44 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



likely to be disturbed during the night, forgot the troub- 

 les of the flying inhabitants, and slept soundly. 



On account of the difficulty of procuring mules, we 

 did not set out till ten o'clock. The climate is the hot- 

 test in Central America, and insalubrious under expo- 

 sure to the sun ; but we would not wait. Every mo- 

 ment there were new rumours of the approach of the 

 Honduras army, and it was all important for us to keep 

 in advance of them. I shall hasten over our hurried 

 journey through the State of San Salvador, the richest 

 in Central America, extending a hundred and eighty 

 miles along the shores of the Pacific, producing tobac- 

 co, the best indigo and richest balsam in the world. 

 We had mountains and rivers, valleys and immense ra- 

 vines, and the three great volcanoes of San Miguel, San 

 Vicente, and San Salvador, one or the other of which 

 was almost constantly in sight. The whole surface is 

 volcanic ; for miles the road lay over beds of decom- 

 posed lava, inducing the belief that here the whole shore 

 of the Pacific is an immense arch over subterraneous 

 fires. From the time of the independence this state 

 stood foremost in the maintenance of liberal principles, 

 and throughout it exhibits an appearance of improve- 

 ment, a freedom from bigotry and fanaticism, and a de- 

 velopment of physical and moral energy not found in 

 any other. The San Salvadoreans are the only men 

 who speak of sustaining the integrity of the Republic as 

 a point of national honour. 



In the afternoon of the second day we came in sight 

 of the Lempa, now a gigantic river rolling on to the 

 Pacific. Three months before I had seen it a little 

 stream among the mountains of Esquipulas. Here we 

 were overtaken by Don Carlos Rivas, a leading Liber- 

 al from Honduras, flying for life before partisan sol- 



