by Edmund Burke
Cusco, the capital of the ancient empire, is still a very considerable city; it is at a good distance from the sea, and situated in the mountainous part of the country; it has not less than forty thousand inhabitants, three parts Indians, who are very industrious and ingenious. Though little instructed in the art, many shew the rudiments of a taste for painting; and there are an incredible quantity of pictures painted here, which are dispersed all over Peru and Chili. They have here likewise, manufactures of bays and cotton, and they work largely in leather in most of the ways in which it is used.
Quito is likewise an inland town; it is situated in the most northern part of Peru; it is a considerable place, and drives a great trade with the Indians; but I can get but little account of the inhabitants, or the manufactures which employ them.
It is not easy to calculate the number of inhabitants in Peru, because we have none of those data which are necessary to ground such a calculation. There are a good many large and populous towns dispersed through that country; but in many places it is little better than a desart; partly for want of water, but much more generally through the pride of one part of the people, the miserable subjection of the other, and the sloth of all. The mines undoubtedly contribute largely to depopulate the country, by turning the inhabitants from agriculture and manufactures, employments that prolong life and provide for it, to the working of metals extremely pernicious to health, and which makes them depend upon others for their necessary sustenance. The nations which are poor in respect of gold, and industrious from that poverty, have not the least reason to envy the wealth of the Peruvians; who, amidst all that extravagant glare that dazzles the eye, live penuriously and sordidly; and are often in extreme want in a country, which in many places is one of the most fertile in the world. In fact, the countries which employ their men in arts and in agriculture, and receive their return in gold and silver from the countries which abound in those metals, may be considered as the real proprietors of the mines; the immediate possessors, only as their stewards to manage, or as their slaves to work them; whilst they are employed themselves only at an easy labour, friendly to life, and necessary to their well-being.
CHAP. XII. CHILI.
IMmediately to the Southward of Peru lies Chili, extending itself in a long narrow slip, along the coast of the South-Sea, in the South temperate zone. The air here is remarkably clear aad serene. Scarce any changes happen for three parts of the year. Very little rain falls during that period. But the benign dews every night, and the many rivulets which the neighbourhood of the Andes supplies them, fertilize the plain country, and make it produce as much corn, wine, oil, and fruits, as the number of the inhabitants, which is very small, or their industry, which is but moderate, will suffer them to cultivate. If it were under a more favourable government, and better peopled, there is hardly any part of the world which could enter into competition with this. For at the same time that it enjoys a very healthful air, and is warmed by an heat no way oppressive, it bears many of the tropical fruits that would thrive no where else out of the torrid zone. It is luxuriant on the surface with every thing for profit and delight; and beneath it is rich to profusion with veins of gold, silver, copper, lead, quicksilver, and iron. Those of gold are the most wrought; and indeed there is scarce a rivulet in the country in which gold is not found in smaller or greater plenty; but want of people, which is here more felt than in the other Spanish settlements, hinders them from working all their mines; and what is worse, from improving the surface of their country to any thing like the degree of perfection to which it might be brought. For in this whole extent of country, upwards of twelve hundred miles in length, and from three hundred to five hundred miles in breadth, it is not reckoned they have much above twenty thousand whites fit to bear arms, and about three times that number of Indians, blacks, and mulattoes. Yet with so few hands, and those not the most industrious, they export annually from the ports of Chili, to Callao, and other ports of Peru, corn enough to support sixty thousand men; great quantities of wine; hemp, (which is raised in no other part on the South-Seas,) hides, tallow, and salted provisions; to say nothing of the gold, and other minerals which form their principal wealth. This country is in general, not so fit for pasturage, tho’ it has a sufficient number of useful cattle of all sorts. Those whose flesh they salt, and in whose hides they trade to Peru, come from the other side of the Andes, from the province of Tucuman in Paraguay. Chili has but a very few beasts of prey, and those timorous; and although toads, snakes, and scorpions, are here as numerous as in other hot countries, they are found entirely harmless.
There are in Chili four towns of some note, either on the sea or near it; St. Jago which is the capital, La Conception, Coquimbo or La Serena, and Baldivia. The three first of these towns are laid out in a manner exactly resembling each other, the streets, like those of Lima, cutting one another so as to form squares like those of a draft board. They have all gardens between the houses, and running waters drawn from the neighbouring rivers to fertilize them; but the houses are so low and meanly built, (mud walls, and thatch in some,) that they rather resemble agreeable country villages than cities of business or grandeur. However, some of the houses are well furnished, and it is said, that in St. Jago there are many, which have the meanest utensils of the kitchen, of gold and silver. As for Baldivia, it is not more remarkable for being the strongest fortress in the South-Seas, than for the manner in which it is peopled; for hither the criminals from Peru and the other parts of Chili are transported, either for a time, or for life, and obliged to labour upon the fortifications and other public works. What is singular, these criminals are at once the prisoners and the jailors; for the garrison of the place, the whole corps, soldiers and officers, is formed of no other. The town contains about two thousand souls, and all of them banished people, or the descendants of such.
The trade of Chili is entirely confined to what they carry on with Peru, one or two ports of New Spain, and with Panama. None of their ships ever penetrate the straits of Magellan, or pass Cape Horn. They send their commodities to these ports in Mexico and Peru, and receive their European goods from Panama.
CHAP. XIII.
AS in Chili they are weak in men, and have a large body of independent Indians, ill-affected to them on their borders, and know that the Dutch once attempted an establishment here, and that other people have nourished projects of the same nature, they are extremely cautious and watchful on the coast, and the country is immediately in arms upon every alarm; which is given when any ship appears off the coast that is not of Spanish built. Yet, notwithstanding all their caution, their security is rather owing to the system of Europe, of which it is a part to keep the Spanish possessions in the hands of the present proprietors, and to the difficult and dangerous passage of the straits of Magellan or Cape Horn, for any European armament of force, than either to their own strength or vigilance.
The Indian inhabitants of Chili are a brave and warlike people, who defended their liberties vigorously, made several successful insurrections, killed Peter Baldivia the conqueror of the country, and maintained a war against the whole Spanish power in that part of the world for several years; which was only terminated on the part of several of the nations near the mountains, by an honourable peace, which is preserved to this day. None can be more jealously watchful than this people of their freedom. They traffic indeed with the Spaniards, but with so much caution, and under limitations so strict, that they can take very little advantage of this communication. As for those who were obliged to submit, it is to a yoke nothing near so heavy as that which oppresses the people who inhabit the other Spanish provinces; partly from the better terms which were procured; and partly from the fear of a nation, whom they have experienced to be brave, and know to be surrounded with many, who are of the same blood, and have defended their freedom with better success. A good example, even in the unfortunate, how much a brave defence of liberty may contribute to procure, if nothing else, yet a more tolerable servitude. The Indians of
this country have more resemblance to those of North America, though more humane and civilized in their manners, than to the Peruvians and Mexicans. Here they have less superstition naturally; and far from having that excessive veneration, which those nations had for their kings, they have no kings at all, and very little form of government; each family being sovereign within itfelf, and independent. The business which concerns them all, is transacted in the assemblies of all; and the plurality of voices decides. They are much given to liquor; and they practise polygamy, which in America is not common. However, the Spanish missionaries have now made a considerable progress amongst these free nations; they have a college for the education of the Indian youth; and their influence is a great means of preserving peace between the Spanish settlements and the free Indians on their borders, which, without their assistance, would be difficult. For though they listen to the Spanish priests, they preserve a very just terror of falling under their government, and no small hatred to the people.
CHAP. XIV. PARAGUAY.
THE country of Paraguay, or La Plata, shuts up the Eastern side of a considerable part of Chili and Peru; whence extending over a tract of country, above a thousand miles broad, it bounds Brazil upon the West, and upon the South butts upon the Atlantic ocean; being fifteen hundred miles at least in length, from the mouth of the great river Plata to it’s Northern boundary the country of the Amazons. This vast territory is far from being wholly subdued or planted by the Spaniards. There are many parts in a great degree unknown to them, or to any other people of Europe. In such a vast country, and lying in climates so different, for it lies on the Northern frontier under the equinoctial line, and on the South advances to the thirty-seventh degree of latitude, far into the South temperate zone, we must expect to meet great diversity of soil and product. However, in general this great country is fertile; the pastures particularly are so rich, that they are covered with innumerable herds of black cattle, horses and mules; in which hardly any body thinks it worth his while to claim a property. Any person takes and breaks them according to his occasions.
This country, besides an infinite number of smaller rivers, is watered by three principal ones, which unite near the sea, to form the famous Rio de la Plata. The first is Paraguay, from whence the country is denominated; this forms the main channel. It has it’s origin from a great lake in the center of South America, called the lake of Xarayes, and runs in a course nearly North and South. Parana, which rises amongst the mountains on the frontiers of Brazil, runs a sloping course to the South-West, until it joins the Paraguay at a great distance from the ocean about the twenty-seventh degree of South latitude. Uraguay rises likewise upon the same side, and runs almost an equal course before it meets those united rivers at no great distance from the ocean, with which it mixes, along with them.
The principal province which concerns us in this vast tract, is that which is called Rio de la Plata, towards the mouth of the above-mentioned rivers. This province, with all the adjacent parts, is one continued level, interrupted by not the least hill for several hundreds of miles every way; extremely fertile in most things; but contrary to the general nature of America, destitute of woods; this want they endeavour to supply by plantations of every kind of fruit trees; all which thrive here to admiration. The air is remarkably sweet and serene, and the waters of the great river are equally pure and wholsome; they annually overflow their banks; and on their recess, leave them enriched with a slime, which produces the greatest plenty of whatever is committed to it.
The principal town is Buenos Ayres, on the South side of the river; it was so called upon account of the excellence of the air. This town is the only place of traffic to the Southward of Brazil; yet it’s trade, considering the rich and extensive country to which it is the avenue, is very inconsiderable. No regular fleet comes here, as to the other parts of Spanish America; two, or at most three register ships, make the whole of their regular intercourse with Europe. Their returns are very valuable, consisting chiefly of gold, silver, sugar and hides. I cannot learn that they have opened any considerable mines in this province; but it is probable there are rich ones in the provinces, which lie to the Eastward of the Andes; besides it is certain that a good deal of gold is returned from Chili, for the mules, cattle and tea which are sent thither; and that silver from the province of Los Charcas in Peru is sent upon the same account, for the most part by land carriage. There is besides a tolerable water carriage; for a large river, called Pilcomayo, rises not far from the mines of Potosi, which winding amongst the openings of the Cordillera, discharges itself at last into the Paraguay; and this river is navigable to the very source, allowing for the interruption of some falls, which is the case of the river of Plate itself. By this way it is, I judge, that a great quantity of silver comes to Buenos Ayres. Indeed it is in great plenty in that province; and those who now and then carry on a counterband trade to this country, find it far more advantageous than any other whatsoever.
CHAP. XV.
THE trade of Paraguay, and the manners of the people, are so much the same with those of the rest of the Spanish colonies in South America, that nothing further can be said on those articles; but it would be inexcusable to quit the country without saying something of that extraordinary species of commonwealth which the jesuits have erected in the interior parts.
About the middle of the last century those fathers represented to the court of Madrid, that their want of success in their missions was owing to the scandal which the immorality of the Spaniards never failed to give, and to the hatred which their insolent behaviour caused in the Indians wherever they came. They insinuated, that if it were not for that impediment, the empire of the gospel might, by their labours, have been extended into the most unknown parts of America; and that all those countries might be subdued to his catholic majesty’s obedience without expence and without force. This remonstrance was listened to with attention; the sphere of their labours was marked out; an uncontrouled liberty was given to the jesuits within these limits; and the governors of the adjacent provinces had orders not to interfere, nor to suffer any Spaniard to enter into this pale without licence from the fathers. They on their part agreed, to pay a certain capitation tax in proportion to their flock; and to send a certain number to the king’s works whenever they should be demanded, and the missions should become populous enough to supply them.
On these terms the jesuits entered upon the scene of action, and opened their spiritual campaign. They began by gathering together about fifty wandering families, whom they persuaded to settle; and they united them into a little township. This was the slight foundation upon which they have built a superstrusture, which has amazed the world, and added so much power, at the same time that it has brought so much envy and jealousy on their society. For when they had made this beginning, they laboured with such indefatigable pains, and with such masterly policy, that, by degrees, they mollified the minds of the most savage nations; fixed the most rambling; and subdued the most averse to government. They prevailed upon thousands of various dispersed tribes of people to embrace their religion, and to submit to their government; and when they had submitted, the jesuits left nothing undone, that could conduce to their remaining in this subjection, or that could tend to increase their number to the degree requisite for a well ordered and potent society; and their labours were attended with success.
