UNIVERSITY OP ST. MARK. 



recorded in the registers of its chapters. They exceed at this 

 time a hundred thousand piastres ; and it would be diffi- 

 cult to find in the city of l>ima a public work to which it has 

 not contributed with cheerfulness and promptitude. It is im- 

 possible to read without satisfaction the sacrifice of life, goods, 

 and persons, made by the doctors, masters, and students, in 

 1709, when the English, having invaded the port of Guaya- 

 quil, excited a general panic throughout the kingdom. They 

 enrolled themselves, without any exception of classes or con- 

 ditions, for the king's service, and formed themselves into 

 companies. Dr. Martin de los Reyes took the command of 

 the company of the ecclesiastics who composed the chapter ; 

 that of the seculars was commanded by Dr. Bartolome Ro- 

 mero ; and that of the students by Dr. Tomas Salazar. The 

 re£tor, Don Isidora Olmedo, to evince his attachment and 

 fidelity to his sovereign, took the command in chief. 



It has been observed by an illustrious Spaniard*, that *' one 

 of the best ascertained reasons of the decay of universities, is 

 the antiquity of their foundation ; because the plan of studies 

 established at the commencement, not having afterward un- 

 dergone any reform, it follows that they must still retain the 

 dross and impurities of the remote ages, and cannot be freed 

 from them without the intelledual lights afforded by time, 

 and by the discoveries of the eminent subjedls of every part of 

 the literary world." 



On consulting the archives of the celebrated academies of 

 Europe, we shall soon be made sensible of the solidity of these 



* Count Campomanes, governor of the supreme council of Castille, in his reply 

 on the subjedl of the plaa of studies of tlie university of Salamanca.. 



obser- 



