Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/445

Rh the town of San Sebastian de Huaraz, the capital of the province of Huaylas, died on the 12th of December, 1790, Don Juan Modesto de Castro-Monte, at the remarkable age of a hundred and thirty-three years. He was a native of the above province, in which he resided until his death. He was twice married, and left behind him eight children, a multitude of grand-children, and a still greater number belonging to the third and fourth degrees. A daughter by his first marriage, had, during his lifetime, three great grand-children already grown up. His second wife died at the age of ninety-six years, after having been eighty years the partner of his bed. He never on any occasion tasted either wine or strong liquors; and was never subject to the slightest ailment, not even to a pain of the head. Until his latest years he preserved the use of his faculties free and entire. On the day of his decease there was not any visible change in his health: having received the sacrament from the hands of the Franciscan friars residing in the above place, he died without any pang, beside that which the laws of human nature, when it has reached its precise boundary, bring with them. His equitable, compassionate, and liberal character, procured him the love and esteem of all the inhabitants of the province, by whom his loss was sensibly felt. A frugal life, separated from the tumultuous passions of the world, and devoted to the innocent pleasures of agriculture, secured to him the enjoyment of that felicity, which in the ancient law was the benediction of heaven—a long life and a numerous posterity.