NOTICES OP PERU. 



201 



and many inconveniences for the location of their city, and 

 while discussing the matter amongst themselves, the valley of 

 Rimac was suggested as being an advantageous position for the 

 projected capital. Pizarro then appointed three commissioners, 

 Rui Diaz, Juan Tello, and Alonso Martin de Don Benito, to 

 go, with a cacique of Rimac, and examine the valley. The 

 order to the commissioners is dated Pachacamac, January 8th, 

 1535. At the end of six days, having considered the several 

 points, of the vicinity of the sea, the proximity of the river, 

 the fertility of the soil, and the amenity of the skies, they re- 

 turned, and reported that they had selected an advantageous 

 position for the founding of a capital. 



On the eighteenth day of January 1535, the city of Lima 

 was founded, under the name of ^^La ciudad de los Reyes,'^ 

 suggested, as many suppose^, from the foundation being laid on 

 the day of the Epiphany.* As the Spaniards in all cases paid 

 a profound and even solemn respect to the forms at least of the 

 Christian religion, Pizarro having marked out the plaza and 

 general plan of the city, laid with his own hands the corner 

 stone of a church, which he dedicated to Our Lady of the As- 

 sumption. This church is now the cathedral of Lima. But 

 Pope Paul in., having given the same title to the church in 

 Cuzco, dedicated this to St. John the Evangelist. 



The word Rimac was changed to Lima by the Spaniards, 

 from the then prevailing habit of confounding, in pronun- 

 ciation, the R and the L. 



Having founded the city, Pizarro petitioned the Emperor 

 Charles V. to assign to it a coat of arms. He gave the three 

 crowns and the star of the magi, with the two eagles and co- 

 lumns of the Plus Ultra, and the two letters, I. K., the initials 

 of Juana and Carlos. 



When the city was founded, only twelve Spaniards were 

 present ; but in the course of a few days, thirty came from 



* Herrera follows Garcilaso, and says, that Lima was founded on the day of 

 the Epiphany ; but Calancha, Montalvo, and other writers, who are generally 

 followed, state, that it was on the eighteenth of January, the anniversary of 

 the festival of St. Peter's chair. Videt Frezier's Voyage. 

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