mercy of the rescatador. To free the miner from the rapacity of those illiberal traders, banks, de rescate as they are called, have been established. These banks purchase pina for the royal tribunal of mines, and always give a fair price for it; and since their establishment, which took place in Peru in 1786, a fair price has been secured to the miners for their pina, and the trade of mining has been generally encouraged. The annual produce from 1780 to 1789, is estimated, from the royal duties, at, 3,115,218 dollars, or about L.765,424. The coinage of gold and silver in the royal mint of Lima, between 1791 and 1801, amounted to L.5,466,000, or L.1,113,000 per annum; of which 1725 lbs. were gold, and 285,000 silver. The number of gold mines and washings worked in Peru is about 70, and the number of silver mines 680, which includes all the different works on the same spot. Of quicksilver, four mines exist, with four of copper, and twelve of lead. Emeralds and other precious stones are found in this country, with obsidian, and the stone of the incas, a marcasite capable of the highest polish. Peru contained, by the last census, 1,076,122 inhabitants. But this census was made with so little care, and the Indians are so averse to have their names enrolled, that it is generally supposed to fall far short of the truth. The highest estimate does not, however, raise the population above 1,400,000, and it probably does not exceed 1,300,000. The inhabitants are divided into different classes, namely European Spaniards, Spanish creoles, mestizoes, negroes, mulattoes, and Samboes. The European Spaniards are generally persons in the military, civil, and ecclesiastical departments of the state, or mere adventurers, who, in defiance of the laws, have escaped to America. Of those employed in the public service, a great number return to Spain, to enjoy the fortunes they have acquired. The creoles are excluded from all offices of trust and honour, and are a degraded class, compared with the European Spaniards. Many of their families have titles of nobility, and possess large estates. Some are descended from the ancient conOthers have risen into conquerors. sequence from commerce, or from employments under the crown. The mestizoes, or offspring of the Spaniards and Indians, are the next class in rank to the Spaniards, and the most numerous after the Indians. The quarteroons, or offspring of the Spaniards and mestizoes, are hardly to be distinguished from Spaniards. The cholos, on the contrary, sprung from the Indians and mestizoes, are classed with the Indians. The negro slaves in Peru are either employed in domestic service, or in the sugar plantations and farms of their masters. About 500 negroes are annually imported from Africa. The free negroes, who are numerous, are in general idle and disorderly, and the authors of most of the murders and robberies committed in the kingdom. The mulattoes are called by the Spanish writers the gypsies of South America, on account of their resemblance in complexion, manners, and character, to the Spanish gypsies. The free mulattoes are usually tradesmen, and several mechanical trades are chiefly in their hands. The Indians are the most numerous class. According to a writer in the Edinburgh Review, they are said to be of very limited capacities, and of little or no variety in their characters; melancholy from temperament; timid and dispirited from oppression; dastardly in moments of danger; savage and cruel after victory; and severe and inexorable in the exercise of authority. They stand greatly in awe of the Spaniards, and are docile and obedient to their commands; but they secretly dislike them, and shun their society, and only hate them less than they do the negroes and mulattoes. They are of distrustful tempers, and suspect every one who does them a kindness, of a design to impose upon them. They are stout and robust, and capable of enduring labour; but lazy, dirty, and improvident. Their habitations are miserable hovels, destitute of every convenience or accommodation, and disgustingly filthy. Their dress is poor and mean, and their food coarse and scanty. Their strongest propensity is to spirituous liquors; and to this indulgence they sacrifice every other consideration. Their religion is still tainted with the superstition of their forefathers; but they are great observers of the external rites and ceremonies of the church, and they spend large sums of money in masses and processions; a species of profusion to which they are naturally excited and encouraged by their priests, who profit by it. After the conquest of the country by the Spaniards, it was parcelled out into encomiendas, a sort of feudal benefices, which were distributed on certain conditions among the conquerors. The Indians on the encomiendas were bound to pay a stipulated tribute to their masters, who in their turn were bound to protect them. This system, however, produced such grievous oppression, that it was at length abolished, and the plan of repartimientos succeeded, according to which the judge of the district, in consideration of the limited capacities of the Indians, and their improvident character, was directed to supply them with seed corn, cattle, implements of agriculture, and even clothes and other necessaries of which they were in want, according to his discretion and opinion of their necessities, but at a price regulated by law, and without any profit to himself. Such an artificial system could lead to nothing but abuse and oppression; and from its evil consequences, it was accordingly abandoned in 1719. At present the Indians are left to their own discretion in the management of their affairs; and in some parts they are active and industrious, and have applied to riculture, manufactures, and commerce, with such assiduity as far to surpass the Spaniards; and as the produce of their farms and industry is exempt from the alcabala, a tax on all sales, and from all ther taxes, they have great advantages over the other casts. In other cases their natural improvidence and sluggishness have counteracted all incitements to improvement, as an instance of which they have suffered the breed of mules, which re absolutely necessary for the mines, and for the transportation of produce between different parts of the country, to decrease. They are subjected to a personal tax or tribute, which is, however, extremely moderate. Indians of noble birth, that is, of the families from which the caciques gre taken, enjoy an exemption from tribute, and are equally qualified with Spaniards to fill all kinds of offices under the crown. The principal burden to which the Indians are subject, is that of the mita, or compulsory labour in the mines. Every male Jadian from 18 to 50, must take his share of this service; and they are forced, when summoned to this cruel servitude, to travel 20 or 300 leagues from home, a small allowance being made them for the expences incurred in this tedious journey. This service is now considerably mitigated, as there are many miners who serve voluntarily for hire. In Mexico it is abolished, but in Peru it is still retained. The country of Peru labours under great natural disadvantages. Its population is small, and spread over a territory of great extent; and there is a total want of roads, canals, or bridges, to facilitate the transpart of goods between distant parts. The improvement of the country is conequently retarded by the want of a market for its produce; and in such a wretched state are the roads, and so difficult the means of communication, that one district may suffer all the miseries of want, while another is oppressed with too great The abundance. The only way of transporting goods is on the backs of mules; and for the want of roads, the mules are frequently obliged to travel over corn fields. great object, therefore, with a view to advance the prosperity of the country, ought to be the improvement of its internal communications; and in this way a market would be opened for its rude produce, and thus its agriculture, its mines, and every other branch of industry, would be encouraged. At present industry and cultivation are in such a backward state, that Lima and other towns depend on Chili for sup◄ plies of grain. Peru is divided into seven intendancies, namely, Truxillo, Tarma, Guancavelica, Lima, Guamanga, Arequipa, and Cuzco, each of which is governed by an intendant, nominated by the viceroy. It is divided into 49 districts, and contains 1360 townships. The Spaniards were unacquainted with Peru, till they had become masters of Mexico. A young cacique, in the neighbourhood of the isthmus of Darien, gave them the first information, in the year 1513, when 190 Spaniards, attended by a thousand Indians, loaded with their baggage as porters and guides, crossed the continent, and first discovered the Pacific ocean, and the rich country of Peru, under the conduct of two soldiers of mean descent, Francis Pizarro and Diego Almagro. Huana Capac, the inca or emperor of Peru, had subdued Quito, and dying in the year 1529, left two sons, one by a princess of the blood royal, the other by a daughter of the king of Quito, and divided between them his empire. Huescar reigned at Cuzco, and Atahualpa in Quito; but these two princes quarrelled, and engaged in a war, when Huescar was vanquished, and made prisoner. At this time, Pizarro arrived with the Spaniards. Some negociations took place between Atahualpa and Pizarro, which ended in the death of the inca, who was brought to trial on a variety of pretended charges of idolatry, rebellion against the Spaniards, &c., and was at length strangled. The whole country soon afterwards submitted to the Spanish yoke; but the Spanish chiefs contending anong themselves about the respective limits of the territories committed to them, a civil war ensued, which ended in the triumph of Pizarro over his great rival Almagro, whom he took prisoner and beheaded. He was himself assassinated in 1541 by some of Almagro's partizans. The Indians profiting by these contentions, rose in insurrection against the Spaniards, under their inca, Manco Capac, who drew toge ther such a formidable body of followers, that this conspiracy had well nigh accom |