Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/209

CH. XIII.] 1st June. I, this morning, repeated my visit to the President: I explained to him, on this occasion, more fully the object of my visit: I told him that I wished to be able to lay before his Majesty's Government complete statements of the finance, the commerce, and the military resources of Guatemala; and, agreeably to this view, he was so obliging as to promise me that he would require those documents to be made out and furnished me by the proper departments.

The next day, the town was all in a bustle, to celebrate the grand procession of Corpus Christi. All the houses were thrown open; garlands of ribands and flowers were streaming from the windows or suspended across the streets: at four different stations, each of them at the farthest angle from the centre of the town, were erected temporary altars, ornamented with cut glass, looking-glasses, large silver salvers, together with other articles of gold and silver, and in short every species of