102 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



his men were violent Cachurecos, and at this moment 

 capable of committing any outrage. He had incurred 

 great peril by receiving us for a moment under his roof, 

 and begged us, both for our own sake and his, to leave 

 his house ; adding that, even if we were of those unfor- 

 tunate men, our horses should be brought up and we 

 should go away unharmed ; more he could not promise. 

 Now if we had really been the fugitives he supposed us, 

 we should no doubt have been very thankful for his 

 kindness ; but to be turned out by mistake in a dark 

 night, an unknown country, and without any guide, was 

 almost as bad as coming at us with a blunderbuss. 

 Fortunately, he was not a suspicious man ; if he had 

 been another Don Gregorio we should have " walked 

 Spanish ;" and, more fortunately still, my pertinacity 

 had secured Figoroa's passport ; it was the only thing 

 that could have cleared our character. I showed it to 

 him, pointing to the extra flourish which the secretary 

 had made of plenipotentiario, and I believe he was not 

 more astonished at finding who had honoured him by 

 taking possession of his house, than pleased that we 

 were not Morazan's officers. Though an intelligent 

 man, he had passed a retired life on his hacienda. He 

 had heard of such a thing as " a ministro plenipoten- 

 tiario," but had never seen one. My accoutrements and 

 the eagle on my hat sustained the character, and he call- 

 ed in the major-domo and two leading men on the haci- 

 enda, read to them the passport, and explained to them 

 the character of a ministro plenipotentiario, while I sat 

 up on the bed with my coat off and hat on to show the 

 eagle, and the captain suppressed all partialities for 

 Morazan, and talked of my intimacy with Carrera. The 

 people are so suspicious that, having once formed ai* 

 idea, they do not willingly abandon it, and it was un- 



