96 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



that we wanted him to go with us all the way to Rio 

 Paz, he left us, as he said, to procure a horse. We 

 waited nearly an hour, when the old man reappeared 

 with a little boy about ten years old, dressed in a straw 

 hat and shirt, and mounted on a bare-backed horse. 

 The young man had disappeared and could not be 

 found ; in fact, he was afraid to go, and it was thought 

 this little boy would run less risk. I was never much 

 disturbed by general reports of robbers or assassins, 

 but there was palpable danger in meeting any of the 

 routed tropps. Desperate by defeat, and assassin-like 

 in disposition ; not very amiable to us before ; and 

 now, from having seen Us lounging about the town 

 at that inauspicious moment, likely to connect us with 

 the movements of Morazan, I believed that if we fell 

 in with them we should be murdered. But, on the 

 other hand, they had not let the grass grow under 

 their feet ; had probably been flying all night, in appre- 

 hension of pursuit ; shunning the main road, had per- 

 haps crossed the Rio Paz, and, once in Guatimala, 

 had dispersed to their own villages ; besides which, the 

 rout had been so total that they were probably escaping 

 three or four together, and would be as likely to run 

 from us as we from them. At all events, it was better 

 to go than wait till Carrera came upon the town. 



With these calculations and really uncomfortable 

 feelings, we bade farewell to some of the officers who 

 were waiting to see us off, and at nine o'clock set out. 

 Descending from the table-land on which the town is 

 built, we entered an open plain, over which we could 

 see to a great distance, and which would furnish, if ne- 

 cessary, a good field for the evolutions of our cavalry. 

 We passed the Lake of Aguachapa, the beauty of which, 

 under other circumstances, would have attracted our 



