We had a
smacking breeze for several hours, and went along at a great rate,
until night, when it died away, as usual, and the land-breeze set
in, which brought us upon a taught bowline. Among our passengers was a
young man who was the best representation of a decayed gentleman I had
ever seen. He reminded me much of some of the characters in Gil
Blas. He was of the aristocracy of the country, his family being of
pure Spanish blood, and once of great importance in Mexico. His father
had been governor of the province, and having amassed a large
property, settled at San Diego, where he built a large house with a
court-yard in front, kept a great retinue of Indians, and set up for
the grandee of that part of the country. His son was sent to Mexico,
where he received the best education, and went into the first
society of the capital. Misfortune, extravagance, and the want of
funds, or any manner of getting interest on money, soon eat the estate
up, and Don Juan Bandini returned from Mexico accomplished, poor,
and proud, and without any office or occupation, to lead the life of
most young men of the better families- dissolute and extravagant when
the means are at hand; ambitious at heart, and impotent in act;
often pinched for bread; keeping up an appearance of style, when their
poverty is known to each half-naked Indian boy in the street, and they
stand in dread of every small trader and shopkeeper in the place.
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