Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/15

Rh so seasoned, as to hold out the promise of becoming in a greater or less degree suitable to each palate: he has otherwise missed the aim he had in view.

The old English saying, "to shoot at a pigeon and kill a crow," was, however, verified by him, when he obtained the set of Peruvian Mercuries, the selection from which forms the basis of his work. He was in quest, not of books, but of a valuable Peruvian remedy belonging to the vegetable kingdom (the carahuala), little known in this country. To the end that the adventure might be complete, he stumbled on a painting, which he has employed, partly with a view to illustrate the subject matters of his work, and partly to render the work itself more agreeable to the reader, where such illustration was not absolutely necessary. The painting in question, the production of an untutored native, denied the advantages which the high cultivation of the arts in Europe affords, is in many of its parts finely executed, as will appear by the subjects that have been taken from it on the present occasion. It represents the Indian festival, in the great square of Lima, on the event of the accession of his present Catholic Majesty, Charles the Fourth, to the throne. In the engravings, the design of the artist has been strictly adhered to; and it ought therefore to be noticed, that, as he was planted on an eminence, his picture presents what is termed by painters a bird's-eye view. The curve Rh