A PERUVIAN SUGAR PLANTATION. in 



I confess to having felt less interest in the industrial 

 results of this admirably conducted estate, than in 

 what I was able to learn of the human beings em- 

 ployed and their relations to their employers ; and 

 I found here matter for agreeable surprise. The work- 

 men are partly agricultural labourers engaged in the 

 sugar-plantation and other outdoor work, partly those 

 employed in and about the factory. Among them 

 were representatives of various races, the Chinese 

 being perhaps in a majority, but with a considerable 

 proportion of negroes and half-caste natives of Peru. 

 I was struck at first with a general air of well-being 

 among all the working people, and I found this easily 

 accounted for when I saw more of the arrangements 

 made for their benefit. 



Among other departments we were shown the 

 hospital, small, but perfectly clean and airy, in which 

 there were only three or four patients, and a school 

 with a cheerful-looking young mistress surrounded by 

 jolly-looking little children, who came forward un- 

 asked to display their acquirements in spelling. But 

 what particularly pleased me was the large eating- 

 house, or restaurant, where we found hundreds of 

 workmen at their midday meal. They were not 

 marshalled at long tables, but sitting in small groups 

 round separate tables, every man chosing his own 

 company, and calling for the dish which he preferred. 

 Seeing these men, each with his napkin, enjoying his 

 selected food, I could not help thinking that in the 

 article of diet they are better off than a traveller in 

 many parts of Europe, to say nothing of the popula- 

 tion of the British Islands. I was assured that no 



