Kitabı oku: «South America Observations and Impressions», sayfa 31

The fiery vigour of that extraordinary group of men has often blazed out in their descendants. It is the appearance in almost every state of men of tireless energy and strenuous will that gives their chief interest to the wars and revolutions of the last hundred years. Few of these men, besides the heroes of Independence, such as San Martin, Belgrano, Miranda, Bolivar, and Sucre, are known to Europe, and of those who are known, some like Francia and Artigas and Rosas and Lopez, have won fame by ruthlessness more than by genius. Of late years the leading figures have been more frequently statesmen and less frequently soldiers. Both types are honourably represented to-day in many of the republics. There is plenty of strength in the race, and Juarez of Mexico is only one of many examples to show that Indian blood does not necessarily reduce its quality. Into what channels its force will be hereafter directed, and whether it will develop a gift for thought and for artistic creation commensurate with the activity which it has shewn in other fields, is a question upon which its history since 1825 sheds little light. The wind bloweth where it listeth.

In the more progressive states, conditions are changing as fast as anywhere else in this changeful age. Here, as everywhere, the Present is the child of the Past, but the features of the child change as it grows up, and all we know of the future is that it will be unlike the past. No countries have more possibilities of change than those of South America. European immigrants are streaming into the southern republics. The white race is commingling with the aboriginal Indians in the west and with the negroes in the east. Scientific discovery is bringing its latest appliances into contact with countries still undeveloped and with peoples long left behind in the march of progress. Till the middle of the eighteenth century the world of trade, politics, and thought was practically a European world. It then expanded to take in North America, then southern Asia and Australia, and then, last of all, the ancient nations of the Far East. South America, which has hitherto, except at rare intervals, stood outside, has now begun to affect the commercial and financial movements of the world. She may before long begin to affect its movements in other ways also, and however little we can predict the part that her peoples will play, it must henceforth be one of growing significance for the Old World as well as for the New.

NOTES

Note I. The reader who desires fuller information regarding the countries treated of here may wish to be referred to some books in English. The most convenient general historical accounts are perhaps to be found in Mr. Akers' History of South America, 1854–1904, and in Mr. T. C. Dawson's The South American Republics (2 vols.). For Peru Sir Clements Markham's History of Peru is still the best, to which may be added, for the earlier period, his recent work, The Incas of Peru. Mr. Scott Elliot's History of Chile is useful. The chapters on Peru in The History of the New World, by Mr. E. J. Payne, a scholar of great talents too soon lost to historical science, contain a thoughtful study of the causes to which the progress towards civilization of the ancient Peruvians was due. The two books of Professor Moses, The Establishment of Spanish Rule in America and South America on the Eve of Emancipation, are fair in spirit and throw much light upon topics regarding which little has been written in English. The fullest and most careful account of Peruvian and Bolivian antiquities is still that of Mr. Squier: Peru, Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas (1877). Of more recent works of travel that which stands first in the field of natural history is John Ball's Notes of a Naturalist in South America (1887). Among others of a more general kind the following may be named: Across South America, by Hiram Bingham; The South Americans, by Albert Hale; The Other Americans, by Arthur Ruhl; Uruguay, by W. H. Koebel; Argentine Plains and Andine Glaciers, by Walter Larden; Panama, by Albert Edwards; Argentina, by W. A. Hirst; and the Ten Republics, by Robert P. Porter. Sir M. Conway's Travels and Explorations in the Bolivian Andes is addressed primarily to mountain climbers, but contains much that is interesting to other readers also. A recent book in French entitled Le Brésil au XX me Siècle, by M. Pierre Denis, is short, but singularly clear, well informed, and judicious.

In the publications issued by the Pan American Union in Washington a great deal of valuable statistical information brought up to date may be found. The South American Supplements issued monthly by the London Times are well edited and constitute a useful current record of what is going forward.

Note II. Some readers may also wish to hear what are the facilities for travel in the parts of South America covered by this book. There are now many well-appointed railways in Argentina and Uruguay, and a smaller number in Chile and Brazil, and both in these and other states the work of construction is going on steadily. Roads fit for driving are still comparatively few and rough, but in level countries like Argentina one drives over the Pampa wherever wire fences do not bar the way. Travel in the Andes is mostly upon mule back; it is slow and has become expensive. The capital cities of the republics have good hotels. In Arequipa, the larger coast towns of Chile, and three or four of the Argentine and Brazilian cities, fair accommodation can be had. Elsewhere it is very poor, and the food no better. The scale of prices is everywhere high, but most so in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, which have won the reputation of being the most expensive places in the world to live in, surpassing even Petersburg and Washington.

A great deal of what is most interesting in the six republics above referred to can now be seen by railway, and if a few plain but fairly comfortable hotels (such as that at Santa Rosa de los Andes on the Transandine Railway) were placed here and there upon the chief Peruvian, Chilean, and Brazilian lines, journeys along them would present no exceptional difficulties. There is now no yellow fever except in Guayaquil and on the Amazon; and the conditions of health are on the whole not unfavourable. Those who intend to travel in the loftier parts of the Andes ought, however, to satisfy themselves that their hearts and lungs are sound.

Note III. A remarkable testimony to the harm wrought by the Spanish Conquest on the aboriginal inhabitants of Peru may be found in the will of Leguisamo, one of the last survivors of the Conquistadores, made at Cuzco in 1589, and printed in Sir Clements Markham's book, The Incas of Peru.

"I took part in the conquest and settlement of these kingdoms when we drove out the Incas who ruled them as their own. We found them in such order and the Incas governed them in such wise that there was not a thief nor vicious man nor adulterer nor bad woman admitted among them. The men had honest and useful occupations. The lands, forests, mines, pastures, houses, and all kinds of products were regulated and distributed in such sort that each one knew his property without any one else seizing it, nor were there lawsuits. The operations of war, though numerous, never interfered with the interests of commerce or agriculture. All things from the greatest to the smallest had their proper place and order. The Incas were feared, obeyed, and respected by their subjects as men capable and versed in the arts of government… We have subdued these kingdoms and we have destroyed by our evil example the people who had such a government as these natives enjoyed. They were so free from committing crimes that the Indian who had a large quantity of gold in his house left it open, only placing a small stick across the door as a sign that its master was absent. With that according to their custom no one could enter or take anything… But now they have come to such a pass, in offence of God, owing to the bad example we have set them in all things, that these natives have changed into people who do no good or very little."

Some allowance must be made in this description for the disappointment and sadness in which Leguisamo wrote, as appears from other parts of his will; and other evidence at our disposal shews that his picture of Peru under the Incas is too favourable, yet even after making these deductions, the admission of the harm wrought by the conquerors and the consequent decline in native character and conduct carries weight.