118 SPANISH COLONIZATION. 1S39.] 



It was originally built in 1585, and repaired in 1807 ; but it 

 is now in a state of complete dilapidation, and furnishes an- 

 other sad commentary on the history of Spanish colonization. 

 Similar mementos of past magnificence, of the faded splen- 

 dor of the viceroyalty, arrest the attention full often in the 

 streets of Lima. To the philosopher and historian, these de- 

 caying memorials of a by-gone age furnish matter for serious 

 thought and reflection. 



Nearly a hundred years elapsed, after Pizarro and his com- 

 panions unfurled the victorious bander a of Castile and Leon, 

 over the ancient palaces of the Incas of Peru, before the Pil- 

 grim Founders of the Colony of Massachusetts landed on the 

 rock-bound coast of Accomack.* The former found a land 

 blushing in loveliness and beauty, possessing a genial tem- 

 perature, yielding with scanty labor an abundant product of 

 luscious fruits and valuable grains, and abounding in silver, 

 and gold, and precious stones ; countless galeons, freighted 

 with the treasures which they poured into the coffers of the 

 mother country, soon crossed the sea, and seemed to fore- 

 shadow a long and prosperous career for those who should 

 come after them. The latter, fleeing from the tyranny and 

 persecution of kingcraft and priestcraft, were welcomed to a 

 bleak and inhospitable clime, by the howling of the wintry 

 wind and the shrill war-whoop of the murderous savage. — 

 Centuries have passed away: — indolence and effeminacy on 

 the one hand, have ended in corruption and anarchy; and 

 industry and enterprise on the other, have terminated in hap- 

 piness and prosperity. The descendants of the Puritans have 

 not only preserved their patrimonial inheritance unimpaired ; 

 they have beautified and improved it to an unexampled de- 

 gree ; they have carried the arts and institutions of their 

 forefathers from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The offspring 

 of the Spanish colonists already begin t<> experience the evils 

 springing from wealth too easily acquired ; enervated by lux- 

 ury and licentiousness, though still clinging with superstitious 



* Accomack was the ancient Indian name of Plymouth. 



