Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/68

48 broke them short off on the surface of the skin. This incident, trifling as it may appear, caused the night, which was excessively hot, and the following day, to pass most miserably.

Whilst walking on the shore, in the evening, I fell into conversation with a respectable elderly man, an old Spaniard, who, in spite of the badness of trade, was still carrying on his mercantile affairs in this comparatively abandoned port. He was of commanding and rather robust stature, wore his hair combed back and powdered, with a pigtail; had on drab kerseymere breeches unbuttoned at the knees, black and white speckled silk stockings, an ample pair of shoes, and a small pair of diamond buckles: the above, with a shirt of the finest cambric, nicely plaited all over and unconfined at the collar, completed his costume. He invited me to his house, and, as I happened to know many of his intimate friends in Mexico, I was glad to go and have a chat with him. He