Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-07

of the sun Somebody has well described
it as "built generally of canes, plastered
over with mud and painted a dirty yellow,
its Himsv houses stand askew, with scarcely
a perpendicular or horizontal line among
them, and look as if they were trying to
straighten themselves up after grand de-
bauch, in vain endeavor to toe the line
of the street"
We are astonished to see great piles of
grain and other merchandise lying uncov-
cred in the open air-until we remember
that it never rains here, and there is no more
moisture to be feared than that from the
fops, Here are heaps of wheat from Chilli,
waiting to be carried to the mills on the
Rimae-the river from which Lima took its
name; there are blocks of salt, white and
rose-colored, resembling ONYX, brought from
the salt quarries near Huacho; gigantic
pisces or red clay jars, shaped like the
Roman amphorae and filled with ''italia"
from the valley of Pisco; bales OF chincona
bark from forests in the far interior; pyra-
mids of chancaca leaves, the coarse, unre-
fined sugar of the country, wrapped in dried
banana leaves, through which sticky sweet
ness oozes, TO the delectation of swarms of
flies and nearly naked children; and other
products del pias mixed confusedly with
iamiliar-looking bags, bales and boxes from
the United States and Europe.
DIRTY AND DECAYED.
Callao has population of about 80, 900,
but its glory as great commercial shipping
center has departed. The heat is intense
vile smells assail ones olfactories at every
turn; and as there is no drainage except such
as nature provides in the natural slope of
the soil to seaward, and smart showers never
fall to wash things clean, the place is prov
erbially unhealthy. The poverty of Peru
since the war, and the consequent depres-
sion of her trade, as we'll as the enormous
tariffs imposed by the Government, and the
exorbitant port duties charged, have con-
spired to drive commerce away from Callao,
to the corresponding benefit of Valparaiso,
the port of Chill.
A few years ago when the Peruvian Gov
ernment was in dire need OF funds, and will
ing to sell anything it could lay hands on
for enough cash down to keep things going,
it practically sold this harbor of Callao to a
French company, which leased its docks and
anchorage for a term of years, for the sum o {
$500, 900 per annum. The money has been a
god-send to Peru, but almost death to
Callao, for the company has a right to tax
shipping to any extent, and has established
a system of rates and rules which no seamsn
who can help themselves will submit to.
THE CITY OF KINGS.
As before mentioned, the distance between
Callao and Lima is six miles, but as the lat
ter lies 512 feet above sea level, the short
Journey occupies more than half an hour. So
slow is the ascent that the traveller has ample
opportunity TO view the country, which is
mainly a parched waste, divided into
squares by mud walls with here and there a
flat-roo.ed casa or a field of bright green
alfalfa; but wherever water is regularly
turned on it blossoms like the rose. The
courses Of the azequias, or irrigating bitches,
are marked by long lines OF wild canes,
vines, flowers and willow trees. There are
acres of gorgeous institutions, orange, gold
en- and ruby-red, rioting everywhere in un-
rivaled luxuriance, covering ruins, curtain
ing verandas and lining the banks of the
water courses.
Scattered all over the sloplng plain are
mounds of adobe bricks, mostly regular in
shape and some Of immense size. These are
the ruined huacos of the ancient inhab-
itants, OF whom we shall have something to
say by and by. They have supplied vast
numbers of excellent sun-dried bricks.
ready-made, for the construction of the
modern city and adjacent villages, but it is
doubtful if those who used them have ever
bestowed a thought upon the dead Indians
whose careful Workmanship has saved their
conquerors so much labor.
Nearer to the capital the great gas works
are reached, and passing through the old
city WALL portion of which has been de-
molished right here, we enter Lima by the
street OF San Jacinto. This is one of the
shabbiest, dirtiest and least attractive of its
avenues, but we do not know that until later
on, and are conscious of no little disappoint.
ment in the midst of our excitement conse-
quent to attaining our hearts desire in a
visit to ''The City of the Kings" The noisy
train whisks US into castle-like structure,
half fort, half church, which used to be the
monastery of San Juan de Dios, but now
used for railway station; and here we will
bid you goodby for to-day.
FANNIE B. WARD.