228 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



Chapter XIV 



Continuing the Description of the Strange Things To Be Found 

 in the District of the Town of Sonsonate. 



650. In these sierras there are springs of very hot water, of dif- 

 ferent colors ; many of the mouths or apertures from which they 

 flow, seem like openings into Hell, for the hot water spouts out of 

 them much compressed in space and with loud noises and reports — 

 some like mill wheels, others like fulling mills, others like bellows, and 

 like someone snoring, and many other ways ; in some places the 

 water comes out clear, in others roily, in others red, and in others 

 yellow, according to the location and the minerals through which 

 it passes. All these springs together form a river which they call 

 the Hot River (Rio Caliente), which is very healthful for those 

 who bathe in it; so when I went by there in the year 1621 I profited 

 by the occasion and bathed in it ; and although that spot was some 

 distance from the source of its waters, it was almost too hot to be 

 borne. 



651. In this same sierra there are other springs or breathing holes 

 issuing from a cliflf which is some 5 varas high and 3 across, and 

 split in the middle, and from this fissure a great deal of smoke comes 

 out ; when one gets near it, a very awesome sound is to be heard, 

 and when the weather is boisterous, fearsome noises and thunderclaps 

 are to be heard all over that neighborhood. This sierra and volcano 

 are also the source of very pure and delicious springs, which form 

 a very pleasant and attractive river. Near this is another watercourse 

 rising in the same sierra, which runs nights, up to 7 or 8 a.m., and 

 then gives out and is not to be seen again till the following night 

 at the same hour. There are other extraordinary things which at 

 first glance would seem physically impossible. 



652. There are many health-giving herbs and trees of great virtue, 

 such as gum mastic, dragon's blood, gum anime, benzoin ; these trees 

 have thick foliage with rounded tops. As has been stated, on the 

 Tonala coast in the district of the village of Guayamoco there are 

 great numbers of balsam poplars ; they are tall trees, with bark and 

 leaves something like white poplars, but handsomer and more attrac- 

 tive. They bear a fruit or seed like an almond, and inside it has a 

 liquid ruddy as gold. The balsam wood is very tough and heavy. All 

 that country where these trees grow, has a hot climate; it is very 

 sweet-scented and laden with the perfume of this balsam. 



653. They get the balsam two different ways. Virgin balsam can 

 be had only by giving the tree some slashes, from which a liquid 



