To those who visit Lima, it may perhaps be interesting to know, that the stake at which the unfortunate victims of inquisitorial tyranny were burnt was near the ground on which the _plasa de toros_, bull circus, now stands; and that at the foot of the bridge, at the door of the church, _de los desamparados_, of the abandoned, they were delivered to the ordinary ministers of justice for execution.
It is well known, that many exaggerated accounts have been given of the inquisition, tending more to create doubts, than to establish the truth of the inhuman proceedings of that tribunal. I have stated this fact elsewhere, not with the view of palliating the proceedings, but to put readers on their guard, neither to believe nor disbelieve all that is written. That enough may be said to make humanity shudder, and still more remain untold, is proved by what I saw in the Pandemonium of Lima. But the inquisitors knew too well, that those who had undergone the pains and torments which they inflicted would be apt to divulge them, so that it was their interest either to be sparing of torture, or to prevent a discovery by sacrificing the victim.
When the beloved Ferdinand abolished the Cortes and the constitution in 1812 he restored the inquisition, and often in Madrid personally presided at its sessions. This was not however sufficient to encourage its ministers to proceed with that rigour they had been wont to exercise; they had been once dethroned, and were not certain of their own stability. In Lima the monsters were tame, nay harmless; but this proceeded from fear. No doubt Ferdinand, like his predecessor, Pedro, and the inquisitors, like their founder, St. Dominick, wished for the arrival of a time when they could repeat, "nothing rejoices my soul so much as to hear the bones of heretics crackling at the stake." To the credit of the new governments in South America, the inquisition has been every where abolished, and all spiritual jurisdiction re-invested in the bishops.
The _casa de los huerfanos_, foundling hospital, is an establishment that does honour to its founder, who was an apothecary. All white children are received by tapping at a small revolving window, and placing the child on it when it turns. They are brought up and educated, the males to the age of fourteen, when they are apprenticed to some trade, and according to the rules of the college of medicine, two are received there every two years. The females have a dowry of one thousand dollars each on their marriage, and if they become nuns, there is another charitable institution, founded by the same individual, to which they apply, and the annual dowries, being five of one thousand dollars each, are decided by chance, the names of the solicitors being put into a vase, and drawn in a manner similar to a lottery. Charles IV. declared all foundlings to be noble, for the purpose of their being eligible to any situation. Before the establishment of the foundling hospital, many children were laid at the doors of the wealthy inhabitants, and they were always taken care of. In small towns this practice still occurs, but they are more frequently exposed near the huts of the indians, or slaves; and as the exposed are generally, or I may say always white, they are received, and their foster-parents often treat them with greater kindness than their own children, shewing a kind of predilection for the foundlings. Civilized whites may vaunt of their pious establishments, but let them turn their eyes to the rude hut of an indian, robbed of his country and of his native privileges; or to that of a negro, deprived of the blessings of liberty by the overwhelming power of white men, and behold a female mingling her tears with those of a white child, because she is unable to provide for it what by whites she herself has lost--food, clothing and education! But human nature, not civilized humanity, is the temple of piety.