ROADSIDE SKETCHES IN GUATEMALA 109 



frequent also. Very striking are the arches still standing in the 

 ruined monastery of San Francisco, and the vaulted passages, 

 through which the monks walked long years ago to the refectory, 

 now a heap of ruins thickly overgrown with hush. The stucco, 

 which covers the solid walls, is embellished in relief with delicate 

 lace-work patterns, so also are the granite blocks chiselled, 

 which once formed door and window frames, but which now 

 are frequently seen built into the walls of modern houses, and 

 even form part of the trottoirs in the streets. Some of the 

 churches are painted in curious trefoil patterns, dull red upon 

 the white ground. A most delightful and lovely place is Antigua, 

 which well deserves to be visited much more than it is at present. 

 Though some coffee is grown in the vicinity of Antigua, and, 

 indeed, almost in the very streets, the coffee district par excel- 

 lence lies at a lower altitude, between 2,000 and 4,000 feet, 

 covering with a deep green the rolling hills amid most beautiful 

 mountain scenery. An excellent road, upon which parties of 

 Indians were still at work, took us down from the higher country, 

 at first through maize fields, divided by bank fences, upon which 

 grew gigantic agaves, many in full blossom, humming-birds 

 hovering round the bright yellow flowers. Then we entered 

 the tropical forest, a dense mass of vegetation on each side of 

 the road, the branches and trunks of the trees adorned here and 

 there with enormous mauve-crimson bouquets of the Cattleya 

 Skinneri ; and so on to the plantations, or " fincas," as they 

 are here called. The coffee-trees stretch away in rows over hill 

 and dale as far as the eye can reach, with the utmost regularity. 

 Now and then we pass the houses of a proprietor or overseer, 

 with drying terraces, machinery buildings, and labourers' 

 dwellings attached. The deep green foliage of the trees show 

 off to great advantage the masses of white flowers with which 

 the branches are covered, a fair promise of a rich crop. Although 

 late in the season, Indians, men, women, and children, were still 

 busy in places picking the bluish-black berries, mounted upon 

 steps or armed with a hooked stick. Lines of orange-trees laden 

 with golden fruit formed the only fences for long distances 

 together. Now and then we passed outlying huts and sheds 

 used by the Indians working on the estates. On some of the 

 larger fincas from 600 to 700 families are sometimes employed 

 during the picking season September to November; most of 



