NOTICES OF PERU. 



235 



" are the ways of Providence, who disposes of remote means for 

 the accomplishment of convenient ends !" 



The convent of Santo Domingo occupies an entire square. It 

 is divided into four great courts or quadrangles, surrounded 

 by corridors, supported on arches of brick. Various rooms and 

 offices open on these corridors. Their walls are hung with 

 paintings, illustrative of sacred history, but none of them can 

 be considered as a very meritorious production. It has a small 

 garden and a fountain. One of its sides overlooks the Rimac, 

 and has a fine view of the bridge, the river, and the country 

 around. 



Under one of the flights of broad stairs, leading from a court 

 to a corridor, is a small chapel, dedicated to San Martin. Over 

 its altar is suspended a burning lamp, which is constantly fed. 

 On the door there is a notice, that an illustrious bishop con- 

 cedes eighty days of indulgence, to any person who will de- 

 voutly pray one salve before the image. This chapel is illu- 

 minated every Friday. 



The church is on the corner of the building, and attached to 

 it is the highest steeple in Lima, furnished with several very 

 large, fine toned bells. The church is nearly three hundred 

 feet long, by eighty broad. The ceiling is arched, and covered 

 with many curious mouldings and ornaments. The square co- 

 lumns and pilasters which sustain its lofty arches, are hung 

 with crimson velvet with deep borders of gold. At one end 

 is the great altar, and at the other a gallery for the choir. To 

 the right and left of the " altar mayor'^ are two smaller ones ; 

 the first dedicated to Santa Rosa de Lima, and the other to 

 Our Lady of the Rosary. On the altar of Santa Rosa is a re- 

 presentation of that saint sleeping in a bed, attended by an 

 angeL I took it to be a plaster cast, but a lay brother of the 

 convent assured me that it was marble. Above it is a cu- 

 riously carved box, containing the saint's skull. Next to her, 

 on the lateral wall, is the altar of Santo Domingo, the patron 

 of this convent ; every Tuesday morning, at seven o'clock, the 

 reliques of that saint, kept in the intervals locked in a casket, 

 are publicly exhibited. 



" Sweet sight for vulgar eyes !" 



