368 PERU. [chap. xvi. 



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 con- 

 quered, 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 diffi- 

 cult to believe one has ascended even one hundred feet : Hum- 

 boldt 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 earth- 

 quakes, 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 imme- 

 diate 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 clothes, utensils of elegant 

 forms cut out of the hardest rocks, tools of copper, ornaments of 

 precious stones, palaces, and hydraulic works, are considered, it 

 is impossible not to respect the considerable advance made by 

 them in the arts of civilization. The burial mounds, called 

 Huacas, are really stupendous ; although in some places they 

 appear to be natural hills incased and modelled. 



