428 FROM PANAMA TO LIMA. 



far inland. Some of the ruins are still visible. The present town contains about 750 numbered 

 houses, spread over three or four streets parallel with the low shingle beach, and others at right 

 angles to them. They are flat-roofed, constructed of canes or wicker-work plastered, and are 

 of no great pretensions either in point of size or architecture. The frequency of earthquakes 

 and the rare occurrence of rains render structures of this character essential and commodious, 

 and the mildness of the climate obviates the necessity for glazed windows. We found its 

 unpaved streets suffocatingly filled with dust; in winter, rainless as are the clouds, sufficient 

 mist is deposited to convert them into mud. Altogether it is a dirty, uninviting place, from 

 which one escapes to the capital at the earliest moment. 



A fine wharf or mole encloses a small basin, within which boats may land cargoes at all times. 

 Its foundation is the hulks of old vessels driven round with piles, and filled in with stone quar- 

 ried on San Lorenzo. Cargoes are discharged from vessels into lighters, and transported to the 

 mole, where there are convenient landing-slips and tackles for hoisting them out. For want of 

 warehouses, great piles of wheat from Chile, and bales of goods from other parts of the world, 

 remain uncovered on the mole for weeks, ample evidences of the dryness of the climate. 

 Although the railroad to Lima had been for some months traversed by passenger cars when we 

 returned in 1852, freight for the city was still wholly transported on mules or in ordinary carts. 

 Hence the delay in removing goods, and the necessity of guards to keep off pilferers. One 

 might steer clear of bales and boxes, stacks of grain, sailors, and boatmen, but that the Tenders 

 of fruits and dulces perch themselves on every unoccupied spot ; and it is only by extraordinarily 

 good management, aided by admirable luck, that one escapes running foul of a tatterdemalion 

 negress or Indian before reaching the custom-house at the end of the wharf. 



