The result has been, that the tertians and pestilential fevers, which before made so dreadful a havoc in that territory, have entirely ceased. Tarma has contracted an eternal debt of gratitude towards the benefactor by whose wise provisions it has been freed from the calamities by which it was so often and so deeply afflicted. Dr. Don Juan de Alvarez, rector of the doctrina and valley of Late, after having, at his own expence, built in the town of that name a commodious church, constructed at the side of it a cemetery in which the dead bodies are inhumed; and an ossuary destined for the reception of the last fragments of deplorable humanity, when found in an incorrupted state on the opening of a grave. By this wise and commendable plan, which was carried into effect in the year 1790, and by the means of interring at a very considerable depth, he has preserved his church from the bad smells and dangerous exhalations, so usual in those in which the sepultures are made in the centre.
BIOGRAPHY.
The following biographical sketches were drawn up by the authors of the Peruvian Mercury, as the commencement of a series intended to rescue from the oblivion into which they had fallen, the learned and distinguished characters by whom Peru has been adorned since the epoch of the conquest.
Father Juan Perez Menacho was born in Lima in the year 1565; his parents were equally distinguished by an illustrious descent, and by the exercise of the milder virtues. At the age of six years he could read, write, cipher, and draw, possess-
