Cathedral of Lima — Tomb of Pizarro — Relic-hunting. 369 



no fewer than eighty. Many of these Spanish memorials, of 

 a religious epoch more bigoted than sincere, are at present 

 decayed, and even those which are still preserved in some- 

 thing like good order fail to charm the eye by any graces of 

 architecture or majestic simplicity in their interior fittings 

 up. The Cathedral even, which takes up almost the entire 

 east side of the chief square, is no exception to this rule, and, 

 though it was 90 years in erection, is after all a very indiffer- 

 ent edifice. The interior is lofty and spacious, but owing to 

 the choir having its proportions curtailed by a wide altar in 

 the midst, one perceives on entering the church only the 

 smaller half, so that the impression is destroyed, which, but 

 for this interposed erection, would undoubtedly be made by 

 the high altar, richly overlaid with gold and silver, seen 

 through the vista of the entire building. The ornaments, the 

 sacred vessels, and censers used in performing mass are ex- 

 ceedingly rich and valuable, but are too much overlaid to 

 please an aesthetic taste. In the catacombs of the Cathedral 

 repose the remains of Francisco Pizarro. Few strangers omit 

 to visit this spot, and usually feel as much surprised as 

 pleased at finding ofiered them for sale by the sacristan, 

 various sorts of relics of the renowned conqueror of Peru, 

 though all cannot hope to be so fortunate as an English lady 

 at Lima, who informed me with all gravity that she had 

 purchased from a guide a slipper taken from the coffin of 

 Pizarro. Should this mania for relics on the part of visitors, 

 and readiness to humour it on the part of vergers, continue 



VOL. m. 2 B 



