r66 ULLOA*S VOYAGE TO SOUTH AMEIirCA, 



CHAP III. — Account of the City of Lima, the Capital of Peru. 



FORTUITOUS events may fometimes, by their happy confequences, be clafled 

 among premeditated defigns. Such was the unforefeen caufe which called us to Peru ; 

 for otherwife the hiflory of our voyage would have been deprived of a great many 

 remarkable and inftruftive particulars ; as our obfervations would have been limited. 

 to the province of Quito. But by this invitation of the viceroy of Peru, we are now 

 enabled to lead the reader into that large and luxuriant field, the fertile province of 

 Lima, and the fplendid city of that name, fo juftly made the Capital of Peru, and the 

 queen of all the cities in South America. It will alfo appear that our work would have 

 fuffered a great imperfedion, and the reader confequently difappointed in finding no 

 account of thofe magnificent particulars, which his curiofity had doubtlefs promifed 

 itfelf, from a defcription of this famous city, and an accurate knowledge of the capital 

 province. Nor would it have been any fmall mortification to ourfelves, to have loft 

 the opportunity of contemplating thofe noble objedts, which fo greatly increafe the 

 value of our work, though already enriched with fuch aftronomical obfervations and 

 nautical remarks, as we hope will prove agreeable to the intelligent reader. At the fame 

 time it opens a method of extending our refearches into the other more diftant countries, 

 for the farther utility and ornament of this voyage ; which, as it was founded on the moft 

 noble principles, ftiould be conducted and clofed with an uniform dignity. 



My defign however is not to reprefent Lima in its prefent fituation, as I (hould then> 

 xnftead of noble and magnificent objects, introduce the moft melancholy and ftiock- 

 ing fcenes ; ruinated palaces, churches, towers, and other ftately works of art, toge- 

 ther with the inferior buildings of which this opulent city confifted, now thrown into 

 ruin and confufion, by the tremendous earthquake of October the 28th, 1746; the 

 affeding account of which reached Europe with the fwiftnefs which ufiially attends 

 unfortunate advices, and concerning which, we ftiall be more particular in another 

 place. I ftiall not therefore defcribe Lima, as wafted by this terrible convulfion of 

 nature ; but as the emporium of this part of America, and endeavour to give the reader 

 an idea of its former glory, magnificence, opulence, and other particulars which ren- 

 dered it fo famous in the world, before it fuffered under this fatal cataftrophe ; the re- 

 colledlon of which cannot fail of being painful to every lover of his country, and every 

 perfon of humanity. * . 



The city of Lima, or as it is alfo called the city of the Kings, was, according to 

 Garcilafo, in his hiftory of the Yncas, founded by Don Francifco Pizarro, on the 

 feaft of the Epiphany, 1535 ; though others affirm that the firft ftone was not laid 

 till the 1 8th of January that year ; and the latter opinion is confirmed by the ad, or 

 record of its foundation, ftill preferved in the archives of that city. It is fituated in 

 the fpacious and delightful valley of Rimac, an Indian word, and the true name of the 

 city itfelf, from a corrupt pronunciation of which word the Spaniards have derived 

 Lima. Rimac is the name by which both the valley and the river are ftill called. 

 This appellation is derived from an idol to which the native Indians ufed to offer facri- 

 fice, as did alfo the Yncas, after they had extended their empire hither j and as it 

 was fuppofed to return anfwers to the prayers addreffed to it, they called it by way of 

 diftindion Rimac, or, he who fpeaks. Lima, according to feveral obfervations we 

 made for that purpofe, ftands in the latitude of 12° 2' 31" S. and its longitude from 

 the meridian of Teneriffe is 299° 27' 71". The variation of the needle of 9° 2' 30'' 

 eafterly. 



Its 



