Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-13

| conference, but as large part OF Its area
is laid out in gardens and public squares,
the whole is by no means densely popu-
lated. The old walls of the city which
that energetic vice-king, La Palata, caused
to be built in 1858, described an irregular
oval, on the left bank of the Rimae, about
three miles long by a mile and half
wide. They were from eighteen to twenty.
four feet high, and twenty feet thick, and
were entered by twelve gates. But they
were never of much use except to facilitate
| the collection of local duties, and to afford
an elevated paseo or bridle-path for eques-
trians, and were demolished long ago.
The city's present population is vari-
ously estimated between 100000 to Us, 900.
Much of the beautiful region round about
was laid waste by the Chilean army during
the recent war, and has not yet been re-
built. The invaders were as merciless and
as needlessly cruel as they were completely
victorious. In the battle that decided the
| fate of Lima hundreds of country villas
and all the suburban villages were burned
to the ground. Thus Chorillas, the Long
Branch of the coast, was entirely destroyed.
A railway leads from Chorillas to Lima,
passing through the once lovely village OF
| -uliduOitS, WuOSe udlut Literally tidhoiatSa
means "See the flowers The Chileans
landed at Chorillas, and having reduced
that town to ashes, they marched along the
line of the railroad to Lima ruthlessly de-
stroying everything on the route. For one
whole night Lima was in the hands of a
mob OF armed soldiers, who had broken
! loose from all restraint, and were as blood
thirsty and unfeeling as so many Sepoys
and they were only prevented from entirely
burning end sacking the city by the energy
| of the British Minister and other men,
| bers of the diplomatic corps, backed by
the English and French Admirals, whose
war ships were in the harbor at Callao.
1t is said that there are !, 800 foreigners
in Lima, and no fewer than 5000 priests.
| The latter gentry are met at every step, in
| black robes and white, gray cowls and
shovel hats, monks of all orders and va
rieties of habit, and clergy of every de-
| gree. Professor Orion affirms that there
are at least twenty-five different admix-
lures of blood in Lima. Be that as a
may, certainly more mixed collection of
| people would be hard to find. There are
| English, French, Spaniards, North Amer
icnns, Belgians, Chinese and negroes,
black, white yellow and all intermediate
shades of complexion, mingled among the
leather-hued native population; and one
need not walk half a square to hear a
dozen different languages spoken.
| Being situated under the tropics and at
an elevation of only 512 feet it might
reasonably be expected that the climate of
Lima would be TOO warm for comfort; but
such is by no means the case. During the
| Co., . -
side of the equator-from June to No
vembeI-the thermometer ranges from 81 o
to Go Fair, and is often so cold that
warm wooden clothing is necessary for
comfort, especially indoors, where the
thick walls retain dampness and exclude
the sun, rendering the interiors much
more chilly than the open street. The
low temperature of the place may be
partially accounted for by the close prox-
unity of the snowy cordilleras, and also
from the fact that the great Antarctic cur
rent of the Pacific sets from the south
west full on the coast, where the temporal
ture is thirty-one degrees less than the
waters of the open sea one hundred miles
from land.
1t is not positive cold that renders life
in Lima unpleasant during the winter
time, so much as the fogs and dampness
! Sometimes for days together the sun re
fuses to show his face, and regular
| Scotch mist" heavy enough to form
continual drizzle makes the sidewalk slip
! perry as ice, and so permeates the air that
even the sheets of ones bed feels sticky.
| Though visitors are often assured that sit
never rains in Lima" the most partial
citizen is obliged to admit that what he
calls Ia guara, dense fog, that forms itself
| into minute drops, brings all the discom-
forts without any of the benefits of good
healthy shower. 1t soaks through the
matched roofs, discolors the dripping
ceiling, loosens the Wallpaper, and trick
les down upon the floor in puddles. Yet
here. You might search the city shops
without being able to find either, and to
appear upon the streets with anything
more formidable in the way of protection
from the wet than fancy quitGsol para
sol) would be to set ones self up as a
mark for ridicule. 1t is a remarkable but
unexplained fact that while Lima is thus
frequently shrouded in mist and moisture,
the other towns and villages in the same
valley may be enjoying cloudless skies
| and warm, bright sunshine.
1t is said that when the last of the
Incas heard where Pizarro was going to
establish his capital, he reioiced in his
heart, saying that soon not one of his
enemies would remain alive. Tradition
has it that long before the arrival of any
Europeans this particular portion of the
valley Of Rime was set apart as place of
Punishment for criminals sort of Inca
| Dry Tortugas, Or Siberia, where evll-doers
soon succumbed to the deadly climate and
ceased from troubling. Some sixty years
ago the celebrated Won Teschudi wrote
that "two-thirds of the people Of Lima
are at all times suffering from tercianas
| intermittent feversl, or their consequent
ces." But that was before the Countess of
Cinchona, whose husband was one of the
Vice Kings of Peru, had been cured of
her terciana by the Peruvian bark"
whose remedial virtues had been dis
covered by Franciscan friar during the
early days of the conquest. The aborigi-
mes made decoction of it to cure their
agues; it was tried upon the shaking SOL
diers with great success, and it remained
for the Vice-Queen to make it fashionable
by merely consenting to be set upon her
| legs aSaul through us agency
She introduced the bark into Spain,
where it was given her name, cinchond,
and the drug that has since been made of
it, known as quinine, has certainly accom-
plished more real, substantial good right
here in Lima than have all the mission
aries, Romish and Protestant, that ever
came over. YET year by year the death
lists are alarmingly longer than those of
births, and were the city not constantly
recruited from other parts of the country,
it would have been depopulated long ago,
1t is said that the mortality among infants
here is three times greater in proportion
to population than in London, Paris or
New York, but that is doubtless due as
much to bad drainage and the poverty,