The west side is similar to the south, and at the north end of it is the casa consistorial, corporation house; under it is the city gaol, in front of which is the council hall, which has on one side the door a canopy over the royal arms. Under this the alcaldes formerly stood to administer justice. Here it was that, some years ago, the young Viscount de San Donas sentenced the coachman of Judge Nuñes to receive a hundred lashes for carrying prohibited arms: the man was tied to an ass, and the hangman, having inflicted twenty-five stripes, was marching him to the next corner to administer the same number, when the judge, informed of the affair, left the audience chamber, and proceeded in his robes to the rescue of his servant; but in this he was prevented by the alcalde; the judge became boisterous,—the punishment was continued; at length his lordship insulted the alcalde, who immediately ordered his alguazils to seize him and conduct him to the court gaol, where San Donas confined him in a dungeon, took the keys, went home, ordered his horse, and left the city. When he returned in the evening he waited on the Viceroy, Castel-forte, who urgently interceded for the judge; but the alcalde kept him in prison until he apologised for his improper attempt to prevent a magistrate from enforcing the execution of a lawful sentence.
In the centre of the square is a beautiful brass fountain, erected by the Viceroy Count de Salvatierra in 1653. The basin is very capacious: in the middle rises a brass column twenty two feet high, on the top of which is a small cupola supported by four pillars; the whole is surmounted by a figure of Fame. Through the trumpet water is ejected; but the greater portion rises within the dome, after which it falls into a large basin, from thence into another of greater dimensions, and from thence through four orifices into a basin which has an ornamented brass enclosure, surmounted by four treble lions, ejecting water from their mouths into the basin. There are also four smaller fountains at the angles of the central one, having each a brass pillar five feet high, with four orifices, whence water issues. The water is the best in Lima, and at all hours of the day the carriers are busy in conveying it to different parts of the city. For this purpose they have a mule, with a pack-saddle and two hoops affixed to it, into which they put two barrels, each containing about ten gallons, behind which a man generally jumps up and rides. The carrier has a thick stick with an inverted iron hook near the top, with which he props one barrel when he takes out the other. If the water be for sale a small bell is attached to one of the hoops, which continues tinkling as the mule trots along. The price is one real for the two barrels.
In this square the principal market is held, and one of the greatest luxuries which the eye can witness is enjoyed by visiting it about five or six o'clock in the morning, when the articles for sale are just brought in. It is divided into several compartments by rows of large pebbles, which are placed merely to limit the venders, and prevent their encroaching on the public walks. The butchers' market is generally well supplied with excellent beef and mutton; but calves and lambs are never killed, this being prohibited by an old law for the promotion of the breed of cattle. Pork is sold in one part; in another all kinds of salted and dried meats, principally brought from the interior; these are charque, jerked beef; sesina, beef salted and smoked or dried in the sun: hams, bacon, and frozen kid from the mountains, which last is most delicate eating: there are likewise many kinds of sausages; salt fish, principally bacalao, from Europe; tollo, congrio, and corbina. The fish market is in some seasons abundantly supplied from the neighbouring coasts with corbina, jureles, mackerel, chita, plaice, turbot, peje rey, lisa, anchovies, &c., and most excellent crayfish, camarones, from the rivers, some of which are six or seven inches long. Fish is generally cheap; but during Lent, and particularly in Passion Week, it is excessively dear; which arises from the indians enjoying the exclusive privilege of fishing, and being at that time of the year too much occupied with their religious duties to attend to their regular business. Indeed no indian will fish on the Thursday, Friday, or Saturday in Passion Week; and I have seen a fish sold on those days for twenty or twenty-five dollars, which at other times might have been bought for one, or even less.
The poultry market is divided, one place being set apart for the live, and another for the dead. Poultry is almost always dear; a turkey costs from three to five dollars; a fowl from one to two dollars; ducks, Muscovy, the same price; pigeons half a dollar each; geese are seldom seen in the market, for as the natives never eat them, very few are bred. Here is also a market for all kinds of pulse—beans of several descriptions, peas, lentils, maize of five or six kinds, gurbansos, quinua, &c. The vegetable market contains every description of horticultural produce known in England, as well as the arracacha, yuca, casava root, camote, sweet potatoe, yam, oca, &c. The vegetables are remarkably fine, in great abundance, and generally cheap. The fruit market is splendid, furnishing the most delicious fruits of Europe—the grape of several varieties, the peach, apricot and nectarine, the apple, the pear, the pomegranate, the quince, the tomate, and the strawberry; and an abundance of luscious tropical fruits—the pine, the melon, badeas, granadillas, sapote, lucuma, nisperos, guavas, paltas, guanabanas, custard apples, the sweet and sour orange, lime, and lemon, the shaddock, the citron, the plantane, the banana, and above all the chirimoya, the queen of tropical fruits. The portion allotted to the flower sellers is appropriately called the calle del peligro, street of danger; for here the gentle fair resort, and their gallant swains watch the favourable opportunity of presenting to them the choicest gifts of Flora. This corner of the market, at an early hour in the morning, is truly enchanting; the fragrance of the flowers, their beauty and quantity, and the concourse of lovely females—altogether would persuade a stranger that he had found the Muses wandering in gardens of delight! In the vicinity stands a fresquera, vender of iced lemonade, pine-apple water, orchata, almond milk, pomegranate water, &c. which offer another opportunity for gallantry. It is no exaggeration in the citizens of Lima when they assert, that they have one of the finest markets in the world, for every thing in art and nature contributes to its support: the beautiful climate near the coast, the vicinity of the mountains, where all climates may be found, from the ever-during snow to perpetual sunshine—send their abundant and rich produce to this cornucopia of Ceres and Pomona.
The interior of the Viceroy's palace is very mean; but it is said to have been a magnificent building before it was destroyed by an earthquake on the 20th October, 1687. Its principal entrance is on the west side, in a narrow street leading to the bridge from the plasa; to the right of the entrance is the guard-room, where a company of infantry, a captain, lieutenant, and ensign are stationed: to the left there are four flights of steps leading to the sala de los Vireys, at the door of which is a guard of halberdiers, dressed in blue coats with full trimming of broad gold lace, crimson waistcoat and breeches with gold lace, silk stockings, velvet shoes, a laced hat, and a halberd. These soldiers are generally of good families: they are twenty-five in number, and the captain, their only officer, was always a young nobleman, because the situation was considered as highly honourable. Each Viceroy nominated a captain on his arrival. Don Diego Aliaga, son to the Marquis de Lurigancho, was captain to Abascal and Pezuela. The sala de los Vireys, so called on account of its containing full-length portraits of all the Viceroys from Pizarro to Pezuela,[5] was used only on days of ceremony, when the Viceroy stood under a canopy of crimson velvet, trimmed with gold, and received in the name of the King the compliments addressed to him, which however were generally set speeches, studied for the occasion. The Regent pronounced the first harangue, then followed the controller of the tribunal of accompts, the dean in the name of his chapter, the alcalde of the first vote, the prior of the consulate, the inquisitor mayor, the commissary of the crusade, the rector of the university, a senior collegian from each college, and a master friar from each community. These levees were called dias de besa manos, which ceremony was performed de facto in Madrid, the whole court kissing the King's hand, and this was almost the only ceremony which the royal representative in Lima dispensed with.
To the right of this hall there is a narrow corridor, looking into a small garden on the right, having a suite of rooms on the left, which on days of ceremony were used as assembly rooms; there are also some closets, which may serve as sleeping rooms or studies, each having a small glazed balcony next the street. Two young British officers, belonging to the Briton, were one night detected by the sentry attempting to pay a visit, at one of those commodious ventanas, to Miss Ramona Abascal, the Viceroy's daughter, and her female companion. The young ladies made fast the end of the sash belonging to Mr. B., but an unfortunate laugh alarmed the intruding sentry. From the north-west corner another range of rooms extends along the north side, which leads to those of the pages and other domestics; on the east side of the garden there is a terrace forming a passage to a range of apartments, where the chaplain, surgeon and secretary usually resided. A private passage under the terrace leads to one of those rooms constructed by the Viceroy Amat, for the purpose of receiving the midnight visits of the famous Perricholi. This name was given to the lady by her husband, an Italian, who wishing to call her a perra chola, indian b——h, gave an Italian termination to the words, and a name to his wife, by which she was ever afterwards known in Lima. In 1810 she was living at the new mills, at the corner of the alameda vieja. This circumstance I take the liberty to mention, because persons going to Lima will often hear on their arrival the name of this once handsome and generous woman, whose beauty had so far influenced her admirer, the Viceroy, that she at one time persuaded him to feed her mules at midnight, en camisa; and at another obtained from him the reprieve of a criminal on the morning he was to have suffered. In her youth she was on the stage; but she spent her last days in seclusion, and her last dollars in works of charity. The dining room is on the east side of the garden, and has a staircase leading from the kitchen; it is low and dark, and has a dirty appearance. The rooms used on public occasions have each a crimson velvet canopy, under which were hung portraits of the reigning King and Queen; beside some antique furniture which belonged to the palace, glass chandeliers, &c.; but the whole was a very mean display for a Viceroy of Peru.
The palace also contained the royal treasury, the courts of the royal audience, the Viceroy's chapel, the county gaol, the secretary's offices, and some others belonging to the attendants. Each front of the palace was disgraced with mean pedlars' and shoemakers' shops, and close to the principal entrance was a pulperia, common grog shop, for the accommodation, I suppose, of the coachmen, footmen and soldiers on duty. The north and south sides of this building are four hundred and eighty feet long; the others four hundred and ten.
The interior of the archbishop's palace is but small; a flight of steps opposite the entrance leads to a corridor that runs round the court-yard; on the north side are the dining and drawing rooms; on the west, fronting the plasa, are the principal levee rooms; on the south the secretary's offices; and on the east the apartments belonging to the domestics. The principal rooms are neatly fitted up; in some of them the walls are covered with crimson damask, having gilt cornices and mouldings.
The interior of the Sagrario, which may be called the principal parish church, or matrix, is more splendid than rich; the roof is beautifully pannelled, having a cupola in the centre, resting on the four corners formed by the intersection of the cross aisle; it is lofty, and the several altars are splendidly carved, varnished and gilt. Great part of the high altar is cased with silver; the sacrarium is highly finished, and the custodium of gold, richly ornamented with diamonds and other precious stones. The whole service is costly, both in plate and robes. The baptismal font is in a small chapel on one side; it is large, and covered with a thick casing of pure silver.
The cathedral, like all others, is spoiled by having the choir in the centre, blocking up the view of the high altar, which otherwise would present a most majestic appearance from the centre porch. The walls and floor are of good freestone, and the roof, which is divided into compartments, is most beautifully pannelled and carved; it is upheld by a double row of neat square pillars of stone work, supporting the arches, and corresponding with the buttresses in the walls; all these, on festivals, are covered with Italian crimson velvet hangings, except in Passion Week, when they are clothed with purple ones of the same quality. Both sets are edged with broad gold lace, with a deep gold fringe at the bottom, and festoons with lace and fringe at the top.