*Estimated date based on succeeding entry.
[previous five pages missing] and in the back is a small balcony where the orchestra plays very good music during mass. There are six chairs in a row in the center of the church running at right angles to the altar. At one side is a line of benches also placed lengthwise. We sit on one of the benches –and all the people squat or kneel on the floor. The poor kneel on the bare floor, the better class have a board anyone who is of the cream has a muchacha bring a little square carpet. The men stand at the back and sides of the church during service and afterward arrange themselves in two lines outside the door to view the señoritas as they pass. The Presidente says that is all the men go for and the señoritas like it. Otherwise why do they dress up so finely and use “pulvo de arros.” We called on the padre the other day and were very courteously received –and treated to dulces of calabaza and some fine wine. We hope to get well acquainted with him. At one side of the church is a convent which the soldiers use for a cuartel. On the same side is the main street lined with Chino and Filipino shops. We rarely walk down it as they all stare at so, but the combination of smells & the various sights is very attractive. In the little shops one can buy small fish, tobacco, sugar cane and dulces –and we very often see soldiers sitting in them smoking cigarettes, drinking tuba and joking with the women. After leaving the town the main street runs through miles of sugar plantations. On the other side a street leads to the “playa” where one of the barrios of the pueblo is located. Everything is unkempt & dirty the children are half clothed & more pigs inhabit the streets. The shores are very muddy but at sunset the whole is glorified and with the distant mountains forms a beautiful picture. The other day I saw a rather unusual sight though not strange. A man and a woman were seated on a little rat of a native pony. The man in front, driving, the woman behind astride with her red tablecloth skirt well pulled up about her. In her arms held as carefully as a baby was a big bright colored rooster and between her toes she held an enormous cigar which was still lighted. We have a [illegible]. The new lieutenant is the drubbiest kind of a drub. I think we succeeded in freezing him out at the last dance so he will probably not come again. We went to a dance last Wednesday night for the fiesta of the pueblo. I expected to have a horrid time but succeeded in enjoying myself immensely as all the nice Filipinos took care that I did not sit out any dances alone and gave me partners for the rigodons & the virginia. [section excised]