CHARACTERS. 



603 



play. Las seguidillas, or couplets, 

 are in great vogue, as songs ; and 

 minuets, boleros, waltzes, &c. as 

 dances. 



The Mexican ladies in general 

 are handsome, polite, genteel, and 

 particularly attentive to strangers. 

 Great numbers of them have na- 

 turally fair complexions. They 

 are not inferior to the ladies of 

 Old Spain in personal charms : 

 they speak the Spanish language 

 remarkably well, their minds and 

 ideas are clear and comprehensive, 

 their expression pure and just, 

 their manners and their behaviour 

 inimitably graceful and affable. 



One of the favourite diversions 

 of the citizens of Mexico is fishing 

 in boats on the lake, whither they 

 carry with them cold provisions, 

 wine, liquors, &c. with which to 

 regale themselves on the water. 

 The neighbourhood of this fine 

 city is rendered remarkably plea- 

 sant and beautiful by the numer- 

 ous palaces, country seats, monas- 

 teries, nunneries, churches, large 

 and beautiful towns and villages, 

 which are within view of the city, 

 and built upon the banks of the 

 lakes, to which the citizens go in 

 boats, when they are inclined to 

 retire from the hurry and bustle 

 of the town. Mexico is the most 

 populous city of all those which 

 the catholic kinghas in hisvastdo- 

 minions, and contains upwards of 

 two hundred thousand inhabitants, 

 which are comprehended under 

 five different classes. 



Those who invariably hold the 

 first rank are Spaniards, born in 

 Old Spain, who have settled in 

 Blexico. All offices, places, and 

 appointments, under the Spanish 

 government, are filled and held by 

 tlictn, thu court of Spain being 



jealous in the extreme of all the 

 other descriptions of people. 



The second class, in point of 

 rank, is that of the Criollos, 

 Creoles, or descendants from Spa- 

 niards who formerly settled in 

 America. Great numbers of these 

 Creoles are very rich, have most 

 elegant houses and furniture, and 

 very large estates in land, which 

 give them greater influence in the 

 colonies than the court of Spain 

 approves of; therefore she adopts 

 such plans as she thinks will lessen 

 their consequence. She never 

 employs them in ofiices of power 

 and trust under her government, 

 whence arise jealousies of prefer- 

 ence given to the first class. These 

 Creoles in general are too indo- 

 lent and luxurious to engage in 

 trade of any kind ; the commerce 

 and navigation to and from Old 

 Spain, as well as the internal 

 traffic of the colonies, have always 

 been carried on by the natives of 

 Old Spain, who accumulate im- 

 mense fortunes thereby, and ge- 

 nerally return with them to their 

 native country. 



The third class, in point of 

 rank, is that of the people of co- 

 lour, under the denomination of 

 Mulattoes, Mestizoes,Sambos,and 

 Quadroons ; they are the offspring 

 of Europeans and Creoles, with ne- 

 groes, Indians, Mulattoes, &c. and 

 may properly be styled a mixed 

 breed of such a diversity of hetero- 

 geneous gradations from the white 

 to the black, that among a hun- 

 dred faces, scarcely two are of the 

 same colour. The handicraft and 

 mechanic trades are carried on by 

 them, in all which kinds and de- 

 scriptions of labour both the Spa- 

 niards and the Creoles disdain to 

 employ theawelves, and depend 



