Daily Los Angeles herald., 1881-04-30
LIFE ON THE HACIENDAS.
The Recent Massacre Of Chinese ia Peru.

Los ANGELES, April 90. 1881.
EDIToR HERALD: As q dell.
gent reader of your valuable pa
per, I happened the other day to
read = dispatch from Peru. an.
the killing by schools"
Of two thousand Chinsmen, in the
valley of Canste. Having been
employed on the plantation where
the massacre took place, and hav.
ing had control Of the deceased
Cinnamon, IL may be Of great In
terest to the numerous readers Of
your paper to have an idea of
life In CafIete and its surroundings.
I shall therefore give q brief sketch
Of the life Of these Cholos and Mon.
gollan slaves in that vicinity.
Caliete 10 about one hundred and
seventy miles from Callao, the sea-
port for Lima, and 1t is reached by
way Of steamer. The landing place
10 Cerro.Azul, which means Blue
mountains. I must acknowledge
never to have been able to discover
anything blue about them. To de.
scribe the passage on board these
steamers, would probably be very
amusing to the public, but as such
= description must be complete, it
would fill several columns, and, as
, matter Of course, not fit for q
Newspaper correspondence. Let me
only say that the steamers above
mentioned are worthy the trans
portation of hogs, perhaps, but not
Of human beings. The scenes on
the deck, where all passengers
sleep together, would give ample
material for painters pencil.
The landing at Cerro-Azul is by
means of almost naked negroes. A
passenger is placed on their shoul-
ders, woman or man alike, and the
wading through the surf is effected
safely, and on placing your foot on
terra firma you are only wet to the
skin.
From this landing place COM
mences the difficulty of transporta.
tion. Travellers do not visit this
part Of the country, therefore no
hotel coaches, as the place is not
supplied with any Grand Central
Hotel or Cosmopolitan. All we
fnd Is the agency and shanty,
representing q Postofiiee. A horse
has to be procured, or il a team Of
oxen should be present, a passen.
ger must then be happy to get out
Of the place that affords no COM
forts but plenty of mosquitoes. the
red hot sun, and the deep, sandy, |
Unavailable ground.
The first place We reach after
leaving Cerro-Azul is "Pueblo
Viejo"-"old town." The surround
ings Of this place and the next
town, which I shall mention later,
consist partly of seven sugar plan.
tations. belonging to an English.
man by the name of Henry
Swayne. The most important of
these plantations are "Casa Blau.
ca" white House, and "santa
Barbara" These plantations, or,
as they are called in Peru, "Ha-
ciendas," are worked by China.
men, each hacienda employing
from two hundred and fifty to six
hundred. These Mopgolians are
all slaves, serving q term OF eight
years, according to contract, usual.
iy signed by them without their
knowledge Of what they sign.
They are brought from China,
usually on sailing vessels, and sold
on board the vessels according to
their quality.
The Pueblo Viejo, with three
thousand Inhabitants, furnishes no
labor for the plantations. The
town 10 occupied by "Cholos," and
pure negroes, but both are too lazy
to do any sort of work. The "Cho.
10" is . mixture of an Indian and a
Peruvian, or also mixture Of ne.
groes and Peruvians. The worst
Of these are the latter, who never
omit an opportunity to rob and
piliage. Whole bands OF this class
somstimes ride to the nearest
towns, take them by surprise and
plunder oil the stores. Iforgot to
merton that the name Cholo 10
also used as . pet name, just like
the American "darling."
The Governor Of Pueblo Viejo is
. Cholo, not exactly darling, bat
one who shuts his eyes to such In
significant things as robbery, but
he IL, 10 a matter of course reward
cd for his silence. It is only in
Peru that government officials,
like some OF their Governors, are
20 dishonest In their offices. Such
things could not possibly happen
tn the United States. The Cholo,
when used ~ Majordomo, or. as we
call II. inspector Of the plantation,
has unlimited power, and occupies
The day In dogging Cinnamon.
Rsvolts often occur, and II this
Inspector 10 overpowered he 10
hacked to pieces, the pieces 20
mall that they would serve for