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268 as all the details of it are recorded with singular care in the convents, which have since been built upon this favoured spot, there is little danger of their not being handed down to posterity, in all the purity in which they are now preserved.

But whether of divine or human origin, the Cathedral is a very fine building, and the riches of the interior are worthy of a country that has produced, during the last two centuries, nearly two-thirds of the whole of the silver raised annually in the world. The lofty candlesticks, the balustrade, the lamps, and all the ornaments of the principal altar, are of massive silver; and the effect produced by such magnificence, in conjunction with the beauty of the columns of native marble by which the roof is supported, is very striking. We were not, however, allowed to admire them long in peace, for, notwithstanding the presence of Madame Căldĕrōn, and two or three aides-de-camp of the Governor, the curiosity excited by the first appearance of an English woman was so ungovernable, that the great market-place, through which the carriage had passed, transferred in a moment by far the largest portion of its inmates to the Cathedral, where the crowd soon became so great, that, although no incivility was intended, it was quite impossible for us to remain. La Puebla contained, at that time, a Lazzaroni population nearly as numerous as that of the Capital; a naked and offensive race, whom you cannot approach without pollution, or even behold without disgust.