r of independence, has received the
name of the Square of Independence (_Plazuela de la Independencia_).
It is of trapezi-form, widening in the eastern part, and is certainly
no ornament to the town, for it is always in a very dirty condition.
Being the public market-place, it presents a very busy aspect during
the fore part of the day. Two buildings on this Plazuela attract
attention, viz.--the Palace of the Inquisition and the University.
There are now but few remaining traces of the internal arrangements of
the fearful tribunal; for, on the suppression of the Inquisition by
the Cortes, the enraged populace forced their way into the building,
where they gutted the rooms, and destroyed the furniture. Lima was the
seat of spiritual jurisdiction for the whole western coast of South
America; and the rigor of its despotism was not far short of that of
the Inquisition of Madrid. Every year vast numbers of persons
convicted or suspected of crimes were brought from all the intervening
points between Chiloe and Columbia to the Tribunal of the Inquisition,
and most of them were doomed to the most dreadful punishments. _Autos
da fe_ were frequently held in Lima, and cases of other kinds of
martyrdom were exceedingly numerous. The lists, which have been only
partially preserved, present melancholy results. One part of the
Palace of the Inquisition is now converted into a store-house for
provisions, and the other part is used as a prison.

The University of Lima was once the most important seat of education
in South America. It owes its origin to a decree of the emperor
Charles V., issued at the solicitation of the dominican monk Maestro
Fray Tomas de San Martin. The decree was dated the 12th of May, 1551,
but it did not reach Lima until two years after that time. A papal
bull of Pius V. confirmed the imperial decree, and conferred on the
institution the same privileges as those enjoyed by the Spanish
university of Salamanca. The Lima university was originally
established in the convent of Santo Domingo, but after the lapse of
three years it was removed to the building now occupied by San Marcel,
and in 1576 it was installed in the site it now occupies. It received
the name of _Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Marcos_. In the year
1572 the first lay rector was elected in the person of Gaspar
Menendez, a doctor of medicine.

The building is situated on the east side of the _Plaza de la
Independencia_, next to the hospital of