The Wreck of the Chancellor Author:Jules Verne Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Martin Paz. j]HE sun had just set behind the snowy peaks of the Cordilleras; but beneath this lovely Peruvian sky the atmosphere, across the transparent ... more »veil of night, was impregnated with a luminous freshness. It was the hour when one might live in a European air, and seek the soft breezes on the verandas. Whilst the earliest stars were rising in the horizon, many promenaders were thronging the streets of Lima, wrapped in light mantles, and talking sedately about matters the most trifling. Multitudes were moving towards the Plaza Mayor, the forum of the ancient " City of Kings." Street vendors were taking advantage of the coolness to ply their daily trade, and were shouting praises of their wares with much ado. The women, carefully wrapped in mantillas which concealed their faces, were gliding among the groups of smokers. Some senoras, in ball costume, their heads uncovered, except by their abundant tresses adorned with natural flowers, were lounging in wide,open carriages. Indians passed to and fro without raising their eyes, knowing themselves too much despised to be observed, betraying neither by word nor gesture the dull envy which was devouring them; and they were thus in marked contrast with the half-breeds, who, outcasts like themselves, rebelled more loudly against their fate. As for the Spaniards, the proud descendants of Pizarro, they walked with erect heads, as in the time when their ancestors founded the " City of Kings." Their traditional contempt was visited both upon the Indians whom they had conquered, and the half-breeds, born of the union between them and the denizens of the Xew World. The Indians, like all races reduced to servitude, thought only of breaking their chains, and hated equally the conquerors of the ancient empire of the Incas, and ...« less