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The church of San Lazaro, iu the puriwh of that name, is among the most remarkable fur 

 the arch it <() 11 nil taste displayed in its construction, and the unexceptionable arrangement of 

 UN internal ornaments. San Francisco, one of the oldest as well as one of the largest of the 

 monasteries, is near the Rimac, and not far from the plaza. Its church, gardens, and cloisters 

 cover two squares of ground ; and the order is still wealthy. The church has three naves, 

 traversed by aisles forming a double cross ; with many chapels, paintings, sculpture, and [.lute, 

 that rival portions of the cathedral. Its spacious gardens are well arranged, and are adorned 

 with fountains. 



Since the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1773, San Pedro has been occupied only by a very small 

 number of priests, and as a hospital for poor members of the clergy who are supported from 

 the revenues of estates that escaped the general confiscation. Its great extent, and the known 

 wealth of the order that founded it, must have made it, under their rule, the principal monastic 

 establishment of the vice-royalty. At that time the poor were furnished with medical advice 

 and medicines from their dispensary. Its church is not so large as that of San Francisco ; but 

 it is prettily fitted up, and on one or two of the annual religious festivals is a scene of much 

 pomp. La Merced and San Auyustin, two other convents, are in its rear. The former is 

 spacious, but suffered much during the revolution ; and as it is not largely endowed, it makes 

 rather a poor display among its wealthier brethren. The latter is one of the old and opulent 

 institutions, though its fortuiies are rapidly on the wane ; and there are few tenants in its cells 

 to mourn its neglected corridors and gardens. Its church has an elaborately carved front, 

 whose profusion of figures have little elegance of design or artistic execution to recommend 

 them. Internally, it scarcely differs from several others already named. 



Prior to the revolution there were forty-six convents of monks and nuns, some of which have 

 been abandoned or broken up. There are still several besides those named, and fifteen or six- 

 teen nunneries, each of which has its open chapel or oratory. Moreover, there are nearly 

 sixty parish churches 1 Amongst the nunneries, La Conception, Santa Clara, and La Encarna- 

 cion are the best endowed ; the Capuchinas, Nazarenas, and Trinitarian are the most rigorous 

 in their conventual rules. The former have not been famed for the piety of their secluded lives. 

 The liefugio de San Jose is a house to which married women may retire who desire to with- 

 draw from the ill-treatment of bad husbands; and to which by permission of the archbishop 

 husbands may temporarily send their wives, if they think a little seclusion and quiet medita- 

 tion likely to improve their manners. There is also a house of refuge for indigent females, 

 and others who "loved not wisely, but too well," which was established in 1670 by the reigning 

 viceroy. Nearly a century before, a legacy had been bequeathed for that object by some ohari- 

 table person, the accumulated value of which enabled him to provide properly for these unfor- 

 tunates. There were but few inmates in 1849. 



The principal hospitals are San Andres for males, and Santa Ana for women. The former 

 was founded in 1552, and has subsequently been added to until it can accommodate 400 patients. 

 One portion of the building is appropriated to the poor, who receive gratuitous assistance ; and 

 another is set apart for insane persons. It is quite customary for the public to visit the hospital 

 on St. Andrew's day, at which time the lunatics are objects of most curiosity and remark. 

 Santa Ana was founded three years previously. It has now thirteen wards, containing about 

 300 beds. San Bartolome, a military hospital, has eleven wards and 220 beds. A hospital 

 originally intended for leprous patients was founded in 1669. Now, persons are sent there who 

 may be afflicted with cutaneous maladies of any kind, but more especially with those of a con- 

 tagious character. The foundling hospital, instituted at the commencement of the seventeenth 

 century, has only about 100 children under its charge. 



The palace occupied by Pizarro was opposite to that subsequently erected for the viceroys on 



the north side of the plaza, and now tenanted by the President of the republic. The latter covers 



a whole square, and is a mean-looking building, which one would suppose the property of 



peddlers rather than the dwelling of a nation's chief magistrate. Both fronting the plaza and 



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