)
The weather here was very warm and the heat powerful, and as these
fellows saw there was only one course to be pursued if they wanted to
get on shore, they slowly took passes good for all day and paid their
dollar for them, and also another dollar each to the canoe men to take
them to the city. Myself and companion also took passes and went over.
Arriving at the city we walked a short distance and came to the plaza,
which is not a very large one. Here was a single grave nicely fenced in,
and across the plaza were some large two-story houses in front of which
was stationed a squad of cavalry standing as motionless as if every man
of them was a marble statue. We kept on the opposite side of the street,
and chancing to meet a man whom we rightly supposed to be an Englishman,
we inquired about the grave on the plaza and were informed that it was
that of Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America.
Just then we noticed the cavalry moving up the street at a slow gallop,
and so formed that a close carriage was in the center of the squad. As
they rushed by and we gazed at them with purely American curiousity, our
new English friend raised our hats for us and held them till the
cavalcade had passed, merely remarking that the Governor General was
within the carriage. We spoke perhaps a bit unpleasantly when we asked
him why he was so ungentlemanly in his treatment of us as to remove our
hats, but he said:--"My friends, if I had not taken off your hats for
you as a friend, some of those other fellows would have knocked them
off, so I did for you an act of greatest kindness, for every one removes
his hat when the Governor General passes.
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