JOURNEY TO GUATEMALA. 



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crown ; he then received an awful flagellation, and, 

 finally, in spite of his entreaties to be exempted from 

 so great and unmerited a distinction, was actually cru- 

 cified. 



As soon as the poor Indian was fairly dead, they took 

 him down, and carried him to the village-church, where, 

 having laid him out, they watched him, and waited with in- 

 tense interest for the third day, when he was to return to 

 life. But before that day arrived, the body exhibited such 

 symptoms of dissolution, and began to be so offensive, 

 that the Indians already entertained doubts of the legiti- 

 macy of their god. They held out, however, till the ex- 

 piration of the third, when finding that there was to be no 

 resurrection, they dragged the body out of the church, 

 and threw it on a dung-hill. From that time forward, 

 they submitted with exemplary docility to the directions 

 of their spiritual guide. 



Our route the following day continued to be along the 

 banks of the mountain stream before mentioned, which, 

 as we advanced, became gradually broader, deeper, and 

 less rapid in its current. The country we passed through 

 this day was beautifully wild and romantic. Almost every 

 mile brought to our view some novel object to arrest the 

 attention, some charming landscape that the eye rested on 

 with complacence. At one time, it was a gigantic forest 

 of druidical antiquity, at another a shady grove ; now a 

 smiling little valley, and, anon, a stony ridge, where rocks 

 and trees were heaped together in wild confusion. This, 

 as I have before stated, is the general character of the coun- 

 try in Central America ; but all the varieties of natural 

 scenery were on the present occasion confined within a 

 smaller space than at any other period of my journey. 

 As they passed before my eyes in panoramic succession, 

 the mind seemed to be under the influence of a charm, 

 and forgot, in the pleasure of the scene, the fatigues of 

 travel, and all care for the future or the past. 

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