Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/113

Rh eye of the connoiseur, they are deemed far inferior to similar exhibitions in Mexico; but they still possess sufficient attractions to draw crowds of every rank, and of each sex, to witness the barbarous spectacle, and to be brutalized by its heart-hardening tendencies.

A few large card parties, a solitary ball, and one or two billiard tables, will complete the catalogue, with the exception of that infamous nest of vice and cruelty—the cock-pit—which has, however, fallen into disrepute, and is only attended by the most depraved part of the people. The most successful speculations in this department have been those of travelling troops of equestrians and jugglers; but as they do not form any permanent source of amusement, they can hardly be considered as belonging to the city.

To name the word literature, in connexion with this part of Spanish America, seems almost ridiculous; yet, a slight sketch of the labours of the printing presses of Guatimala may not be altogether uninteresting. At what period this art was first introduced it is impossible to say; but it must have been exercised in the old city for above a century; since a treatise on practical arithmetic, by Father Padilla, a secular priest, was printed there in the year 1732. Whether any other work, equally useful, has issued from the