[1] In Piura the temperature of the air, in summer, ranges from 80° to 96°, and in winter from 70° to 81°, Fahrenheit. The sea-breeze, or southerly wind, which commences to be felt about ten o’clock in the forenoon, is here hailed as the messenger of health by the natives, who are never visited by any sweeping and fatal epidemics.

[2] Lima is situated in lat. 12° 2´ south, and long. 76° 58´ west. It stands six or seven miles inland from its sea-port of Callao, and the more elevated part of the city is about five hundred feet above the level of the sea. It has frequently suffered from earthquakes, which are very common; and one of the most remarkable occurred in the year 1828. Houses of one story have their walls usually composed of sun-burnt bricks called adobes; but, that they may be better able to resist the shocks to which they are so often exposed, they are principally constructed, when of more than one story high, of wood and cane: the whole work, inside and out, being plastered over with clay, and white-washed or painted.

[3] The Rimac divides the city of Lima from its suburbs of San Lazaro, and has over it an excellent bridge close to the palace. This bridge, accommodated with recesses and seats, is greatly resorted to in fine evenings. The young ladies of the metropolis, in their imposing evening party or tertulia attire and decoration, are fond, in times of public tranquillity, to saunter to the bridge on moonlight nights, and there to breathe the pure air of mountain and sea blended and eddying as it gives freshness to the pale cheek, and, in its cool and circling current, wafts fragrance from the choice flowers at this social hour gracefully wreathed around the Rimac beauties’ heads.

[4] We shall have, by and by, further occasion to speak of Amencaes, where there grows a handsome yellow flower of the same name, which on the first approach of slight showers and vapours, at the commencement of the wet season on the coast, is the pioneer of vegetation; as the primrose, in our own glens, presages the returning verdure of spring.

[5] The proportion which the different sexes, castes, and conditions, &c. of the inhabitants of Lima bore to one another in the year 1818, may be learned from the subjoined summary taken from the census of Juan Baso, Oidor.

To convey a more particular idea of the different races of people in Lima, as these are divided and subdivided, and change in colour by intermixing with one another, we shall add tables on the subject, given by Dr. Unanue, in his work titled “Observaciones sobre el clima de Lima.”

The same author gives the following as the retrograde intermarriages, by which the offspring are of a more dingy appearance, and made to recede more and more from white, which he takes as the standard primitive colour.

[6] This idea is not founded on experience; for that the Indian women are really good nurses is proved by the fact, that the offspring of European fathers and Indian mothers,—viz. the Mestizo race,—are very robust.

[7] See Appendix, Art. Ecclesiastical Jubilee.

[8] This dress, peculiarly characteristic of Lima, is little known in other parts of the country, if we except Truxillo. Captain Basil Hall in his Journal, vol. i. p. 106, describes it very correctly. “This dress,” says he, “consists of two parts, one called the saya, the other the manto. The first is a petticoat, made to fit so tightly, that, being at the same time quite elastic, the form of the limbs is rendered distinctly visible. The manto, or cloak, is also a petticoat; but, instead of hanging about the heels, as all honest petticoats ought to do, it is drawn over the head, breast, and face; and is kept so close by the hands, which it also conceals, that no part of the body, except one eye, and sometimes only a small portion of one eye, is perceptible.”

We may observe that, though strange pranks are sometimes indulged in under this disguise, yet it is considered, by those accustomed to it, a convenient dress in itself, in a country where it is usual to hear morning mass before there has been time to braid and adjust the hair, which is sometimes so long as almost to reach the pretty foot and ancle. It is therefore considered a convenience by women of every class, and even of every age, to slip over their ordinary house-dress a saya and manto when they desire to go to the street “tapada,” or with the head and face covered with the thin silken petticoat or manto as described, without being put to the trouble of appearing dressed in a more elegant and formal manner, or after European fashion, as they do at evening parties, or when they frequent places of public amusement,—as the theatre or bull-ring, and promenade in calashes or carriages in their different alamedas, or public walks. In allusion to the custom of going veiled in the street, the true LimeÑa lady is agreeably characterized by their common saying,

[9] The following lines, penned by an ancient Spanish poet, are so exactly descriptive of Lima, as the paradise of women, that one might imagine they had been written to describe it.

[10] The ancient Indian temple of Pachacamac is situate about six leagues from Lima on a sandy height, now deprived of irrigation, which overlooks the delicious vale of Lurin. From this adoratory the sun is seen as he sinks in majesty under the face of the ocean—when

[11] The yanacones usually possess from their employers a small piece of land which they cultivate for their own use, and in return give to the masters one or two days’ labour weekly for this holding of the estate or farm. On other days they have a right to demand payment in money, according to the current rate of wages in their district.

[12] The following very scholar-like inscription for the English burial-ground, his countrymen owe to our accomplished and excellent friend, Mr. Thomas Lance of Lima:—

Degentes per hÆc loca
Britanni,
auspice suo Consule
Belford Hinton Wilson,
gratissimoque hujus ReipublicÆ
concessu et beneficio,
È communibus copiis,
RegiÂ, censente Senatu, auctis munificentiÂ,
hoc Coemeterium
struxerunt, sacraveruntque,
A. D. ——:
ut, posthac,
suÆ gentis
qui procul À patriÂ, longinqu hÂc scilicet,
sed amicissim terrÂ,
supremum obierint diem,
spe fideque patrum innixi,
in his sedibus
requiescant.

[13] See Appendix.

[14] See paper in vol. ii. of Mercurio Peruano for July 1791; and the Inaugural Oration on opening the Anatomical Amphitheatre, inserted, for February 1793, in vol. vii. of same work.

[15] Unanue, “Sobre el Clima de Lima,” p. 313.

[16] Sheriff John Wood, the gratuitous and philanthropic teacher of the Sessional School of Edinburgh.

[17] Homer must have visited Lima, either in the body or in the mind, when he penned those beautiful lines which so precisely describe it, and are thus translated by Pope:

[18] “Cruachan,” the loftiest mountain in Argyleshire, well known to tourists in Scotland.

[19] By this embrace the victorious troops under General Bermudes forsook his cause, and at once terminated hostilities by changing sides and declaring themselves soldiers of Orbegoso and the republic, which they ratified by embracing the troops that fled before them on the day of battle.

[20] On the day a curate performs church service, he does not breakfast until after mass.

[21] We say “Romish policy,” because on this subject St. Paul’s precept is,

Quod si non se continent nubant.

[22] When the Spaniards took possession of Peru, the monarchy of the Incas, according to the tradition of the Indians, ascended to an epoch of about four centuries.

“That country had been, time immemorial, inhabited by scattered, rude, and savage tribes, whose civilization originated from the austral regions, among the people who inhabited the vicinity of the great lake of Titicaca, in the district of Callao. These Indians were probably more warlike, active, and intelligent than their neighbours; and as there is scarcely any people who do not, either from pride or superstition, trace themselves to a heavenly origin, so did the Peruvians relate, that there once suddenly appeared among them a man and woman, whose aspect, dress, and language inspired them with wonder and veneration. He called himself Manco Capac, she Mama Oello; and they proclaimed themselves children of the sun, whose worship and adoration they inculcated.”

“The kingdom remained in the line of their descendants, who were ever regarded as the pure race of the sun; the princes marrying their sisters, and the offspring of these unions being alone eligible to the throne. From Manco to Huayna Capac they counted a succession of twelve princes, who, partly by persuasion and partly by arms, extended their religion, dominion, and laws, through the immense region which runs from Chili to the Equator, gaining or subduing all the people they encountered, either in the mountains of the Cordilleras, or on the plains of the coast. The Inca who most extended the empire was Topa Yupanqui, who carried his conquests southward as far as Chili, and on the north to Quito; although, according to most authors, it was not he who conquered the latter province, but his son Huayna Capac, the most powerful, wealthy, and able of all the Peruvian princes.”

“In his reign were established, or greatly perfected, three grand mediums of communication, necessary to provinces so distant and various,—the use of a general dialect, the establishment of posts for the prompt conveyance of intelligence, and lastly, the two great roads which extend from Cuzco to Quito, a distance of more than five hundred leagues. Of these two roads one passes over the Sierras, the other crosses the plains, and both were provided, at proper and convenient distances, with lodgings or quarters, which were called tambos, where the monarch, his court, and army, even though amounting to twenty or thirty thousand men, might find rest and refreshment, and even renew, if necessary, their arms and apparel.”—See pages 158-161 of the interesting work entitled, “Lives of Balboa and Pizarro, from the Spanish of Don Manuel Josef Quintana,” by Mrs. Hodson.

[23] To separate wheat and barley from the ear, it is customary to tread the grain by oxen or young cattle.

[24] The Indian gardens on the hills of the Sierra are by the Spaniards called Andenes, whence Andes.

[25] Cuzco, situate in latitude 13° 32´ 20´´ S. in a cool and bracing climate, in the midst of a valley, between the eastern and western chains of Cordillera, has in its vicinity warm and fertile ravines or glens. It is said to have been founded by Manco Capac, the first Inca, in the middle of the eleventh century; and Francis Pizarro took possession of it, in the name of Charles I. King of Castile, on the 13th March 1534. In the year 1590, this celebrated capital of the old Peruvian empire suffered from a violent earthquake, which ruined a great part of its ancient monuments. The architecture of the great Temple of the Sun, and fortress, close to the city, still exhibit a different style of masonry from that which we have described above, and is most usual in the Sierra of Peru, where there are numerous ruins of villages and tambos, constructed with stone of very ordinary size. But, at Cuzco, the ruins of the temple and fortress yet remaining are formed of stones of vast magnitude, and of irregular shapes; yet, so exactly are they adjusted, that no void, or cement, is visible at their points of junction.

[26] Commentarios Reales de los Incas, lib. viii. cap. xii.

[27] Corral means a cattle pen.

[28] Ignorant of this, and believing no roof to be near under which to take shelter, we have known travellers obliged to pass the night very miserably, and with no small risk of health, on the plain, or by the cascade at the base of the Viuda.

[29] The name of this place is very appropriate, as it implies the fare it affords. Casa is the Spanish word for house, and cancha is the Quichua name for toasted Indian corn: hence Casa-cancha, or the House of Toasted Maize.

[30] See p. 241.