The Department of Junin.—The river MaraÑon.—General sketch of the form of internal Government of Peru.—Particular account of the Prefectorate or Department of Junin.—Mines.—Agriculture.—Manufactures.—Public Instruction.—Hospitals and Charitable Asylums.—Vaccination.—Junta of Health.—Public Baths.—Police.—Pantheons.—Roads.—Posts.—Public Treasury at Pasco.—Administration of Justice.—National Militia. Of the three inland departments of Peru, namely, Cuzco, Ayacucho, and Junin, the latter is peculiarly distinguished by its mineral riches, and the rise of the great river MaraÑon, in the lake of Lauricocha, in the neighbourhood of Cerro Pasco. The length of this river, all its windings included, has been reckoned not less than one thousand one hundred leagues, of which nine hundred have been The provinces of this department are Jauja, Tarma, Pasco, Cajatambo, Huari, Huaylas, Huamalies, Conchucos, and Huanuco. Besides the precious metals, (and quicksilver, which for some time back has been regularly extracted from the mines of Jonta in Huamalies,) these provinces yield a great variety of cattle and vegetable produce. Huanuco, the principal city of the province of the same name, though The government of Peru is, by its constitution, pronounced to be a popular, representative OF THE OFFICE OF PREFECTS AND GOVERNORS, &C.The superior political government of every department is vested in a prefect, under immediate subordination to the president of the republic; that of every province is entrusted to a sub-prefect, who is immediately subordinate to the prefect; that of the districts to a governor, who acknowledges the sub-prefect To fill the appointment of prefect, sub-prefect, or governor, it is required that the candidate should be an active citizen, not under thirty years of age, and a man eminent for his probity. The duties of such functionaries are, 1. To maintain public security and order in their respective territories. 2. To cause the articles of the political constitution, the laws enacted by congress, and the decrees and commands of the executive power, to be duly carried into effect. 3. To enforce the completion of sentences pronounced by the different tribunals and courts of justice. 4. To take care that the functionaries The prefects are also charged with the economical administration of the affairs of state within their respective departments. But they are restrained, 1. From interfering with, or in any degree interrupting, the course of popular elections. 2. From preventing the reunion of the departmental juntas, or interfering with these in the free exercise of their functions. 3. From taking any cognizance in judicial cases; but, should public tranquillity urgently require that any individual should be taken up, a prefect may command his immediate arrest,—transferring the delinquent, accompanied with the grounds of having taken him into custody, to the judicial magistrate or judge, within the precise term of forty-eight hours. DEPARTMENTAL JUNTAS.In the capital of every department there is a junta, composed of two members from each province. The object of these juntas is to promote the interest of the provinces in particular, and of the departments in general. The members are elected after the same manner with those of the Congress or Chamber of Deputies. The prefects of the departments have to open the annual sessions of the juntas, to report to them in writing on the state of the public affairs of their respective jurisdictions, and to suggest such measures as appear to them calculated to promote the general advantage of the departments. Among the functions of this political body we may enumerate— 1. To propose, discuss, and agree about the best means of promoting the agricultural, mining, and other branches of industry in their respective provinces.—2. To forward public education and instruction according to the method approved by Congress.—3. To watch over and promote charitable institutions; and, in general, all that relates to the interior police of the departments, except that of public security.—4. To proportion among the provinces the amount of the assessments of each department; and to ascertain, in case of complaint, the exact Having premised the above articles relative MINES.We shall here pass over the subject of mines, regarding which we have said enough under the head of Cerro Pasco; though there is no province in the whole department in AGRICULTURE.Of the agriculture of the Vale of Huanuco we have already treated; and, from what has been said, enough may be conceived of the general state of agriculture in the Sierra. We have also alluded to Jauja, in the preceding pages, as most productive in wheat; and abounding, as it does, in maize, lucern, peas, beans, &c. it is considered not only as the granary of the department to which it belongs, but also of all the central Sierra of Peru between the two great chains of the Andes. In the Vale of Jauja, as on the plains of Cajamarca, MANUFACTURES.The manufactures, we may cursorily remark, are in a very backward state; and though the natives, especially of Huanuco, have shown no small share of ingenuity in some of their mechanical contrivances, yet they want proper masters; and, however we may admire the progress they have made with such slender means of instruction, we cannot compare their performances with those of Europeans in the same line. In Tarma they make ponchos, or loose cloaks, of great beauty and fineness; and, on the colder table-lands, warm but coarse blankets and ponchos, &c. are still made by the Indians. In the valleys, goat-skins are made into cordovans; cow-hide is made into saddle-bags, and almofrezes, or travelling-cases for bed and bedding; mats too are manufactured PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.Without the aid of science, the arts of active life cannot duly advance in the career of improvement, and thus society remains a stranger to the higher refinements of civilization: hence, as the prefect of Junin well observes, the education of youth becomes a leading object of national interest and desire. But though in the department Such being the inauspicious account of the only college of the department at present in exercise, the schools of elementary instruction do not seem to be in a more flattering position, though official measures have been taken to diffuse instruction among every class of the community. To the credit of the chief of the department, commands were issued by him for the erection of schools of elementary instruction in all the provinces, with orders that proper reports concerning their condition should be regularly forwarded to the prefectorate at Pasco. To these important subjects the prefect in the mensage, or report, to which we have already alluded, endeavoured to awaken the attention of the departmental junta assembled in the city of Huanuco; when it was declared that the method of mutual instruction, adopted in that capital of local jurisdiction, in no way corresponded in its advantages The failure implied on this occasion may possibly have been less the fault of the system than of those who offered to apply it; for it was remarked as very worthy the consideration of the honourable junta, that, in reference to many of the schools intended for the improvement of the indigenous or Indian race, wherein they were merely taught a jargon of Spanish which they could not comprehend, it were better for them to be left in an untutored state of mind than to be placed under the melancholy influence of such teachers as presided over them. These were represented to be so imbecile, and so unacquainted with the merest rudiments of reading, or so abandoned and drowned in vice, as to be persons utterly unfit to guide the mind HOSPITALS AND CHARITABLE ASYLUMS.It is affecting to think that, notwithstanding the wealth of which this department is the seat, the sick and invalid in general cannot find a home or place of assistance under their sufferings. In Huaras, as well as in Huanuco, there were formerly well-endowed hospitals, but these are now fallen into such decay for want of funds for their support, that few indeed are the sick who can be accommodated or relieved in them; and, consequently, We are told by the prefect that an asylum or house of relief for the distressed poor never existed in the department: but, in his report to the departmental junta, he urges with an earnestness honourable to his feelings, that humanity calls for the immediate institution of establishments of this kind on behalf of the wretched victims of misfortune, whose very misery plunges them into despair. He also holds it to be a matter of public expediency to find a fixed home, and steady occupation, for those abandoned objects of compassion, who make traffic of their degradation and a boast of their debasement. VACCINATION.In the year 1832, it was found that the small-pox had just left dismal traces of its ravages in the department: fathers mourned their children now dead, or so disfigured and mutilated as to become unfit for the active business of life; the widow, too, wept for her lost husband, and the offspring of a mutual affection were left to feel the want of a father’s care. Curates, and municipal bodies, most particularly intrusted with the frequently repeated charge of preserving the vaccine fluid, unhappily neglected a trust so important; and the heads of families, who joined in the same carelessness, did not consider, until the fatal epidemic swept their children from their arms, that they were ever to taste the bitter fruit of their own improvident indifference. JUNTAS OF HEALTH.It has been proposed by the same active and intelligent prefect, Don Francisco Quiros, that juntas of health should be established in the capitals or principal towns of the provinces of his jurisdiction, with a view to prevent the spread of contagious diseases;—to ascertain, and if possible correct, those physical causes and sources of disorder which are hostile to the healthy operations It is, as we have seen, the duty of the departmental deputies to create these institutions, to frame rules for their regulation, and appoint fit persons for their management; while it would be the proper business of the prefect to see the resolutions of the junta carried into execution. We only point to such proposals as the present, to show the reader how much such institutions are really wanted in Peru: not at all to mislead his judgment by inducing him to believe that there is the least appearance of their being established for a long time to come, unless, indeed, public tranquillity be soon restored; but people must perceive their wants before they desire to remove them, and the agitation of questions of civil amendment may ultimately lead to real improvement in their social condition. PUBLIC BATHS.In the dry and equable climate of Huanuco, bathing is not so necessary either to cool or to refresh the body as it is found to be in more humid and warm situations; for there is a bracing property in the dry air, which carries off the natural perspiration almost as rapidly as it is produced, and prevents that languor and discomfort experienced in a sultry atmosphere, where one perspires more than the air readily absorbs. The inhabitants of this interesting province, and especially of the town of Huanuco, feel so little desire for the cold bath, that it is proverbial among them, that they only bathe in the river, or the canals of their delightful orchards, once in every year,—that is, on the day of San Juan, the In the jurisdiction of Junin, however, natural warm and hot springs are exceedingly common, as well on the mountain plains, (which are in many places, as at Hualliay, covered with a saline incrustation,) as in the warmer valleys; and of these none are more resorted to, by invalids and convalescents, than the ferruginous and tepid waters of the well-known baths of Cono, near Huariaca, and the still more celebrated sulphurous waters of Villo, in the district of Yanahuanca. Here there are two streams, of which the one is cold and the other hot; and being received into a reservoir in due proportions, baths may be always provided easily and cheaply, of any degree of temperature desired. To make the medicinal waters of Villo—situated in a mild climate about one POLICE.Few of the municipalities of the department possess public rents and revenues calculated to answer the purpose to which they should be applied. But, in the absence of adequate funds and resources to forward all the objects of a general and well-regulated municipal police, there exists a valuable decree, which is very worthy of proper observance; for, in virtue of it, blasphemers, and those who, by their habitual indulgence in vice and vicious language, insult the better feelings of the community, are consigned to labour at public works, or compelled to sweep the streets, as the penalty of their infamous conduct. With further view to public order, the prefect has resolved to stigmatize, when he cannot hope at once to remove, the vice of drunkenness, On great religious days pavilions are not unfrequently erected in convenient situations for the reception of the effigies of the Virgin, our Saviour, and Cross, around which all sorts of silver and other ornaments are placed in fanciful confusion. The entrances into the churches and chapels, even in the rigid climate of Cerro and the adjacent haciendas, are lavishly adorned with beautiful lilies conveyed from the valleys; and wreaths and festoons of flowers hang over and around the doors of the pavilions and churches, which, when good metals are So marked is the taste for flowers among the poorest tenants of a mud-and-cane booth in the Vale of Huanuco, that on the festival of Corpus Christi,—a day of joy to the agricultural Indian, who always eats meat on this day, even should he have passed the rest of the year, like an anchorite, on vegetable diet,—the poor women and children on the sugar estates approach the house of their patron with hats, hands, and mantles full of the sweetest blossoms, which they But however desirous of enforcing a stricter observance of the days devoted to the service of the church, it has not been the aim of the prefect to check or discontinue the more innocent amusements of music and dance, or those of bull-fights and fire-works, in which the Indian also delights. He has struck at the principal cause of alienation from the house of God, namely, drunkenness, by condemning all those who are convicted of rioting or breaking the peace to sweep the streets for three successive days; or, should this be Idle vagabonds, without useful occupation or property, and even without country, are pronounced by the civil authorities to be found in all parts disseminating immorality and disorder; and seeing that to temporise with obnoxious characters of this sort is, in effect, to promote the cause of libertinism and idleness, it has been resolved at the prefectorate of Junin to persecute and exterminate, if they cannot amend, all such vicious intruders on society. PANTHEONS OR CEMETERIES.It has been long an established practice in Peru to bury the dead within the This very unwholesome and improper custom has ceased in Lima since the erection of its Pantheon, and the example of the great capital has been followed in the remote departments. With few, if any, exceptions, cemeteries are now formed in all the provinces of Junin. But in Cerro Pasco, however, the burying-place was so very circumscribed and neglected, that, on the arrival of Don Francisco Quiros as chief of the department in the year 1832, there was not earth enough to cover the dead within the Pantheon walls, which altogether presented a very loathsome appearance. He ROADS OF JUNIN.Regarding the roads of the Sierra in general, enough has been said in the preceding pages; but of Junin, in particular, it remains for us to observe that very laudable efforts have been lately made for improving the roads of this department: yet no regular post-houses, with suitable accommodations for the traveller, are anywhere established; POSTS.The inhabitants of Cerro Pasco have the advantage of a weekly post between their town and the capital of the republic; and a direct correspondence twice a month with Huanuco, the capital of the department. By PUBLIC TREASURY AT PASCO.The prefects in general are, as we have seen, not only entrusted with the maintenance of public order and security, but they are also at the head of financial affairs in their respective departments. In times of intestine warfare it has always happened that the Patriot government has exceeded the natural resources of the country, crippled as they are in all their branches by want of security, and consequently of capital. Thus OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.Justice, in all the departments, is administered in the name of the republic; and in every town there are justices of the peace, whose business it is to hear both sides of the question at issue, and to endeavour to bring about an amicable termination without going formally to law: no demand, civil or criminal, save fiscal cases and others excepted by law, being admitted, unless this essential preliminary attempt at reconciliation has been put into practice. In some of the provinces of the Junin department, as those of Huaylas and Huamalies, they have not judges duly learned and qualified in judicial proceedings; and consequently, in those parts, the office of the judge devolves upon the sub-prefects, who are alike ignorant of the law and its forms of application. Hence we may suppose they must be very unfit surrogates in such delicate matters as affect the person and property of individuals, and the good order of society. Justice in the civil department is ill administered in Cerro Pasco, for which the prefect assigns a good reason; namely, that here criminal suits continually occur to engross the time and attention of the judge, so that it is impossible for him without assistance to attend to the ready despatch of merely civil causes, which are less urgent. The public are great sufferers from this imperfect judicial arrangement; and not only an additional judge, but several more notaries NATIONAL MILITIA.By the articles of the political constitution of Peru, there are supposed to be in every province bodies of national militia as the guarantee of the internal order of the state; but, by the same constitution, the armed force of the nation has no power of political deliberation, as it is declared to be essentially obedient. Happy, indeed, might the state be, if its army of the line and naval squadron were But in the greater part of the provinces a national militia can hardly be said to exist, except in name; though men titled captains and colonels of such corps are scattered about the country, and strut with their insignia of military importance in hamlets and villages. In a neighbourhood where the writer resided for several years in the department of Junin, there was a villager of no small local pretension, who held at one time, in his own person, the offices of governor and captain of militia of his district, and, if we remember well, of alcalde also (he being alcalde on the death of the governor whom he succeeded); and in this way he became invested with all the authority of a petty dictator. The province was that of Huanuco, where, through These Sunday exercises were generally ill attended; and, of ten or twelve young men on an agricultural estate, it would be usually enough if two or three appeared at one time in the ranks. Upon one occasion, however, when the captain of local militia in the village of Ambo had the honour of having the additional appointment of governor conferred on him, he called upon the writer when indisposed and in bed, and, with great appearance of sympathy and confidential cordiality, congratulated himself upon The provincial prisons of Peru are in general very bad and insecure, and they are “Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them, as a breath has made. But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied.” Upon this occasion, we are glad to say, that the new governor’s deceitful conduct towards us did not serve his turn as he wished. The writer galloped to the capital of the department, where he found Colonel Lucar reviewing and selecting the recruits to be sent off from Huanuco to fill up the vacancies in the army of the line; and he must ever feel obliged to the politeness of the colonel, who instantly despatched a peremptory order to the said captain and governor to put our men of Andaguaylla at liberty, and to replace Thus it appears that the real use of this mock militia is not to guarantee the internal order of the department, (which would be best secured by the absence of all troops, as the Indian population are never so well managed as by their own local magistrates of Indian family,) but to serve as a mask, under which to facilitate the means of raising soldiers for the general service. The governor’s wily attempt to deceive us under the assurances of friendship is not peculiar, for such unworthy conduct does not disgrace one of these petty tyrants in the eyes of his countrymen. |