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Bible Encyclopedias
Peru
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or an important maritime republic of South America, bounded on the north by Ecuador, on the west by the Pacific, on the south and south-east by Bolivia, and on the east by Brazil, in lat. 3° 25'-21° 30' S., and in long. 68°-81° 20' W., has an area estimated at upwards of 500,000 square miles, and a population of 2,630,000. The coast-line is about 1660 miles in length. The shores are in general rocky and steep, and, owing to the comparative unfrequency of bays and inlets along the coast, the harbors are few and unimportant. Those of Callao (the port of Lima) and Payta afford the most secure anchorage. The country is highly interesting from a historical and antiquarian point of view.
I. Islands.— The islands on the Peruvian coast, although valuable, are extremely few in number and small in extent. In the north are the Lobos (i.e. Seal) Islands, forming a group of three, and so called from the seals which frequent them. On their eastern and more Sheltered sides they are covered with guano, and the quantity on the whole group is stated at 4,000,000 tons. The Chincha Islands, famous as the source of Peruvian guano, also form a group of three. Each island presents, on the eastern side, a wall of precipitous rock, with rocky pinnacles in the center, and with a general slope towards the western shore. The cavities and inequalities of the surface are filled with guano, and this material covers the western slopes of the islands to within a few feet of the water's edge. There is no vegetation. At the present rate of consumption, the guano will last until the year 1883. The island of San Lorenzo forms the harbor of Callao. The grand physical feature of Peru, and the source of all its mineral wealth, is the great mountain system of the Andes.
II. Surface, Soil, and Climute. — The surface of Peru is divided into three distinct and well-defined tracts or belts, the climates of which are of every variety from torrid heat to arctic cold, and the productions of which range from the stunted herbage of the high mountainslopes to the oranges and citrons, the sugar-canes and cottons, of the luxuriant tropical valleys.
a. The Coast is a narrow strip of sandy desert between the base of the Western Cordillera and the sea, and extending along the whole length of the country. This tract, varying in breadth from thirty to sixty miles, slopes to the shore with an uneven surface, marked by and ridges from the Cordillera, and with a rapid descent. It is for the most part a barren waste of sand, traversed, however, by numerous valleys of astonishing fertility, most of which are watered by streams that have their sources high on the slopes of the Cordillera. Many of the streams are dry during the greater part of the year.
b. The Sierra embraces all the mountainous region between the western base of the maritime Cordillera and the eastern base of the Andes, or the Eastern Cordillera. These ranges are, in this country, about 100 miles apart on an average, and have been estimated to cover an area of 200,000 square miles. Transverse branches connect the one range with the other, and high plateaus, fertile plains, and deep tropical valleys lie between the lofty outer barriers. The following are the most striking and distinctive physical features of the Sierra, beginning from the south:
1. The plain of Titicaca, partly in Peru and partly in Bolivia, is enclosed between the two main ridges of the Andes, and is said to have an area of 30,000 miles — greater than that of Ireland. In its center is the great Lake Titicaca, 115 miles long, from 30 to 60 miles broad, from 70 to 180 feet deep, and 400 miles in circumference.
2. The mountain-chains which girdle the plain of Titicaca trend towards the north-west, and form what is called the Knot of Cuzco. The Knot comprises six minor mountain-chains, and has an area thrice larger than that of Switzerland. Here the valleys enjoy an Indian climate, and are rich in tropical productions; to the north and east of the Knot extend luxuriant tropical forests, while the numberless mountain-slopes are covered with waving crops of wheat, barley, and other cereals, and with potatoes; and higher up extend pasture-lands, where the vicuina and alpaca feed.
3. The valley of the Apurimac, 30 miles in average breadth, and extending north-west for about 300 miles. This valley is the most populous region of Peru.
4. From Cuzco proceed two chains towards the north-west; they unite again in the Knot of Pasco. This Knot contains the table-land of Bombon, 12,800 feet above sea-level; as well as other tablelands at a height of 14,000 feet, the highest in the Andes; otherwise, however, the physical features of the country resemble those of the vicinity of Cuzco.
5. The vale of the river Maranfon, which is upwards of 300 miles in length, is narrow, deep, and nearer the equator than any other valley of the Sierra, and consequently it is the hottest portion of this region; and its vegetation is thoroughly tropical in character. The conformation of the surface of the Sierra is of the most wonderful description. The soil of the Sierra is of great variety; but wherever it is cultivated it is productive.
c. The Montana, forming two thirds of the entire area of the country, stretches away for hundreds of leagues eastward from the Andes to the confines of Brazil. On the north it is bounded by the Amazon, on the south by Bolivia. It consists of vast impenetrable forests and alluvial plains. is rich in all the productions of tropical latitudes, is of inexhaustible fertility, and teems with animal and vegetable life. Among the products which are yielded here in spontaneous abundance are the inestimable Peruvian bark, India-rubber, gum-copal, vanilla, indigo, copaiba, balsam, cinnamon, sarsaparilla, ipecacuanha, vegetable wax, etc. On the western fringe of the Montafia, where there are still a few settlements, tobacco, sugar, coffee, cotton, and chocolate are cultivated with complete success.
The hydrography of Peru may be said to be divided into three systems- those of Lake Titicaca, the Pacific, and the Amazon. All the great rivers of Peru are tributaries of the Amazon.
III. Productions, Exports and Imports, Revenue, etc. — The wealth and resources of Peru consist, not in manufactures, but entirely in mineral, vegetable, and animal products. As no statistics are taken in the country, it is impossible to give the quantity and value of the productions, and of the exports and imports, even approximately. Of the precious metals, in which Peru abounds, the production has greatly fallen off; and this country, which once stood in the same relation to Spain that Australia does to Great Britain, now contributes little to the metallic wealth of the world. The immense stores of gold and silver found here by the Spanish invaders represented the accumulation of centuries, and that among a people who used the precious metals only for the purposes of ornamentation. The Andes mines have gold, silver, copper, lead, bismuth, etc., and in the Montana gold is said to exist in abundance in veins and in pools on the margins of rivers. Although so rich in the precious metals, Peru produces comparatively little specie, which is to be accounted fortchiefly by the unscientific and improvident manner in which the mining operations are carried on. It can hardly be said that Peruvian coinage exists, inasmuch as that in circulation is from the mint of Bolivia. In addition to the precious metals and guano, another important article of national wealth is nitrate of soda, which is found in immense quantities in the province of Tarapaca. This substance, which is a powerful fertilizer, is calculated to cover, in this province alone, an area of fifty square leagues, and the quantity has been estimated at sixty-three million tons. Great quantities of borax are also found. The working of this valuable substance, however, is interdicted by government, which has made a monopoly of it, as it has of the guano.
The vegetable productions are of every variety, embracing all the products both of temperate and tropical climes. The European cereals and vegetables are grown with perfect success, together with maize, rice, pumpkins, tobacco, coffee, sugar-cane, cotton, etc. Fruits of the most delicious flavor are grown in endless variety. Cotton, for which the soil and climate are admirably adapted, is now produced here in gradually increasing quantity. The land suited to the cultivation of this plant is of immense extent, and the quality of the cotton grown is excellent. The animals comprise those of Europe, together with the hama and its allied species; but although Peru produces much excellent wool, almost the whole of the woolen fabrics used as clothing by the Indians is imported.
IV. Ancient Civilization and History. — Peru, the origin of whose name is unknown, is now passing through its third historical nera, and is manifesting its third phase of civilization. The present sera may be said to date from the conquest of the country by the Spaniards in the early part of the 16th century; the middle aera embraces the rule of the Incas; and the earliest sera, about which exceedingly little is known, is that prencarial period, of unknown duration during which a nation or nations living in large cities flourished in the country, and had a civilization, a language, and a religion different, and perhaps in some cases even more advanced than those of the Incas who succeeded them, and overran their territories. Whence these pre-Incarial nations came, and to what branch of the human family they belonged, still remain unanswered questions. Their existence, however, is clearly attested by the architectural remains, sculptures, carvings, etc., which they have left behind them. Ruins of edifices constructed both before the advent of the Incas and contemporary with and independently of them, are found everywhere throughout the country. For further information regarding pre-incarial times and races, see Bollaert, Antiquities, Ethnology, etc., of South America (Lond. 1860), p. 111 sq.; Hutchinson, Two Years in Peru, with Explorations of its Antiquities (ibid. 1874, 2 vols. 8vo); Brinton, Myths of the New World (N. Y. 1877, revised ed.).
Regarding the origin of the Incas, nothing definite can be said. We have no authorities on the subject save the traditions of the Indians, and these, besides being outrageously fabulous in character, are also conflicting. It appears, however, from all the traditions, that Manco, the first Inca, first appeared on the shores of Lake Titicaca, with his wife Mama Oello. He announced that he and his wife were children of the Sun, and were sent by the glorious Inti (the Sun) to instruct the simple tribes. He is said to have carried with him a golden wedge, or, as it is sometimes called, a wand. Wherever this wedge, on being struck upon the ground, should sink into the earth, and disappear forever, there it was decreed Manco should build his capital. Marching northward, he came to the plain of Cuzco, where the wedge disappeared. Here he founded the city of Cuzco, became the first Inca (a name said to be derived from the Peruvian word for the Sun), and founded the Peruvian race, properly so called. Mannco, or Manco Capac (i.e. Manco the Ruler), instructed the men in agriculture and the arts, gave them a comparatively pure religion, an and a social and national organization; while his wife, Mama Oello, who is also represented as being his sister, taught the women to sew, to spin, and to weave. Thus the Inca was not only ruler of his people, but also the father and the high-priest. The territory held by Manco Capac was small, extending about ninety miles from east to west, and about eighty miles from north to south. After introducing laws among his people, and bringing them into regularly organized communities, "he ascended to his father, the Sun." The year generally assigned as that of his. death, after a reign of forty years, is 1062. The progress of the Peruvians was at first so slow as to be almost imperceptible. Gradually, however, by their wise and temperate policy, they won over the neighboring tribes, who readily appreciated the benefits of a powerful and fostering government.
Little is clearly ascertained regarding the early history of the Peruvian kingdom, and the lists given of its early sovereigns are by no means to be trusted. They invented no alphabet, and therefore could keep no written record of their affairs, so that almost all we know of their early history is derived from the traditions of the people, collected by the early Spaniards. Memoranda were indeed kept by the Peruvians, and, it is said, even full historical records, by means of the quipu, a twisted woolen cord, upon which other smaller cords of different colors were tied." Of these cross threads, the color, the length, the number of knots upon them, and the distance of one from another, all had their significance; but after the invasion of the Spaniards, when the whole Peruvian system of government and civilization underwent dislocation, the art of reading the quipus seems either to have been lost or was effectually concealed. Thus it is that we have no exact knowledge of Peruvian history farther back man abruot on century before the coming of the Spaniards. In 1453 Tutpac Inca Yupanqui, the eleventh Inca, according to the list given by Garcilasso de la Vega, greatly enlarged his already widespread dominions. He led his armies southward, crossed into Chili, marched over the terrible desert of Atacama, and penetrating as far south as the river Maule (lat. 36° S.), fixed there the southern boundary of Peru. Returning, he crossed the Chilian Andes by a pass of unequaled danger and difficulty, and at length regained his capital, which he entered in triumph. While thus engaged, his son, the young Huayna Capac, heir to the fame as well as the throne of his father, had marched northward to the Amazon, crossed that barrier, and conquered the kingdom of Quito. In 1475 Huayna Capac ascended the throne, and under him the empire of the Incas attained to its greatest extent and the height of its glory. His sway extended from the equatorial valleys of the Amazon to the temperate plains of Chili, and from the sandy shores of the Pacific to the marshy sources of the Paraguay. Order and civilization accompanied conquest among the Peruvians, and each tribe that was vanquished found itself under a careful paternal government, which provided for it, and fostered it in every way.
The early government of Peru was a pure but a mild despotism. The Inca, as the representative of the Sun, was the head of the priesthood, and presided at the great religious festivals. He imposed taxes, made laws, and was the source of all dignity and power. He wore a peculiar head-dress, of which the tasseled fringe, with two feathers placed upright in it, was the proper insignia of royalty. Of the nobility, all those descended by the male line from the founder of the monarchy shared, in common with the ruling monarch, the sacred name of Inca. They wore a peculiar dress, enjoyed special privileges, and lived at court; but none of them could enter the presence of the Inca except with bare feet, and bearing a burden on the shoulders, in token of allegiance and homage. They formed, however, the real strength of the empire, and, being superior to the other races in intellectual power, they were the fountain whence flowed that civilization and social organization which gave Peru a position above every other state of South America. Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards Peru contained a population of 30,000,000 — twelve times greater than it is at the present day. Money was unknown among the Peruvians. They were ma nation of workers, but they wrought as the members of one family, labor being enforced on all for the benefit of all.
The national policy of the Peruvians had its imperfections and drawbacks, and though capable of unlimited extension, it was not capable of advancement. It was in the last degree conservative, and was of such a nature that the introduction of reform in any vital particular must have overturned the whole constitution. Nevertheless the wants of the people were few, and these were satisfied. Their labor was not more than they could easily perform, and it was pleasantly diversified with frequent holidays and festivals. They lived contentedly and securely under a government strong enough to protect them; and a sufficiency of the necessaries of life was obtained by every individual. Still in the valleys of the Cordilleras and on the plain of Cuzco maybe heard numberless songs, in which the Peruvian mourns the happy days of peace, security, and comfort enjoyed by his ancestors. Further, they revered and loved their monarch, and considered it r pleasure to serve him. With subjects of such a temper and inclination, the Incas might direct the entire energies of the nation as they chose; and it is thus that they were able to construct those gigantic public works which would have been wonderful even had they been performed with the assistance of European machinery and appliances.
The Peruvian system of agriculture was brought to its highest perfection only by the prodigious labor of several centuries. Not only was the fertile soil cultivated with the utmost care, but the sandy wastes of the coasts, unvisited by any rains, and but scantily watered by brooks, were rendered productive by means of an artificial system of irrigation, the most stupendous, perhaps, that the world has ever seen. Where the mountain- slopes were too steep to admit of cultivation, terraces were cut, soil was accumulated on them, and the level surfaces converted into a species of hanging gardens. Large flocks of lamas were grazed on the plateaus: while the more hardy vicunias and alpacas roamed the tipper heights in freedom, to be driven together, however, at stated periods, to be shorn or killed. The wool yielded by these animals, and the cotton grown in the plains and valleys, were woven into fabrics equally remarkable for fineness of texture and brilliancy of color.
The character of the architecture of the Peruvians has already been referred to. The edifices of Incarial times are oblong in shape and cyclopean in construction. The materials used were granite, porphyry, and other varieties of stone; but in the more rainless regions sun-dried bricks were also much used. The walls were most frequently built of stones of irregular size, but cut with such accuracy, and fitting into each other so closely at the sides, that neither knife nor needle can be inserted in the seams. Though the buildings were not, as a rule, more than from twelve to fourteen feet high, they were characterized by simplicity, symmetry, and solidity. The Peruvian architects did not indulge much in external decoration, but the interior of all the great edifices was extremely rich in ornament. In the royal palaces and temples the most ordinary utensils were of silver and gold; the walls were thickly studded with plates and bosses of the same metals: and exquisite imitations of human and other figures, and also of plants, fashioned with perfect accuracy in gold and silver, were always seen in the houses of the great. Hidden among the metallic foliage, or creeping among the roots, were many brilliantly colored birds, serpents, lizards, etc., made chiefly of precious stones; while in the gardens, interspersed among the natural plants and flowers, were imitations of them, in gold and silver, of such truth and beauty as to rival nature. The temple of the Sun at Cuzco, called Coricancha, or "Place of Gold," was the most magnificent edifice in the empire. On the western wall, and opposite the eastern portal, was a splendid representation of the Sun, the god of the nation. It consisted of a human face in gold, with innumerable golden rays emanating from it in every direction; and when the early beams of the morning sun fell upon this brilliant golden disk, they were reflected from it as from a mirror, and again reflected throughout the whole temple by the numberless plates, cornices, bands, and images of gold, until the temple seemed to glow with a sunshine more intense than that of nature.
The religion of the Peruvians, in the later ages of the empire, was far in advance of that of most abarbarous nations. They believed in a Great Spirit, the Creator of the universe, who, being a spirit, could not be represented by any image or symbol, nor be made to dwell in a temple made with hands. They also believed in the existence of the soul hereafter, and in the resurrection of the body. The after-life they considered to be a condition of ease and tranquillity for the good, and of continual wearisome labor, extending over ages, for the wicked. But while they believed in the Creator of the world, they also believed in other deities, who were of subordinate rank to the Great Spirit. Of these secondary gods the Sun was the chief. They reverenced the Sun as the source of their royal dynasty, and everywhere throughout the land altars smoked with offerings burned in his worship.
V. Modern History and Characteristics. — About the year 1516, and ten years before the death of Huayna Capac, the first white man had landed on the western shoes of South America; but it was not till the year 1532 that Pizarro, at the head of a small band of Spanish adventurers, actually invaded Peru. On his death-bed the great Inca expressed a wish that the kingdom of Quito should pass to Atahualpa, one of his sons by a princess of Quito whom lie had received among his concubines, and that all his other territories should fall to his son Huascar, the heir to the crown, and who, according to the custom of the fncas, should have inherited all its dependencies. Between these two princes quarrels, resulting in war, arose; and when Pizarro entered Peru he found the country occupied by two rival factions, a circumstance of which he took full advantage. Atahualpa had completely defeated the forces of his brother, had taken Huascar prisoner, and was now stationed at Caxamalca, on the eastern side of the Andes, whither, with a force of 177 men, of whom 27 were cavalry, the dauntless Spanish leader, in September, 1532, set out to meet him. Atahualpa was captured by the Spaniards, and subsequently put to death. Shortly after the execution of the Inca at Caxamalca, the adventurers set out for Cuzco. Their strength had recently been increased by reinforcements, and they now numbered nearly 500 men, of whom about a third were cavalry. They entered the Peruvian capital Nov. 15, 1533, having in the course of their progress towards the city of the Incas had many sharp and sometimes serious encounters with the Indians, in all of which, however, their armor, artillery, and cavalry gave them the advantage. At Cuzco they obtained a vast amount of gold, the one object for which the conquest of Peru was undertaken. As at Caxamalca, the articles of gold were for the most part melted down into ingots, and divided among the band.
Their sudden wealth, however, did many of them little good, as it afforded them the means of gambling, and many of them, rich at night, found themselves again pennils adventurers in the morning. One cavalier having obtained the splendid golden image of the Sun as his share of the booty, lost it in play in a single night. After stripping the palaces and temples of their treasures, Pizarro placed Manco, a son of the great Huayna Capac, on the throne of the Incas. Leaving a garrison in the capital, he then marched west to the sea-coast, with the intention of building a town, from which he could the more easily repel invasion from without, and which should be the future capital of the kingdom. Choosing the banks of the river Rimac, he founded, about six miles from its mouth, the Cinda de los Reyes, "City of the Kings." Subsequently its name was changed into Lima, the modified form of the name of the river on which it was placed. But the progress of a higher civilization thus begun was interrupted by an event which overturned the plans of the general, and entailed the severest sufferings on many of his followers. The Inca Manco, insulted on every hand, and in the most contemptuous manner, by the proud Castilian soldiers effected his escape, and headed a formidable rising of the natives. Gathering round Cuzco in immense numbers, the natives laid siege to the city, and set it on fire. An Indian force also invested Xauxa, and another detachment threatened Lima. The siege of Cuzco was maintained for five months, after which time the Peruvians were commanded by their Inca to retire to their farms, and cultivate the soil, that the country might be saved from famine. The advantages, many though unimportant, which the Inca gained in the course of this siege were his last triumphs. He afterwards retired to the mountains, where he was massacred by a party of Spaniards. More formidable, however, to Pizarro than any rising of the natives was the quarrel between himself and Almagro, a soldier of generous disposition, but of fiery temper, who, after Pizarro, held the highest rank among the conquerors. The condition of the country was now in every sense deplorable. The natives, astonished not more by the appearance of cavalry than by the flash, the sound, and the deadly execution of artillery, had succumbed to forces which they had no means of successfully encountering.
Meantime the Almagro faction had not died out with the death of its leader, and they still cherished schemes of vengeance against the Pizarros. It was resolved to assassinate the general as he returned from mass on Sunday, June 26, 1541. Hearing of the conspiracy, but attaching little importance to the information, Pizarro nevertheless deemed it prudent not to go to mass that day. His house was assaulted by the conspirators, who, murdering his servants, broke in upon the great leader, overwhelmed him by numbers, and killed him. The son of Almagro then proclaimed himself governor, but was soon defeated in battle, and put to death. In 1542 a council was called at Valladolid, at the instigation of the ecclesiastic Las Casas, who felt shocked and humiliated at the excesses committed on the natives. The result of this council was that a code of laws was framed for Peru, according to one clause of which the Indians who had been enslaved by the Spaniards were virtually declared free men. It was also enacted that the Indians were not to be forced to labor in unhealthy localities, and that in whatever cases they were desired to work they were to be fairly paid. These and similar clauses enraged the adventurers. Biasco Nufiez Vela, sent from Spain to enforce the new laws, rendered himself unpopular, and was seized and thrown into prison. He had come from Spain accompanied by an "audience" of four, who now undertook the government. Gonzalo Pizarro (the last in Peru of the family of that name), who had been elected captain-general, now marched threateningly upon Lima. He was too powerful to withstand, and the audience received him in a friendly manner, and, after the administration of oaths, elected him governor as well as captain-general of the country. The career of this adventurer was cut short by Pedro de la Gasca, who, invested with the powers of the sovereign, arrived from Spain, collected a large army, and pursued Pizarro, who was eventually taken and executed.
A series of petty quarrels, and the tiresome story of the substitution of one ruling functionary for another, make up a great part of the subsequent history. The country became one of the four vice-royalties of Spanish America, and the Spanish authority was fully established and administered by successive viceroys. The province of Quito was separated from Peru in 1718; and in 1788 considerable territories in the south were detached, and formed into the government of Buenos Ayres. At the outbreak of the War of Independence in South America, the Spanish government, besides having much declined in internal strength, was distracted with the dissensions of a regency, and torn by civil war; nevertheless in 1820 the Spanish viceroy had an army of 23,000 men in Peru, and all the large towns were completely in the hands of Spanish officials. Peru was the last of the Spanish South American possessions to set up the standard of independence. In August, 1820, a rebel army, under general San Martin, one of the liberators of Chili, sailed for Peru, and after a number of successes both on sea and land, in which the patriots were most effectively assisted by English volunteers, the independence of the country was proclaimed, July 28,1821, and San Martin, assumed the protectorate of the young republic. From this date to the year 1860. twenty-one rulers, under various titles, held sway. For the first twenty-four years of its existence as an independent Republic the country was distracted and devastated by wars and revolutions. In 1845 Don Ramon Castilla was elected president; and under his firm and sagacious guidance the country enjoyed an unwonted measure of peace, and became regularly organized. Commerce began to be developed, and important public works were undertaken. The term of his presidency ended in 1851, in which year general Rufino Jose Echenique was elected president. The country, however, was discontented with his government, and Castilla, after raising an insurrection in the south, again found himself in 1855 at the head of affairs. Slavery, which, although abolished by the charter of independence, still existed, was put an end to by a decree dated October, 1854. In August, 1863, a quarrel had taken place at the estate of Talambo, in the north, between some Basque emigrants and the natives, in which several of the disputants were killed or wounded. Taking advantage of this occurrence, the Spanish government sent out a "special commissioner" in the spring of 1864, who delivered a memorandum to the Peruvian minister, complaining of injuries sustained by the Spaniards, and accompanied by a letter threatening prompt and energetic reprisals should Spain be insulted or her flag disgraced. The "commissioner" left Lima on April 12, the day on which his memorandum and letter were delivered; and on the 14th a Spanish squadron, under admiral Pinzon, who had been joined by the "commissioner," took forcible possession of the Chincha Islands, the principal source of the revenue of Peru. This complication provoked disturbances, not only in Peru, but in all the ancient Spanish states of South America. In January, 1865, peace was concluded by the payment of sixty million seals to Spain as war indemnity; but the Peruvians rebelled against this concession of their president, Pezet, and in November he was retired, a provisional government established, and war measures inaugurated against Spain by forcible seizure of the Chincha Islands. An alliance was agreed upon between Peru and Chili, Ecuador, and Bolivia, and war declared by these allies in January, 1866; but only a month later all hostilities ceased. In 1867 the Peruvians adopted a new and mire liberal constitution. Yet frequent revolutionary measures have thus far failed to give perfect quiet to the country. Thus as late as 1872 an attempt was made, to take the life of the head of the government by a powder-plot.
The government of Peru is republican, and elects its president for a term of six years. He is assisted by a Senate, consisting of two members from each province, and a House of Representatives, of whom there is one member for every 20,000 inhabitants. The ministers, together with senators chosen by the congress, form the cabinet. The country is divided into 11 departments, and two provinces with the constitution of departments; and the departments are subdivided into provinces, the provinces into districts, and the districts into parishes. The army consists of 13,000 men, and the navy of 22 vessels, carving 88 guns. Of the whole population, 240,000 are whites, 300,000 Mestizos, 40,000 Negroes, and 1,620,000 Indians.
The general religion of Peru is that of the conquerors of the country, the Spaniards — the Roman Catholic, which is besides especially favored and protected by the constitution. Roman Catholic missionaries labored among the early settlers from Spain as well as among the natives, especially among the Antes, but towards the close of the 17th century the Indians turned against the missionaries and destroyed the missions. The republic is divided into the archbishopric of Lima. founded in 1541, and the seven episcopal sees of Chachapoyas, Truxillo, Ayacucho, Cuzco, Arequipa, Huanuco, and Puno (the last two were founded in 1861). The clergy are numerous, but uneducated and badly supported. The number of convents, once astonishingly large, was reduced in 1863 to 130. Public instruction is principally in the hands of the clergy. The people's schools are in a very inferior condition. Of the higher institutions, the first are the five universities at Lima, Truxillo, Ayacucho, Cuzco, and Puno, but they have only a nominal existence. Of more importance are the colegios, or technical schools, of which, in 1860, there were 30 public and 38 private ones. Of all these, 17 are for females. The clergy are educated in seminaries. There are a few Jews and some Protestants, but their number is not definitely known. See Hill, Travels in Peru and Mexico (Lond. 1860); Grandidier, Voyage dans l'Amerique du Sad (Paris, 1861); Soldan, Geografia del Peru (ibid. 1862); Tschudi, Reisen in Sudmerika (Leips. 1861); Wappaeus, Peru, Bolivia, and Chili (ibid. 1871); Fuentes, Lima, Esquisses historiques, statistiques, administratives, commerciales; Hutchinson, Two Years in Peru ( Lond. 1874, 2 vols. 8vo ); Prescott, Hist. of the Conquest of Peru; Harper's Monthly, vol. 7.
These files are public domain.
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Peru'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/p/peru.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
