1839.] ROAD TO THE CAPITAL. Ill 



principal street, parallel with the beach, is paved in a misera- 

 ble manner ; the others, with the exception of that leading 

 to Lima, are mean, narrow lanes. The houses are slightly 

 built, and are usually one story high ; the walls are con- 

 structed of adobes, or of reeds plastered over with loam or 

 red clay ; the azoteas, or flat roofs, consist of a framework 

 of reeds with straw mats laid upon them. In order to ensure 

 privacy, the windows are generally in the roof; they are mere 

 trap-doors, with wooden gratings, closed by shutters on the 

 inside. The houses are all whitewashed outside and in, and 

 most of them are furnished with clumsy verandas and flag- 

 staffs. 



Very little attention is paid anywhere to comfort and clean- 

 liness. Heaps of offal and rubbish are suffered to accumulate 

 in the streets, around which the do^s and buzzards con^re- 

 gate in droves. Unshorn and unwashed padres jostle each 

 other on the trottoir. Groups of lazy, idle soldiers, consist- 

 ing of Indians, negroes, and mulattoes, — all attired like raga- 

 muffins, — may be seen collected about every dirty and mis- 

 erable cafe ; while their officers, in popinjay costume, saunter 

 along the mole, or lounge at the Custom-house. Fowls and 

 hogs are free commoners in door and out. The orange-women, 

 who sit all day long in front of their houses, beside the 'rich 

 and luscious fruit that tempts the passer-by, when not en- 

 gaged with their chaffering customers, are busily occupied in 

 hunting for vermin on their own persons ; and the fine ladies 

 over the way, who thrum their guitars, or exhibit their finery 

 on the paseo, in the after part of the day, would scarcely be 

 recognized in their slatternly costume in the morning. 



Callao derives most, if not all, its importance, from its ex- 

 cellent harbor, and its proximity to Lima, from which it is 

 about six miles distant ; and should the country ever be freed 

 from the misrule of military demagogues, it may yet become 

 one of the most populous and important seaports on the 

 Pacific. A broad, and what was formerly a well paved road, 

 runs, nearly in a straight line, from the Castle of Independence 

 to the Callao Gate of Lima. Omnibuses built in Newark, 



