594 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



The dresses of the ladies at their 

 balls or tertulias are fanciful, and 

 generally consist of a muslin dress, 

 sometimes worked in colours, with 

 handsome fringe and tassels at the 

 bottom. Over this they wear a 

 close body or spencer of coloured, 

 often red, taffeta, or velvet, em- 

 broidered with gold. Their slip- 

 pers are of embroidered silk, their 

 stockings are of the finest, and 

 often with gold clocks, or sandal- 

 led ; and the well-formed leg and 

 foot, by the shortness of the pet- 

 ticoats, are displayed in luxuriant 

 advantage to the admiring partner. 

 Their hair is generally braided 

 with chains of pearls or flowers, 

 which forms a contrast with the 

 dark glossy dye, and is confined 

 with several ornamental or gold 

 combs. The women, though not 

 handsome, have a playful volup- 

 tuousness about them which can- 

 not fail, at first sight, to please an 

 European, accustomed to the more 

 distant and demure manners of 

 the society of his own clime ; 

 but though they thus attract, they 

 seldom continue to interest. The 

 care of domestic convenience and 

 comfort by no means enters into 

 their department ; and they think 

 of little else than dressing to go 

 to the church, or processions in a 

 morning, and the assemblies in the 

 evening. 



Characteristic Sketches of the 

 Americaji Spaniards. \_From the 

 same Work, Vol. II.'] 



Marriages, either in Spain or 

 Spanish America, were never ge- 

 nerally exhibited as models of 

 conjugal felicity ; and though there 

 are many happy exceptions to this 



remark, they too often serve as ex- 

 amples of irregularity to the chil- 

 dren. That warmth of passions, 

 that effervescence and impetuosity 

 of feeling, frequently the result of 

 romance and delusive anticipa- 

 tions of hope, but not founded on 

 congeniality,or matured by reason, 

 too often bring a couple together. 

 The parents having little hold on 

 the actions of their progeny, can- 

 not control their choice ; they 

 marry at an early age, but unlike 

 our own quakers, who think this 

 custom the greatest guardian to 

 the morals of the rising generation, 

 satiety and disgust too generally 

 ensue ; appearance and considera- 

 tions of propriety make their home 

 indeed mutual, but fidelity is a 

 clog they both hasten to throw oft", 

 A cortejio, like the cicisbeo of the 

 Italians, becomes the right of the 

 wife ; he leads her to the tertulias 

 and public walks, dances with her, 

 orders her carriage, and is entirely 

 and exclusively attendant on her 

 call ; whilst the husband consoles 

 himself in the arms of a mistress, 

 and heeds little, nor interferes 

 with what passes in his family. 

 The lover, who had, previous to 

 marriage, passed entire nights un- 

 der the window of his intended, 

 muffled in a cloak, to discover if 

 she had more suitors than himself, 

 scarcely trusting to her own pro- 

 fessions, after the marriage cere- 

 mony is over becomes indifferent, 

 and lays aside that jealousy we in 

 our novels ascribe to the Spanish 

 husband instead of the lover. Cer- 

 tainly Montesquieu," when he as- 

 serted, that the fewer marriages 

 the less fidelity in them, must 

 have made this people a wide ex- 

 ception. 

 We have already remarked, that 



