Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/179

CH. XI.] from the house, we all set off, on foot, to the place of entertainment. The music had drawn to the door of the house in which the ball was held all the idle stragglers and holiday company of the place: we had much difficulty in obtaining an entrance: there were three rows of benches placed round the walls of the three sides of the apartment, and at the end were tables of refreshment, consisting of fruit, cakes, wine, and eau de vie.

If I was struck with the homeliness of the place in which these revels were going on, I was much more so with the bevy of beautiful women with which the apartment was tenanted. I had seen the richest and most superb assemblies which Mexico could boast, but, here, appeared before me, at one view, as it were, selections of all the handsomest I had before seen in that metropolis. It is true, I had previously heard from the Mexican ladies of the beauty of the Guatemalians; but, whilst I was endeavouring to account, philosophically,