4 PRAZAS. — BUILDINGS. [chap. I. 



herb found growing there at the time of the discovery of the 

 island. It is seen to much advantage from the sea, so white 

 and bright, with its suburbs of Quintets and their groves of 

 orange and coffee spread far and wide up the hills, fifteen 

 hundred feet above it. 



In your first walk into the town you are struck by the 

 clean fresh look of everything about you. This cleanness 

 is owing, partly to the entire absence of dust, and partly to 

 the constant supply of running water, which is conducted in 

 covered gutters through every street*. The streets are well 

 paved with plates of whinstone, set edgewise ; their narrow- 

 ness shelters them from the sun without excluding the air. 



PEAZAS. 



The Prazas, which answer to the Spanish Alamedas and 

 French Boulevards, are planted with planes and oak trees ; 

 they afford a grateful shade for those whose health debars 

 them from taking much exercise, and yet are benefited by 

 breathing sea-air. 



BUILDINGS. 



In a country without brick, and having but little command 

 of freestone, no great excellence of architecture can be ex- 

 pected. The Cathedral, which is capable of holding about 

 two thousand four hundred persons, is a mixture of indefinite 

 styles ; nor are any of the other ecclesiastical buildings more 

 to be commended. The court-houses, custom-houses, and 

 prisons, are on a small scale. 



In the market-place, as in the East, there are men always 

 standing to be hired. At night a solemn stillness reigns in 



* There is, moreover, a police regulation which compels householders to 

 sweep clean the space in front of their premises every Saturday. 



