by means of the Spanilh ambaflador, duke of Feria, a fate con- dud: to leave the nation ; and they retired firft into Zealand: from thence they went to Antwerp, where they refided in 1571, and fome time after. Civil war raging in the Low Countries, and efpecially at Antwerp, thefe nuns were obliged to feek fome other refuge, and fled into Normandy, and 1 'from_ r'/ic-rthence.they went to Lifbon [a], where they had obtained a fet- tlement [flj The following curious particulars refpe&ihg thefe nuns were communicated by the learned Mr. Correa de Serra, F. S- A. &c. in a letter to the Secretary, dated Pen- tonville, loth of March, 1800. "Sir^ from the two Portugueze books, quoted in the. end of this note, and which are in the library of chevalier d'Almeyda, our ambaffador, . I' have been able to collect the following information. " On the fourth day of May, Ln the year 1594, arrived in the port of Lifbon fifteen Englifh nuns of the order of St. Bridget, with a novice, accompanied by three fathers of the fame order. They were the only remaining part of the community of Mount Sion near London, which before tlie abolition of that monaftery confided offixty nuns and twenty-five friars, who after that difaftrous event had wandered through France and Flan- ders, in an unfettled ftate, and forced by the wars to change often their afylum^ On their arrival at Lifbon they were hofpitably received by the Francifcan nuns of the monaf* tcry of our Lady la Efperanca, and in that convent they lived, till Ifabel de Azevedo,, a noble lady, made them a giftt>f fome houfes and grounds in the place called Mocambo, where they built their church and monaftery. The then reigning fovereign Philip the Ilnd. endowed them with a penfion of two mil res's per diem ( n {hillings I. penny, halfpenny), and twelve mayosof wheat yearly (36 Englifh quarters), paid from the re- venue of the Fens belonging to the crown at Santarem. This revenue they enjoy at prefent, and befides that, feveral legacies of houfes and lands. As far back as 1712. their revenue was valued at five thoufand cruzados. The facraments are adminiftered to them by two fecular priefts, one of whom is alfo the adminiflrator of the temporal concerns of the community., "On the i^thof Auguft, 1651, both church and monaftery were burnt to the ground, and the nuns of Efperanca afforded again for five years an afylum to the diftrefied E-ng- lifh nuns. In the fame year, 1651, on the fecond of October, the firft {lone was laid in the foundations of the new building, and in 1656 they returned to their prefent mo- naftery, The- church was finiflied fome time after, by the benefaction of Ruy Correa Lycas,
