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XXXVIII.

and brandy; three hundred thousand dollars were sent annually from Lima to defray the expenses of the garrison, and the civil administration of the province. The principal article of importation from Guatimala was indigo, but cacao and dye-wood were obtained from the same district; the exports from Peru to that town consisted chiefly of wine and wool. It might have been profitable to have sent the Peruvian wines and spirits to San Blas, and in this way to have carried on a trade with Cinaloa, Sonora, and California; but that was prohibited by the Spanish government, lest it Commerce with Spain should injure the commerce of the mother country in the same articles. The trade between Peru and Spain passed by Porto Bello and Panama until the year 1748; at that period registered vessels were substituted for galleons, and a passage by Cape Horn was preferred to the former circuitous route. The first Spanish vessels that doubled the Cape were insured at Cadiz for a premium of twenty per cent., but that exorbitant rate of interest diminished gradually to less than two per cent.* After the peace of 1783, Spain put into practice a system of free trade with her colonies, which had been before approved of in theory by the ministry in Madrid. A free communication was thus opened up between certain seaports in Spain and the harbours of Callao and Arica in Peru. That change proved very favourable to the Peruvians; for they were enabled to enjoy the productions and luxuries of Europe at a more moderate price; their industry was encouraged, their exports increased, and the produce of their mines nearly doubled. The change too was not less beneficial to the mother country; for a period of twenty-five years, from 1714 to 1739, all the exports which Spain received from Peru, Chili, Rio de la Plata, and Santa Fe, did not exceed thirty-four millions of dollars, since that time those of Peru and Chili alone amounted annually to six millions. The imports from Europe increased in the same proportion.†

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LXXXVIII.

Towns of
Peru.

In another part of this work we shall give a general outline of the political and commercial systems of the Spanish colonies, in which it will be seen, that from an annual revenue of 6,200,000 dollars levied in Peru, and the several provinces of Charcas, only 500,000 reached the Spanish treasury.

Lima, the capital of Peru, is situated on the broad and fruitful plain of Rimac, from which the word Lima was derived. That town, founded by Pizarro on the 15th of January 1535, was originally called Ciudad de los Reyes. The name of the valley was taken from an idol of the Peruvians, which was denominated by way of distinction, Rimac or he who speaks. Lima became in time the chief town in the diocese of a metropolitan, whose rental was fixed at thirty thousand dollars.

The situation of the city has been much admired,—it commands a view of the whole plain wherein it is placed, a river flows beneath its walls, and the prospect is bounded by the Andes. At the end of a bridge there is a gate of good architecture that leads into a spacious square, the largest and best built of any in Lima. The form of the city is triangular, and its base stretches along the banks of the river to the distance of two miles. The whole of the town is surrounded with a brick-wall flanked by thirty-four bastions. The streets, which are broad and regular, cross each other at right angles; they are well paved, and the drains being supplied from the river, render the town very clean. There are not less than three hundred and fifty-five streets in Lima. The houses of the wealthy have gardens attached to them, which are watered by the canals that run through the city. Besides a great many churches, convents, and hospitals, there is also a fine university that was founded in 1576. Lima was the residence of the viceroys of Peru; their courts, the different tribunals, and the mint afforded employment to a great many persons, and the town became as flourishing as any in South Ame

rica. The prison, the archbishop's palace, the council Book house and cathedral, formed the greater part of the large LXXXVIII. square. The theatre is a neat building, but acting is as yet in its infancy. There were no coffee-houses in Lima before the year 1771; although these places of amusement have much increased, bull-fights and gambling are still the chief diversions of the populace. The higher classes are not free from superstition, and its attendant vices, and their example has had a baleful effect on the morals of the lower orders. The inhabitants of Lima were formerly computed at 54,000 souls ;t of these the monks and priests amounted to 1,990, the nuns to 1,580; the Spaniards, or colonists of Spanish extraction, to 17,200; the Indians and Negroes to 12,200; the rest were composed of Mestizoes and other castes.

Earthquakes are not uncommon in Lima; the one that Earthhappened in 1786 was perhaps the most destructive of any quakes. that has ever been remembered. It began on the evening of the 28th of October, and lasted for several weeks. The city was almost destroyed, and many of the inhabitants lost their lives. The port of Callao was completely demolished; twenty-four vessels were sunk, and the fragments of three others were thrown by the rise of the waves beyond the beach. Out of four thousand persons in Callao, two hundred only escaped; one thousand three hundred individuals perished in Lima, and a great many others were maimed or wounded.

Cuzco, formerly the capital of the country of the Incas, Cuzco, and since that time the chief town in an intendancy of the same name, is about a hundred and eighty-four leagues from Lima. Although it contains only 32,000 inhabitants, of whom three-fourths are Indians, it is in extent nearly equal to Lima, and retains still several monuments of ancient splendour; of these the fortress is not

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BOOK the least remarkable. The stones in that building are so LXXXVIII. immense, of so irregular a shape, and at the same time so

Towns

of Lower Peru.

well joined together, that we are at a loss to imagine how they could have been united even by skilful architects, and much more so by a people unacquainted with the use of machinery. Most of the houses are built of stone, and many of them are large and richly decorated. Churches and convents are the most conspicuous of the public buildings; the Dominican monastery occupies the site of the temple of the. Sun; it is said, that its walls are those of that ancient edifice, and that the altar stands on the very place where the golden image of the bright orb was formerly adored. The residence of the virgins of the sun has been converted into a dwelling for the nuns of Cuzco.

During the time of the Spaniards, the principal ecclesiastical courts were the inquisition and cruzada. The bishop of Cuzco, as suffragan to the archbishop of Lima, possessed an annual income of 24,000 dollars. The trade of the town consisted in sugar, cotton, cloth, and leather; the inhabitants have made of late years some proficiency in the art of printing.

Piura is situated in that part of Peru which extends along the coast of the Great Ocean; it is the first city that was built by the Spaniards after their arrival in the new world. A small river near the town fertilizes the land through which it passes, although its streams disappear entirely in the dry season. The population of Piura has not been ascertained, Mr. Bonnycastle fixes it at seven thousand souls; but other writers maintain, that it is more than double that number. The adjacent country abounds in wood, and produces cotton, sugar, and maize. Truxillo was the capital of an intendancy of the same name, and its jurisdiction extended sixty miles along the coast, and as far into the interior. The fertile plains in this district are covered with sugar-canes and vineyards; wheat and different kinds of grain have been cultivated with so much success in that part of it near the Andes,

LXXXVIII.

that the inhabitants export these articles to Panama. The BOOK town was built in the year 1535 by Pizarro, who gave it the name of his native city. It is about a mile and a half from the sea, and in its neighbourhood are still extant the ruins of several Peruvian monuments that were sacked by the earlier settlers. The present population is composed of Spaniards, Indians, mestizoes, and mulattoes.

The seaport of Canete derived its wealth and splendour from the trade which it carried on with the capital.

Chiloa, a small town about thirty miles distant from Lima, is chiefly remarkable for the great quantity of saltpetre that is found in its vicinity. Ica, or Valverde, contains about six thousand inhabitants, it is the chief town in a fruitful district, from which wine and brandy are exported to Guamanga, Callao, Guayaquil, and Panama. Its olive plantations are extensive, and famed for the good oil that they produce; the fruit of the carob tree is so common, that it is given to cattle.

Arica, the most southerly district in the intendancy of Arequipa, consists of sandy deserts, and some cultivated plains, in which the vine has rapidly increased. Thus the gold and rich silver mines in that part of the country have not prevented the inhabitants from bestowing a portion of their labour on the more useful occupations of husbandry, and in this respect they are entitled to our praise, for little attention is bestowed on agriculture in the provinces that contain the precious metals.

The commerce of La Paz, Oruco, Charcas, and Potosi, lately appendages of Buenos Ayres, passed by the port of Arica, and communicated by this means with the Great Ocean. But Arica is at present an inconsiderable town; it was much injured by an earthquake in 1605, and still more so from being pillaged by the English in 1680. Since that time most of the inhabitants removed to Tacna, a place in which they were induced to settle on account of the great salubrity of its climate. The distance from Tacna to Arica is about thirty-six English

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