114 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



a beautiful view from Solala on to the lake below, the volcanoes 

 opposite, and the lofty mountains and peaks which lay all 

 around, a panorama as extensive as it was beautiful. The town 

 itself was well kept and very neat ; a flourishing flower garden 

 embellished the Plaza, running water supplied the fountains, 

 and working parties were busy improving the roads. The 

 alguazils (policemen) attracted our attention by their smartness ; 

 they wore white shirts with sleeves striped with red, short white 

 breeches, a grey homespun jacket, and black hats over a red 

 handkerchief. Both our camp beds and blankets were very 

 necessary in the wretched, dirty, and draughty hotel, which had 

 no recommendation whatever hardly that of affording sufficient 

 shelter. It was terribly cold at night, and heavy clouds were 

 collecting among the higher peaks of the Sierras, which was not 

 at all inviting for our proposed expedition into that lofty region ; 

 so while we shivered in the hotel, where neither doors nor 

 windows would shut, it was determined unanimously to strike out 

 of our programme the visit to Quiche. The two days' journey 

 thither leads over a bleak, wild, and very cold plateau ; the ruins 

 of the once royal palace and fortress of Quiche, according to the 

 books of our travelling library, are hardly to be recognised, and 

 the hardships of the trip not likely to be repaid. Sic transit 

 gloria mundi ! Before the Conquest the race of Quiche* Indians 

 was the proudest in Guatemala, and held out a long time against 

 the Spaniards. At last the country fell into the conquerors' 

 hands, and now but little remains to mark the spot where once 

 the royal palace stood in all its splendour. So we read once 

 more the account of Quiche in Stephens' s most interesting work 

 on Central America, and left next morning just before daybreak 

 for Totonicapan, a town of about 25,000 inhabitants. A con- 

 tinuous ascent over a stony track brought us to a high plateau 

 where even fir-trees grew but sparingly, and a very keen wind 

 told us unmistakably that we were among the Altos a bleak, 

 wild, desolate region. Some maize patches lay here and there 

 near the huts, which were few and far between ; some black or 

 white sheep wandered about feeding upon the wheat and barley 

 stubble which still remained on the stony fields. We passed 

 an enclosure where corn laid upon the hard floor was being 

 trampled out in the most primitive manner by horses driven 

 over it. We could see I don't know how many volcanoes from 



