4 ■ GENERAL IDEA OF PERU. 



The population of Peru, so far as relates to the original 

 casts, is composed of Spaniards, Indians, and negroes. The 

 secondary specieses best known, and proceeding from a mix- 

 ture of these three, are the mulatto, the offspring of the Spa- 

 niard and negro woman ; the Quarteron, of the mulatto wo- 

 man and Spaniard ; and the Mestizo, of the Spaniard and 

 Indian woman. The final subdivisions which are formed by 

 the successive mixtures, are as many as the different possible 

 combinations of these primitive races. 



The rural operations of sowing and planting, as well as do- 

 mestic employments, have constantly fallen to the lot of the 

 negroes. It is true, indeed, that within these four years past 

 several white people have engaged in these diff'erent tasks. 

 Prior to this, any one, neither a negro nor a mulatto, who 

 should have hired himself as a valet or a labourer, would have 

 been in a manner reputed infamous: to such a length was 

 prejudice, or it may perhaps be said, pride, carried on this 

 head. There are many enlightened politicians, who think it 

 would be very unfortunate for the kingdom, and more espe- 

 cially for the capital, Lima, if this prejudice were to be en- 

 tirely done away. 



The commerce of Peru has been considerably augmented, 

 since it has, by the arrival of the merchant vessels of Spain by 

 Cape Horn, and by the grant of an unrestrained commerce, 

 freed itself from the oppression under which it groaned in the 

 time of the Galeons, and of the fairs of Porto-Bello and Pa- 

 nama. Prior to that epoch, the bulky and overgrown capitals 

 circulated through, and were in a manner lost in, a few hands; 

 and while the little trader tyrannized over the people, by regu- 

 lating, at his own will, the prices of the various produ6tions 



, and 



