DINNER AND BALL AT MENDOZA. 79 



his cigar ; and between every fresh dish, of which 

 there were some thirty or forty, the ladies 

 amused themselves eating olives soaked in oil ; 

 and the colonel, to prove that he understood 

 foreign manners and customs, got the ladies, 

 one after the other, to ask the foreign gentlemen 

 to drink wine with them, which w^as no small 

 ordeal for us to run through. After these half- 

 hundred dishes, came the sweets ; then the gen- 

 tlemen^s flints and steels were going, the room 

 soon filled with smoke, and the ladies retired to 

 dress for the ball, which went off very well, as 

 they were really very pretty, and uncommonly 

 well dressed. It was a painful reflection when 

 I found several pointed out to me that could not 

 absolutely write ; such is the state of society in 

 Mendoza, and the bigotry of some of the fathers 

 of families, to this day, that they will not allow 

 their daughters to learn to write, for fear of their 

 holding correspondence — with whom shall 1 say? 

 —most probably, persons who would improve 



