PALACE OF LIMA. 



97 



were confident the change would immediately turn 

 the fortunes of the day, and, even in the city^, a 

 faint hope for a moment animated the inhabitants : 

 but most reflecting persons saw clearly, that these 

 violent proceedings only betrayed to the enemy 

 their own want of union and discipline. 



As we were not, and, indeed, could not l3e com- 

 petent judges of these proceedings, and were not 

 accredited to any particular government or autho- 

 rity, we were always left free to take things as we 

 found them, and to communicate with the person 

 at the head of the government, for the time being, 

 whoever he might be, and without inquiring how 

 he got there. It thus became my duty to pay my 

 respects to the new Viceroy, General La Serna; 

 as it would have been to have waited on his pre- 

 decessor. General Pezuela, had I arrived a few 

 days sooner. 



The palace had a good deal the air of a native 

 court in India ; exhibiting the same intermixture 

 of meanness and magnificence in style, which, 

 while it displays the wealth and labour it has cost, 

 betrays, at the same time, the want of taste and 

 judgment in the design. There was no keeping 



VOL, lo a 



