Читать книгу The Narrative of Twenty Years' Residence in South America - William Bennet Stevenson - Страница 17

"En su orisonte el sol todo es aurora

Eterna, el tiempo todo es primavera

Solo es risa del cielo cada hora

Cada mes solo es cuenta del esfera.

Son cada aliento, un halito de Flora

Cada arroyo una Musa lisongera;

Y los vergeles, que el confin le debé

Nubes fragantes con que el ciclo llueve."

One of the peculiarities of this climate, as well as that of the coast of Peru from Arica to Cape Blanco, being a distance of about 16 degrees of latitude, is, that it can scarcely ever be said to rain. Several theories have been advanced to account for this anomaly of nature. The following facts and explanations will, perhaps, tend to unravel the difficulty.

In April or May the mists, called garuas, begin, and continue with little interruption till November, which period is usually termed the winter solstice. The gentle winds that blow in the morning from the westward, and in the afternoon from the southward, are those which fill the atmosphere with aqueous vapours, forming a very dense cloud or mist; and owing to the obliquity of the rays of the sun during this season the evaporation is not sufficiently rarified or attenuated to enable it to rise above the summits of the adjacent mountains; so that it is limited to the range of flat country lying between the mountains and the sea, which inclines towards the north west. Thus the vapours brought by the general winds are collected over this range of coast, and from the cause above-mentioned cannot pass the tops of the mountains, but remain stationary until the sun returns to the south, when they are elevated by his vertical heat, and pass over the mountains into the interior, where they become condensed, and fall in copious rains. That rain is not formed on the coast from these mists is attributable, first, to a want of contrary winds to agitate and unite the particles, and, secondly, to their proximity to the earth, which they reach in their descent, before a sufficient number of them can coalesce, and form themselves into drops.

The figure of the coast also contributes to the free access of the water that has been cooled at the south pole, on its return to the equatorial regions. From Cape Pilares to latitude 18° the direction of the coast is nearly N. and S.; and from 18° to 5° it runs out to the westward: thus the cold water dashes on the shores, and produces in the atmosphere a coolness that is not experienced in other parts, where the coasts are filled with projecting capes and deep bays; because the current, striking against those, sweeps from the coast, and the water in these becomes heated by the sun, and is deprived by the capes of the current of cold water, excepting what is necessary to maintain the equilibrium, which is diminished by absorption in the bays. The heat increases with astonishing rapidity from latitude 1° south to 10° north; the Gulph of Choco being deprived of the ingress of cooled water from the south by the Cape San Francisco, and from the north by Cape Blanco. The eastern shores of the south Continent of America are much warmer than the western, owing to the great number of capes and bays. The atmosphere does not enjoy the cooling breezes from the pole, which are diverted from a direct course in the same manner as the currents of water, nor the refrigerated winds from the Cordillera.

The southern hemisphere is altogether much cooler than the northern: perhaps in the same ratio that the surface land of the northern hemisphere exceeds that of the southern.

During the months of February and March it sometimes happens that large straggling drops of rain fall about five o'clock in the afternoon. This admits of an easy elucidation. The exhalations from the sea being elevated by the heat of a vertical sun, and impelled by the gentle winds during the day towards the interior and mountainous parts of the country, are sometimes arrested in their progress by a current of air from the eastward, which, having been cooled on its passage over the snow-topped Andes, is colder than the air from the westward; and wherever these currents meet the aqueous particles are condensed, and uniting become too heavy to continue in the upper region of the atmosphere, when they begin to fall, and in their descent combine with those that fill the lower regions, and hence some large drops are formed.

The following table of the weather will perhaps furnish a better idea of the climate of Lima than any verbal description:—

1805		1810
_______________/\________________		_________/\_________
/		\		/		\
	Sun.	Cloudy.	Variable.		Sun.	Cloudy.	Variable.
Jan.	5 days	10 days	16 days		6 days	11 days	13 days.
Feb.	8	5	15		7	4	17
March	12	2	17		13	2	16
April	7	9	14		6	10	14
May	..	17	14		1	15	15
June	..	21	9		..	24	6
July	..	28	3		..	31	..
August	..	27	4		..	30	1
Sept.	3	20	7		2	21	7
October	2	21	8		2	19	10
Nov.	4	16	10		5	15	10
Dec.	4	18	19		4	7	20
	—	—	—		—	—	—
During the year	45	184	136		46	189	129
	==	===	===		==	===	===

Sun indicates those days in which the sun was never clouded; Cloudy, those in which the sun was not visible; and Variable, those in which the sun was generally clouded in the morning but afterwards became visible.

From the foregoing explanations it must naturally be inferred, that the dry season in the interior occurs at the time that the mists or fogs predominate on the coast, and vice versa: this is what really takes place. The rivers on the coast are nearly dry during the misty weather, but during the summer heat they often become impassable, owing to their increase of water from the melting of the snow on the mountains and the fall of rain in the interior. The chimbadores, or badeadores, men who ford the larger rivers with goods and travellers, know from experience and minute observation, according to the hour at which the increase begins, at what place the rain has fallen.

It may be well here to advert to a phenomenon which has as yet remained unnoticed. The heavy rains which fall on the Cordillera of the Andes are the effect of evaporation from the Pacific Ocean, and these rains feed the enormous streams which supply those rivers that empty themselves into the Atlantic. It therefore follows, that the Atlantic is furnished with water from the Pacific; and if, as some have believed, the Atlantida existed between the coasts of Africa and America, its western shores being opposite to the mouth of the river Amazon, its inundation may have been occasioned by the heavy rains in the Andes.

The vegetable mould in the valley of Lima is about two feet deep, and is extremely rich, amply repaying the labour of cultivation. Below the mould is a stratum of sand and pebbles, extending about three leagues from the sea-coast; and under this a stratum of indurated clay, apparently of alluvial depositions. The latter seems to have been once the bottom of the sea, and may have been raised above the level of the surface by some great convulsion; for I cannot suppose with Moreno, Unanue and others, that the water has retired from this coast so much as to occasion a fall of more than four hundred feet in perpendicular height, which the stratum of sand and pebbles holds above the level of the sea at its extreme distance from the coast.

May not the same principles account for the general belief, that the surface of the Atlantic on the eastern shores of the New World is above the level of the Pacific on the western shores, notwithstanding the apparent contradiction of the currents running round Cape Horn into the Atlantic? Perhaps the asserted elevation, particularly in the Gulph of Mexico, is owing to the prevailing winds that drive the surface water into the gulf, its free egress by a sub-current being impeded by the range of the Antilles, whose bases may occupy a greater space than their surfaces, and also to the existence of rocks under water.

Although Lima is free from the terrifying effects of thunder and lightning, it is subject to dreadful convulsions which are far more frightful and destructive. Earthquakes are felt every year, particularly after the mists disperse and the summer sun begins to heat the earth. They are more commonly felt at night, two or three hours after sunset, or in the morning about sunrise. The direction which they have been observed to keep has generally been from south to north, and experience has shewn, that from the equator to the Tropic of Capricorn the most violent concussions have taken place about once in every fifty years. Since the conquest the following, which occurred at Arequipa, Lima and Quito, have been the most violent:—

AREQUIPA.	LIMA.	QUITO.
1582	1586	1587
1604	1630	1645
1687	1687	1698
1715	1746	1757
1784	1806	1797
1819

It has been remarked, that the vegetable world suffers very much by a great shock, the country about Lima, and all the range of coast were particularly affected by that which happened in 1678. The crops of wheat, maize, and other grain were entirely destroyed, and for several years afterwards the ground was totally unproductive. At that period wheat was first brought from Chile, which country has ever since been considered the granary of Lima, Guayaquil, and Panama. Feijo, in his description of the province of Truxillo, says, "that some of the valleys which produced two hundred fold of wheat before the earthquake in 1687 did not reproduce the seed after it for more than twenty years;" and according to the latest information from Chile the crops have failed since the earthquake in 1822. The following shocks were felt in Lima in the years 1805 and 1810:—

1805		1810
_________/\_________		________/\________
/		\		/		\
January	9,	at 7½	P. M.		January	7,	at 9	A. M.
…	10,	… 5	A. M.		…	11,	… 5	P. M.
…	27,	… 9	P. M.		May	3,	… 7½	A. M.
February	17,	… 6	P. M.		…	15,	… 5	A. M.
…	21,	… 4½	P. M.		…	16,	… 7	P. M.
March	1,	… 5	A. M.		June	15,	… 5½	A. M.
June	4,	… 4½	P. M.		Nov.	17,	… 5	A. M.
July	1,	… 5	A. M.		…	21,	… 7½	A. M.
Nov.	7,	… 8	P. M.		…	24,	… 5	P. M.
…	9,	… 8½	P. M.		…	26,	… 5½	P. M.
Dec.	5,	… 7½	P. M.
…	14,	… 4½	P. M.

When one or two faint shocks are felt in the moist weather, they are supposed to indicate a change, and the same is expected in the dry or hot weather.

The principal produce of the valley of Lima is sugar cane, lucern, alfalfa, maize, wheat, beans, with tropical and European fruit, as well as culinary vegetables.

The sugar cane is almost exclusively of the creole kind: fine sugar is seldom made from it here, but a coarse sort, called chancaca, is extracted, the method of manufacturing which will hereafter be described. The principal part of the cane is employed in making guarapo; this is the expressed juice of the cane fermented, and constitutes the chief drink of the coloured people; it is intoxicating, and from its cheapness its effects are often visible, particularly among the indians who come from the interior, and can purchase this disgusting vice at a low rate. The liquor is believed to produce cutaneous eruptions if used by the white people, on which account, or more probably from the vulgarity implied in drinking it, they seldom taste it. I found it very agreeable, and when thirsty or over-heated preferred it to any other beverage.

The manufacture of rum was expressly forbidden in Peru both by the Monarch and the Pope; the former ordained very heavy penalties to be inflicted, the latter fulminated his anathemas on those who should violate the royal will. The whole of this strange colonial restriction had for its object the protection and exclusive privilege of the owners of vineyards in the making of spirits—a protection which cost the proprietors upwards of sixty thousand dollars.

Great quantities of lucern, alfalfa, are cultivated, for the purpose of supplying with provender the horses and mules of Lima; and not less than twelve hundred asses are kept for the purpose of bringing it from the chacras, small farms in the valley. It generally grows to the height of three feet, and is cut down five times in the year; it prospers extremely well during the moist weather, but there is a great scarcity in the summer or hot season, because it cannot then be irrigated, for it has been observed, that if, after cutting, the roots are watered they rot; on this account fodder is not plentiful in summer, so that if a substitute for the lucern could be introduced it would prove a source of great wealth to its cultivator. I never saw dried lucern, and on inquiring why they did not dry and preserve it, was told, that the experiment had been tried, but that the green lucern when dried became so parched and tasteless that the horses would not eat it, and that the principal stems of the full-grown or ripe lucern very often contain a snuff-like powder, which is very injurious to the animals, producing a kind of madness, and frequently killing them. Fat cattle brought to Lima are generally kept a few days on lucern before they are slaughtered; the farmers are therefore very attentive to the cultivation of this useful and productive plant. Guinea grass was planted near the city by Don Pedro Abadia, but it did not prosper; whether the failure were occasioned by the climate, or by ignorance of management, I cannot say, but I am inclined to believe that the latter was the case.

Wheat is sown, but no reliance can be placed on a produce adequate to repay the farmer, although the quality in favourable seasons is very good. It often happens, that the vertical sun has great power before the grain is formed, at which time the small dew drops having arranged themselves on different parts of the ear into minute globules, these are forcibly acted on by the sun's rays before evaporation takes place, and operating as so many convex lenses, the grain is burnt, and the disappointed farmer finds nothing but a deep brown powder in its place. I have sometimes seen a field of wheat or other grain most luxuriantly green in the evening, and the day following it has been parched and dry; this transition the farmer says is the effect of frost; which will perhaps be admitted to be a correct explanation, if we consider that during the night the wind has come from the eastward, and has passed over a range of the Andes at a short distance. It sometimes also happens that the moist season continues for a long period, or that after clear weather the mists return; now should the farmer irrigate his fields during this intermission, or should the mists continue, the plants shoot up to such a great height that straw alone is harvested; but in this case, aware of the result, he often cuts the green corn for fodder, or turns his cattle on it to feed.

The growth of maize is much attended to, and very large quantities are annually consumed in Lima by the lower classes, and as food for hogs, some of which animals become extremely fat with this grain, and in less time than if fed on any other kind. Three sorts of maize are cultivated here, each of which has its peculiar properties and uses. It appears to have been in very extensive use among the indians before the arrival of the Spaniards; for, on digging the huacas, or burying grounds, at the distance of forty leagues from Lima, I have often found great quantities of it. A large deposit was discovered in square pits or cisterns, made of sun-dried bricks, on a farm called Vinto, where no doubt there had either been a public granary, or, as some people imagine, a depôt formed by Huaina Capac, on leading his troops against the Chimu, a king of the coasts, about the year 1420. The grain was quite entire when it was taken up, although, according to the above hypothesis, it had been under ground about four hundred years; owing its preservation perhaps to the dry sand in which it was buried. Its depth beneath the surface was about four feet, on the ridge of a range of sand hills, where no moisture could reach it by absorption from below, its elevation being about 700 feet above the level of the sea, and 600 above that of the nearest river. I planted some of it, but it did not grow: however its fattening qualities were not destroyed, and the neighbouring farmers and inhabitants of the adjacent villages profited by the discovery.

Large quantities of beans are harvested in this valley for the support of the slaves on the estates and plantations, but the market of Lima is principally supplied from valles, the valleys on the coast to the northward.

Although abundance of tropical and ultra-tropical fruit trees are cultivated in the gardens and orchards belonging to the farm houses, and quintas, seats, in the valley, I shall defer an account of them until I describe the gardens in and about the city.

Culinary vegetables are grown here in abundance, including a great part of those known in Europe, as well as those peculiar to warm climates. The yuca, casava, merits particular attention, on account of its prolific produce, delicate taste, and nutritious qualities; it grows to about five feet high; its leaves are divided into seven finger-like lobes of a beautiful green, and each plant will generally yield about eight roots of the size of large carrots, of a white colour, under a kind of rough barky husk. In a raw state its taste is somewhat similar to that of the chesnut, and of a very agreeable flavour when roasted or boiled; the young buds and leaves are also cooked, and are as good as spinage. It is propagated by planting the stalks or stems of the old crop, cutting them close to the ground after about four inches are buried in the mould, which must be light and rather sandy. Two species are known; the crop of the one arrives at full growth in three months, but this is not considered of so good a quality, nor is it so productive as the other, which is six months before it arrives at a state of perfection. They are distinguished by the yellowish colour of the latter, and the perfectly white colour of the former. The disadvantage attending these roots, is, that they cannot be kept above four or five days before they become very black, when they are considered unfit for use. Starch is made from them in considerable quantities, by the usual method of bruising, and subjecting them to fermentation, in order to separate the farina. The mandioc, a variety of this genus, is unknown on the western side of the Continent: thus all danger of injury from its poisonous qualities is precluded.

Several varieties of the potatoe are cultivated and yield very abundant crops. They appear to have been known in this part of the New World before it was visited by the Spaniards, and not to have been confined to Chile, their native country. I found this probability on their having a proper name in the Quichua language, whilst those plants that have been brought into the country retain among the Indians their Spanish names alone.

Camotes, commonly called sweet potatoes, and by the Spaniards batatas, are produced in great abundance, of both the yellow and purple kinds. I have seen them weighing ten pounds each; when roasted or boiled their taste is sweeter than that of the chesnut, and all classes of people eat them. They become much more farinaceous if exposed for some time to the sun after they are taken out of the ground; and if kept dry they will remain good for six months. They are propagated by setting pieces of the branches of old plants, to procure which the camote itself is sometimes planted.

Although the arracacha which is grown in this valley is neither so large nor so well tasted as that which is produced in a cooler climate, it is nevertheless an exceedingly good esculent. It is cultivated in a rich, loose soil, and has generally five or six roots, something like parsnips, but of a different flavour; they are not very mealy, and require but little cooking; they are, however, very easy of digestion, on which account they are given to the sick and convalescent; the leaves bear a great resemblance to those of celery. The plantation is either from cuttings of the root, like potatoes, or from the seed; in the first case the roots are full grown in three months, but in the latter in not less than five. If allowed to remain in the ground double the time mentioned the roots continue to increase in size, without any detriment to their taste. Starch is sometimes made from the roots, and used in the same manner as the arrow root is in other countries. Only the white arracacha is here cultivated. The arracacha deserves the attention of Europeans; it would, I am pretty certain, prosper in England, because its natural temperature, where it thrives best, is in about 60° of Fahrenheit.

The tomate, love apple, is very much cultivated, and is in frequent use both in the kitchen and for confectionary, and produces a very agreeable acid.

Capsicum, cayenne pepper, aji, is abundant; I have counted nine different sorts, the largest, rocotos, about the size of a turkey's egg, and the smallest, which is the most pungent, not thicker than the quill of a pigeon's feather; the quantity of this spice used in America is enormous; I have frequently seen a person, particularly among the indians, eat as a relish, twenty or thirty pods, with a little salt and a piece of bread. One kind called pimiento dulce is made into a very delicate salad, by roasting the pods over hot embers, taking away the outer skin, and the seeds from the inside, and seasoning with salt, oil, and vinegar.

It is rather a surprising fact, that manure is never used on the farms or plantations. The astonishing fertility of the soil, which has been under cultivation for upwards of three hundred years, and produced luxuriant annual crops, appears to be supported by the turbid water from the mountains, during the rainy season, with which it is irrigated. This water, like that of the Nile, leaves on the ground a slimy film, which is said to contain a considerable quantity of animal matter.