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:

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 542 of 796
Words from 149964 to 150233 of 221091