52 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



termination that was imposing, though called out by 

 civil war, he added that they were resolved to sustain 

 the Federation, or die under the ruins of San Salva- 

 dor. It was the first time my feelings had been at all 

 roused. In all the convulsions of the time I had seen 

 no flash of heroism, no high love of country. Self- 

 preservation and self-aggrandizement were the ruling 

 passions. It was a bloody scramble for power and 

 place ; and sometimes, as I rode through the beautiful 

 country, and saw what Providence had done for them, 

 and how unthankful they were, I thought it would be a 

 good riddance if they would play out the game of the 

 Kilkenny cats. It was a higher tone than I was accus- 

 tomed to, when the chief men of a single state, with an 

 invading army at their door, and their own soldiers 

 away, expressed the stern resolution to sustain the Fed- 

 eration, or die under the ruins of the capital. But they 

 did not despair of the Republic ; the Honduras troops 

 would be repulsed at San Vicente, and General Mora- 

 zan would take Guatimala. The whole subject of the 

 revolution was discussed, and the conversation was 

 deeply interesting to me, for I regarded it as touching 

 matters of life and death. I could not compromise them 

 by anything I might say, for they are all in exile, under 

 sentence of death if they return. They did not speak 

 in the ferocious and sanguinary spirit I afterward heard 

 imputed to them at Guatimala, but they spoke with 

 great bitterness of gentlemen whom I considered per- 

 sonal friends, who, they said, had been before spared 

 by their lenity ; and they added, in tones that could not 

 be misunderstood, that they would not make such a 

 mistake again. 



In the midst of this confusion, where was my gov- 

 ernment ? I had travelled all over the country, led on 



