European, Negro, and Indian blood. They appear a depraved, drunken set
of people. The atmosphere is loaded with foul smells, and that
peculiar one, which may be perceived in almost every town within the
tropics, was here very strong. The fortress, which withstood Lord
Cochrane's long siege, has an imposing appearance. But the President,
during our stay, sold the brass guns, and proceeded to dismantle parts
of it. The reason assigned was, that he had not an officer to whom he
could trust so important a charge. He himself had good reason for
thinking so, as he had obtained the presidentship by rebelling while in
charge of this same fortress. After we left South America, he paid the
penalty in the usual manner, by being conquered, taken prisoner, and
shot.
Lima stands on a plain in a valley, formed during the gradual retreat
of the sea. It is seven miles from Callao, and is elevated 500 feet
above it; but from the slope being very gradual, the road appears
absolutely level; so that when at Lima it is difficult to believe one
has ascended even one hundred feet: Humboldt has remarked on this
singularly deceptive case. Steep barren hills rise like islands from
the plain, which is divided, by straight mud-walls, into large green
fields. In these scarcely a tree grows excepting a few willows, and an
occasional clump of bananas and of oranges. The city of Lima is now in
a wretched state of decay: the streets are nearly unpaved; and heaps of
filth are piled up in all directions, where the black gallinazos, tame
as poultry, pick up bits of carrion. The houses have generally an
upper story, built on account of the earthquakes, of plastered woodwork
but some of the old ones, which are now used by several families, are
immensely large, and would rival in suites of apartments the most
magnificent in any place. Lima, the City of the Kings, must formerly
have been a splendid town. The extraordinary number of churches gives
it, even at the present day, a peculiar and striking character,
especially when viewed from a short distance.
One day I went out with some merchants to hunt in the immediate
vicinity of the city. Our sport was very poor; but I had an
opportunity of seeing the ruins of one of the ancient Indian villages,
with its mound like a natural hill in the centre. The remains of
houses, enclosures, irrigating streams, and burial mounds, scattered
over this plain, cannot fail to give one a high idea of the condition
and number of the ancient population. When their earthenware, woollen
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