106 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



Guatimala. It looked beautiful, and I never thought I 

 should be so happy to see it again. I had finished a 

 journey of twelve hundred miles, and the gold of Peru 

 could not have tempted me to undertake it again. At 

 the gate the first man I saw was my friend Don Man- 

 uel Pavon. I could but think, if Morazan had taken 

 the city, where would he be now ? Carrera was not in 

 the city ; he had set out in pursuit of Morazan, but on 

 the road received intelligence which induced him to 

 turn off for Quezaltenango. I learned with deep satis- 

 faction that not one of my acquaintances was killed, 

 and, as I afterward found, not one of them had been in 

 the battle. 



I gave Don Manuel the first intelligence of General 

 Morazan. Not a word had been heard of him since he 

 left the Antigua. Nobody had come up from that direc- 

 tion ; the people were still too frightened to travel, and 

 the city had not recovered from its spasm of terror. As 

 we advanced I met acquaintances who welcomed me 

 back to Guatimala. I was considered as having run the 

 gauntlet for life, and escape from dangers created a bond 

 between us. I could hardly persuade myself that the 

 people who received me so cordially, and whom I was 

 really glad to meet again, were the same whose expul- 

 sion by Morazan I had considered probable. If he had 

 succeeded, not one of them would have been there to 

 welcome me. Repeatedly I was obliged to stop and 

 tell over the affair of Aguachapa ; how many men 

 Morazan had ; what officers ; whether I spoke to him ; 

 how he looked, and what he said. I introduced the 

 captain ; each had his circle of listeners ; and the cap- 

 tain, as a slight indemnification for his forced " Viva 

 Carreras" on the road, feeling, on his arrival once more 

 among civilized and well-dressed people, a comparative 



