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| CHILIAN INDIAN MOTHER. | LADY OF LIMA. |
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| PERUVIAN MONK. | PERUVIAN FARMER. |
CHAPTER V.
Population of Lima—Its diminution—Different races of the Inhabitants—Their characteristics—Amusements—Education—The women of Lima—Their Costume—The Saya y Manto—Female domestic life—Love of dress—Beatas—Indians—Slaves—Bosales—Free Creoles—Negroes—Negresses—Black Creoles—Their varieties—Mestizos—Mulattoes—Palanganas—Zambos—Chinos—Foreigners in Lima—Corruption of the Spanish language.
Proceeding from the shell to the kernel, we will now take a glance at the inhabitants of the capital of Peru: first, surveying the native in his fatherland, and next, the foreign settler in his adopted country.
The population of Lima has at various periods undergone remarkable fluctuations. In the year 1764 the number of the inhabitants was stated to be 54,000; in 1810, 87,000; in 1826, 70,000; in 1836, 54,600; and in 1842, 53,000. Of most of these estimates I entertain some degree of distrust, as they are merely founded on general calculations, and are not the results of careful numbering. Certain it is, however, that the population of Lima has very considerably decreased since the declaration of independence. This is sufficiently proved by the fact that several parts of the city are now totally uninhabited: the houses falling to decay, and the gardens lying waste.
The cause of this diminished population is easily explained by the physical and political condition of the country. Earthquakes have, at various times, buried thousands of people beneath the ruins of their own dwellings; the war of independence was attended by vast sacrifices of life; banishment and voluntary emigration have removed from Lima the families of some of the principal citizens; and epidemic disease, the natural consequence of defective police regulations, has swept away countless multitudes of the inhabitants. The number of new settlers is very inconsiderable; and for several past years the number of deaths has nearly doubled that of the births. There appears no reason to doubt that this decrease of population will continue; because, as will presently be seen, the causes to which it is assignable cannot be checked, inasmuch as they are intimately blended with the character of the nation. Most of these causes operate not only in the capital, but over the whole country; indeed, in the latter their influence is in some instances much greater; for example, in the interior of Peru the loss of life attendant on the war was relatively much greater than in Lima. This favored country, which extends from the 3d to the 22d degree of south latitude, and which contained at the time of its conquest by the Spaniards an immense population, though its amount is not known with numerical exactitude, now counts only 1,400,000 inhabitants.
In the tax registers, drawn up during the protectorate of Santa Cruz, in 1836, the number of the inhabitants of Lima is represented as follows:—
| Male. | Female. | Total. | ||
| 1. | White Creoles (being the descendants of foreigners, but chiefly of Spaniards) | 9,423 | 10,170 | 19,593 |
| 2. | Indians | 2,561 | 2,731 | 5,292 |
| 3. | People of Color (mixed races) | 11,771 | 12,355 | 24,126 |
| 4. | Slaves | 2,186 | 3,606 | 4,792 |
| 5. | Ecclesiastics (Lay and Monastic) | 475 | 350 | 825 |
| In all | 26,416 | 29,212 | 54,628 |