| AREQUIPA. | LIMA. | QUITO. |
| 1582 | 1586 | 1587 |
| 1604 | 1630 | 1645 |
| 1687 | 1687 | 1698 |
| 1715 | 1746 | 1757 |
| 1784 | 1806 | 1797 |
| 1819 | ||
It has been remarked, that the vegetable world suffers very much by a great shock, the country about Lima, and all the range of coast were particularly affected by that which happened in 1678. The crops of wheat, maize, and other grain were entirely destroyed, and for several years afterwards the ground was totally unproductive. At that period wheat was first brought from Chile, which country has ever since been considered the granary of Lima, Guayaquil, and Panama. Feijo, in his description of the province of Truxillo, says, "that some of the valleys which produced two hundred fold of wheat before the earthquake in 1687 did not reproduce the seed after it for more than twenty years;" and according to the latest information from Chile the crops have failed since the earthquake in 1822. The following shocks were felt in Lima in the years 1805 and 1810:—
| 1805 | 1810 | |||||||
| _________/\_________ | ________/\________ | |||||||
| / | \ | / | \ | |||||
| January | 9, | at 7½ | P. M. | January | 7, | at 9 | A. M. | |
| … | 10, | … 5 | A. M. | … | 11, | … 5 | P. M. | |
| … | 27, | … 9 | P. M. | May | 3, | … 7½ | A. M. | |
| February | 17, | … 6 | P. M. | … | 15, | … 5 | A. M. | |
| … | 21, | … 4½ | P. M. | … | 16, | … 7 | P. M. | |
| March | 1, | … 5 | A. M. | June | 15, | … 5½ | A. M. | |
| June | 4, | … 4½ | P. M. | Nov. | 17, | … 5 | A. M. | |
| July | 1, | … 5 | A. M. | … | 21, | … 7½ | A. M. | |
| Nov. | 7, | … 8 | P. M. | … | 24, | … 5 | P. M. | |
| … | 9, | … 8½ | P. M. | … | 26, | … 5½ | P. M. | |
| Dec. | 5, | … 7½ | P. M. | |||||
| … | 14, | … 4½ | P. M. | |||||
When one or two faint shocks are felt in the moist weather, they are supposed to indicate a change, and the same is expected in the dry or hot weather.
The principal produce of the valley of Lima is sugar cane, lucern, alfalfa, maize, wheat, beans, with tropical and European fruit, as well as culinary vegetables.
The sugar cane is almost exclusively of the creole kind: fine sugar is seldom made from it here, but a coarse sort, called chancaca, is extracted, the method of manufacturing which will hereafter be described. The principal part of the cane is employed in making guarapo; this is the expressed juice of the cane fermented, and constitutes the chief drink of the coloured people; it is intoxicating, and from its cheapness its effects are often visible, particularly among the indians who come from the interior, and can purchase this disgusting vice at a low rate. The liquor is believed to produce cutaneous eruptions if used by the white people, on which account, or more probably from the vulgarity implied in drinking it, they seldom taste it. I found it very agreeable, and when thirsty or over-heated preferred it to any other beverage.
The manufacture of rum was expressly forbidden in Peru both by the Monarch and the Pope; the former ordained very heavy penalties to be inflicted, the latter fulminated his anathemas on those who should violate the royal will. The whole of this strange colonial restriction had for its object the protection and exclusive privilege of the owners of vineyards in the making of spirits—a protection which cost the proprietors upwards of sixty thousand dollars.
Great quantities of lucern, alfalfa, are cultivated, for the purpose of supplying with provender