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CH. XX.] half full. The orchestra was lighted with about two dozen candles, and there were nearly as many more separately affixed to the pillars which divided the lower tier of boxes. The deficiency was, however, compensated by some holes in the roof of the building, which admitted the daylight so profusely as to make the candles a work of supererogation.

The play was something about the "Glory of Independence", and abounded with allusions, which an English auditory would term "clap-traps." The acting was, however, equal to any I had seen at Mexico; and the audience, altogether, appeared to evince as much indifference to the pieces represented, as the best bred company in any European theatre could affect to do: I took suckets, as Johnson has it, with the young ladies, and was rather pleased, than otherwise, with the performance. We had also some glasses of champaign occasionally handed round to us, which excited, as I thought, the envy