No. 252.
Mr. Gibbs
to Mr. Evarts.
Lima, Peru, August 6, 1877. (Received September 7.)
Sir: I have the honor to place before you some information relative to the various nationalities of the immigrants that have settled in this republic. * * * The Peruvian Government has made various laws, and holds out inducements to immigrants by land-grants and other favors, but up to the present has not been successful. The lands offered are to the east of the Andes, and comparatively in a wild region, many parts occupied by Indians, who are yet in a savage state. Several attempts have been made to start colonies, but have advanced very slowly. The communications from the western slope of the Andes, where the greater part of the population exists, are difficult, tedious, and often dangerous, there being no connection; except by the old paths, many of them cut centuries past, under the rule of the Incas, so that any products from the other side are brought over in small packages on mules or llama backs, being a slow and costly route. Outlets on the eastern side, it might be said, there are none, if I except the dreams of the Peruvian statesmen, navigation through the tributaries of the Amazon, the Ucayali, Tambo, Urubamba, Huallaga, Maranon, Purus, and others, that go through immense regions, wild, thinly populated by a few Peruvians and aborigines. The Purus is navigable for light-draught steamers to within 400 miles of Lima. Room for immigrants there is plenty. Prescott estimates Peru contained some fifteen millions of inhabitants at the time of the conquest. From what I have seen of ancient cities, ruins, and immense burial-fields, I have not the least doubt that there has been in past time a busy, swarming population of over twenty millions of people, for every foot of available land was cultivated, the Andes being terraced up to the snowline.
A decree was signed December 17, 1872, by the then President of the Republic of Peru, Mr. Pardo, forming a society for European immigration to assist immigrants and place them on lauds to be given by the republic. The society was to be composed of twenty-five members, to be divided into five sections of five each.
[Page 449]- 1.
- For England and Ireland.
- 2.
- France, Belgium, and Switzerland.
- 3.
- Germany, Austria, and Holland.
- 4.
- Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.
- 5.
- Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
These sections united were to form a general board, and the presidents of the sections united to form a board of directors.
The society had power to invest funds voted by Congress, represent the immigrants, contract transportation, take care of them on arrival, forward them to places where they should reside, distribute lands, provide them with domestic animals and seed for planting, procure work for artisans, and has general superintendence over the welfare of the immigrant, establish agencies in Europe, and the society to make its own rules and regulations. They made some changes, and divided the society into four sections, uniting the third and fourth as above.
I suppose there were brought to Peru, under the auspices of this society, since its foundation, some 2,000 immigrants. Up to May 22, 1874, only 330 had arrived, mostly Italians. This society has not been either efficient or prosperous as far I can learn or judge.
Of the foreigners residing in this country, I place the English at the head of the list as having the most power and influence. The Englishman here cannot be classed as an emigrant, for he seldom emigrates to a country that differs from his own in laws, language, religion, and customs, having his own country’s great but thinly inhabited colonies—Canada, British Columbia, and Australia in the first place, and next the United States, where everything assimilates to his native land.
All the great commercial houses in Peru are English, after the chief house is established in London or Liverpool with branches here, Callao, and other ports of the country, and some with branches at Valparaiso and other ports of Chili; then England has a most powerful link that binds all of those establishments in one commercial chain, a power that gathers up the fruit of the Englishman’s trading operations from every part of the coast and takes it to his own market, bringing back articles of use, necessity, or luxury to barter with. I refer to the Pacific Steam Navigation-Company of Liverpool, with a capital stock of £2,958,150, having in their possession over fifty first-class steamers, from a thousand to over four thousand tons’ capacity. This company is one of the best regulated of the many that English commerce commands, taking into consideration the number of steamers on its books, the great length of the voyages made, and the various countries visited, receiving or distributing articles of trade at all. Every fifteen days a steamer leaves Liverpool touching at French, Portuguese, Brazilian, Chilian, and Bolivian ports, arriving at Callao, discharges, and receiving there the products gathered by the other boats of the company from ports in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, north of Callao, returns home to Liverpool, retouching at all the above-named countries, loaded with the products of the fields, forests, and mines of South America.
There did exist a line of Chilian steamers that ran in opposition to the English line between Valparaiso and Panama, touching at intermediate ports in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, but it has been absorbed into the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, which to-day commands commercially the whole South American coast, from Panama up through the Straits of Magellan and down to Pernambuco, a line of 113° of latitude, taking the east and west coasts, and drawing from or supplying forty-three ports. This great line was originally established by an American, Mr. Wheelright, whose statue graces [Page 450] one of the squares in Valparaiso, and, by proper management and attention, could have been taken by tb6 Pacific Mail Company years ago.
In reading over articles in our newspapers on American commerce abroad, and particularly in South America, I am convinced that there is only one way to get a hold in this country, and that is by Americans doing as the English have done, to come with their capital and start large houses here on this coast, and not wait for orders, as we have to compete with an established power that has every convenience and facility with the great European commercial center, London.
There are about 2,000 British subjects in Peru connected with commerce, steamship companies, railroad and gas companies. The principal founderies and plumbing establishments are carried on by Englishmen.
The most numerous of immigrants that have arrived in this country are the Italians, and also the same in the other South American countries. This is easily accounted for by the similarity of religion, the facility of acquiring the language, which is of the same basis as their own, and the mildness of the climate.
There are in Peru some 17,000 Italians, in this city about 7,000, and the neighboring port, 4,000. They are industrious, law-abiding, peaceable, and a moral class of immigrants, at this time there being in the penitentiary only three Italians serving sentences for crime. There are some commercial houses, of large capital, and many small tradesmen well to do. Nearly all the small grocery stores of Lima, Callao, and the more important towns are owned by them. The principal flour-mills are owned and run by Italian, a prominent branch of industry, wheat being free, and mostly imported from Chili, while flour pays duty—a discrimination against the many to protect the interest of a few mill-owners. Restaurants and eating-houses are owned by them, and many fishermen along the coast are of this nationality. The Chinaman, with his slow, steady, plodding manner, has encroached greatly on the Italian’s field of corner groceries and small eating houses, and generally remains master. There is one small colony of Italians in the interior, at Chauchamayo, and I have heard it is in a prosperous condition.
The Germans are next in number, there being about 3,000. Some are first-class merchants, and have commercial houses of more or less importance in all of the large cities and in the towns along the coast. Here in Lima the greater part of the bakers, blacksmiths, and cabinetmakers, are Germans. All of the brewers (quite an increasing business) are of this nationality. At Pazuzo there is a small thriving colony of Germans, and they have a monthly line of steamers from Callao to Hamburg, touching at Valparaiso, Montevideo, and Havre. The French number about 2,800, and are mostly located in this city and Callao, nearly all shop-keepers and small traders; very few in the interior.
Our countrymen are not emigrants in the true sense of the word; the United States offering such immense fields for their enterprise, the few who go abroad go more for the love of adventure, a roaming disposition, or with an idea of making a fortune within a short time. For these reasons I doubt if there are over 500 in all Peru. The greater part of these came as employés and builders of railroads under the direction of Mr. Meiggs. Of American commercial houses, I only know of one old house long established on this coast and two smaller ones of a later date; but there is room for others, and I doubt not that with some convenient, secure, and cheaper means of transport than we have now, the product of American industries would soon supplant the inferior English class that have a monopoly of this whole coast.
I am, &c.,