The baggage was intrusted to an employé of the hotel, who had been telegraphed for, and met our friends at the station; guided by a servant from the same establishment, they walked the short distance intervening between the station and their lodging-place, narrowly escaping collisions with troops of laden donkeys, that rushed along the streets as though they possessed the sole right of occupation. They seemed to prefer the sidewalks to the middle of the street, probably because the latter was less smooth than the sidewalks, and their drivers didn't care where they went as long as they kept moving in the right direction. Few carriages were visible, and these few were not attractive in appearance. For a description of Lima we will quote from Frank's letter to his mother, which was sent by the next steamer northward from Callao: "Here we are, in the 'City of the Kings,' as it was named by Pizarro. According to the histories, it was on the 6th of January, 1535, Old Style, that the Spanish conqueror designated it as the capital of his dominions. That day happened to be the festival of the Magi, or Three Wise Men of the East, who came to Bethlehem to adore the Saviour; in old chronicles they are styled 'The Three Kings,' and hence Pizarro called his capital _Ciudad de los Reyes_, or 'City of the Kings.' Charles V. designated the arms of the city to be three golden crowns on a blue field, with a rayed star to indicate the Star of Bethlehem, which guided the kings. The name Lima is a modification or adaptation of the native word _Rimac_, which formerly belonged to the plain or valley where the city is built, and is still borne by the river which supplies it with water. [Illustration: VIEW OF LIMA FROM THE STEPS OF THE CATHEDRAL.] "In many respects Lima is one of the most interesting cities of South America; certainly we have found it full of attractions, and have not had an idle minute since our arrival. We have been trying to imagine what it must have been when surrounded by the walls which the Spaniards built at great expense. These walls have proved useless in modern times; they have been completely destroyed, and the space they occupied is converted into promenades, or laid out in gardens or building-lots. The walls enclosed an area about three miles long by one and a half broad, on the left bank of the Rimac; they were twenty feet thick, and somewhat more in height, and were made of _adobes_, the favorite building-material of this part of the world. The city is about ten miles in circumference, but a large part of its area is laid out in gardens and public squares, so that the whole is by no means occupied. [Illustration: LIMA AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY.]