VIEW OF LIMA FROM THE STEPS OF THE CATHEDRAL.
"In many respects Lima is one of the most interesting cities of South America; certainly we have found it full of attractions, and have not had an idle minute since our arrival. We have been trying to imagine what it must have been when surrounded by the walls which the Spaniards built at great expense. These walls have proved useless in modern times; they have been completely destroyed, and the space they occupied is converted into promenades, or laid out in gardens or building-lots. The walls enclosed an area about three miles long by one and a half broad, on the left bank of the Rimac; they were twenty feet thick, and somewhat more in height, and were made of adobes, the favorite building-material of this part of the world. The city is about ten miles in circumference, but a large part of its area is laid out in gardens and public squares, so that the whole is by no means occupied.
LIMA AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY.
"I send you a map of Lima and the surrounding country, which will give you an excellent idea of its position. Unhappily for Peru, much of the beautiful region around its capital was laid waste by the invading army during the late war between Chili and Peru; Chili was completely victorious, and also unmerciful, and in the battle which decided the fate of Lima many of the country-houses and villages in the neighborhood were burned. This was the sad lot of Chorillos, the Long Branch or Coney Island of Lima, and also of Miraflores, which lies between Chorillos and the great city.
"There is a railway from Chorillos to Lima, passing through Miraflores; the invading army landed at Chorillos, and marched along the line of railway to Lima. They destroyed nearly everything on the route, and were only prevented from burning and plundering the city by the energy of the British minister and other members of the diplomatic corps, backed by the English and French admirals, with their ships of war in the harbor of Callao.
"So much for the horrors of war, which this country will long remember. The population of Lima is variously placed at from one hundred thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand; there are about fifteen thousand foreigners and six thousand priests among them, so that you cannot go far on the streets without meeting either a foreigner or a priest. In all the cities we have ever seen there does not appear to be a more mixed lot of inhabitants than here; Constantinople and Cairo are not more kaleidoscopic than Lima, and I think the American city is somewhat ahead of them.