The Italians came next, yielding, as entertainers, precedence to the four leading nations. The Mouthpat descendants of Italian nativity, as is the wont of the stocks derived from their audacious ingraft, assumed the lead. Closing the roachavalcade were knight adventurers from lesser nationalities, lacking in numbers sufficient for separate display. Alas, for my own and companion’s vaunted power of self-control over our instinctive passions, when exposed from inexperience to human acts of cruelty committed from the wantonness of power. As these human novelties passed under our curious inspection, panoplied and strangely garbed in glittering armour, one of the sturdy knights attached to the rear, in mere wantonness for the exhibition of his prowess without the risk of rebuttal, with the pretext of a gibing inquiry with regard to the health of his maternal parent, suspended an unoffending tit dwarf by thrusting his spear through his jerkin, holding him aloft, while the blood from a flesh wound trickled over his hose. It was well for the successful issue of our undertaking that a kindly disposed herald not only relieved him from his uncomfortable plight but gave him the wherewith for the purchase of another garment with the largesse he had received from the other knights, and in retribution ejecting the offender with disgrace from the lists. This justly merited punishment pacified our irate desire to call the aggressor to an account for his wanton cruelty. The warmth of our sympathetic pity caused the Coliseos, with a smile, to warn us that if we attempted to redress all the wanton and cruel aggressions that would be forced upon our notice, with the infliction of bodily punishment, we should be obliged to forego the benefits of peaceful example altogether. “We are powerless to stay the barbarous cruelties they practice among themselves, and our interference would only serve to aggravate the spirit of retaliation. From the beginning, the course pursued by our people has been beset with many temptations provoking arbitrary interference for the redress of wrongs. But they have managed to escape free from serious difficulty up to the present time, and our presence here to-day was compelled by affectionate sympathy to save the lives of well disposed parents whose children have been intrusted to our charge. With your aid we can now make a lasting impression that will prevent future aggressions, for they have a hereditary dread of the actual presence of the unadulterated Manatitlans.”