Monday 8th. Went ashore on liberty. Went up to Lima by train. R.C.Clitherow with us. Lima is a fine ancient old place. the streets very narrow in general. But some very fine shops, of every description. we did not see so much of it as we should have done, as we had to be down at Callao at 3 oclock the Capt expecting to sail at night but we did not, there being no wind.
Lima, the capital of Peru, was now connected to the port of Callao by a railway line, improving on the potholed road Walpole described in 1849. Here are some of the illustrations from Four Years in the Pacific:
Perhaps Richard saw women wearing the traditional skirt, the saya, and a veil with only one eye visible. It’s a pity he couldn’t stay longer and tell us more about Lima, although he does like the shops, which Walpole says were all run by French and German shopkeepers and were full of European trinkets.
This more modern photograph of the new Cathedral in Lima is from Art Photographs of the World, 1893.
