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PERU AS IT IS:

A RESIDENCE IN LIMA,
AND OTHER PARTS OF THE PERUVIAN REPUBLIC,
COMPRISING
AN ACCOUNT OF THE SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THAT COUNTRY.

BY ARCHIBALD SMITH, M.D.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
1839.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
Dorset Street, Fleet Street.

TO

SIR ALEXANDER CRICHTON, M.D. F.R.S.

PHYSICIAN IN ORDINARY TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA,
AND TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE;
KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE ORDERS OF ST. WLADIMIR
AND ST. ANNE,
KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF THE RED EAGLE OF PRUSSIA, ETC.

the following account of Peru, a country which, it is probable, the Author never would have visited but for his very kind and disinterested patronage, is most gratefully dedicated by

Archibald Smith.

PREFACE.

In this refined age and country, to make a graceful appearance as an author requires endowments to which the writer of the following pages has no pretension: neither would he have intruded himself on the public notice, had he not thought it a duty incumbent on every one who travels, to give his own country the benefit of his observation and experience. He will venture to assert, that he has had ample means of making himself acquainted with his subject, and that he has treated it with candour and impartiality.

For upwards of ten years he lived in Peru: sometimes residing among miners; at other times associating with agriculturists; and professionally brought into contact with persons of all classes and ranks in society, from the palace to the humblest hut.

In the interior of Peru, but more especially in Lima, the writer has met with great courtesy and kindness in private life, and been distinguished by very flattering marks of public favour. He therefore, it may be well believed, has not “set down aught in malice;” and he trusts that in the following pages there will not be found any thing injurious to the Peruvian people, or at variance with that lasting gratitude and honest pride with which he remembers and acknowledges their hospitality.

With respect to the manner of executing his task, he feels that he requires the indulgence of his reader; but, with regard to the matter, he persuades himself that, however unskilfully treated it may be, and however deficient in that exquisite minuteness of detail which delights the curious, it will nevertheless be found to convey to the intelligent reader a fair general idea of the physical and moral condition of Peru; which, as it is all that the writer has aimed at, so to have attained it is all that he desires.

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

ERRATA.

Transcriber’s Note: The errata have been corrected but otherwise the original spelling (in both English and Spanish) has been preserved.

PERU AS IT IS.

CHAPTER I.