At the south east extremity of the city is a small citadel called Santa Catalina; in it are the artillery barracks, the military depôt, and the armoury. It is walled round and defended by two bastions, having small pieces of artillery. The Viceroy Pezuela being an officer of artillery, and formerly commandant of the body guard at Lima, paid great attention to the citadel, and expended considerable sums of money in altering and repairing it during the time of his viceroyalty.
The bridge leading from the city to the suburb called San Lazaro is of stone; it has five circular arches, and piers projecting on each side; those to the east are triangular next the stream, and those on the opposite side are circular; on the tops are stone seats, to which a number of fashionable people resort and chat away the summer evenings. From eight to eleven o'clock, or even later, it is remarkably pleasant, both on account of the quantity of people passing to and fro, and from the river being at this season full of water. On the east side the water falls from an elevated stone base about five feet high, and forms a species of cascade, the sound of the falling water adding much to the pleasure enjoyed during the cool evenings of a tropical climate. At the south end of the bridge is a stone arch, crowned with small turrets and stucco, having a clock and dial in the centre; the whole was built and finished by the order of the Viceroy Marquis of Montes Claros, in the year 1613.
The general aspect of the houses in Lima is novel to an Englishman on his first arrival; those of the inferior classes have but one floor, and none exceed two; the low houses have a mean appearance, too, from their having no windows in front. If the front be on a line with the street they have only a door, and if they have a small court-yard, patio, a large heavy door opens into the street. Some of the houses of the richer classes have simply the ground floor, but there is a patio before the house, and the entrance from the street is through a heavy-arched doorway, with a coach house on one side; over this is a small room with a balcony and trellis windows opening to the street. Part of these houses have neat green balconies in front, but very few of the windows are glazed. Having capacious patios, large doors and ornamented trellis windows, beside painted porticos and walls, with neat corridors, their appearance from the street is exceedingly handsome. In some there is a prospect of a garden through the small glazed folding doors of two or three apartments; this garden is either real or painted, and contributes very much to enliven the scenery. The patios, in summer, have large awnings drawn over them, which produce an agreeable shade; but the flat roofs, without any ornaments in front, present an appearance not at all pleasing; if to this we add the sameness of the many dead walls of the convents and nunneries, some of the streets must naturally look very gloomy.