168 



MEXICO. 



ils countenance a certain number of further representa- 

 tions. Moreover, personified by a boxful of gaudily 

 dressed officials and employes, it consented to wag its 

 long ears in approbation, while Pellegrini agitated her 

 larynx in the character of Semiramis; and to clap its 

 hands at the sight of the sexagenarian Galli, tightly 

 braced up to perform the role of the lithe and active 

 scoundrel Figaro. All the world went to the opera ! 



And all the w 7 orld went to the bullfights — and we 

 went too; and, the butchery apart, the scene presented 

 in the great amphitheatre, not far from the Alameda de 

 las Vigas, was an animating and beautiful one. 



The form and arrangement of the wooden structure 

 need not be very minutely described. It contains the 

 usual gradations of covered galleries and uncovered 

 ranges of seats, to afford fitting accommodation to both 

 rich and poor. There are four great tiers of lodges 

 with subdivisions, capable of containing thirty thousand 

 people. We may have seen ten thousand collected 

 there of all degrees, from the presiding alcalde and his 

 fellows, to the half-naked guachinango; damas, pay- 

 sanos, poblanitas — individuals of every hue and breed, 

 for the diversity of which Mexico is pre-eminent.* The 

 brilliancy of colouring and great variety of costumes 

 visible throughout the assemblage ; and the intense blue 

 of the cloudless sky above ; the masses of light and 

 shadow resting upon the domes and broad walls of a large 

 church — which is the only object without visible from 

 the interior of the amphitheatre — produced a picture 

 of great beauty ; without even taking into account 



* The population of New Spain consists of seven distinct classes, be- 

 sides people of recent Asiatic origin. 



1. The Gachupin — the full-blood European, or more properly the 

 Spaniard, whose numbers are now very inconsiderable, having dwindled 

 down since the revolution from 80,000 to probably not more than 10,000. 



2. Creoles of European extraction, 1,000,000. 



3. Mestizzoes, the offspring of the European and Indian, 2,000,000. 



4. Mulattoes, the offspring of Europeans and Negroes, 400,000. 



5. Aboriginal Indians, numbering from three to four millions. 



6. African Negroes and their descendants, 100,000. 



7. Zamboes, the offspring of Negro and Indian, 2,000,000. 

 To these, about 15,000 European foreigners are to be added. 



