Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/328

308 He had, foolishly, employed one of the leperos, or established beggars of the place; and I mention this circumstance, because it was the only piece of dishonesty which I had witnessed or even heard of during my whole stay, and throughout my travels, in Guatemala.

These leperos consist of the most abandoned of human beings: they are far from numerous, and being so well known as they are seen standing, even in midday, at the corners of the streets, with their large slouched hats and a tattered blanket which serves them for all the purposes of dress and couch, it is only wonderful that the government has not taken the precaution of removing them, or providing for their maintenance by hard labour or some other equally efficacious, expurgatory, system. This reminds me that, on the first night of my arrival, when I went out to pay a visit with Don Simon, he cautioned me against these miscreants, providing himself with his maschete, or cut and thrust sword,