What I saw on the west coast of South and North America, and at the Hawaiian Islands.: By H. Willis Baxley, M.D.

PLAZA DE LA CONSTITUCION. shade trees, and seats for visitors within a handsome iron railing, and outside of it a fine carriage drive. One hundred vases on pedestals, and twelve colossal marble statues executed in Rome representing various arts, are tastefully distributed among the beauties of nature; and the arched gateway is surmounted by appropriate statuary. This park is lighted by gas at night, and it is the resort, especially about sunset, of fashionable citizens; the pedestrian promenading the interior or lounging on the marble settees, to feast his eyes on the grace and beauty flitting past him; while the handsome turnout makes the circuit of the cano amid dazzling glances, the envy of the ambitions, the admiration of all, achieving a triumph which its wealthy owner, inflated with Peruvian pride, vainly believes will resound through Amuerica and echo in the fashionable salons of Europe. At the north end of this alameda, separated from it by the width of the Camro, stand the church of San Diego without any special attractions, and the beatero —house of female seclusion-called the Patrocinio; a chapel being on one side of the latter, and the convent of the Recoleta de los Agonizantes with a small chapel, on the other side. About three squares east of the plaza mayor is a small irregular space dignified by the name Plaza de la Constitucion, near the centre of which is the only ornament to distinguish it from what with us would be considered a common with a dirty ditch running through it. On a marble pedestal twelve feet high is a bronze equestrian statue, erected in the year 1858: " A Simon Bolivar, Libertador La Nacion Peruana." On the sides of the base are chiselled in basso-relievo, views of the battles of Ayacucho and Junin, both fought and won by Bolivar in 1824, and resulting in the establishment of South American independence. This statue was cast in Munich, and, so far as spirit and expression are concerned, great success was achieved, certainly surpassing in these merits the monument erected in memory of General Ja'ckson at Washington; although I 131

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Title
What I saw on the west coast of South and North America, and at the Hawaiian Islands.: By H. Willis Baxley, M.D.
Author
Baxley, Henry Willis, 1803-1876.
Canvas
Page 131
Publication
New York,: D. Appleton & company,
1865.
Subject terms
South America -- Description and travel
California -- Description and travel
Hawaii -- Description and travel

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"What I saw on the west coast of South and North America, and at the Hawaiian Islands.: By H. Willis Baxley, M.D." In the digital collection Making of America Books. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/abf7940.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 24, 2025.
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