160 THE CHURCH AND ITS CEREMONIES. 



with which they fulfil their other obligations." All of the ex-minister's fellow-countrymen have 

 not been equally scrupulous ; and there are few who do not know that a large number of the 

 curates have found it necessary to console themselves with families in the country, and to pass 

 an occasional evening with a neighbor playing monte. Nor are these facts unknown to the arch- 

 bishop, one of his own metropolitan establishment (to use his own words in the letter quoted) 

 "publicly and notoriously" participating in theee prohibitions; so much so, that when we talked 

 about it one day, he confessed: "They are nearly all like me, except that they have not my 

 candor to acknowledge it." He was a liberal man, having given evidence of such sentiment 

 by urging liberty of worship on the Chamber, when one of its members some years previously. 

 He considered a multitude of sects one of the safeguards of piety ; each ,kept watch over the rest. 



The city is divided into six parishes, viz: Cathedral, Santa Ana, Estampa, San Michael, San 

 Lazaro, and San Isidro; besides which, there are churches belonging to the convents numbering 

 fifteen more. Within the diocess, and exclusive of the conventual clergy, there are 232 ordained 

 priests. Although some of the monastic orders are vowed to poverty, most of them own suffi- 

 cient property to live in comfort. Since the departure of the Jesuits, and the partition of their 

 property, the Augustina sisterhood and Dominican friars may be considered the two wealthiest 

 communities ; and the latter, it will be remembered, was originally a mendicant order. The 

 former possess some of the most valuable real estate within Santiago ; on which, from a part of 

 its proceeds, while we were in Chile, a new building was erected for their better accommodation. 

 As the convents are barred to all of the male sex, (and, indeed, to the female also,) except the 

 archbishop, the doctor, and to the new President for a single visit, I took occasion to examine 

 the arrangements of their intended domicil before they moved into it. The apartments open on 

 long corridors which communicate with extensive chambers for the use of the abbess, and in 

 bad weather afford them places for exercise. Each nun has a small sitting-room, a dormitory, 

 and a servant's room, with conveniences for cooking, washing, and stowage of household neces- 

 sities ; a stream of water passing through the premises of every one. The luxuriously disposed 

 keep a servant, who is free to return to the world when tired of cloistral labor, but is not at 

 liberty to go back and forth each day. For the supply of their necessities, a sort of market is 

 held daily in a court of their property specially provided, and hither are brought for sale 

 provisions and materials and such articles as their industry embraces. Neither purchaser nor 

 seller sees the other ; but the commodity offered is placed within one of the recesses of a turnstile 

 filling an aperture of the wall, and if accepted its value is returned in the same manner. 

 Many of the nuns are skilled in needle-work, and in making ornamental pastilles, fancy toys 

 of earthenware, and confectionery of various kinds ; in the sale of which they employ servants 

 outside. In 1850, the convent numbered 75 nuns and 176 seculars. 



Besides San Augustina, there are two convents dedicated to Santa Clara, two Carmelites, one 

 to Santa Rosa, one Capuchin, and one of the Sacred Heart ; embracing in all 252 nuns, 325 

 seculars, and 31 servants, or a total of 859 women, withdrawn from the purposes of society, 

 their accumulating wealth absolutely locked up. Eecently, government made a large appro- 

 priation to import from France Sisters of Charity, the archbishop probably preferring a foreign 

 article to one of home materials. 



Of monks there are seven foundations, viz : Dominicans, Recoleta Dominicans, Franciscans, 

 Recoleta Franciscans, Franciscan Hermits, Mercedarios, (White Friars,) and Sacred Heart. 

 The convents contain 529 inmates. The Dominicans were the first who obtained foothold as an 

 order. They are by far the most recherches in their dress, have features of more refinement, 

 indicating a better origin than either of the others, and are reputed to be by far the most intel- 

 ligent. They came to Chile in 1552. Their library contains above six thousand volumes. 

 Next year the Franciscans followed, and for a while occupied a portion of Santa Lucia, where 

 my orisons were so long made. According to the narrative of one of their number, (Padre 

 Guzman, author of "El Chileno instruido en la Mstoria topographica, civil y politico, de supais,") 

 there have since been many among them distinguished for an incredible amount of learning, and 



