NARRATIVE 



OF A 



JOURNEY TO GUATEMALA. 



CHAPTER I, 



Preliminary Remarks. — Departure from New York. — The Bahama Banks. 

 — liaVana. — The Mo'ro Castle'.— -Theatre. — Plaza de Armas. — Paseb.—- 

 The? Friar.— The Cafe. 



Having been honoured by the Government of the Uni- 

 ted States with a commission which required my proceed- 

 ing to Guatemala, in Central America, I have been induced, 

 since my return,- to prepare the following little work, 

 from an impression that a plain, unaffected narrative of a 

 journey through a country rarely visited by travellers, and 

 but little known, may not be uninteresting to an inquiring 

 and enlightened public. I shall endeavour to discharge 

 the task I have undertaken with fidelity, though I cannot 

 flatter myself with being able to do justice to the wild and 

 magnificent scenery through which I passed, or to impart 

 to the reader those emotions experienced in traversing 

 regions where the pathless forest and almost inaccessible 

 mountain are rendered still more awful and savage by the 

 evil passions of man ; where the traveller is less impeded 

 by the yawning precipice and raging torrent, than by 

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