With an inheritance of legend, romance, and wealth that gives its history extraordinary charm, Lima, “The Thrice-crowned City,” enjoys the distinction of being the most renowned capital of Spanish America. For nearly three hundred years it was the “second metropolis” of the vast Spanish empire on two continents, and the centre of a viceregal court whose splendor and gayety vied with that of royalty itself. The legend of Rimac makes the site of this beautiful city the ancient abode of a revered pre-Incaic oracle; and the imagination can easily picture scenes of antiquity in the valley “that speaks,” when from all parts of the kingdom the faithful came to make their vows and to receive the word of the American Delphi, ages before Pizarro laid the foundations for the City of the Kings. As frequently occurred in Peru, the native title superseded the Spanish one, and “Lima,” which is a corruption of “Rimac,” is now the name universally given to the capital that was more pompously christened “La Ciudad de los Reyes,” the arms being three gold crowns on an azure field with the Star of the East above. Lima stands on the left bank of the Rimac River in a broad and fertile plain, which slopes gently to the Pacific Ocean, a few miles away. The great chain of the Andes passes within fifty miles of the city; and spurs from this majestic range approach close to its gates, forming an amphitheatre within which the capital lies, wearing a purple crown at dawn when the sun is hidden behind its hills, and a golden aureole at eventide when the light fades into the sea. The city forms a triangle, of which the longest side rests on the River Rimac; the streets are marked out in a straight line and run parallel from northeast and northwest, crossing at right angles, with open squares, or _plazas_, at intervals, beautified with monuments, fountains, and shrubbery. The Plaza Mayor, or principal square of Lima, is about five hundred feet above sea level, the mountains behind the city reaching an altitude of from one thousand to three thousand feet; the climate is mild, rain seldom falls, and the surrounding hills keep off northerly and easterly winds, while cool breezes from the Pacific temper the heat of the tropics.