Formerly all the ladies turned out to drive without bonnets or coverings of any sort on the head, but bowled along, seated in open carriages, in about the same style of evening dress they would appear in at a tertulia or the theatre, or, in fact, at a ball-room. They were in the habit of spreading a sort of gum, which washed easily off, over the hair after it had been dressed, in order to keep out the dust, &c.; but within the last two years several bonnets have made their appearance in the carriages at the drive, and I fear their general use will supersede the former fashion, which from its simplicity allowed their most striking beauties of eyes, hair, &c., to be seen in a most charming manner.
Many of the Creole girls have very handsome countenances, and there are not a few who would be remarked upon as fine women by the side of any European beauty: but they are generally seen to most advantage in the evening, as their chief attraction does not consist in freshness of complexion so much as in fine features, which are often full of character and lighted up by eyes as brilliant as they are soft. Their figures are good, and their feet and ankles quite unexceptionable, being generally very much more neatly turned than those of my handsomest countrywomen.
As dress is a study which has a good deal of their attention, they appear to understand it pretty well, but show a marked fondness for gay colours, as no doubt their pale complexions require their aid more than when ruddy health is upon their cheeks. In the forenoon the skin of a Creole or Spanish beauty appears to be rather too pale to please the general taste; and sometimes their colour degenerates into sallowness, which I fancy may proceed from their fondness for chocolate, that being very largely consumed by all of them. This, and the want of exercise, communicated a somewhat bilious look to their appearance.
Many ladies, especially those from the northern provinces of Spain, have sometimes the beautiful white skins and the ruddy freshness of complexion so much admired in my countrywomen; but, unfortunately, that colour is not very lasting, as the first season they pass in the Philippines is generally sufficient to blanch their bloom, but it is very often succeeded by a soft and delicate-looking paleness, which is perhaps not a whit less dangerous to amatory bachelors than the more brilliant colours which preceded it.
Although lively and talkative enough, Spanish women seldom shine in conversation, which perhaps is more owing to the narrow and defective education they too often have in youth than to any natural want of the quickness and tact to talk well.
Their manners are peculiarly soft and pleasing, and their lively ingenuousness is extremely seductive. Their accomplished management of the fan has made it peculiarly their own weapon, and it has been converted into an important auxiliary to their natural good looks, both in attack and defence. There are few things more striking to a stranger than to see the ladies use it at the casino, when a number of them are together, and while there is no want of men to admire the graceful movement of the hand. Mere children are constantly seen using it. It is a ludicrous thing to watch one of these little creatures going through a set of flirting motions with a fan, should you look at her, copying no doubt the motions or play with it from those of some grown-up sister or gay mamma.
Foreign ladies seldom or never attain the same degree of dexterity and ease in the use of their fans, the climate they were born in not requiring that it should be placed in their hands at an early age.
The dress of Spanish ladies is becoming every day more like the French modes, although some elderly people still continue to use the country dress, which, from its coolness, is much more comfortable than the European habit; but it is rapidly going out, and young Spanish ladies never appear to wear it, as formerly they frequently did, within doors and in the country.
The mantilla is very rarely seen, except perhaps in the morning, when some fair penitent goes or returns from one of the churches, all of which are thrown open at a very early hour in the morning, at or before daylight, to give the people an opportunity of going there unostentatiously and unnoticed, to say their prayers and get home again before any one, but those on an errand similar to their own, is likely to meet them in the streets.
Nearly all the women, after reaching thirty years of age, get stout or fall off in flesh and become very thin, for there apparently is very little medium between the two degrees, as nearly all the old women one sees are either very fat or very thin. Of the two sorts the fat retain their good looks the longest; for after attaining a certain age, the thin women are seldom anything but atrociously ugly, probably caused by the climate more than anything else, as those Europeans who enjoy good health at Manilla appear to become stout in that climate, while those who get thin seldom appear to be well, and are unable to stand a lengthened residence there.