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CH. XVI.] succeeded one another by such numbers of removes, that my fortitude began to falter; fortunately, however, it did not quite yield, as I should have been sorry to have given offence where such marked kindness and attention were evidently meant to be shewn. During the dessert, the President, after a short speech on the rapid progress of their independence and the stability it had acquired, drank a brinda or toast to those who had assisted in promoting or otherwise befriending it; and concluded by drinking the health of his Britannic Majesty and the English people. In returning thanks, I wished that Guatemala might continue to enjoy the happiness and tranquillity she experienced;—that, as she was the last to obtain her independence, so she might be the last to lose it; and that, though the youngest of the new states, she might, like Joseph, who surpassed his brethren, eventually exceed in honour and importance all the rest of her rivalling confederates.