courts or patios, and verandas round the upper stories,
beneath which one may walk during a rain over
nearly the whole town without getthig wet. The
style of church architecture is sui generis, Hispano-
American if you like, common to the cathedrals and
missions throughout the whole Pacific States; adobe,
stone, and stucco thrown together in quaint irregular
piles. Some of the principal churches and many of
the buildings were in ruins, the roots of ravenous
plants boring into the crevices, dislocating the stone,
and tearing down the huge walls. The grand old
cathedral, however, remained, fronting on the plaza as
all cathedrals do, with its towers filled with bells, and
mosses and creepers covering its crumbling walls ;
beside which there were at the time I first visited the
city, a college, a nunnery, and four convents. The
cathedral would hold four thousand persons; the roof
was supported by large pillars ; round the altar was a
profusion of silver ornaments, and flat on the floor
were scores of marble slabs on which were graven
the virtues of the holy remains resting beneath.
The twelve apostles in marble occupied twelve niches
in the end toward the plaza. Bats and lizards in-
fested the building and disputed with worshippers the
right of occupation. Pictures adorned the walls and
shrines were placed at intervals around the interior.
Over the crucifix of the high altar presided a large
silver stork with her young.
Throughout the city pearl-oyster shells glittered from steeples and pinnacles, and from the turreted bell-towers at the street corners, every morning at sunrise, came discordant peals, accompanied by the clang of cathedral bells, filling the streets with pious worshippers slowly and silently wending their way to church. On feast days which were many, the city flaunted hter bravest finery, and looked not unlike a wrinkled beldame in gaudy attire. Gaily dressed m^en and women, proudly sporting their Spanish cloaks, and darker-skinned natives in white costumes, marched
