were silk
coats a century old, and round jackets, and shirts, blue, red, yellow,
and white; and naval and military uniforms curiously altered to suit the
taste of the wearer--not an uncommon mode of wearing trousers being
round the neck instead of on the legs, with the upper part hanging down
the back, and the lower on either side in front like a shawl. Some
acted the part of guards of honour, and others appeared as ministers of
state. A select body bore a sort of _palanquin_ or litter, which they
placed before the door till Mama Rosa descended into the street, when
she was conducted with great ceremony to her seat in it. She was very
old and ugly; but her subjects did not love her the less for that. Her
dress was resplendent with flowers and jewels, and all the ornaments she
could hang about herself.

A band was in attendance, the instruments of which were somewhat
curious. The most important was a drum, made of a section of the trunk
of a tree, with the skin of a kid drawn over one end. Another was a
bow, the string being of catgut, which was struck with a small cane. A
third was the jaw-bone of an ass with the teeth loose in the socket, and
which, when struck by the hand, made a capital rattle. If there was not
much harmony in the music, there was plenty of noise, which was not a
little increased by the voices of a party of singers, who frisked about
before the sovereign's state carriage as she advanced. The
sceptre-bearer stepped out with her majesty's insignia of office in his
arms, looking back as he did so to ascertain that the queen was
following. Her people shouted, the palanquin-bearers moved on, the band
struck up a negro sort of "God save the Queen," and away they all went
towards the quarters of the Confradia. I followed to see the end of the
ceremony. After passing through a number of narrow and somewhat dirty
streets, with the houses built of bamboo and mud, we reached the palace,
for so I may call it. The hall was of good size, and the walls were
ornamented with what I suppose were intended for likenesses of other
sable monarchs. If they were correct, I am compelled to own that the
royal Rosa's predecessors, both ladies and gentlemen, were a very ugly
set of personages. The band played louder, and the people shouted more
vehemently, as her majesty ascended the throne at the end of the hall.
She seemed perfectly at home, and sat down with right royal dignity.
The sceptre-bearer presented th