Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/89

CH. VI.]

at Acapulco, I had fallen into company with the Acting Consul's next door neighbour, a respectable merchant, whose name was Don Jose Domingo Indart: he gave me letters of introduction to the family of Doña Vicente Rascon y Cuellar. These letters are not mere matters of ceremony or politeness, as they are often considered in Europe, but are more like a draft on the person to whom they are addressed, not exactly for so much cash, but for its equivalent, namely for board and lodging and every reasonable entertainment. The lady to whom my introduction was given was absent with her family at the capital of Guatemala, it being then in fact, the Guatemalian, as we here call it the London, season. Her daughter, Doña