20 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF PERU.' 



ledge of Pern, it would be impossible to trace out the eminent 

 advantages of its former or present inhabitants. - 



In the general idea of Peru which we have given, we con- 

 fined ourselves chiefly to the plans that had been suggested, in 

 dividing, peopling, and cultivating its territory, by the dif- 

 ferent views and interests of its conquerors. We presented to 

 our readers a prefatory introdu6lion, a leisure composition, in 

 which, noticing rapidly, and in substance, whatever this 

 country owes to man, we prepared them for the elucidation of 

 each of the parts contained in that valuable sketch of our po- 

 litical geography. We now follow a different course. In 

 naming Peru, we banish from our view its inhabitants and its 

 cities, and annihilate even the superb towers of opulent Lima. 

 The plains which our forefathers laboured and fertilized, dis- 

 appear ; and the delightful environs of Rimac present no other 

 ornament than a multitude of shrubs and green meadows, 

 which, agitated by the gentle breeze, rival the undulations 

 and murmurs of the Pacific Ocean, as it^washes its banks. 



Having penetrated into the ages of remote antiquity, in 

 search of the fragments of the edifices of the Yncas, to com- 

 plete the history of their monuments, we now fix our atten- 

 tion on those times when the human footstep had as yet left 

 no print on the sands of this favoured region ; when its fer- 

 tile plains were still uncultivated. Nature alone appears, 

 wrapt up in a mysterious silence. Her powerful hand is about 

 to give the last perfe6lion to the globe, and to support its 

 equilibrium, by forming two distin 61 worlds in one single con- 

 tinent. It would appear, that after she had exercised herself 

 on the burning sands of Africa, on the leafy and fragrant 

 groves of Asia, and on the temperate and colder climes of 



Europe, 



