674 



PERU. 



foundry moved by these manifestations. The 

 gratitude of Peru contrasts favorably with 

 the conduct of Venezuela, the birthplace of 

 the old hero. 



The national exposition of Peru was thrown 

 open to the public, July 1st. The ceremony 

 of inauguration by the President was post- 

 poned until the anniversary of Peruvian inde- 

 pendence, on the 28th of the same month. In 

 spite of this disappointment, large numbers of 

 people flocked to the opening, and the popular 

 curiosity, concerning the manner in which 

 nearly $2,000,000 had been expended on the 

 edifice, was fully satisfied. Nothing more com- 

 plete, elegant, and convenient, could be desired. 

 Covering about 206,000 square yards of ground, 

 the exposition was composed of a series of 

 imposing buildings, beautiful parks, gardens, 

 lakes, and rivulets; valuable statues, grottos, 

 every imaginable description of edifices for 

 the reception of the animals on exhibition ; 

 conservatories filled with the rarest and most 

 interesting specimens of the Peruvian flora; 

 aviaries containing numerous representatives 

 of the feathered tribe, from the far interior of 

 the republic ; machine-sheds, in which unfor- 

 tunately the negligence of American manu- 

 facturers was painfully evident, and of a nature 

 to confirm the presumption that their favorite 

 enterprise had been usurped by their English 

 rivals ; galleries of works of art, collected by 

 special commissioners abroad ; in a word an 

 extent of notable, useful, and beautiful objects 

 which it would require the limits of a book to 

 properly describe. The foreign articles on 

 exposition were comparatively few in num- 

 ber ; but the exhibition of Peruvian products 

 was gratifying in the extreme. Cotton that 

 ranks only second to the famed Sea Island ; 

 rice, so highly esteemed in the republic that 

 its exportation is almost impossible ; sugar 

 that is always in demand in the Californian 

 and European markets; tobacco of superior 

 quality ; specimens of the vast mineral wealth 

 of Peru, gold, silver, iron, and coal coal which 

 in a short time will prove to be a most im- 

 portant element in the prosperity of the 

 country ; manufactures of woollen and cotton 

 cloth from Cuzco and Huaraz; silk fabricated 

 within thirty miles of Lima; alpaca and vi- 

 cuna wool of many qualities ; chocolate, coffee, 

 and cochineal, from the north and east ; the 

 varied fruits and grains of Piura and Lam- 

 bayeque; the various manufactures of Lima, 

 the work of the great founderies of Bellavista 

 and Piedra-Liza, with innumerable other ob- 

 jects of value and promise, gave to the in- 

 spector a most exalted idea of the progress of 

 the country and of its indefinable resources. 

 Never before had even Peruvians such an op- 

 portunity of judging of the wealth of their 

 land ; and for foreigners the spectacle was 

 equally interesting. 



The cove of Tnmbo de Mora was, by govern- 

 mental decree, raised to the rank of a seaport 

 in July. 



The coolie question came, in the same month, 

 more prominently forward in consequence ot a 

 loss of 31 per cent, of the immigrants by a 

 French ship, which arrived at Callao from 

 Macao on June 20th, with 181 Chinese out of 

 263 originally embarked. From another state- 

 ment prepared by the captain of the port, of 

 vessels entered and cleared in the six months 

 previous, it was seen that in fifteen coolie 

 voyages there was an average loss of close 

 upon 10 per cent. It is noteworthy that 

 neither a North American nor English vessel 

 appears in the list of traffickers. 



The events of the week preceding the 27th 

 of July will long be remembered by the Pe- 

 ruvians, presenting as they did the spectacle 

 of a constitutional President deposed and im- 

 prisoned by a military usurper ; of a Congress 

 dispersed at the point of the bayonet, after 

 the members, irrespective of partisan feeling, 

 had united in signing a solemn protest, declar- 

 ing the new officers of the so-called govern- 

 ment criminals and outlaws; of an entire 

 country gathering together its strength to re- 

 pel the attack made upon its liberties and 

 legal rights; of the rising of the people when 

 their indignation could no longer be restrained 

 on the news of the cowardly assassination of 

 Balta by the dictator ; of the triumph of 

 moral force and justice over bayonets; of the 

 terrible vengeance of the population on their 

 tyrants; of the final reestablishment of peace, 

 order, and good government. This wonderful 

 series of events was witnessed by Lima in the 

 space of five days. 



The contest for the presidency had resulted 

 in two parties the administration party, 

 whose candidate was Dr. Arenas, and the- pop- 

 ular party, whose candidate was Don Manuel 

 Pardo. Both Houses of Congress held their 

 preliminary meetings on the 13th of the month, 

 and, although all their sessions were held in 

 secret from that time up to the hour of their 

 forced dissolution, it was quite apparent that 

 Pardo would be the choice of the legislative 

 branch. So well founded were these impres- 

 sions that a general understanding seemed to 

 exist that the President, Don Jose Balta, would 

 quietly turn over the insignia of his office to 

 his successor, Pardo. 



General Gutierrez, the Minister of War 

 under Balta's administration, had, however, 

 for a long time been endeavoring to induce 

 the President to enter into a plan for the an- 

 nulling of the recent elections; to declare 

 them void, in a word, to effect a coup d'etat, 

 and to assume the power of a dictator over 

 the republic. It would appear that for some 

 few days Balta listened to the wily insinua- 

 tions of his counsellor, but, speedily becoming 

 convinced, from the attitude of Congress, that 

 the majority of that body were decidedly in 

 favor of the election of Don Manuel Pardo to 

 the presidency, the opponent of the Adminis- 

 tration, he decided to withdraw from the pro- 

 ject. No sooner had this determination been 



