1839.] INHABITANTS OF LIMA. 121 



provided with winding sheets only. Unslacked lime is ap- 

 plied to the remains to accelerate their decay, and to prevent 

 contaminating the atmosphere with noxious gases. 



Various estimates have been formed in regard to the popu- 

 lation of Lima. The wide difference in the accounts that 

 have been published, may, probably, be attributed to the re- 

 markable fluctuations that have taken place since the Revo- 

 lution. The most reliable statement in regard to the number 

 of inhabitants may be found in the tax register drawn up in 

 1836, under the protectorate of Santa Cruz, in which it is 

 said to be a little over fifty-four thousand. It is very evi- 

 dent, however, that the population has diminished, rather 

 than increased, during the last forty years. In 1810 there 

 were said to be nearly ninety thousand inhabitants in the 

 city, and about seventy thousand in 1826. No one familiar 

 with the history of the country, or the scenes which have 

 transpired there, need wonder at this. Earthquakes and 

 epidemic diseases have swept away their thousands ; many 

 more have fallen victims to the social and political anarchy 

 which have prevailed, to the bloody war of Independent , 

 and the sanguinary tumults that have since disturbed tl 

 peace of the country ; and numbers of families belonging t 

 the ancien regime have either voluntarily expatriated them- 

 selves, or been included in some compulsory decree of ban- 

 ishment. 



The present population of the city is made up of white 

 Creoles, the descendants of foreigners, principally Spaniards ; 

 Indians, descended from the ancient Peruvians ; and people 

 of color, consisting of the offspring of whites and Indians, 

 called Mestizos, — of whites and Mulattoes, called Cuarterons, 

 — of Indians and Negroes, called Chinos, — and of Negroes 

 and Mulattoes, or Mestizos, called Zambos. To these are to 

 be added about five thousand slaves, mostly Zambos, and not 

 far from one thousand ecclesiastics, lay and monastic. 



(3.) Among the other principal towns in Peru, are Cuzco, 

 the ancient capital of the Incas, Arequipa, Cerro di Pasco, 

 Guamanga, Huaolio, Huancavelica, and Truxillo, or Tru- 



6 



