Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/289

CH. XIX.]

returning to dine with Doña Joanita, I found the house filled with company: it was also her natal day. A table was laid in the chief saloon for a large dinner party; and we sat down, upwards of thirty in number, to one of the best Spanish dinners that I had seen in those countries. Don J. Montufar, the deputy of the Antigua to the federal congress, to whom I had letters of introduction, besides having been intimately acquainted with him in Mexico, presided. Toasts to his Britannic Majesty and the people of England were reiterated upon this occasion, with such a spirit of delight and exhilaration that to believe them not to be sincere would be to believe, which I never can, that the Guatemalians are the most deceitful race of beings in the world.

After dinner, the whole party walked out