A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 764 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 764 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04.
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

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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.