CALLAO AND LIMA. 55 



hardly credible. This is effected by the owner of the goods 

 bribing the custom-house officials. 



The town is situated several miles from the site of old 

 Callao,* and numbers about five thousand inhabitants. It 

 has not much to recommend it. The only well-built houses are 

 those on the main street. The churches and other public 

 buildings are too insignificant to deserve description. 



The market is held in a large open square. Oranges, 

 apples, figs, grapes, granadillas, and chirimoyas, are abundant 

 in their season. Vegetables of every sort are also to be had. 

 Beef is cut into small pieces to suit the purchasers, and 

 poultry is cat up in a similar manner ; the former is killed 

 in the outskirts of the town, and the hide, head and entrails 

 are left for the buzzards, which are very numerous and pro- 

 tected by law ; the rest of the carcase is brought to market 

 on the backs of donkeys. 



The inhabitants are addicted to gambling, and pass most 

 of their time at the billiard-rooms and monte-tables. 



The old castle claimed our attention ; it covers a large ex- 

 tent of ground, and its walls are high and very massive. One 

 of the officers told us that it was capable of quartering ten 

 thousand troops. It was once looked upon as the key of the 

 country. Whichever party had it in possession, were con- 

 sidered masters of Peru. As I have already remarked, it is 

 now used as a depot for goods, and is nearly dismantled — only 

 five of the guns remain out of the 140 which it mounted ; the 

 metal of these is brass, and their proportions are beautiful. 

 The garrison consisted of eight hundred men. I cannot say 

 much for their personal appearance ;_ they were quite short,' 



* Old Callao was destroyed by the memorable earthquake of 1746. In the same 

 earthquake a first-class frigate, lying in the harbor, was lifted several hundred feet 

 and carried inland a considerable distance, where a monument was erected to com- 

 memorate the event. 



