JOURNEY TO SAN SALVADOR. 



41 



CHAPTER III. 



Journey to San Salvador.— A new Companion.— San Alejo.— San Miguel.— War 

 Alarms. — Another Countryman. — State of San Salvador. — River Lempa. — 

 San Vicente— Volcano of San Vicente.— Thermal Springs.— Cojutepeque.— 

 Arrival at San Salvador. — Prejudice against Foreigners. — Contributions. — 

 Pressgangs— Vice-president Vigil.— Taking of San Miguel and San Vicente. 

 —Rumours of a March upon San Salvador.— Departure from San Salvador. 



At five o'clock the next afternoon we set out for San 

 Salvador. Don Manuel Romero furnished me with let- 

 ters of introduction to all the Gefes Politicos, and the 

 captain's name was inserted in my passport. 



I must introduce the reader to my new friend. Cap- 

 tain Antonio V. F., a little over thirty, when six 

 months out on a whaling voyage, with a leaky ship 

 and a mutinous crew, steered across the Pacific for the 

 Continent of America, and reached the port of La 

 Union with seven or eight feet water in the hold and 

 half his crew in irons. He knew nothing of Central 

 America until necessity threw him upon its shore. 

 While waiting the slow process of a regular condem- 

 nation and order for the sale of his ship, General Mo- 

 razan, with an escort of officers, came to the port to 

 embark his wife and family for Chili. Captain F. had 

 become acquainted with them, and through them with 

 their side of the politics of the country ; and in the 

 evening, while we were riding along the ridge of a high 

 mountain, he told me that he had been offered a lieu- 

 tenant-colonel's commission, and was then on his way 

 to join Morazan in his march against Guatimala. His 

 ship was advertised for sale, he had written an account 

 of his misadventures to his owners and his wife, was 



Vol. IL— F 



