58 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Contributions.— El Baranco de Guaramal.— Volcano of Izalco— Depredations of 

 Rascon.— Zonzonate.— News from Guatimala.— Journey continued.— Aguisal- 

 co.—Apeneca.— Mountain of Aguachapa.— Subterranean Fires.'— Aguachapa. — 

 Defeat of Morazan.— Confusion and Terror. 



The captain had given me a hint in a led horse which 

 he kept for emergencies, and I had bought one of an 

 officer of General Morazan, who sold him because he 

 would not stand fire, and recommended him for a way- 

 he had of carrying his rider out of the reach of bullets. 

 At the distance of two leagues we reached a hacien- 

 da where our men were waiting for us with the luggage. 

 It was occupied by a miserable old man alone, with a 

 large swelling under his throat, very common all through 

 this country, the same as is seen among the mountains 

 of Switzerland. While the men were reloading, we 

 heard the tramp of horses, and fifteen or twenty lancers 

 galloped up to the fence ; and the leader, a dark, stern, 

 but respectable-looking man about forty, in a deep voice, 

 called to the old man to get ready and mount ; the time 

 had come, he said, when every man must fight for his 

 country ; if they had done so before, their own ships 

 would be floating on the Atlantic and the Pacific, and 

 they would not now be at the mercy of strangers and 

 enemies. Altogether the speech was a good one, and 

 would have done for a fourth of July oration or a ward 

 meeting at home ; but made from the back of a horse 

 by a powerful man, well armed, and with twenty lan- 

 cers at his heels, it was not pleasant in the ears of the 

 " strangers" for whom it was intended. Really I re- 

 spected the man's energy, but his expression and man- 

 ner precluded all courtesies ; and though he looked at 



