men were well sprinkled with diamonds and rubies.

The dessert, from variety and quantity, was a real curiosity. Immense vases
and candelabras of alabaster were placed at different distances on the
table, and hundreds of porcelain dishes were filled with sweetmeats and
fruits-sweetmeats of every description, from the little meringue called
"mouthful for a queen," to the blancmanger made of supreme de volaille and
milk.

After dinner our health was drank, and another poetical address pronounced.
The evening concluded with music and the Havana country-dances.

20th.--Yesterday being the Queen of Spain's birthday, a dinner was given to
us at the Yntendencia. The house in size is a palace, and the apartments
innumerable. The dinner very elegant, and the dessert arranged in another
room, a curiosity as usual for profusion and variety. Her Majesty's health
was proposed by Don B---o H---a, and so well-timed, that all the guns of
the forts fired a salute, it being sunset, just as the toast was concluded,
which was drank with real enthusiasm and hearty goodwill. According to
Spanish custom, the aristocracy generally _se tutoient_, and call each
other by their Christian names; indeed, they are almost all connected by
inter-marriages. You may guess at an inferior in rank, only by their
increased respect towards him.

We stood on the balcony in the evening. The scene was beautiful, the
temperature rather warm, yet delicious from the softness of the breeze. The
moon rose so bright that she seemed like the sun shining through a silvery
veil. Groups of figures were sauntering about in the square, under the
trees, and two bands having stationed themselves with lamps and music,
played alternately pieces from Mozart and Bellini. We regretted leaving so