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. He had a slight and
elegant figure, moved gracefully, danced and waltzed beautifully,
spoke the best of Castilian, with a pleasant and refined voice
and accent, and had, throughout, the bearing of a man of high
birth and figure. Yet here he was, with his passage given him,
(as I afterwards learned,) for he had not the means of paying
for it, and living upon the charity of our agent. He was polite
to every one, spoke to the sailors, and gave four reáls - I dare
say the last he had in his pocket - to the steward, who waited
upon him. I could not but feel a pity for him, especially when I
saw him by the side of his fellow-passenger and townsman, a fat,
coarse, vulgar, pretending fellow of a Yankee trader, who had
made money in San Diego, and was eating out the very vitals of
the Bandinis, fattening upon their extravagance, grinding them in
their poverty; having mortgages on their lands, forestalling their
cattle, and already making an inroad upon their jewels, which were
their last hope.
Don Juan had with him a retainer, who was as much like many of
the characters in Gil Blas as his master. He called himself a
private secretary, though there was no writing for him to do,
and he lived in the steerage with the carpenter and sailmaker.
He was certainly a character; could read and write extremely well;
spoke good Spanish; had been all over Spanish America, and lived in
every possible situation, and served in every conceivable capacity,
though generally in that of confidential servant to some man
of figure.
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