archways. Lava blocks have been used in paving as well as in
building; and more than one of the narrow streets, as it slopes
up the hill through the great light, is seen to cut its way
through craggy masses of volcanic stone.

But all the buildings look dilapidated; the stucco and paint is
falling or peeling everywhere; there are fissures in the walls,
crumbling façades, tumbling roofs. The first stories, built with
solidity worthy of an earthquake region, seem extravagantly heavy
by contrast with the frail wooden superstructures. One reason
may be that the city was burned and sacked during a negro revolt
in 1878;--the Spanish basements resisted the fire well, and it
was found necessary to rebuild only the second stories of the
buildings; but the work was done cheaply and flimsily, not
massively and enduringly, as by the first colonial builders.

There is great wealth of verdure. Cabbage and cocoa palms
overlook all the streets, bending above almost every structure,
whether hut or public building;--everywhere you see the splitted
green of banana leaves. In the court-yards you may occasionally
catch sight of some splendid palm with silver-gray stem so barred
as to look jointed, like the body of an annelid.

In the market-place--a broad paved square, crossed by two rows of
tamarind-trees, and bounded on one side by a Spanish piazza--you
can study a spectacle of savage picturesqueness. There are no
benches, no stalls, no booths; the dealers stand, sit, or squat upon
the ground under the sun, or upon the steps of the neighboring
arcade. Their wares are piled up at their feet, for the most
part. Some few have little tables, but as a rule the eatables