ust have been good folk among them) grew,
from the failure of the cacao plantations, exceeding poor; so that
in 1733 they had to call a meeting at San Josef, in order to tax the
inhabitants, according to their means, toward thatching the Cabildo
hall with palm-leaves. Nay, so poor did they become, that in 1740,
the year after the smallpox had again devastated the island and the
very monkeys had died of it,--as the hapless creatures died of
cholera in hundreds a few years since, and of yellow fever the year
before last, sensibly diminishing their numbers near the towns--let
the conceit of human nature wince under the fact as it will, it
cannot wince from under the fact,--in 1740, I say the war between
Spain and England--that about Jenkins's ear--forced them to send a
curious petition to his Majesty of Spain; and to ask--Would he be
pleased to commiserate their situation? The failure of the cacao
had reduced them to such a state of destitution that they could not
go to Mass save once a year, to fulfil their 'annual precepts'; when
they appeared in clothes borrowed from each other.

Nay, it is said by those who should know best, that in those days
the whole august body of the Cabildo had but one pair of small-
clothes, which did duty among all the members.

Let no one be shocked. The small-clothes desiderated would have
been of black satin, probably embroidered; and fit, though somewhat
threadbare, for the thigh of a magistrate and gentleman of Spain.
But he would not have gone on ordinary days in a sansculottic state.
He would have worn that most comfortable of loose nether garments,
which may be seen on sailors in prints of the great war, and which
came in again a while among the cunningest Highland sportsmen,
namely, slops. Let no one laugh, either, at least in contempt, as
the average British Philistine will think himself bound to do, at
the fact that these men had not only no balance at their bankers,
but no bankers with whom to have a balance. No men are more capable
of supporting poverty with content and dignity than the Spaniards of
the old school. For none are more perfect gentlemen, or more free
from the base modern belief that money makes the man; and I doubt
not that a member of the old Cabildo of San Josef in slops was far
better company than an average British Philistine in trousers.

So slumbered on, only awakening to an occasional gentle revolt
against their pries