24 



INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL. 



she treated me with great civility and attention, and 

 particularly used great exertions in procuring me a 

 guide to enable me to set out the next day. 



After dinner Nicolas came to my room, and with 

 uplifted hands cried out against the people of Leon, 

 Gente indecente, sin verguenza (literally), indecent peo- 

 ple, without shame. He had been hooted in the streets, 

 and had heard such stories of the state of the country 

 before us that he wanted to return home. I was ex- 

 tremely loth to make another change, and particularly 

 for any of the assassin-looking scoundrels whom I had 

 seen on my entry ; but I did not like the responsibility 

 of taking him against his will, and told him that if he 

 would procure me two honest men he might leave me. 

 I had advanced him more than was due, but I had a 

 security against his deserting me in his apprehension 

 of being taken for a soldier. 



This over, I walked out to take a view of the town. 

 It had an appearance of old and aristocratic respecta- 

 bility, which no other city in Central America possess- 

 ed. The houses were large, and many of the fronts 

 were full of stucco ornaments ; the plaza was spacious, 

 and the squares of the churches and the churches them- 

 selves magnificent. It was the seat of a bishopric, and 

 distinguished for the costliness of its churches and con* 

 vents, its seats of learning, and its men of science, down 

 to the time of its revolution against Spain ; but in walk- 

 ing through its streets I saw palaces in which nobles 

 had lived dismantled and roofless, and occupied by 

 half-starved wretches, pictures of misery and want ; and 

 on one side an immense field of ruins, covering half the 

 city. 



Almost immediately on the establishment of inde- 



