Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/169

Rh without the town. He has covered with buildings two orchards, having an extent of a hundred and twenty toises each, and has nearly completed a third range of edifices. These new structures comprehend a convent, two hundred and seven doors fronting the street, and four lanes containing fifty-three dwellings. The Pampa-de-Lara, the buildings surrounding the orange groves, those on the road leading to the promenade of the bare-footed friars, part of the Venturosa, &c. are all of modern structure.

Lima, in its present state, contains two hundred and nine quadras, or squares of buildings, which comprise eight thousand two hundred and twenty-two doors of dwelling-houses and shops, and branch out into three hundred and fifty-five streets. For the convenience of the police, and for the maintenance of good order among the inhabitants, the city is divided into four quarters, which are again subdivided into thirty-five districts, in each of which there is an alcaid, chosen from among the individuals of the most distinguished rank.

The houses are three thousand nine hundred and forty-one in number. Of these, nine hundred and sixty-nine are holden in mortmain; and in this number the one hundred and fifty-seven belonging to the religious communities are comprehended. On this head it has been observed by a celebrated national writer, Don Joseph Borda, that "the laws of South America strictly prohibit the alienation of the funds in mort-main; but, in consequence of this prohibition, the greater part of these funds are ecclesiastical: insomuch, that it is a rare occurrence to find a house or tenement, which, if it do not belong entirely to the church, is not burthened with a fine, or seignoral rent." With