1835.] RUINS OF CALLAO. 353 



immensely large, and would rival in suites of apartments the most 

 magnificent 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 imme- 

 diate vicinity of the city. Our sport was very poor; but I had 

 an opportunity of seeing the ruins of one of the ancient Indian 

 villages, with its mound like a natural hill in the centre. The 

 remains of houses, enclosures, irrigating 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, ornaments of precious 

 stones, palaces, and hydraulic works, are considered, it is impos- 

 sible not to respect the considerable advance made by them in the 

 arts of civilization. The burial mounds, called Huacas, are really 

 stupendous; although 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 

 destruction must have been more complete even than at Talcahuano. 

 Quantities of shingle almost conceal 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 memorable 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 no people in their senses would 

 willingly have chosen for their building place, the narrow spit 

 of shingle on which the ruins now stand. Since our voyage, 

 M. Tschudi has come to the conclusion, by the comparison of old 

 and modern maps, that the coast both north and south of Lima 

 has certainly subsided. 



On the island of San Lorenzo, there are very satisfactory proofs 

 of elevation within the recent period ; this of course is not opposed 

 to the belief, of a small sinking of the ground having subsequently 

 taken place. The side of this island fronting the Bay of Callao, 

 is worn into three obscure terraces, the lower one of which is 



2 A 



