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INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



Captain De Nouvelle's invitation to take a passage in 

 his ship. 



Meanwhile I passed my time in social visiting. In 

 our own city the aristocracy is called by the diplomatic 

 corps at Washington the aristocracy of streets. In 

 Guatimala it is the aristocracy of houses, as certain 

 families live in the houses built by their fathers at the 

 foundation of the city, and they are really aristocratic 

 old mansions. These families, by reason of certain mo- 

 nopolies of importation, acquired under the Spanish do- 

 minion immense wealth and rank as merchant prin- 

 ces." Still they were excluded from all offices and all 

 part in the government. At the time of the revolution 

 one of these families was noble, with the rank of mar- 

 quisate, and its head tore off the insignia of his rank, 

 and joined the revolutionary party. Next in position 

 to the officers of the crown, they thought that, emanci- 

 pated from the yoke of Spain, they would have the 

 government in their own hands ; and so they had, 

 but it was only for a short time. The principles of 

 equal rights began to be understood, and they were 

 put aside. For ten years they had been in obscurity, 

 but accidentally they were again in power, and at the 

 time of my visit ruled in social as well as political 

 life. I do not wish to speak harshly of them, for they 

 were the only people who constituted society ; my in- 

 tercourse was almost exclusively with them ; my fair 

 countrywoman was one of them ; I am indebted to 

 them for much kindness ; and, besides, they are person- 

 ally amiable ; but I speak of them as public men. I 

 did not sympathize with them in politics. 



To me the position of the country seemed most crit- 

 ical, and from a cause which in all Spanish America had 

 never operated before. At the time of the first invasion 



