The Capabilities of Peru. 431 



out her hand for $30,000. Employes distant from the 

 head centre (as Iquitos, for example) go unpaid. Yet 

 Peru has immense capabilities. She is the France of the 

 continent. All the fruits and grains of the earth here find 

 congenial and fertile soil. With the great Pacific on her 

 left, and the navigable sources of the Amazons on her 

 right, Avith mountains of mineral wealth untouched, with 

 highland valleys like the hanging gardens of Babylon for 

 beauty, and with plains and reclaimable pampas which 

 might equal Egypt in fertility, Peru is potentially one of 

 the richest countries on the globe. But she must have a 

 more substantial and permanent basis of prosperity than 

 guano and saliter. The wealth thus suddenly acquired has 

 diverted the people from the slow but surer sources of na- 

 tional growth. Who ever heard of an original patent taken 

 out by a Peruvian? Where is the vessel that was built 

 in Peruvian waters? What manufactures thrive in Peru ? 

 We can think of only one success — the powder factory at 

 Lima, which the government runs, dispensing the "villain- 

 ous saltpetre " at thirty cents a pound. There was once a 

 woolen-factory at Cuzco, but it is now silent. Commerce 

 is almost entirely in the hands of foreigners. 



But we should not judge Peru harshly. We must re- 

 member that she celebrates her semi-centennial the very 

 year we are keeping our one hundredth anniversary, and 

 that from the beginning she has been saddled with the 

 vices and superstitions of Old Spain, and a large Indian 

 population. Every nation has its infancy ; and we must 

 not expect Peru to make a leap that no other country has 

 been able to do. So long as her politics are led by such 

 men as Pardo, her literature by Vigil, and her science by 

 Raimondi, we may look for progress.* 



* As the newspapers of a country, even their titles, reflect the spirit of so- 

 ciety, I give a list of Peruvian journals : Lima — El Comercio, El Nacional, 



