Should any one see his most intimate friend any where with a woman, he must never take notice of it, or mention it afterwards.  Every thing of this nature is conducted with all imaginary gravity and decorum, by which the practice of gallantry becomes decent and easy; yet there are some jealousies in this regular commerce of love, which sometimes end fatally.  A story of this kind happened shortly before I went to Lima.  A young lady, who thought herself sole sovereign in the heart of her lover, saw him by chance in the company of another, and, waiting no farther proof of his infidelity, she instantly plunged a dagger in his bosom.  She was soon after brought to trial, and every one expected that she should pay the forfeit with her life; but the judges, considering her rashness as proceeding from excess of love, not malice, acquitted her.  However agreeable these gallantries may be to the Creole Spaniards, they have an inconvenient effect on society; as the men are so engrossed by these matters, as to spoil all public conversation.  Their time is entirely taken up in attendance on their mistresses, so that there are no coffee-houses or taverns, and they can only be met with at their offices, or in church.

Perhaps it may be chiefly owing to this effeminate propensity, that all manly exercises, all useful knowledge, and that noble emulation which inspires virtue, and keeps alive respect for the public good, are here unknown.  Those amusements which serve in other countries to relax the labours of the industrious, and to keep alive the vigour of the body and mind, are unknown in Peru; and whoever should attempt to introduce any such, would be considered as an innovator, which, among them, is a hateful character:  For they will never be convinced, that martial exercises or literary conferences are preferable to intrigues.  They have, however, a sort of a play-house, where the young gentlemen and students divert themselves after their fashion; but their dramatic performances are so mean as hardly to be worth mentioning, being scripture stories, interwoven with romance, a mixture still worse than gallantry.  At this theatre, two Englishmen belonging to the squadron of Mons. Martinat, fought a prize-battle a short time before I came to Lima.  Having first obtained leave of the viceroy to display their skill at the usual weapons, and the day being fixed, they went through many previous ceremonies, to draw, as the phrase is, a good house.  Preceded by beat of drum, and dressed in holland shirts and ribbons, they went about the streets saluting the spectators at the windows with flourishes of their swords, so that the whole city came to see the trial of skill, some giving gold for admittance, and hardly any one less than a dollar.  The company, male and female, being assembled, the masters mounted the stage, and, after the usual manner of the English, having shaken hands, they took their distance, and stood on their guard in good order.  Several bouts