Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/314

294 greatly overrated; at least it was never my lot to meet with any species of them equal in flavour to those which are brought to perfection in the old hemisphere by the effects of cultivation.

Having reached the capital about two o'clock, I went, in the evening, to see the chief school or university: the number of pupils was rather limited, not exceeding 300; but a great portion of the youth of the metropolis, as well as in the provinces, were instructed by private means: indeed, it will hardly be credited that the whole number of children receiving education in the public schools, did not amount, according to an official return, to more than 672. This deficiency had excited the attention of the government, who were looking out for a professor on the Lancastrian system: they were publishing a translation of the new method of studying the Latin language lately established in France: they had also proposed to the university to open a course of history after the method of M. Strass,