182 



NARRATIVE OF A 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



The Deserted Village. — The Gay Curate. — Anecdote of Indian Idola- 

 try. — A Picturesque Country. — Village of St. Miguel. — Pensile Nests. 

 — The Little Chapel. — The River Polochic. — Another Bridge of Cu- 

 rious Invention. 



On leaving the hut the next morning, I did not forget 

 the old Indian and his family, and we parted excellent 

 friends, notwithstanding the inauspicious commencement 

 of our acquaintance. I now joined Don Ignacio and the 

 rest of the party, whose situation during the preceding 

 night had not been much more enviable than mine : we 

 mounted ; and leaving the rancheria del Patal, proceeded 

 on our journey. The road now led along the banks of a 

 mountain stream, which tossed and foamed among the 

 rocks as it pursued its winding and rapid course towards 

 the vallies. This stream was one of the tributaries of the 

 Polochic, a river in which, at the point where it becomes 

 navigable, I proposed taking a boat to convey me to the 

 Golfo dulce, and thence across the lake to Izabal. After a 

 short, though wearisome march, in the course of which 

 the stream had to be forded several times, we arrived at an 

 Indian village called Taltique, where it was deemed ex- 

 pedient to halt for that day, though the distance travelled 

 had been only six leagues. 



We were not a little surprised, on entering the village, 

 to find only women and children : the men had all disap- 

 peared ; and even the curate had rendered himself invisi- 

 ble, for he was nowhere to be found. At length we suc- 

 ceeded in extracting from the women the secret of this 

 general abandonment of the place, and learnt that the 



