GENERAL IDEA OP PERIT. 



-many proofs in support of this proposition : the faciUty with 

 which it sends its maize and other produ6ls to the mine of 

 Pasco, keeps it in a most flourishing condition. 



The natural history of Peru is fertile in prodigies. AW the 

 systems which have been formed in Europe on this subje6l, 

 are capable of a thousand amplifications, whenever their theo- 

 ries shall be applied to our natural produ6lions. The moun- 

 tains of Chanchamayo, Huanuco, Lamas *, &c. are so many 

 privileged spots of Nature, relatively to the surprizing gaudi- 

 ness and beauty of their produ6lions. The intervention of se- 

 veral humid and hot climes, and the dread of the hostile Indi* 

 ans who inhabit them, have contributed to with-hold from us 

 much information on this head : there is, however, a great 

 scope for investigation and description ; and accordingly the 

 natural history of Peru will occupy no small space in our work. 



Knowledge is general throughout Peru, as well on account 

 of the natural quickness and penetration of its native inhabi- 

 tants, as through their fondness for study. In whatever does 

 not require a meditated combination of ideas, the fair sex has 

 commonly the advantage over ours. The Royal University of 

 St. Mark of Lima, and, proportionally, the other universities 

 of this kingdom, form a centre of literature, which diffuses an 



extremely populous Atunjauja is the capital of the province of that name, de- 

 pendent on the intendency of Tarma, from which it is distant ten leagues, and from 

 Lima thirty-eight. 



* The mountains of Chanchamayo are distant from Tarma twenty-five leagues. 

 Those of Huanuco are distant from Lima about eighty leagues. The mountains of 

 Lamas extend from Tefe, the boundary of the Portuguese possessions, to the confines 

 =of ,the intendency of Truxillo. 



c abundant 



