to be; but yet it is a common saying on serious occasions, where the assistance of more than one medical adviser is thought necessary, that more is seen by four eyes than by two.—“Mas se ve con cuatro ojos que con dos.” By multiplying skill according to this rule, a score of eyes may be assembled in one junta to search into the patient’s obscure malady, so as to point out the cause and the remedy; or, if there should be no other alternative, let him die according to rule.
CHAPTER V.
Condition of Slave population, and its influence on the family economy and moral sentiments of the European race.
Such is the influence which slave domestics exercise over the feelings and comfort of private families, and, we would even add, over the moral and physical features of the community, that it would be impossible to give a correct picture of the state of society in Lima without first cursorily viewing the condition of the slave population in Peru.
In article 152 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Peru, it is declared that no one is born a slave in the republic, neither does any one enter from other countries who is not left free when he treads on Peruvian soil. Should any Peruvian be found guilty of importing slaves into the republic for the purposes of traffic, the constitution declares that he shall be deprived of his rights of citizenship. But the internal traffic of slaves still continues, though it is confined to buying and selling such slaves as existed in the country before the war of independence began, or to such of their offspring as were born before the year 1820, when Peru was no longer the acknowledged patrimony of Spaniards. With respect to the mere exterior appearance of negroes born in Peru of African parents, it is observed that they are influenced by the bleaching effects which the climate of the Peruvian coast is known to produce on the ruddy sons of our northern climes who reside for any length of time in Lima. The native negro therefore is lighter in colour, and possessed of finer, more expressive, and much more regular features than the jet-black and lacerated “Bozals” or African-born blacks, on whose countenance and breast are commonly seen deep and hideous scars that bespeak at once their more barbarous origin and their foreign importation.
The orderly discipline of the “Galpon,” or slave-barracks, appears, from the acknowledgments of the natives themselves, to have been very creditable to the humanity of the slave-holders in the days of Spanish sway over them—a time when slaves are said to have shared in the felicity of their masters. Leniently dealt with, and in the abundant fruition of animal gratifications, they felt themselves happy, and forgot that they were not free.
The patriot legislators have enacted that it is illegal for any master to apply the whip or scourge, “azote,” in chastising his slave. The ordinary mode of punishment in the capital is to send the offender for correction to a “panaderia” or bakehouse, where his labour is increased or mitigated according to his conduct while there. In most ancient families, who have yet preserved sufficient fortune to allow them to keep up some retinue, we find a number of slave attendants whose progenitors served in the same family of distinction for a long series of years; and thus a mutual attachment has grown up between the parties, that makes them view each other with that sort of interest which we observe between masters and old servants at home. It is not unusual for a master on his death-bed to reward the fidelity of a faithful slave by granting him his liberty; and we have witnessed some very touching instances of gratitude shown by well-educated white women towards those female slaves, or, we might say, devoted friends, on whose willing services and attention they themselves often placed their confidence in the hour of sickness or adversity. These recollections are in our mind associated with those amiable traits of human nature which unite the great family of mankind; but it must be observed that from such instances, particularly creditable to the character of individuals, nothing can be argued in favour of slavery as such, which never can be otherwise than unjust and unchristian.
Since the triumphs of patriotism first cheered the hopes of the people, since the very slaves, intoxicated with aguardiente or momentary enthusiasm, joined aloud in the chants in praise of liberty, numberless families in the capital have gradually sunk into increasing poverty, of which a common consequence is, that individuals who can boast of the purity of their origin, or who, in native phrase, count it no plebeian privilege to say that their four quarters are Biscayan, now find themselves reduced to lend out their old domestic slaves on hire as a means of support; the slaves being obliged to pay a certain moderate proportion of their daily wages or earnings to their proper owners. A male slave, when thus hired out in Lima, is understood to pay his owner one real, or a sixpence, out of his day’s wages or earnings; and women, when hired out as nurses, are usually paid fifteen dollars a month; of which they pay four dollars to their proper owners, and the rest they may do what they please with: others again go out as cooks, or are employed as laundry-maids, &c.
The few agricultural slaves yet left in the country have usually allotted to them a tarea, or daily task, so light and easy, as far at least as we have had any opportunity of knowing, that it is soon executed; and whatever work any one of them does over and above this daily task, he is paid for as if he were a freeman. Were he indeed to value his personal freedom, he could thus secure it to himself by fair means, and at the cost of moderate industry. A few of the more ambitious of this class have really availed themselves of so good an opportunity to effect their own emancipation; but in general the slave population in Peru do not appear solicitous to change their circumstances, nor are they very conscious of anything abject in their condition. They well know that they enjoy a degree of liberty which they consider sufficient, and which they sometimes are pleased to exercise to suit their own convenience: for example, if you are assisted by a slave, it is not unlikely that, when least expected, he will tell you it is his desire, and he demands it as his right, that he be sold or transferred to a purchaser of his own choice and finding; and, should he once become restive, he is best got rid of quickly, as until that is the case no more good comes of him. If the servant should be not a slave, but a dusky freeman of slave descent, he is so accustomed to self-indulgence, that he must daily have his own hours of pleasure, whether his master will or not; and, if found fault with, he replies in the usual ejaculation, “Quien quiere matarse con trabajar?”—Who would kill himself with toil?
Those again who rely on the assistance of an Indian, (nominally free, though virtually a slave, working for a mere maintenance and some trifling gratuity,) reared up from childhood in their own houses and for their own particular service—a very customary thing to do—are commonly, in the long run, left in the lurch; for, when a good opportunity offers, away starts the cerrano or mountaineer, whether male or female, for Guamanga, Guamantanga, or some such mountain home. The Indian girl thus reared in some private family is commonly very useful until she attains the age of twelve or fifteen, when she looks out for a mate, with whom she can fly to the hills, to be happy in a smoky hut, and on a llama-skin couch; and the shrewd and quick-eyed Indian boy, with head and hands to conceive and execute, no sooner gets a little insight into good service or some handicraft, than he meditates upon and watches the opportunity for escaping to his native home, “mi tierra!” and, sooner or later, he is sure to effect his object. Yet, notwithstanding this disposition to desertion, where an Indian does become personally attached to his employer, which is not often, his fidelity and constancy are allowed to be unbounded.
The vexations so often caused by the Indians among the class of their Spanish employers, or white superiors, (who usually expect more from this oppressed order of citizens than they care to pay for,) gave rise to the proverbial complaint against the indigenous tribes:
“Mal con ellos; pejor sin ellos,”
Bad with them; worse without them.
The ladies, or females of Spanish blood in Lima, usually become mothers at too tender an age, and we think it is chiefly on this account that they are commonly found to be incapable of nursing with impunity; and, if they persist in attempts
