and as many young ladies sent there for their education, with lay-sisters and attendants. It is an immense building, and is said to resemble a little town in the interior, with streets and Plazas regularly laid out; but this we had no opportunity of observing ourselves, as not even Mexicans are allowed to enter the walls.
We were much struck with the busy look of Qŭerētărŏ, which has quite the air of a manufacturing district. More than half the houses contain shops, and the whole population is engaged either in small trades, or in the wool manufactories, which are still very numerous. They are divided into two classes, Obrāgĕs, and Trăpīchēs. The first comprise all the establishments that can employ from ten to thirty looms; the last, those in which only one or two are in activity. In both, coarse cloths, Tāpălŏs and Māngăs of different patterns and sizes are manufactured, part of which are retailed upon the spot in the great Plaza, where a market is held every evening by torchlight, and part sent to the Capital, or other great towns of the Federation, The demand for these manufactures has decreased very much since the ports were opened to European imports; indeed the woollen trade is now principally kept up by a Government contract for supplying the army with clothing; which has afforded a temporary relief to one part of the population by imposing a general tax upon the remainder. The price paid for scarlet, green, and yellow cloths
