JOURNEY TO GUATEMALA. 



81 



ing in them, and were protected by neat enclosures, which 

 gave them the appearance of gardens. 



At Saltepeque we halted for the night. The occupant 

 of one of the best-looking huts, who was not an Indian, 

 but a ladino, the name given there to light mulattoes, af- 

 forded us lodgings with a good grace, and undertook to 

 cater for us. I was surprised to see him, on going out for 

 this purpose, gird on an old basket-hilted sword. To a 

 remark that I made upon this, he replied that it was grow- 

 ing dark, and that a little precaution could not be amiss. 

 It gave me, however, a very bad opinion of the inhabi- 

 tants of the place. On our retiring to rest, my two fellow- 

 travellers had recourse to their hammocks, and I, as on a 

 former occasion, to my leopard skin and cloak. 



The next day, just as a faint gleam of light in the East 

 announced the approach of dawn, we were roused by the 

 guide we had engaged at Sacapa. He exhorted us to be 

 stirring, and to lose no time, for we had an arduous task 

 before us ; the mountain of Saltepeque had to be passed — 

 a lofty, steep, and rugged mountain, scarcely less formida- 

 ble than that of Izabal — and it would be well, he said, to 

 accomplish this before the sun was very high in the hori- 

 zon. Our preparations were soon made, and before the 

 sun had risen we were again upon the road. 



We soon came to the foot of the mountain alluded to 

 by the guide, and its appearance corresponded but too well 

 with the description he had made of it. The ascent was 

 abrupt and rocky, and the path, leading sometimes across 

 a ravine, and at others along the dry channel of a torrent, 

 presented at each step some new difficulty to be surmount- 

 ed. Some parts of the mountain were woody, and here 

 the underwood and long grass were another obstruction 

 to our progress. 



In about three hours we reached the summit, when I 

 perceived a sensible difference in the temperature of the 

 air, which was here much cooler than in the plain below. 

 The descent on the other side was through a forest of lofty 

 11 



