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type of those which so often cause their political and social systems to tremble, and which will never become firmly and happily established until religious inculcations and observances more in consonance with the principles and precepts of the Christianity of the Bible shall guide them.

CHAPTER VI.

CALLAO AND LIMA RAILROAD.-CITY OF LIMA.

FORMERLY the journey from Callao to Lima, although a distance of scarcely seven miles, was both disagreeable and dangerous; for if travellers were not suffocated with dust, they were almost certain to be robbed or murdered by highwaymen, who then infested the route, and, in bold defiance or with the connivance of government, levied contributions on them. Now, the greater comfort and safety of a railroad are enjoyed, and passengers are conveyed to the capital in thirty or forty minutes, at a half-dollar fare, exclusive of baggage, which, if the bulk of a trunk, costs as much more. The road has but a single track, with an ascending grade, from the coast to Lima-seven miles-of four hundred and ninety-eight feet. Twelve trains run each way daily, yielding, at the lowest estimate, five hundred dollars per day net profit. The road belongs to Señor Candamo, the wealthiest citizen of Peru, who owns two-thirds of the stock, and an English capitalist, who owns the remaining third, except one share belonging to another person, who has refused $20,000 offered for it by Señor Candamo. He has a fancy to pry into the mystery of management and receipts, commonly an enigma to stockholders. The above-mentioned profit does not include the freight on merchandise, which is not as large as might be expected between the principal seaport and the capital, for the reason that the owners of the railroad have been intimidated by threats of negro and cholo arrieros and carreteros, and they have sought to conciliate these dangerous enemies by restricting the carriage of merchandise, allowing the most of it to find its way by mule caravans and the clumsy old-fashioned carts of the

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country, seen by the railroad passengers, trudging and trundled on the Lima turnpike, running parallel nearly the entire length, at from one to two miles an hour, knee deep and hub deep in ruts, and enveloped in clouds of dust.

The fields and meadows on each side of the railway are enclosed by low adobe walls; the soil is a dark rich-looking loam, and the vegetation near to Lima looks exceedingly luxuriant, especially where the thickly-clustered tropical fruit trees are seen growing.

About a mile and a half from Callao the road passes the village of Bellavista, formerly the fashionable country residence of the wealthy inhabitants, and near to which is the only Protestant cemetery in Peru. A commodious hospital for foreign seamen is located at this place; also a naval foundry; and it was here that the Chileans, in their last war with Peru, erected the batteries for bombarding the fortress of Callao, which soon after was surrendered. Near Bellavista may be seen a rude wooden cross planted on a mound, to mark the spot, as tradition says, to which a Spanish frigate was carried and wrecked by the sea, which finished the work of destruction nearly completed by the earthquake in 1746. Farther on another cross indicates the spot to which the wave ascended the inclined plane toward the mountains.

Nearer Lima the remains of old canals used for irrigation are seen, and also the once celebrated Alameda, with its central drive and lateral promenades, bordered by shade trees, and having turn-outs and stone benches for the wayworn and lounger. This avenue was designed by its founder, the Viceroy Higgins, to be completed the entire distance to Callao, in the same style of convenience and adornment seen near Lima; but his death arrested the progress of the work, and the railroad is now likely to convert it into a dilapidated monument of the past.

The railroad enters the city abruptly at its southwest quarter, and the passenger finds himself without the usual suburban approach suddenly in close contact with mud walls and compactly built mud houses, demanding a strict observance of a "notice" once seen in an American railroad car, "don't put your head or feet out the window." On reaching the station,

the traveller, on extricating himself from the motley crowd, among whom he has taken the chances of suffocation from cigar smoke, if the windows should be closed, and from the dust of a rainless region, if they should be open, will find cholos as eager to take his baggage as those nuisances of American railroads and steamboats, called porters, and that is saying enough to convince him of the propriety of watching his valuables. Two dollars per trunk, and five for a hack to the hotel, are the penalties of being a foreigner, unless Spanish enough can be mustered to strike a bargain beforehand.

My observations must be posted without keeping a day-book. The moments thus bestowed are those only incidentally falling by the wayside of necessary official engagements. Hence, if note of time were made, the proof of how rapidly it is passing would prove annoying without adding to the interest of what I have to say. So that there shall be no occasion to mourn over the wasted moments of the present, nor to lament the collective sum of the past and future, we should be content.

LIMA, the capital of Peru, was founded by Don Francisco Pizarro, in January, 1534, on the day celebrated by the Roman Church as the Epiphany, or feast of the worshipping of the kings or magi of the east, and hence called by him La Ciudad de los Reyes, the city of the kings. Pizarro being desirous of planting a city on the sea-coast, sent officers to select a suitable site; and the Bay of Callao affording a safe harbor and other commercial facilities, as well as being sufficiently central in view of territorial acquisition, they followed the river Rimac, which empties into the northern part of the bay, and finding that it flowed through a fertile valley on the slope of the western foot hills of the Andes, and furnished a bountiful supply of pure water, they recommended the southern bank of that stream, two leagues from the coast, as a suitable site, on which Pizarro accordingly ordered the city to be built.

The present name of the capital, Lima, is derived from and is considered a softened corruption of Rimac, the Indian name of the river. The valley, we are told by Stevenson, an English traveller of great intelligence, was called by the aborigines Rimac Malca, the place of witches, it being the custom among

them to banish to this valley persons accused of witchcraft. But Prescott ("History of the Conquest of Peru") states that the word Rimac signifies in the Quichua tongue, "one who speaks, from a celebrated shrine situated there, and much resorted to by Indians for the oracles delivered by its idol." I cannot venture to decide the point of difference between these authors. But it may be said in this connection, that Mr. Prescott is in error in stating that "the capital was somewhat less than two leagues from its (the river's) mouth, which expanded into a commodious haven for the commerce that the eye of the founder saw would one day float on its waters." The distance is not less than two leagues from the mouth of the river to the city, nor does the Rimac expand and form any part of the harbor whatever it is insignificant for such a purpose; a fishing-boat can scarcely navigate the shallows at its mouth; while the truly "commodious haven for the commerce" that centres here is on a scale of extent and depth becoming an arm of the ocean it really is, with islands and promontories as natural breakwaters against the heavy swells and fierce winds which sometimes endanger shipping on other parts of this coast. It would be as just to regard the Gulf of Mexico as the "expanded mouth" of the Mississippi River, as the Bay of Callao that of the Rimac.

Although Lima is but 12° 2' south of the equator, the temperature is not excessive, and is so equable as not to vary more than 25° throughout the year; 60° of Fahrenheit being the lowest, and 85° the highest indicated by the thermometer during several years, as shown by the carefully kept record of Sr. Pas Soldan, a resident of the capital, as distinguished for his scientific attainments as for his enlightened patriotism. Thus March is shown to have been the hottest, and July the coldest month of this part of the southern hemisphere. A corresponding equable temperature prevails in Callao. An examination of the meteorological registers of the United States men-o'-war "Wyoming" and "Narraganset," the detention of which in the harbor of Callao in the year 1860, embraced a joint period of eight months, from June to January inclusive, showed that the minimum temperature was but 59° (in August), and the maximum 78°, a variation of but 19°. And Mr. Decourcy, of Callao, in