Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/207

Rh Being both of them animated by the same spirit of humanity, they were desirous to make a useful application of the means which Providence had bestowed on them, without subjecting their determination to the alterations of an indolent or covetous executor. As a charitable gift loses much of its value, when it is swayed by the impulse of terror, or by the weakness of the contrary passion in the hour of death, they made their testament when in the enjoyment of perfe6t health, in the month of June 1654.

The fifth clause of this instrument enacted the foundation of the asylum or college in question, in which young girls, of the description of those who, having been left destitute, from their early infancy, through the cruelty or indigence of their parents, are wont to be the victims of their unprotected state, were to be clothed, fed, and educated. To form from its origin an establishment of such a nature, it was ordered in the above, and in the subsequent clauses, that the licentiate Garcia Martinez Gabeza, inquisitor of these realms, and, in the case of his demise or absence, the tribunal of the Holy Office, should frame such laws and constitutions as might appear to be best adapted to its good government, advancement, and preservation. Finally, the aforesaid tribunal was nominated perpetual patron, with indeterminate powers to dispose at its pleasure both of the college and its government.

On the death, in August 1655, of Mateo Pastor, who survived his virtuous consort but a short time, and by virtue of the above dispositions, the necessary measures were taken to carry into effe6t the testament of the deceased. The foundation of the college received the approbation of the supreme thority