378 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



The result lias been, that the tertians and pestilential fevers, 

 which before made so dreadful a havoc in that territory^ have en- 

 tirely ceased. Tarma has contra6ted an eternal debt of grati- 

 tude towards the benefadlor by whose wise provisions it has 

 been freed from the calamities by which it was so often and so 

 deeply affli6led. Dr. Don Juan de Alvarez, redlor of the doc- 

 irina and valley of Late, after having, at his own expence, 

 built in the town of that name a commodious church, con- 

 stru6led at the side of it a cemetery in which the dead bodies 

 are inhumed ; and an ossuary destined for the reception of the 

 last fragments of deplorable humanity, when found in an 

 incorrupted state on the opening of a grave. By this wise and 

 commendable plan, which was carried into eiFe6l in the year 

 1790, and by the means of interring at a very considerable 

 depth, he has preserved his church from the bad smells and 

 dangerous exhalations, so usual in those in which the sepul-' 

 tures are made in the centre. 



BIOGRAPHY. 



The following biographical sketches were drawn up by 

 the authors of the Peruvian Mercury, as the commencement 

 of a series intended to rescue from the oblivion into which they 

 had fallen, the learned and distinguished chara6lers by whom 

 Peru has been adorned since the epoch of the conquest. 



Father Juan Perez Menacho was born in Lima in the year 

 1565 ; his parents were equally distinguished by an illustrious 

 descent, and by the exercise of the milder virtues. At the ag£ 

 of six years he could read, write, cipher, and draw, possess- 

 ing 



