412 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



ed so, for about the time that we left New- York he was 

 a waiter at Delmonico's. It was a strange encounter 

 at this out-of-the-way place, to be brought into close 

 connexion with this well-known restaurant, which in 

 that country seemed the seat of art and fountain of hap- 

 piness. He was a young Spaniard from Catalonia, 

 who, with a friend, having taken part in some defeated 

 insurrection, fled to Cuba, whence, on the point of being 

 discovered, they escaped to New- York, penniless. Ig- 

 norant of the language, with no means of getting a live- 

 lihood, both were received by Delmonico as waiters at 

 his restaurant, where the friend rose to be head choco- 

 late-maker; but he was languishing as simple waiter, 

 when Don Simon proposed to him to go to Uxmal. 

 "Without knowing where he was going, except that it 

 was to some part of Spanish America, or what was to 

 be his business, he found himself in a retired place, sur- 

 rounded by Indians whose language he could not un- 

 derstand, and having no one near him with whom he 

 could exchange a word except the major-domo. These 

 major-domos form a class in Yucatan who need sharp 

 looking after. Like the Scotch servant applying for a 

 place, they are not particular about wages, and are sat- 

 isfied with what little they can pick up about the house. 

 This is the character of most of the major-domos ; and 

 the position of the young man, being white, intelligent, 

 and honest, had advantages in that country, as Don Si- 

 mon intended to give him, as soon as he understood the 

 business, a superintendence over the major-domos of 

 three or four haciendas ; but, unfortunately, he wanted 

 energy, felt the want of society and the loneliness of 

 his situation, remembered scenes of enjoyment with his 

 friend and other waiters, and at Uxmal talked of the 

 opera ; and when at dinner-time he drew a feeling pic- 



