MANNERS OF THE NATIVES. 



107 



deprive of the best blessings of Heaven to 

 man — liberty and knowledge. 



The natives, who are not in the govern- 

 ment, clergy, or military, generally keep 

 some kind of shop or warehouse, where they 

 attend behind their counters until one in the 

 afternoon. Their retail dealing is by no 

 means an unprofitable concern, as they are 

 seldom content with less than one hundred 

 per cent, by their sales. At one they lock 

 up their shops, and retire home to their 

 dinner and siesta: to these dinners no one 

 is ever invited, the family being the only 

 persons that partake of it, as from their re- 

 duced finances set parties are but very few, 

 and their own repasts sufficiently sparing. 

 They have no idea of giving a quiet dinner 

 party in our English style ; if they consider 

 themselves obliged to give a dinner to a 

 stranger, they invite a great number to meet 

 him; load their tables with dishes, and 



