304 Voyage of the Novara. 



comprising 159 villages and 749,804 inhabitants.* The 

 spiritual instruction of these is intrusted to 184 brethren 

 of the order, 74 priests, and 43 Clerigos Interims (occasional 

 preachers). 



The monastery of the Becoletos, or Reformed Augustini- 

 ans, offers a not less impressive prospect than that of the 

 Franciscans. Here, too, tlie occupants permit to appear a 

 careless indifference utterly destructive of the value of their 

 ghostly ministration. As we entered, the brethren of the 

 order had finished their mid- day repast. Some of the monks 

 were still sitting in a dirty, gloomy verandah round a 

 table on which was spread a table-cloth stained with food 

 and drink, while in front of each stood a half-empty wine- 

 glass. A lay brother announced us, upon which one of the 

 monks rose to bid us welcome. From his rather jovial ap- 

 pearance, and the suspicious colour of his nose, we presumed 

 he was the cellarer, and were not a little surprised when, in 

 the course of conversation, he announced that it was the Prior 

 himself who was speaking with us. 



We had the utmost difficulty in making the brethren, 

 whose information was of a most limited extent, com2)rehend 

 from what country we came. The cii'cumstance that the 

 original German name Oesterreich is pronounced Austria in 

 Spanish, puzzled still more hopelessly the comprehension of 



* Of this number of souls there were in 1857, 188,509 amenable to taxation, while 

 during the year there occurred 31,285 births, 21,029 deaths, and 5/13 marriages. 



