240 



THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC 



(who was canonized in 1726,) where they rest "embalmed in 

 the aroma of his own virtues/^* The splendor of this church 

 impresses the beholder with a religious awe; when lighted 

 with its thousand candles, and the deep toned organs fill its 

 arches with their mellow sounds, it is eminently calculated to 

 impose upon the vulgar, and inspire that devotion, which I 

 fear has been long an obstacle to the advancement of rational 

 liberty in Spanish America. 



The convent of Our Lady of Mercy is less extensive, less 

 magnificent, and in a state of greater ruin, from having suffer- 

 ed more during the revolution. 



The convent of San Pedro is in better keeping, but was never 

 as rich as those already mentioned. In one of its apartments 

 is a large but coarse picture of purgatory and hell, in which all 

 the torments of the damned are most grotesquely represented. 

 In one part of it, a young devil sits astride the shoulders of a 

 mortal victim, and confronting him, tearing out his tongue ; 

 in another, a red hot bolt of iron is driven longitudinally through 

 the head and body with a huge sledge hammer, slung by a 

 hideous demon ; here is the death-bed of a Christian, surround- 

 ed by angels ; there, that of a sinner, attended by fiends ; again, 

 the course of Christian life allegorized in a procession of reli- 

 gious of both sexes, contrasted by a mixed company of musi- 

 cians, lawyers, and bacchanalians, dancing merrily to " the 

 burning gulf.'^ All of which is piously intended to strike ter- 

 ror into the hearts of the ignorant and wicked, and thus frighten 

 them into the love of the beneficent Almighty ! 



In a large hall of this convent is placed the public Library, 

 consisting of eleven thousand volumes, arranged in chapters. 

 That of the History of America is a valuable collection, both 

 of ancient and modern authors. The collection of Bibles is 

 large, and that of the Holy Fathers extensive and curious. 

 The Library was instituted on the 21st August 1821, by San 

 Martin, who gave a number of valuable works ; but the great 

 mass was derived from the convents of the city, by his order. 

 A reading room is attached to the library, furnished with mar- 



• Sol y Ano Feliz del Peru. 1735. 



