The inhabitants of Truxillo consist of a few Spaniards, some white creoles, indians, negroes, and the castes arising from the mixture of these, amounting in the whole to about eight thousand souls. This city is celebrated as being the birth-place and residence of some very handsome _mulatas_ and other females of colour; indeed the features of many are very pleasing, and the castes remarkably free from those stains which not unfrequently render the complexion of coloured people so very disagreeable. Truxillo is noted for its Quixotic nobility; it is often said, that the body of this celebrated Don was buried here; I have frequently seen in the house of a mulatto or a zambo a full-length portrait of the individual, who by a kind of faux pas caused them to emerge from the African race, and sable colour, and of whom they speak with as much respect as the _montañeses_ do of Don Pelayo, whose descendants they all pretend to be, or as any nobleman of England would do of Ptolemy or Alexander, if he fancied that he could trace his pedigree either to the Egyptian astronomer or the Macedonian hero.
There is nothing peculiar in the dress of the inhabitants; the men wear their clothes nearly in the European style, with the addition of a cloak or a poncho; the females, unlike to those of Lima, may be seen in the streets in their in-door dresses, but seldom with either hat, cap, or bonnet; their heads being usually covered with a shawl. The higher classes, and all who can afford it, have _calesas_, a close carriage on two wheels, drawn by a mule, on which the coachman rides. The general _paseo_ for the ladies is to _Mansiche_, a small indian village to the northward of the city, about half a league from the walls, where they resort during the cool of the evening mounted on asses, having a kind of pack-saddle covered with very gay trappings of crimson broad-cloth or velvet, embroidered and fringed with gold or silk. The ladies ride sideways, and frequently two are mounted on the same ass, with their feet hanging on the opposite sides; one of the ladies generally wears a small spur. At Mansiche they treat themselves with _picantes_, dishes highly seasoned with aji, cayenne pepper; they also drink chicha, and generally return to the city about sunset.