d. These Cofradias were also conducive to
philanthropic ends; for when a slave had a hard master, the sum
requisite for purchasing his freedom was raised by a general
subscription in the union to which he belonged. Since the
independence of Peru, and the consequent prohibition of the
importation of negroes, the Cofradias have declined, and have lost
much of their original character. Creoles and free negroes have now
become members of them. The places in which these meetings are held
are situated in the suburb of San Lazaro. The walls of the rooms
are painted with grotesque figures of negro kings, elephants,
camels, palm trees, &c.

In Lima, and indeed throughout the whole of Peru, the free negroes are a
plague to society. Too indolent to support themselves by laborious
industry, they readily fall into any dishonest means of getting money.
Almost all the robbers who infest the roads on the coast of Peru are
free negroes. Dishonesty seems to be a part of their very nature; and
moreover, all their tastes and inclinations are coarse and sensual. Many
warm defenders of the negroes excuse these qualities by ascribing them
to the want of education, the recollection of slavery, the spirit of
revenge, &c. But I here speak of free-born negroes, who are admitted
into the houses of wealthy families, who from their early childhood have
received as good an education as falls to the share of many of the white
Creoles--who are treated with kindness and liberally remunerated, and
yet they do not differ from their half-savage brethren who are shut out
from these advantages. If the negro has learned to read and write, and
thereby made some little advance in education, he is transformed into a
conceited coxcomb, who, instead of plundering travellers on the highway,
finds in city life a sphere for the indulgence of his evil propensities.
What is the cause of this incorrigible turpitude of the negroes? To
answer this important question is not easy, if we admit the principle
that the negro is as capable of cultivation as the Caucasian; and in
support of it the names of some highly-educated Ethiopians may be cited.
Those who are disposed to maintain this principle, and who are at the
same time intimately acquainted with the social relations of the
countries in which free negroes are numerous, may solve the problem. My
opinion is, that the negroes, in respect to capability for mental
improvement, are far behind the Europeans, and that, consider