Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/26

Rh showy a style as possible. On these occasions they dress themselves in imitation of Europeans, and gratify their vanity by displaying all the finery they can raise. Their most joyous period is Christmas, when every slave claims a kind of temporary freedom for two or three weeks, and during this time, the settlement is in a state of riot. Dancing about the streets, night and day, is their chief employment till the accustomed period has elapsed; during this season, the militia, consisting of all the white inhabitants, is kept constantly under arms.

Crimes of a serious nature are of rare occurence. The prison, which is large, and has its cells commodious and airy, is very thinly tenanted. In the month of March 1827, it contained only six or seven prisoners, confined for petty thefts, or similar trifling offences, and it is by no means uncommon to see its doors open.

But although crimes which come under the cognizance of the law, are not frequent, the moral state of the population is nevertheless at the lowest ebb. With few exceptions, the institution of marriage is totally disregarded. The coloured population, considered by the whites as a degraded caste, feel themselves shut out of European Society, and consequently lose self respect. The females generally live in a state of concubinage with the whites, under the name of housekeepers,