310 FUNERAL HARANGUE. 



of Malabars, whom an old woman was haranguing 

 from a rostrum consisting of a large stone, in the 

 most approved manner of stump speaking. She was 

 in a state of semi-intoxication, yet her auditory 

 yielded her implicit attention. Not understanding a 

 smgle word that she uttered, and being unable to 

 obtain an explanation of the scene, I was on the 

 point of withdrawing, when her change of manner, 

 from a state of ecstacy to that of frantic despair, led 

 me to approach the house to which she was continu- 

 ally pointing during her oratorical effort. In the 

 house I saw a rude pine coffin, around which the 

 relatives and friends were collected, all half-drunk 

 and pugilistically inclined, arguing some point with 

 much vehemence. Disgusted with the affair I with- 

 drew, thinking I had witnessed as serio-comic a 

 scene as the wake of Teddy the Tiler. 



In my walk up to the residence of the American 

 consul, I saw the barracks of the soldiery, and heard 

 the performance of their excellent brass band. The 

 consul's residence is about a mile and a half from 

 the landing. It, with the other buildings in its neigh- 

 borhood, are built in cottage style, and present the 

 best appearance of any in the port. The consul is a 

 New Yorker named Fairfield. 



The few white inhabitants engaged in business are 

 mostly in the wholesale branches of trade ; the other 

 positions which the whites fill are the police bodies, 

 and the plying of boats to and from the wharves and 

 shipping. This police body is the richest farce, in 

 regard to the preservation of law and order, that ever 

 was endorsed by the city fathers of any municipality 



