order that my inquiring fellow-citizens may
form some idea of the comparative value of real estate in Merida and
New-York, I mention that the rent was four dollars per month, which for
three persons we did not consider extravagant. We had our own
travelling beds, the table, washhand-basin, and chairs set up, and
before breakfast our house was furnished.

In the mean time the fiesta of San Cristoval was going on. Grand mass
was over, and the next ceremony in order was a _corrida de toros_ or
bull-fight, to commence at ten o'clock.

The Plaza de Toros, or, in English, the bull-ring, was in the square of
the church of San Cristoval. The enclosure or place for spectators
occupied nearly the whole of the square, a strange and very original
structure, which in its principles would astonish a European architect.
It was a gigantic circular scaffold, perhaps fifteen hundred feet in
circumference, capable of containing four or five thousand persons,
erected and held together without the use of a single nail, being made
of rude poles, just as they were cut in the woods, and tied together
with withes. The interior was enclosed by long poles, crossing and
interlacing each other, leaving only an opening for the door, and was
divided in like manner by poles into boxes. The whole formed a gigantic
frame of rustic lattice-work, admirably adapted for that hot climate,
as it admitted a free circulation of air. The top was covered with an
arbour made of the leaves of the American palm. The whole structure was
simple and curious. Every Indian could assist in building it, and when
the fiesta was over it could be torn down, and the materials used for
firewood.

The corrida had begun when we arrived on the ground, and the place was
already thronged. There was a great choice of seats, as one side was
exposed to the full blaze of the sun. Over the doors were written Palco
No. 1, Palco No. 2, &c., and each box had a separate proprietor, who
stood in the doorway, with a little rickety step-ladder of three or
four steps, inviting customers. One of them undertook to provide for
us, and for two reals apiece we were conducted to front seats. It was,
if possible, hotter than at the loteria, and in the movement and
confusion of passing us to our seats, the great scaffold trembled, and
seemed actually swaying to and fro under its living load.

The spectators were of all classes, colours, and ages, from gray heads
to children asleep in their mother's