IMPROVEMENT. 331 



teaching children to read, write, count, and the doc- 

 trines of the holy Catholic religion ; that fathers 

 and other heads of families should send their chil- 

 dren to it, and that, being endowed by the public 

 funds, it should not cost a medio real to any one. 

 It was addressed to vecinos, or white people, indi- 

 genos, or Indians, and other classes, meaning Mes- 

 tizoes. 



On one side of this principal room was the quar- 

 tel, with the garrison, which consisted of seven sol- 

 diers, militia, three or four of whom were down with 

 fever and ague. On the other was the prison with 

 its grated door, and one gentleman in misfortune 

 looking through the grating. 



This building occupied all one side of the plaza. 

 The village was the only one I had seen that gave 

 any indications of " improvement ;" and certainly I 

 had not seen any that needed it more. The plaza 

 was the poorest in appearance, and at that time was 

 worse than usual. It had been laid out on a hill- 

 side, and the improvement then going on was ma- 

 king it level. There was a great pile of earth 

 thrown up in the centre, and the houses on one side 

 had their foundations laid bare, so that they could 

 only be entered by means of ladders ; and it was 

 satisfactory to learn that the alcaldes who had plan- 

 ned the improvement had got themselves into as 

 much trouble as our aldermen sometimes do in lay- 

 ing out new streets. 



From the door of the casa real two striking ob- 



