herbs and garden vegetables usually cultivated in
Spain, in great perfection and abundance. Indeed
every thing conspires to assist cultivation at this
place, as every plantation has a canal from the river
sufficiently large for a mill-stream; and on the main
river, the Spaniards have several corn-mills.
This city is universally reckoned the most salubrious
and most agreeable residence in all Peru; and its
harbour is so convenient for trade, that people come
here from all parts of Peru to provide themselves
with necessaries of all kinds, bringing with them the
gold and silver which is so abundantly procured from
the mines of the other provinces. For these reasons,
and because it is nearly central to Peru, it has been
chosen by his majesty for the residence of the royal
court of audience, to which the inhabitants of all
Peru have to carry their law-suits, by which means
it is to be presumed that this place will in time become
more considerable and very populous. Lima at
present, 1550, contains five hundred houses; yet is
larger than any city in Spain of fifteen hundred houses,
as the square in the centre of the town is very large,
and all the streets very wide, and because each house
has a plot of eighty feet in front by twice that in
depth. The houses likewise are all of one storey,
as the country has no wood fit for joists or flooring-deals,
every kind which it produces becoming worm-eaten in
three years. The houses, however, are large and
magnificent, and have many chambers and very convenient
apartments. The walls are built on both sides
of brick, leaving a hollow between of five feet, which
is filled up with hard-rammed earth; in which manner
the apartments are carried up to a convenient height,
and the windows towards the street are raised considerably
above the ground. The stairs leading up are towards
the interior court, and in the open air, leading to
galleries or corridors, which serve as passages to
the several apartments. The roofs are formed
of some rough timbers, not even hewn square, which
are covered underneath by coloured matts like those
of Almeria, or painted canvas, serving as ceilings,
to conceal these clumsy joists: and the whole
is covered over by way of roofing with branches of
trees with their leaves, which keep the rooms cool
and effectually exclude the rays of the sun.
In this climate there is no call for any defence from
rain, which never falls in the plain of Peru.
One hundred and thirty leagues still farther south, is the city of Villahermosa de Arequipa, containing about three hundred houses, in a very healthy situation, abounding in provisions. Though at twelve leagues distance from the sea, this place is very conveniently situated for trade, as vessels can easily import thither by the river Quilca all sorts of European commodities for the supply of the city of Cuzco and the province of Charcas, which are much frequented on account of the mines of Potosi and Porco; and from whence large quantities of silver are carried to Arequipa, to be