RUINS. 133 



nificent in any place. Lima, the City of the Kings, 

 must formerly have been a splendid town. The 

 extraordinary number of churches gives it, even at 

 the present day, a peculiar and striking character, 

 especially when viewed from a short distance. 



One day I went out with some merchants to 

 hunt in the immediate vicinity of the city. Our 

 sport was very poor ; but I had an opportunity of 

 seeing the ruins of one of the ancient Indian vil- 

 lages, with its mound like a natural hill in the 

 centre. The remains of houses, enclosures, irri- 

 gating streams, and burial mounds, scattered over 

 this plain, cannot fail to give one a high idea of the 

 condition and number of the ancient population. 

 When their earthenware, woollen clothes, utensils 

 of elegant forms cut out of the hardest rocks, tools 

 of copper, oi'naments of precious stones, palaces, 

 and hydraulic works, are considered, it is impossi- 

 ble not to I'espect the considerable advance made 

 by them in the arts of civilization. The burial 

 mounds, called Huacas, are really stupendous, al- 

 though in some places they appear to be natural 

 hills incased and modelled. 



There is also another and very different class of 

 ruins, which possesses some interest, namely, those 

 of old Callao, overwhelmed by the great earthquake 

 of 1746, and its accompanying wave. The de- 

 struction must have been more complete even than 

 at Talcahuano. Quantities of shingle almost con- 

 ceal the foundations of the walls, and vast masses 

 of brickwork appear to have been whirled about 

 like pebbles by the retiring waves. It has been 

 stated that the land subsided during this memora- 

 ble shock : I could not discover any proof of this ; 

 yet it seems far from improbable, for the form of 

 the coast must certainly have undergone some 

 change since the foundation of the old town, as 

 II.— M 



