JOURNEY TO GUATEMALA, 



51 



other, I smoked and read, and swung myself, with the cool 

 breeze of the lake breathing on me, till 1 fairly fell asleep.* 

 Don Valentin is a sort of patroon, a little great man in 

 the place, and is looked up to with respect even by the 

 Commandant. His dwelling is a goodly house of wood, 

 the frame of which was brought from the United States, 

 but is constructed rather in the Spanish taste, the sala, or 

 parlour, being almost the whole house. It is the resting- 

 place of strangers of respectability, and the resort of the 

 better class of the natives. He has, however, a powerful 

 rival in another merchant, called Don Candido * * *, who 

 is perhaps more wealthy, and is, in like manner, liberal in 

 the entertainment of his friends. The houses occupied by 

 these two persons are the only ones deserving the name ; 

 the others being little better than mud cabins, thatched 

 with leaves. 



In the course of a walk in the afternoon, I took a pass- 

 ing view of the town ; but seeing nothing in it to interest 

 me, I turned my steps to the mountain that commands it, 

 and ascended to a spot where the roots of an old tree af- 

 forded a pleasant resting-place. Here a fine view is ob- 

 tained of the lake and of the surrounding country. Be- 

 fore me were scattered the thatched roofs of Izabal, and on 

 each side, as far as the eye could reach, might be seen a 

 series of mountains, towering over each other, and piled 

 up like Pelion upon Ossa. How deeply I regretted not 

 being an adept at drawing, to have made a sketch of the 

 scene before me! Yet it was not without defects. No 

 vessels were to be seen on the lake, with the solitary ex- 

 ception of the steamboat ; no signs of cultivation, not a 



* I call this the sea breeze, though coming over the lake, because it 

 blows inland from the coast. The sea breeze is one of the well known 

 phenomena of low latitudes. It blows invariably from the East ; and 

 setting in about 9 A. M., continues till sunset. Its influence is felt in 

 the interior at a later hour, and becomes less the greater the distance 

 from the coast. 



