The population of Peru, by the latest accounts, was 1,880,000 souls: the whole of the labouring classes in the interior being pure Indians; the artizans and shopkeeping classes in the towns partly Indians and partly half-castes or mestizos; the lower orders on the coast being negros, or zambos, a caste between negros and Indians, with some imported Chinese; and the upper classes being chiefly of Spanish descent with a slight dash of Indian blood, many nearly or quite half-castes, not a few pure Indian, and an exceedingly small proportion of pure Spanish descent.[353] The men of Indian extraction display perhaps more energy and equal ability with their fellow-countrymen of pure Spanish origin; and many Indians are wealthy enterprising men, while others have held the highest offices in the state. The Peruvians are intelligent and quick of apprehension, exceedingly hospitable and kind-hearted, and remarkably humane and forgiving, as a rule, in the conduct of their civil wars; but they are apt to be fickle and volatile, incapable of any long-sustained effort, and inclined to indolence. Corruption, bribery, treason, and pusillanimity are but too common; but may not these be the vices engendered by civil strife and periods of anarchy, rather than the normal characteristics of the people? With the exception of the negro races on the coast, there are few people among whom crime is more uncommon. The causes of the civil and foreign wars which have retarded the progress of Peru since her independence may be explained in a very few sentences.