NOTICES OF PERU. 



229 



CHAPTER VII. 



Convent of St. Augustin — Monastery of La Incarnaclon — Convent of Santo 

 Domingo — Negros Bozales — Convent of San Francisco — Our Lady of Mer- 

 cies — San Pedro — Library — Churches — Bells — Inquisition — Museum — Uni- 

 versity of St. Mark — Hall of Deputies — Charities — Hospitals. 



The convent of San Augustin is amongst the oldest in Lima. 

 It occupied a whole square, but in 1825, the minister, Montea- 

 gudo, caused a part of it to be torn down, to widen the street, 

 and form a small plaza before the theatre. * The church is situ- 

 ated on one corner of the vast pile. Its front is a field of carv- 

 ing and statues of saints. Over the great door is San Augustin, 

 trampling three or four of his prostrate enemies under his feet. 

 On his head is a mitre, and in his hand a book with a miniature 

 temple upon it, indicating the foundation of the Christian 

 church. 



The interior is similar in its general arrangements to the ca- 

 thedral. It has its several chapels, sacristy, &c., and glories 

 in a goodly number of holy reliques. 



The convent is divided into several large courts, surrounded 

 by corridors, supported on arches and columns, which com- 

 municate with each other both above and below. . The court 

 adjoining the church is termed the cloister. The principal 

 events of the life of St. Augustin are represented in a series of 

 paintings, which are hung round the walls, and, to protect 

 them from the weather, closed by light shutters, except on 

 certain feast days, amongst which is the anniversary of the 

 saint. Of this vast pile only a few apartments are now tenant- 

 ed. Its refectory is no longer redolent of the odors of the 

 kitchen ; its fountains are choked, and its gardens have ceased 

 to regale the senses with their productions. Of the hundred 

 friars who lived within its walls twenty years ago, scarcely 

 one-third remains. The patriots, in breaking from the yoke 



* This act, it is said, led to the assassination of that minister soon afterwards. 



