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NARRATIVE OP A 



bricks and mortar. On the night of the next day, after 

 following the rebels a few leagues, he was ordered to per- 

 form the duty of sentinel again. But this time Tito had 

 no idea of waiting to be relieved, for scarcely had the cor- 

 poral turned his back, when he " ordered arms," placed his 

 musket against a tree to watch for him, and took to his 

 heels. He fled in the darkness of the night, through wood 

 and glen, and over hill and mountain, with such rapidity, 

 that fear seemed to have put wings upon his feet. In an 

 incredibly short space of time he reached the village where 

 his despatches were concealed, and having recovered them, 

 continued his route till he arrived at St. Salvador. 



To resume our narrative. The first place we came to, 

 after leaving Sonsonate, was an Indian village called 

 Aguisalco. Here I was forcibly struck by the singularity 

 of a fact which I have already alluded to : the existence of 

 the aborigines in all their original simplicity, and their ad- 

 herence to the language and habits of their ancestors, even 

 while living in the vicinity of large and populous towns. 

 In Aguisalco, the arts and usages of civilized life seemed 

 to be utterly unknown. The greater part of the individu- 

 als of both sexes were totally uncovered from the waist up- 

 wards ; the children were unencumbered by any clothes 

 whatever. They inhabited little huts without windows, 

 lived upon plantains and tortillas, and slept in hammocks. 



A few miles further, we came to Apaneja, another Indian 

 village, very similar to the one just described ; and here we 

 suspended our march for a couple of hours. 



Leaving this place, we travelled through a mountaiuous 

 and woody country, gradually ascending in our progress, 

 till we came to an elevated plain, or table-land, surrounded 

 by volcanic mountains. In the centre of this plain there 

 is a lake, and near it the town of Aguachapa. The smoke 

 could be seen issuing from the tops of the mountains, and 

 even from fissures in the rocks quite near us. In several 

 places the ground had sunk in, and formed apertures of 

 greater or less extent, which emitted a dense vapour of a 



