The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-12
(Copyright 1914. by


 Lima. Peru. LIMB with me to the rocky top
 of san Cristobal mountain and take a look over the city Of iEsaDsgt Lima We are on the edge of r..14---- valley. within eight miles of the Pacific ocean and about 1000 feet higher up in the air. Sitting on this bleak desert hill. the sea seems a wide streak of silver, beyond which are mountainous islands bordering the coast. Right in front of us on the bdge of the water, is the port of Callao, with its mole reaching out into the ocean, and opposite ii are the islands of San Lorenzo which are to be joined to the mainland to form one Of the finest harbors of the eastern Pacific. At our backs. lost in the clouds. lie the high peaks of the westernmost range of the Andes and right under us, so near that ewcould throw a stone on to its roofs, is the great low city of Lima, spread out on the plain. That winding stream which runs through 1t Is the Rimac. It springs forth from the glaciers of the high, Andes, and gives life to the irrigated valleys below It alone makes l@llfid ptSSAhltf anu II ndttAS lit pi Siadi and great fields of grain which form the emerald setting for the yellow city, be- tween us and the sea.
 Now let us take our glasses and look more closely at the Peruvian capital It was originally named the City of the Kings, and it was laid out by Pizarro only 4S years after Columbus discovered America. There was q great city here 100 years before the ground on which Chicago and Cincinnati now stand had been trod- den by the feet of white men. The clty is one of the oldest of the hemisphere. It was born long before New York or Boston. It was the capital of all South America when the United States was subject to England, and today 1t is the quaintest and most interesting town upon the two continents.
 Look at it as 1t lies there below us. The roofs are all flat and the houses are mostly of one and two stories. There is a vast expanse of low buildings, with a great cathedral and magnificent churches rising here and there out of the whole. The cathedral is almost in the center, N1Ln us great green pldId III IIonI. lHaI church was laid out by Pizarro before John Smith landed at Jamestown, and it's original cost was more than a half million dollars. It has been thrown down again and again by earthquakes; and altogether it was 90 years in it's building It contains the bones of Pizarro which we shall see later on.
 As we look over Lima we can see other churches and convents whose spires eX- tend high over the roofs. The city nas 70 churches fin all. and nearly every one will pay visiting. The church and con- vent of San Francisco is said to have cost S15,0o0000, and the altar of Santa Rosa, the patron saint of Lima, had in 1t, when at it's best 15OO pounds of gold and silver and jewels. which embraced 140O diamonds, 1900 emeralds, 120 fine pearls and 600 rubies.
 If you look closely you can see beyond the cathedral the Plaza de Armas. where stands the building which is now the Peruvian senate. It was once the seat of the ihauisition. and on the space in front of it hundreds were executed and many were burned to death, the victims of the autos de fe