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ME RID A. 397 



windows, and many had two stories. The streets were 

 clean, and many people in them well dressed, animated, 

 and cheerful in appearance ; caleches fancifully paint- 

 ed and curtained, having ladies in them handsomely 

 dressed, without hats, and their hair ornamented with 

 flowers, gave it an air of gayety and beauty that, after 

 the sombre towns through which we had passed, was 

 fascinating and almost poetic. No place had yet made 

 so agreeable a first impression ; and there was a hotel 

 in a large building kept by Donna Michaele, driving up 

 to which we felt as if by some accident we had fallen 

 upon a European city. 



The reader will perhaps be surprised, but I had a 

 friend in Merida who expected me. Before embark- 

 ing from New- York, I had been in the habit of dining 

 at a Spanish hotel in Fulton-street, frequented prin- 

 cipally by Spanish Americans, at which place I had 

 met a gentleman of Merida, and learned that he was 

 the proprietor of the ruins of Uxmal. As yet I knew 

 nothing of the position or character of my friend, but I 

 soon found that everybody in Merida knew Don Simon 

 Peon. In the evening we called at his house. It was 

 a large, aristocratic-looking mansion of dark gray stone, 

 with balconied windows, occupying nearly the half of 

 one side of the plaza. Unfortunately, he was then at 

 Uxmal ; but we saw his wife, father, mother, and sisters, 

 the house being a family residence, and the different 

 members of it having separate haciendas. They had 

 heard from him of my intended visit, and received me 

 as an acquaintance. Don Simon was expected back in 

 a few days, but, in the hope of finding him at Uxmal, 

 we determined to go on immediately. Donna Joaqui- 

 na, his mother, promised to make all necessary ar- 

 rangements for the journey, and to send a servant with 



