Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/218

190 lapse of time demanded a new compilation of the code, the regulations of which were adapted to the immediate circumstances. By this reform, the admission into the house of compassion, and subsequent adoption, of any cast that should not be either Spaniard, Mestizo, or Quarteron, were strictly prohibited.

Many donations were bestowed on this charitable establishment, which excited the lively interest of the public. Donna Anna Rodriguez De Solorzano, a rich and virtuous widow, endowed the monastery with two houses, one of them as an, hospital for poor sick women, the other as a college for the education of young females left without protection. She became the first abbess, and presided over each of these institutions. On the site of these possessions the hospital of charity was built, and has since had many benefactors, whose donations, combined with those of the primitive founders, yield at the present time an annual income of upwards of twelve thousand piastres.

His Catholic Majesty has, from the commencement, patronized both the monastery and the hospital. Several of the viceroys have been admitted into the fellowship of the latter; and the Popes have bestowed on it many indulgences, among which may be reckoned that of the forty hours. The first solemnity of this description which took place in Lima was in favour of this hospital, and was the only one, throughout the kingdom, granted at that epoch to poor women. The college of charity, which depended originally on the small