234 MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



rails and cranes for the convenience of barges in connection with the shipping 

 which has to ride at anchor over half a mile from the port. 



The department of Santa Rosa, conterminous on the east with Araatitlan 

 tind Eseuintla, has no large towns ; its only trading station is Cuajiniquilitpa, 

 which lies on the highwa}' from San Salvador on the west side of the deep 

 valley of the Rio de los Esclavos, so called from the " Slaves," that is, the Sinca 

 people occupying its banks. The broad stream is here crossed by an eleven-arched 

 bridge, built in the seventt enth century by the Spaniards, and regarded as the 

 finest monument of Central America. At the south-east extremity of the republic 

 stretches the pastoral ani agricultural department of Jutiapa, with chief town of 

 like name. This region is yearlj^ increasing in importance fur its exports Ol live 

 stock, indigo, and other produce to the neighbouring state. A few other centres 

 of population have assumed a somewhat urban aspect in the eastern districts of 

 Guatemala comprised within the Motagua basin. Such is JaJapa, which stands 

 at an altitude of 5,600 feet in an upland valley of great fertility. The town of 

 E>iquipnlas, also on an affluent of the Motagua, but near a pass leading down to the 

 sources of the Lempa in San Salvador, is for the greater part of the year almost 

 deserted, except by a scat=tered community of about 2,000 Indians. But on 

 January 15th, feast of Nuestro Senor de Esquipulas, a vast crowd throngs the 

 streets and squares lined with temporary huts. The sick and afflicted bend the 

 knee before a black effigy of Christ, with votive offerings of silver, carved 

 wooden objects, feather and straw work. With the religious feast is combined a 

 fair, which down to the middle of the century, before the construction of the 

 Panama railway, was frequented b}' pilgrim traders from Guatemala, Salvador, 

 and even Mexico. As many as 80,000 persons, we are told by Juarros, were at 

 times assembled on the plain of Esquipulas. Near the town stands one of the 

 most magnificent churches in Central America. In a neighbouring southern 

 valley are worked the Alotepeque silver mines, the most productive in the state. 



On the stream flowing from Esquipulas northwards to the Rio Motagua lie the 

 towns of Chiquimala and Zacapa, both capitals of departments of like name, and 

 destined to acquire considerable importance in the future development of the 

 country. They stand on the route to be followed by one of the projected railways 

 between Guatemala and Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic. About midway between 

 the two the Copan River joins that of Esquii^ulas after Avatering the plains of 

 Comotan and Jocotan, formerly centres of the cochineal and indigo industries, now 

 surrounded by rich tobacco plantations. About six miles below Zacapa the united 

 streams fall into the Rio Motagua, which a little farther down becomes navigable 

 for steamers, the heads of navigation being Gualan during the floods and Barhasco 

 in the dry season. In the forests of the Sierra del Mico north-east of the latter 

 place, the site of an Indian city, whose ver}^ name has perished, is indicated 

 by numerous pyramids and some fine ruins, especially carved monoliths, covered 

 with hieroglyphics, human figures, turtles, armadillos and other animals. This 

 group of monuments takes at present the name of Qairifjaa, from a village five 

 miles off. In 1839, when Stephens and Catherwood began their archaeological 



