THE DIPLOMATIC RESIDENCE. 193 



used as a market-place. The churches and convents 

 correspond with the beauty of the Plaza, and their cost- 

 liness and grandeur would attract the attention of tour- 

 ists in Italy or old Spain, 



The foundation of the city was laid in 1776, a year 

 memorable in our own annals, and when our ancestors 

 thought but little of the troubles of their neighbours. 

 At that time the old capital, twenty-five miles distant, 

 shattered and destroyed by earthquakes, was aban- 

 doned by its inhabitants, and the present was built in 

 the rich valley of Las Vaccas, in a style commensurate 

 with the dignity of a captain-generalship of Spain. I 

 have seldom been more favourably impressed with the 

 first appearance of any city, and the only thing that 

 pained me in a two hours' stroll through the streets was 

 the sight of Carrera's ragged and insolent-looking sol- 

 diers ; and my first idea was, that in any city in Eu- 

 rope or the United States, the citizens, instead of sub- 

 mitting to be lorded over by such barbarians, would 

 rise en masse and pitch them out of the gates. 



In the course of the morning I took possession of the 

 house that had been occupied by Mr. De Witt, our late 

 charg6 d'affaires. If I had been favourably impressed 

 with the external appearance of the houses, I was 

 charmed with the interior. The entrance was by a 

 large double door, through a passage paved with small 

 black and white stones, into a handsome patio or court- 

 yard paved in like manner. On the sides were broad 

 corridors paved with square red bricks, and along the 

 foot of the corridors were borders of flowers. In front, 

 on the street, and adjoining the entrance, was an ante- 

 room with one large balconied window, and next to it 

 a sala or parlour, with two windows. At the farther 

 end a door opened from the side into the comedor or 

 Vol. I.— B b 17 



