44 UP THE PARAGUAY [chap, ii 



people are a fine people ; the strains of blood — white 

 and Indian — are good. 



We walked up the streets of Concepcion, and inter- 

 estedly looked at everything of interest : at the one- 

 story houses, their windows covered with gratings of 

 fretted ironwork, and their occasional open doors giving 

 us ghmpses into cool inner courtyards, with trees and 

 flowers; at the two-wheel carts, drawn by mules or 

 oxen ; at an occasional rider, with spurs on his bare feet, 

 and his big toes thrust into the small stirrup-rings ; at 

 the little stores, and the warehouses for matt^ and hides. 

 Then we came to a pleasant little irm, kept by a 

 Frenchman and his wife, of old Spanish style, with its 

 patio, or inner court, but as neat as an inn in Normandy 

 or Brittany. We were sitting at coffee, around a little 

 table, when in came the Colonel of the garrison — for 

 Concepcion is the second city in Paraguay. He told 

 me that they had prepared a reception for me ! I was 

 in my rough hunting-clothes, but there was nothing to 

 do but to accompany my kind hosts and trust to their 

 good nature to pardon my shortcomings in the matter 

 of dress. The Colonel drove me about in a smart open 

 carriage, with two good horses and a Uveried driver. 

 It was a much more fashionable turnout than would be 

 seen in any of our cities save the largest, and even in 

 them probably not in the service of a pubhc official. In 

 all the South American countries there is more pomp 

 and ceremony in connection with public functions than 

 with us, and at these functions the liveried servants, 

 often with knee-breeches and powdered hair, are like 

 those seen at similar European functions ; there is not 

 the democratic simplicity which better suits our own 

 habits of life and ways of thought. But the South 

 Americans often surpass us, not merely in pomp and 



