PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 



53 



The friars are not numerous, though they are 

 iar too much so. These useless beings * amount 

 to about one hundred and fifty in number at 

 Olinda, Recife, Iguaracu, and Paraiba.t But 

 there are no nuns in the province, though of the 

 establishments called Recolhimentos or Retreats, 



* An old woman applied at the gates of a convent, late 

 one evening, and told the porter, an old friar, who was quite 

 blind, that she wished one of the brothers to go with her, for 

 the purpose of confessing a sick person. The old man, 

 with perfect unconcern, gave her to understand, that they 

 were all out, adding, " But if you will go to the garden-gate, 

 and wait there, some of them will soon be creeping in." 



f The younger members of the Franciscan Order enjoy 

 very much the duty of going out to beg,as opportunities offer 

 of amusing themselves. A guardian was chosen at Paraiba 

 some years ago, who examined the chest in which the 

 money belonging to the community was kept, and on finding 

 a considerable sum in it, gave orders that no one should go 

 out to beg. He was a conscientious man, and said, that as 

 they had already enough, the people must not be importuned 

 tor more, until what they possessed was finished. He kept 

 the whole community within the walls of the convent for the 

 term of two or three years, for which each guardian is ap- 

 pointed. On another occasion, the friars of a Franciscan 

 convent chose for their guardian a young man, whose life 

 had been very irregularly spent in any thing rather than the 

 duties of his calling, under the idea, that, during the con- 

 tinuance of his guardianship, they would lead a merry life, — 

 that very little attention would be paid to the rules and regu- 

 lations of the Order ; but they were mistaken ; he changed 

 his habits as soon as he found himself at their head ; the 

 gates were rigidly closed at the proper hour, and according 

 to the old and vulgar proverb, of " Set a thief," &c. the 

 duties of the convent were performed with much greater 

 austerity than before. 



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