[2] Lima is situated in lat. 12° 2´ south, and long. 76° 58´ west. It stands six or seven miles inland from its sea-port of Callao, and the more elevated part of the city is about five hundred feet above the level of the sea. It has frequently suffered from earthquakes, which are very common; and one of the most remarkable occurred in the year 1828. Houses of one story have their walls usually composed of sun-burnt bricks called adobes; but, that they may be better able to resist the shocks to which they are so often exposed, they are principally constructed, when of more than one story high, of wood and cane: the whole work, inside and out, being plastered over with clay, and white-washed or painted.

[3] The Rimac divides the city of Lima from its suburbs of San Lazaro, and has over it an excellent bridge close to the palace. This bridge, accommodated with recesses and seats, is greatly resorted to in fine evenings. The young ladies of the metropolis, in their imposing evening party or tertulia attire and decoration, are fond, in times of public tranquillity, to saunter to the bridge on moonlight nights, and there to breathe the pure air of mountain and sea blended and eddying as it gives freshness to the pale cheek, and, in its cool and circling current, wafts fragrance from the choice flowers at this social hour gracefully wreathed around the Rimac beauties’ heads.

[4] We shall have, by and by, further occasion to speak of Amencaes, where there grows a handsome yellow flower of the same name, which on the first approach of slight showers and vapours, at the commencement of the wet season on the coast, is the pioneer of vegetation; as the primrose, in our own glens, presages the returning verdure of spring.

[5] The proportion which the different sexes, castes, and conditions, &c. of the inhabitants of Lima bore to one another in the year 1818, may be learned from the subjoined summary taken from the census of Juan Baso, Oidor.

Summary of Men by Castes.Summary of Men by Wards.Gen. amt. of the whole.Summary of Women by Wards.Summary of Women by Castes.
Secular Spaniards84061st Ward68417975Ward 1st9455Secular Spanish women.
Priests and Friars13312nd Id.588227,5456090— 2nd506Nuns.
Mestizoes26603rd Id.63897420— 3rd3262Mestiza women.
Indians15614th Id.351226,5534756— 4th1731Indian women.
Free Negroes and Pardos4220Cercado, the higher part of the city so called259—312Cercado7715Black and swarthy free women.
Id. slaves4705In wards4662——3884Id. slaves.
22,88327,54554,09826,55326,553

To convey a more particular idea of the different races of people in Lima, as these are divided and subdivided, and change in colour by intermixing with one another, we shall add tables on the subject, given by Dr. Unanue, in his work titled “Observaciones sobre el clima de Lima.”

Intermarriages.Offspring.Colour.Mixture.
Men.Women.
EuropeanEuropeanCreoleWhite—
CreoleCreoleCreoleWhite—
WhiteIndianMestizoeWhite—
WhiteMestizaCreoleWhite—
WhiteNegressMulatto—1/2 negro, 1/2 white.
WhiteMulattaQuarteron—1/4 negro, 3/4 white.
WhiteQuarteronaQuinteron—1/8 negro, 7/8 white.
WhiteQuinteronaWhite——
NegroIndianChino——

The same author gives the following as the retrograde intermarriages, by which the offspring are of a more dingy appearance, and made to recede more and more from white, which he takes as the standard primitive colour.

Marriages.Offspring.Colour.
Negro,Negress,Negro.
Negro,Mulatta,Zambo,3/4 negro, 1/4 white.
Negro,Zamba,Dark Zambo,7/8 negro, 1/8 white.
Negro,Dark Zambo,Negro,15/16 negro, 1/16 white.
Negro,China,Zambo.

[6] This idea is not founded on experience; for that the Indian women are really good nurses is proved by the fact, that the offspring of European fathers and Indian mothers,—viz. the Mestizo race,—are very robust.