A VOYAGE TO BodicViL 



obfervations and nautical remarks, as v/e hope will 

 prove agreeable to the intelligent reader. At the 

 lame time it opens a method of extending our re- 

 fearches into the other more diftant countries, for the 

 farther utility and ornament of this voyage 5 which, 

 as it was founded on the moft noble principles, fhould 

 be conducted and clofed with an uniform dignity. 



My defign however is not to reprefent Lima in 

 its prefcnt fituation, as I iliould then, inftead of noble 

 and magnificent objeds, introduce the moft melan- 

 choly and fiiocking fcenes J ruinated palaces, churches, 

 towers, and other ftately works of art, together 

 with the inferior buildings of which this opulent 

 city confifted, now thrown into ruin and confufion, 

 by the tremendous earthquake of Odtober the 28th, 

 17465 the alFeding account of which reached Europe 

 with the fwiftnefs which ufually attends unfortunate 

 advices, and concerning which, we fhall be more 

 particular in another place. I fhall 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 rendered it fo famous in the world, before it 

 fuffered under this fatal cataftrophe ; the recollection 

 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 aifo called the city 

 of the kings, was, according to Garcilafo, in his 

 hiftory of the Yncas, founded by E>on Francifco Pi- 

 zarro, on the feaft of the Epiphany, 1535 tho' others 

 affirm that the lirft ftone was not laid till the i8th 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. 



