Quotes and text excerpts about "Peru"

“ It is therefore Peru that adjusts and maintains the equilibrium of the globe. Peru, in which the prodigal hand of Nature has stored up all the productions she has dispersed in the vast territories which lie on the other side of the Equator; Peru, in which, uniting two different worlds, she has raised to herself a temple worthy of her immensity, is what, in the rotations of the terrestrial planet, prevents the ruin of many an opulent kingdom, of many a warlike nation, and of Europe itself, the theatre of the grandeur and wisdom of man. ”

“ The development of civilization in Peru was very different from that in Mexico and Central America. In both regions the people were sun-worshipers, but their religious organizations, as well as their methods of building temples, were unlike. Neither of these peoples seems to have borrowed from the other. It may be that all the old American civilizations had a common origin in South America, and that all the ancient Americans whose civilization can be traced in remains found north of the Isthmus came originally from that part of the continent. ”

“ Peru, with the immensity of its territory and the riches that are enclosed in it, requires a people with a religious faith in the divinity of polygamy and agriculture to make the most of the truly wonderful land.
Let the Mormons leave the country in which they are at present looked down upon, for one where they will be welcomed.
Mormonism is not, with the exception of its name, new to Peru. The Incas were great breeders of men, they pushed their humanising conquests north and south; not so much by the power of the spear and the sling, as by building great storehouses of maize. ”

“ Peru, the land of the Incas, once populous, powerful, wealthy, is today largely a wilderness. Mexico, the Aztec home, is now a vast desert, in spite of the evidence, through the discovered ruins of mighty cities and gigantic temples, that it was once the home of a strong people. Central America tells a similar story. It seems to be a general fact that wherever a large people lived formerly, there, today, a desert often occurs. ”

“ Peru is a Republic in name, 'governed' or rather farmed by groups or families of despots, who frequently quarrel among themselves, cut each other's throats, and alternately embrace and kiss each other, in a manner that is sickening to any one who is not a moral eunuch [14] . Only those who are rich enough to escape to Chile are saved from the above gentle process. General Prado is one of these favoured Peruvians. ”

“ To travel in Peru, is a severe hardship and privation; the mule is much used. This animal is invaluable from its cautious instinct in passing the defiles or sides of the mountains, where a misstep would cast them to a measureless distance below. In many places where they cannot step, they protrude their feet, and slide downwards, directing their course with the utmost sagacity. It is not safe for the rider to assume any guidance over them, when he is riding with one leg over a precipice, while the other rubs against the side of the mountain. ”

“ The Independence of Peru was the crowning glory of the Spanish-American revolution. Here, in the heart and centre of colonial monarchism, where the very existence of society seemed to be threatened in the event of a change of government, and the vigilance of the authorities was so active that a single word in favor of liberty, spoken in an unguarded moment, was sufficient to place its author under the fatal ban of the Holy Office, the patriotic spirit had, nevertheless, grown and developed, awaiting only a fair chance to dominate an overpowering environment. ”

“ Travelling on the coast of Peru is difficult and tedious. The roads lead through plains of sand, where often not a trace of vegetation is to be seen, nor a drop of water to be found for twenty or thirty miles. It is found desirable to take all possible advantage of the night, in order to escape the scorching rays of a tropical sun; but when there is no moonlight, and above all, when clouds of mist obscure the directing stars, the traveller runs the risk of getting out of his course, and at daybreak, discovering his error, he may have to retrace his weary way. ”

“ Travelling in Peru was more like visiting among friends than studying the manners and customs of a foreign people, and the uniform kindness and hospitality everywhere shown me made my experience in this beautiful land one of constant pleasure and of enduring memory. ”

“ One receives the impression here, as in some other parts of Peru, that the semi-civilization, if we may call it so, of these regions is extremely ancient. We seem to look back upon a vista whose length it is impossible to conjecture, a vista of many ages, during which this has been the home of peoples already emerged from such mere savagery as that in which the natives of the Amazonian forests still lie. But how many ages the process of emergence occupied, and how many more followed down to the Spanish Conquest we may never come to know. ”

“ Peru is the only country in South America where this last amusement is kept up as a matter of regular occurrence. Bull-fighting in Spain may be considered cruel, but in Peru it becomes a mere torturing of beasts, without honour or credit to the men opposed to them, who are all negroes and zambos, the very dregs of the populace. There seems a total want of national character about the Peruvians. They are bad copies of the Spaniards, whose failings they imitate and out-herod till they become odious vices. ”

“ Peru has always appealed to the imagination by reason of its natural wealth, added to its mysteries and remoteness. Humboldt spoke of it as "a beggar sitting upon a heap of gold," an aphorism designed to convey the idea of undeveloped riches. There is scarcely any valuable or useful product of Nature in the mineral and vegetable world which we may not find in one or other of the wide zones of littoral, mountain and forest of this land; scarcely any potentiality of life is lacking among her people, could they but make their way to its enjoyment. ”

“ Granted that Peru has all the physical elements of a great nation,—such as gold and silver, copper and iron, and coal, oil and wine, a vast line of sea-coast with numerous safe bays and ports, rivers for internal navigation, as well as railroads,—has she the moral qualities to develop these riches and make the best use of them? In plain words, has Peru ceased to be a hotbed of revolution? ”

“ The Indians of Peru are a silent people trained by cold and cutting winds. They bite the end of their ponchos to show anger and live to an immense age. Their thoughts turn backwards. They grind their teeth on the same hard corn kernels as formerly and drink the same corn-brandy; they carry about as talismans little{222} effigies of llamas found in the graves of their ancestors and throw their criminals over the same lofty precipices. ”

“ There is a custom in Peru that when several persons are gathered together there is constant drinking. A large bottle of 71 wine or whiskey is placed on the table with one glass. A lady or gentleman will fill the glass and drink to the health of some one present. It is bad form to leave any liquor in the glass, so it is always drained, refilled and presented to the one whose health has been drunk. It is an insult to refuse to drink, after one has drank to your health and the person accepting the glass drinks to the health of some one else. ”

“ Broadly speaking, all roads in Peru are little more than mule-paths. The only exception is in favor of the great paved highways built by the Incas, which link the wilds of Bolivia to the capital of Ecuador, and in comparison with which the finest monuments of the Gallo-Roman period are not so very remarkable, after all. It is for this reason that travelers wishing to reach the interior must take boat along the coast to one of the harbor towns which are the termini of the railways leading into the ever-delightful Sierra. ”

“ The history of the early Portuguese in Brazil is in some respects far more satisfactory, if it be less exciting, than that of the Spaniards in Peru. They were there for the legitimate purpose of colonizing and cultivating a portion of a vast region where there was ample room at the same time for them and for the tribes in their neighbourhood; and if the colonists, on the one hand, were ever ready to enslave the natives, the Churchmen who followed in their wake were, on the other hand, as ready to denounce the practice, and to sow the seeds of real Christianity amongst the savages. ”

“ The Argentine women have a reputation for beauty and they dress very well, but, though graceful and attractive, they cannot compare in fairness with their sisters of Peru.
The kindness of the elders to children is an admirable trait, and it is rare to see harshness or ill-treatment of the little ones, which are such distressingly common sights in English streets, but, at the same time, the tendency is pushed too far, and the spectacle of tiny children at very late hours supping at restaurants must, at the risk of incurring the reproach of insular prejudice, be pronounced unedifying. ”

“ No man has yet arisen, save yourself, capable of soaring aloft, and with eagle eye embracing the expanse of the political horizon. But if in your flight, like Icarus, you trust to waxen wings, your descent may crush the rising liberties of Peru, and involve all South America in anarchy, civil war, and political despotism.
The real strength of Government is public opinion. What would the world say, were the Protector of Peru, as his first act, to cancel the bonds of San Martin, even though gratitude may be a private and not a public virtue? ”

“ The highest progress of the human race, the complete development of its possibilities, was not possible till man should, in his wanderings from east to west, compass the globe, and take possession of it, not for a day, but for all time. The primitive settlements in Mexico, Peru, and Yucatan could not sustain themselves in consequence of their isolation; navigation was in its rudest stages, and it needed to be in its highest before the world should be bound together closely enough to advance in all its parts toward the goal of a perfect civilization. ”

“ Religion, still quite selfish in its character, pursues its own way and seeks its own satisfactions independently of all moral considerations, and almost always lives in a state of separation from morality. We ought therefore to expect that in systems such as that of Peru—which have already risen much above the low level of the primitive religions, but are still far below that of the higher ones—we should find a certain religious ethic, a certain moral tendency in religion, but likewise all kinds of inconsistencies, and constant relapses towards the ancient separation of the two sisters. ”

“ Everywhere there are a few intelligent, earnest men working away patiently and steadily at the problem of making South America democratic by making her people free to adopt with intelligence democratic institutions. One by one the nations have declared for freedom of worship and conscience, and, last of all, Peru, robbed and despoiled Peru of the conquest, priest-ridden and fanatical Peru, threw off the galling yoke of spiritual bondage and divorced church and state. ”

“ In South America there has lingered from the old slave-holding days down to the present, a labor system more insidious than slavery, yet no less revolting in its details, and infinitely more difficult to stamp out. It is called peonage; it should be called slavery. In Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil it flourishes now as it ever did in the fruitful soil of the interior provinces where law and order are bywords and where the scarcity of workmen will long impel men to enslave labor when they cannot employ it. ”

“ The advance in civilisation attained by the peoples of America must be regarded as among the most striking phenomena in the history of mankind, especially if it be viewed as an example of what can be achieved by isolated races occupying a peculiar environment. It cannot be too strongly emphasised that the cultures and mythologies of old Mexico and Peru were evolved without foreign assistance or intervention, that, in fact, they were distinctively and solely the fruit of American aboriginal thought evolved upon American soil. ”

“ But in all Europe, Western Asia and the northwestern coast of Africa, where the earth is uneven and the climate variable, their religion was more gloomy and their gods more ferocious than among the ancient Egyptians.
A like difference is observed in the religions of the two countries in America where civilization was most advanced before the arrival of the Spaniards. Peru enjoyed a climate of great serenity and regularity. Of all the sensible agents that operated on the earth and air, the sun was apparently the most uniform and energetic. ”

“ The whole world is acquainted with your gallant efforts to abolish tyranny and give liberty to South America. The people of this Republic are full of the most lively gratitude, and are grieved that it is not in their power to give you an effectual proof of their deep attachment. This Province, holding valour and merit in estimation, idolizes you, whilst it holds in abhorrence and detestation the tyrant "Liberator of Peru!" who has stained our soil with tears of blood shed for his pretended services. ”

“ If not—if our civilization is not to meet the fate of all that have gone before—it will be because we have builded upon a firm foundation, a foundation of the great body of the plain, the common people, and upon a character formed on the principles of justice, of liberty, and of brotherly love. Our one hope for the perpetuity of our civilization is that quality in which it differs from all civilizations that have gone before—its substantial basis. I find that here in Peru you are building upon that firm rock. ”

“ I am aware that good faith in one who presides over a nation, is the vital spirit of its prosperity; and as, in this respect, a singular current of success has called me temporarily to the supreme magistracy of this country, I should renounce the advantages acquired and betray my principles, if vanity or servile acquiescence in bad advice were to induce me to deviate from the social interests of Peru, and so expose it to the evils which in such case you dread. ”

“ Unlike those of the eastern hemisphere, the peoples of the West are of one race. Apart from every other, the development of the American Indian has gone on different lines, the result being a people self-contained, as it were, and unmodified until the arrival of the European. The American is perhaps the nearest to the natural man, and his character is the result of nature's own moulding. When com [Pg 2] pared with the European or Asiatic he seems to be far behind, yet the civilisation of Peru and Mexico was in some respects in advance of that of their conquerors. ”

“ There are times in the career of a man—especially of one who leads a wandering and adventurous life—when it seems as though the events of a lifetime were compressed into the period of a few months, or weeks, or even days. Such, at least, was the experience of our hero while he travelled in the equatorial regions of South America. Events succeeded each other with such rapidity, and accumulated on each other to such an extent, that when he looked back it appeared utterly incredible that he and his companions had landed on the coast of Peru only a few months before. ”