igO BENEVOLENT ESTABLISHMENTS'. 



lapse of time demanded a new compilation of the code, the 

 regulations of which were adapted to the immediate circum- 

 stances. By this reform, the admission into the house of 

 compassion, and subsequent adoption, of any cast that should 

 not be either Spaniard, Mestizo, or Quarteron, were stri6lly 

 prohibited. 



Many donations were bestowed on this charitable establish- 

 ment, which excited the lively interest of the public. Donna 

 Anna Rodriguez De Solorzano, a rich and virtuous widow, 

 endowed the monastery with two houses, one of them as an 

 hospital for poor sick women, the other as a college for the 

 education of young females left without protedlion. She be- 

 came the first abbess, and presided over. each of these institu- 

 tions. On the site of these possessions the hospital of charity 

 was built, and has since had many benefa6lors, whose dona- 

 tions, combined with those of the primitive founders, yield at 

 the present time an annual income of upwards of twelve thou- 

 sand piastres. 



His Catholic Majesty has, from the commencement, patro- 

 nized both the monastery and the hospital. Several of the 

 viceroys have been admitted into the fellowship of the latter ; 

 and the Popes have bestowed on it many indulgences, among 

 which may be reckoned that of the forty hours*. The first 

 solemnity of this description which took place in Lima was in 

 favour of this hospital, and was the only one, throughout the 

 kingdom, granted at that epoch to poor women. 



The college of charity, which depended originally on the 



* This name is bestowed on the extraordinary prayers, of forty hours continu- 

 ance, which are offered up to Heaven on urgent occasions. 



same 



