The day was dull throughout. After the services of the church were finished, about nine o’clock, the streets were quite deserted. I then visited the Indians in the suburbs. Their simple huts were comfortable, so far as mud and stone could make them, and tolerably clean. Their furniture is composed of nothing more than a few earthen vessels, calabashes, and hammocks swung across the room. The walls of some of them were ornamented with rude wooden crosses; and, occasionally, pictures of saints in tin frames. The environs of the city present but few pleasant walks. In fact they are not required, for the inhabitants have not a taste for pedestrian exercises, and scarcely ever walk when they can enjoy any less fatiguing mode of locomotion. The practice of riding in the calesa is almost universal. The ladies, especially, are extremely partial to it; and having an uncouth gait, they thus appear to the best possible advantage. Thus mounted and armed with their fan, (that indispensable appendage to a Mexican lady,) they go forth fully equipped with fascinations, conquering and to conquer. Their rides are wholly confined to the streets, as the scenery in the vicinity of Merida offers few inducements to the equestrian, while the roads constitute a special annoyance. As to the cultivation of the soil, nature has been left to perform the whole task, almost entirely unaided either by art or industry. Surely, thrift is not indigenous to this country. The tropical trees and plants put forth their blossoms, and the rich perfumes fill the air with their balmy sweets. But there is a chilling contrast between the loveliness of vegetable nature about me, and the condition of man, to whose care it is intrusted. We never have admired the one without wishing that we had the power to exalt the other to a position equally worthy of the hand that made it. We reached our lodgings in season to hear a Mexican disquisition on cock-fighting, before the commencement of a “grand concert,” that was to take place in the evening, and to which we had been favored with an invitation. The _élite_ of the city were to be present, and no small gratification was anticipated. It took place in a long hall kept for this and other public purposes. The music was instrumental—and the performers consisted principally of amateurs. It was a matter of surprise and disappointment to find that only seventeen ladies and ten gentlemen constituted the audience. It was odd to us, to see the fairer part of the assembly set apart from the gentlemen; an arrangement which, if we are not deceived, gave no more satisfaction to the ladies than to the gentlemen. The former were quite pretty, and their dress exceedingly neat; the arrangements of the head in particular exhibited very good taste.