Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/420

366 male or female, of the empire of Morocco. Muley-Mehemed, enraged at this deception, ordered his wicked minister to be thrown into the sea; and the latter thus expiated, by the forfeiture of his life, the tyranny of his intentions. How many projectors merit a fate similar to that which attended Abdoul-Hassan-Benamar!

The Academical Society, desirous to be useful to the country, and to convert to its benefit the sole pecuniary advantages that have been hitherto derived from the circulation of the Peruvian Mercury, having obtained the permission of the supreme authority for that purpose, invites all the learned inhabitants of the kingdom, whom it proposes to stimulate by honorary rewards, agreeably to the custom of the academies of Europe, to transmit the result of their meditations on the above subject of the amelioration of the roads. This invitation is accompanied by ardent prayers, that the proposal may be well received, and may be productive of the advantages the Society experts to result from it.

The Society therefore offers the reward of a gold medal, of the weight of eleven ounces, with a ring and chain of the same metal, to him who shall present a dissertation on the easiest, most economical, and most secure method of improving the roads of the kingdom; such dissertation, when compared with the others of its class, meriting the highest approbation, and the greatest number of suffrages. In the same way it offers a silver medal, of the same weight and description, to the author whose dissertation on this subject, being next