CHURCH OF CHIQUINQUIRA. 233 



things are not as they used to be; people 

 are become poor, and cannot make such 

 offerings to the holy Virgin as they were 

 accustomed formerly to do." This was a 

 cause of great regret to the good friar, 

 who, as head brother, had to stop the 

 completing of the church and monastery 

 some years back ; since which time the 

 number of the brotherhood has much de- 

 creased, and I do not think will ever re- 

 vive, so much are the eyes of a great part 

 of the people opened. 



Oct. 14th. After an early breakfast we 

 went to visit the far-famed church of Chi- 

 quinquira, celebrated for being the depo- 

 sitory of a miraculously formed picture of 

 the Virgin — the story related by her wor- 

 shippers is the following : 



" About two hundred years before the 

 present time, there stood a lonely Indian 



