WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 221 



and mules, and rich sugar mills, for which reason everything is cheap 

 and abundant. They have many flowers all the year round — -pinks, 

 white lilies, roses, etc. 



626. Since this city and valley are so to speak boxed up by ridges 

 of mouiHains, there are only three points of egress, arranged like 

 an equilateral triangle. The exit on the WNW., which is where 

 the valley starts and is narrowest, is called Apasson ; this is the way 

 out for Chiapa, Oaxaca, Mexico City, and all New Spain. Near 

 Apasson there are many pine groves, and in their midst on the bank 

 of a small stream, a water-power sawmill where they turn out much 

 planking, both for construction in the city and for the crates for the 

 export of indigo to IMexico City and Spain. 



627. On the NE, there is another road leading out ; they call it 

 the Petapa road, from a large Indian village of that name 5 leagues 

 from the city ; here Christian instruction and the administration of 

 the Holy Sacraments are under the charge of the Dominican friars ; 

 leaving the city by this road, one has to climb up a steep grade. This 

 is the road for Puerto Dulce (or Golfo Dulce), the Diocese of 

 Honduras, Sonsonate, San Salvador, San Miguel, and the Diocese 

 of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and as far as Panama. On the SE., which 

 is where the rivers and streams issue from the valley, one passes 

 between the two high volcanoes, leaving the Water Volcano to the 

 left and the Fire Volcano to the right, and sets out for Esquuinte- 

 pequec and all the Pacific coast, or Costilla, as they call it in that 

 country. That coast has a very hot climate ; it all looks like a bit 

 of Paradise, full of trees with thick green foliage, and abounding 

 in flowers ; it is prolific in cacao, corn, of which they get two crops 

 a year, many kinds of native fruit, oranges, citrons, limes, and 

 lemons ; there are many trees of valuable and highly prized timber, 

 and extensive forests with many sorts of handsome birds of different 

 colors, which flit about singing in the verdure of the trees. In the 

 rivers there is great variety of delicious fish, in particular tepeme- 

 chines, which are much esteemed and are better than trout. 



628. At 5 leagues from the city, and i from Petapa village, is the 

 village of San Juan de Amatitlan, richly supplied with provisions 

 and a favorite excursion point. It is a curacy of the Dominican 

 friars, with many Indians ; like Petapa, it will have over 600 Indian 

 residents ; it has a hot climate. A hot-water brook runs through this 

 village ; it is highly salubrious and originates in a volcano nearby 

 which they call the Volcano of Amatitlan. This had an eruption in 

 the year 1623 and laid waste all that district with fire and ashes ; 



