Remarkable Family at Lima.— Differently regarded by the Population. -Origin of the Family.- The Heroine of the Tale.- Secretly courted by two Lovers. - Discovered by the Mother. - Power of Riches. Confinement in a Convent. -Rules of the Convent. - Taking the Veil. - A new Lover. Plan of Escape.-Success of the Plan. Affairs of Affections. - Terror in the Convent. Departure of the Lovers from Arequipa. Conduct of the Priests. The Pope's part. Remission of the Vows.-Character of the Family at Lima.-Remarks on the Future of Peru.

I SHALL close these chapters on Peru, by some account of the parents of a family residing in Lima, whose history has excited great interest throughout the country, by reason of the curious adventures of the lady, who has been differently regarded by those to whom the follow ing circumstances are known. The rigid portion of the religious population look upon the fair Creole with an eye of severity which is very difficult to comprehend, and the moderate Roman Catholics regard her with curiosity mingled with pity; while the few Protestants who visit the city and learn her history, consider her adventures as a successful triumph over the wretched superstitions of the Peruvian people.

For my own part, as a stranger quite unconnected with any of the institutions of the land, I have no feeling to gratify save such as may proceed from the love

of truth; and I shall set down just what was related to me, and omit only the names of the parties, which it might not be quite delicate to mention. But in the Appendix, I shall insert an extract from a letter which I received on the subject from Arequipa, in which the heads of the lady's adventures, which I afterwards heard more fully detailed, are given by a gentleman of the highest character, but whether of the Romish or Protestant Church I am not able to say.

I must first mention, that a Spanish merchant settled in Peru, and carried on his business while the state was still a dependency of his native country; and after successfully trading under the protection of the prohibitory system which the Spaniards maintained in their colonies, he married the daughter of another Spaniard by whom he had several children, one of whom was the lady whose adventures I am about to relate.

The merchant brought up his family at Arequipa, and his daughter of whom we are speaking, being possessed of beauty far above that of the young ladies generally of the country, to which were added several other attractions peculiar to her sex, had every appearance of becoming the chief ornament of the town. Her father dying while she was too young to be affianced, she was left with the rest of the family to the care of her mother whose management of her charge, seems to have been of very doubtful policy.

When the young lady had attained her fifteenth year, at which time she would be considered a woman in Peru, two gentlemen became strongly attached to her, without for some time exciting any suspicions on the

One was

part of the mother, or even of one another. a rich merchant of middle age, and the other a young man with a very small estate, without any business, or any particular expectations. Looks, were the only kind of intercourse that could be carried on between any of the parties, and these being unnoticed by the mother, the partiality of the girl remained for a time concealed.

The predominant passion of our nature, however, cannot disguise itself at all times with equal success, and circumstances ere long led to the discovery by the mother, both of the attachment of the gentlemen and the girl's partiality for the younger and least fortunate in worldly estate of her two admirers. The circumstances which led to this discovery are related as follows.

Neither of the gentlemen it appears, had been able to obtain any opportunity of declaring himself to the young lady personally. It was well known to them to be the determination of the mother that her daughter should not marry. This obliged them to seek a means of communicating with the duenna with whom she was occasionally seen in the streets; and it may be easily conceived that the richer of the two lovers was the most successful through this means of intercourse. He indeed obtained a certain, while the other had only a very uncertain, means of carrying on his suit; for the very trustworthy duenna, after discovering the decided partiality of the girl for the younger lover, invented or aided in carrying into effect a scheme in favour of the elder suitor, that wanted only a more

honourable purpose to be worthy of great credit. She carried on the intercourse between this gentleman and the young lady entirely in the name of the younger gentleman and her charge, and made arrangements to enable the lover she favoured to carry off the girl, whom she believed would be no sooner made acquainted with her shame, than she would consent to marry the man with whom she had fled.

It so happened, however, that what was really passing, did not long remain a secret to the younger of the lovers. Some circumstance or other led him to suspect the intrigues that were being carried on by his rival, while several messages which he received through the duenna did not seem to him to express the mind of the young lady, and in a moment of excitement, he communicated to the mother all that he knew or suspected was passing between her daughter and his rival, which led to the lady's discovery of the whole matter, and to her taking immediate steps to force her child to enter one of the convents of the city.

It has been before mentioned, that there are no less than three convents in Arequipa, which are under different management and different degrees of severity. The convents of Saint Catherine and Saint Rosa, are comparatively mild in their discipline; but that of Santa Thereso which may admit 21 nuns, and had 19 within its walls when I was at Arequipa, is managed with much more rigour. The nuns in this convent are only allowed to see their relatives once a fortnight through two wooden lattices, and that only if no particular devotion intervene, in which

case they may

be prevented seeing any of their friends for a month or six weeks together. Even while they are conversing with their friends through the lattices, an aged sister is always stationed close at hand, to report to the abbess whatever passes. Moreover, whenever a nun even wishes to converse with one of her sister nuns, she must previously obtain permission from the abbess; and the nun with whom she wishes to communicate, is obliged to obtain the like permission before they can carry on any intercourse. Such was the convent into which the poor girl was forced by her mother

to enter.

The rules of this convent, for the term of the novitiate or period in which the rudiments of the discipline to be afterwards practised are learned, were the same here as it is generally in Europe; and this was passed by the young lady, without seeming to have any effect different from that felt by most novices wherever the convents exist.

Here, however, I must remark, that after hearing much upon tolerably good authority on the subject of convents, I am convinced that the remaining in them after the novitiate, and the vows finally made, more commonly proceed from the shame that is attached to a return to the world after this trial than from any conviction of the virtue of the institution itself.

Whatever were the reasons for the conduct of the girl, which has generally been attributed to the fear of her mother, at the end of her novitiate she took the veil and performed the part assigned to her; and her impassioned lovers deprived of all hope of her