Lima [pp. 489-495]

THE
OVERLAND MONTHLY
DEVOTED TO
ETHE DiE VEL OPtENT OF THE CO UNTZR Y
VOL. i.-DECEMBER, i868.-No. 6.
LIMA.
N an afternoon in June, I866, I
entered that compartment of the
railway depot at Callao set apart for
first-class passengers, secured a ticket,
and with a very satisfied feeling took a
seat in the train bound for Lima. Few
persons leave Callao with regret. The
buildings are low and shabby, the streets
dirty and narrow and crooked, the
twenty-five thousand inhabitants corresponding, as people and places do all
the world over. It is merely the entrepot of the Peruvian capital, the place of
the custom house and naval station; of
a few ship-chandlery stores and a great
many saloons and low groggeries; of a
market place, and two or three churches,
and a theatre, and sand, and fleas.
Twenty-four hours, even after two
months at sea, were enough to weary
one with it; and as the cars moved out
of the depot, and, turning eastward,
soon left behind the outermost of its
crumbling adobe walls, my only regret
was that, in leaving the country, it would
be necessary to embark from this place.
Our car was American built. Those
of English make are likewise in use on
the road. The passengers were of all
colors and classes; officers of the army
in full uniform; officers of English and,
American vessels of war in undress uniform; captains of merchantmen, with
their wives, in their shore-toggery, looking flushed and fussy and uncomfortable;
and sefioras and sefioritas in black,
graceful and bewitching from the mere
simplicity of their attire. Smoking is
allowed in any car, and the privilege is.
constantly improved. It is seven miles
from Callao to Lima, by a gradual ascent, and along the old highway that,
previous to the era of the railroad,
formed the only means of communica —
tion, and was the support of many robbers. Even now, all the merchandise
moving between the two places is transported over it in clumsy carts drawn/
by oxen, and as the huge wheels sink
into ruts and crevices that are the wear
of many years, clouds of dust arise and
permeate through the doors and windows of the cars.
A mile and a half inland we pass
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year I868, by A. ROMAN & Co., in the Clerk's Office of the
District Court of the District of California.
VoL.I-32.