Ch. hi. south AMERICA. 29 



Slimmer in Valles ; in the ibrmer it rains, while in 

 the latter the sun darts a violent heat, and the south 

 winds are scaree felt. From June the waters heg'iu to 

 decrease, and in November or December the rivers 

 are at th-eir lowest ebb, or quite dry ; and this is thti 

 w^inter season in Valles, and the summer in the moun- 

 tains. So remarkable a difference is there in the tem- 

 perature of the air, though at so small a distance. 



CHAP. HI. 



Account of ilie Citij of Lima, ilie Capital of Peru. 



T^ORTUITOUS events may sometimes, by their 

 -■- happy consequences, be classed among premedi- 

 tated designs. Such was the luiforeseen cause which 

 called us to Peru ; for otherwise the history of our 

 voyage would have been deprived of a great many 

 remarkable and instructive particulars ; as our obser- 

 vations would have been limited to the province of 

 Quito. But by this invitation of the vice-roy of 

 Peru, we are now enabled to lead the reader into 

 that large and luxuriant field, the fertile province of 

 Lima, and Ihe splendid city of that name, so justly 

 made the capital of Peru, and the queen of all the 

 cities in South America. It will also appear that our 

 work would have suffered a great imperfection, and 

 the reader consequently disappointed in (indrng no 

 account of those magniiicent particulars, which his 

 curiosity had doubtless promised itself, from a de- 

 scription of this famous city, and an accurate know- 

 ledge of the capital province. Nor would it liave 

 been any small mortification to ourselves, to have 

 lost the o]iportuiiity of contemplating those noble 

 objects, which so greatly increase the value of our 

 work^ though already enriched with such astronomical 



observations 



