The appearance of the town itself was novel
and pleasing; the houses, chiefly of two stories, looked as if they had
been built of cards, most of them being surrounded with piazzas from ten
to fourteen feet wide, gaily painted green and white, and formed by the
roofs projecting beyond the brick walls or shells of the houses. On the
ground--floor these piazzas are open, and in the lower part of the town,
where the houses are built contiguous to each other, they form a covered
way, affording a most grateful shelter from the sun, on each side of the
streets, which last are unpaved, and more like dry river courses, than
thoroughfares in a Christian town. On the floor above, the balconies are
shut in with a sort of movable blinds, called "jealousies,' like large
bladed Venetian blinds, fixed in frames, with here and there a glazed sash
to admit light in bad weather when the blinds are closed. In the upper
part of the town the effect is very beautiful, every house standing
detached from its neighbour, in its little garden filled with vines,
fruittrees, stately palms, and cocoa--nut trees, with a court of negro
houses and offices behind, and a patriarchal--looking draw--well in the
centre, generally overshadowed by a magnificent wild tamarind. When I
arrived at the great merchant's place of business, I was shown into a
lofty cool room, with a range of desks along the walls, where a dozen
clerks were quill--driving.
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