Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-13
"CIrY OF THREE KINGS. "
SOME PECuL1ARITIEss .oF PIzARRo's
CAPITAL.
Happenings Ancient and Modern-start-
ling Changes at the peruvian
Capital.

Especial Correspondence of the RECORD UNION. !
LIMA, Peru, 1890.
Pizarro. the ex-swineherd, must have
been rather hard up for names when he
dubbed his Peruvian capital La Cuidad de
los Tres Reyes, ''The City Of the Three
Kings" 1t came about in this way.
After he had subdued one of the royal
brothers who claimed the Inca throne and
treacherously strangled the other. he
found little difficulty in conquering Cuzco,
the splendid "City of Gold," which was at
that time the capital of Peru. As soon
as he and his few European followers, a
band of drunken adventures whom Spain
was glad to be rid of had glutted them
selves with the vast treasures of that
place, they marched westward, not so
much in search of new worlds to conquer
as to find a more convenient spot in which
to enjoy their ill-gotten gain. They did
not relish being surrounded on all sides by
the Indians, who, although conquered, out
numbered them hundred to one, but pre-
ferred to be in sight of the sea, the broad
highway that led toward home. This
emerald valley of Rime, with river run
ming through it, the ocean on one side and
the towering Andes ON the other, combined
all the advantages they sought. So here
they established the second Spanish city
in South America, which soon grew to be
one of the proudest and most luxurious
capitals of those profigate days, and con-
tinued to be the seat of corrupt vice.
regal court for three centuries.
1t happened that Pizarro designated its
site on January 6, 1555 Told style), the day
of the festival of the Epiphany or the
manifestation of our Savior to the Magi,
who in King James version of the New
Testament are called "The Wise Mem
from the East, but are known in all the
old Spanish traditions as THE Three
Kings Hence he had made tremendous
celebration of that feast of the Epiphany
and christened. his capital accordingly.
Then Carlos V. OF Spain sent over not
only his benediction and congratulations
but added some complimentary words to
its already ponderous title, making it ''The
Most Noble and Most Royal City of the
Three Kings'-so it appears in the orig
inal charter-and formally coded its APP
propriate coat of arms three golden crowns
for the three kings and rayed star on an
azure field in memory of the star which
led them to the spot where the young
child lay.
But that was altogether too long title
for every day use and so the easy-going
Spaniards fell into the habit of calling it
''the city of Rimae," the latter being the
name of the valley in which it stands.
Rimae is Quichua word, the past parti-
ciple of the verb rimay to speak; and in
this application it referred to a famous
oracle of Inca times, whose shrine was in
the valley, probably among those extern
sive ruins that may yet be seen near the
present village of La Magdalena, and in
honor of whom the river and surrounding
country were named. The Quichua sound
of the letter r is much like the Spanish |;
and so it is not strange that in the mouths
of another race it soon became transformed
to Limae and then to Lima. For many
years the river was called Lima too but
somehow it got back to its ancient cogno-
men.
1t is small and quiet stream through
most of the year, except during the sum-
mer months, the season of melting SHOWS
and rains among the mountains where it
rises, when it swells into deep. swift and
turbulent torrent, whose yellow tide re-
sembles the Missouri in spring-time. 1t
is as essential to the valley as is the Nile
to Lower Egypt, and indeed without 1t
Lima would long ago have dried up and
disappeared from this rainless region. To
the Rimae, which furnishes ample irri-
cation, the city owes It's own water supply
and the fertility Of its surrounding fields
and gardens.
One walks about the streets Of Lima as
in a dream, oppressed by multitude of
historical "reminiscences that crowd upon
the memory. Here long line of vice
roys ruled with almost independent power,
not only over the territory that now con-
stitutes the Republic of Peru, but also the
vast provinces of Chile, La Plata and
New Grenada, including the modern di-
visions of Ecuador and Bolivia. Here
Santa Rosa, la Pdtrona de todds las Ameri-
cas-, ''the Patroness of all the Americas"
was born and died, the only American
woman, of the Northern or Southern con-
tinent, who ever had the honor of canon
ization. Here stout-hearted Pizarro was
assassinated by "the men of Chile" the
avengers OF Almagro's murder; and here
his bones repose in the crypt Of the great
cathedral. For 800 years Lima was the
most important ecclesiastical dependency
of the Church of Rome on the western
hemisphere. In this stronghold the In
QUESTION, with all its horrors, remained
active and powerful long after its decad-
ence in Madrid. The. churches and con-
vents of Lima were as magnificent as any
in Europe, and endowed with incalculsble
wealth. The Colejio de San Marcos the
oldest college in America, was founded
here in 155l, just sixty-nine years
before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at
Plymouth, and tifty-eight years before
Hendrick Hudson sailed into the harbor
of New York.
Here, too, were centered the products of
the mines of Potosi and Cerro del Pasco-
of Puno, Castro and Veireina-those Ell
DoradoS about which fables were told that
set all the world agog. In 1861, | think
it was, La Palata, then Niceroy of Lima,
rode through these streets on a horse
whose name was strung with pearls and
whose shoes were of pure gold, over a
broad pavement made of solid ingots of
silver. To its sea gate, Callao, came the
SdlleoHS Ol tHe East, bringing SILKS ana
spices from far Cathay and the Philippine
Islands; and following fast in their wake
came the buccaneers, Rogers, Arson, Haw-
kins, Drake and Others, all eager to snatch
from the treasure ships" the rich booty,
which even the Virgin Queen did not dis
dain TO share with her loyal freebooters of
the South Seas and the Spanish Main.
These things all belong to the distant
past; but no less interesting are the events
of the last half century, even of the pres
ent decade. Earthquakes have repeatedly
shaken the city from center to circumfer-
ence and innumerable wars and revolutions
have drenched its streets with blood. In
the plaza where the auto de .fe of the In
QUESTION used to burn its victims in the