PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 



blished according to the original intention. The advantages 

 which have resulted from these regulations, may be estimated 

 by the follow^ing comparative statement. In 1766, the period 

 above alluded to, thirty-four females only were to be num- 

 bered, and much difficulty was found in keeping up that small 

 establishment. At the present time, the commencement of 

 April 1792, the number is considerably more than quadrupled. 

 The females who are commonly known by the name of beat as 

 (devotees) were then confined to fourteen only ; but now 

 amount to twenty-four, that being the number limited by the 

 viceroy, with two supernumeraries. There are besides twenty-^ 

 nine poor girls and orphans, fifteen repentant females, fifty 

 boarders for education, eleven females who have voluntarily 

 sought an asylum in the establishment, and thirty-six others 

 belonging to the different casts, partly for education, and 

 partly as domestics, forming in the whole a total of one hun- 

 dred and sixty-seven persons*, without reckoning either the 

 recluses, whose stay is merely temporary, or the married wo- 

 men who retire thither to commence the legal proceedings for 

 a divorce. 



The above are the principal and most important benevolent 

 establishments in the capital of Peru, in referring to which, 

 the learned Murillo asserts, on the authority of father Calan- 



* By consulting the first table of the demonstrative plan of the population of Lima, 

 it will be seen that, in the course of fifteen months, from the commencement of 

 1791 to the above expressed date, twenty individuals were added to the establish- 

 ment. 



cha, 



