116 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



the streets our attention was directed to the localities, 

 and everywhere we saw marks of the battle. Vaga- 

 bond soldiers accosted us, begging medios, pointing 

 their muskets at our heads to show how they shot the 

 enemy, and boasting how many they had killed. These 

 fellows made me feel uncomfortable, and I was not 

 singular ; but if there was a man who had a mixture of 

 uncomfortable and comfortable feelings, it was my friend 

 the captain. He was for Morazan ; had left La Union 

 to join his expedition, left San Salvador to pay him a 

 visit at Guatimala and partake of the festivities of his 

 triumph, and left Aguachapa because his trunks had 

 gone on before. Ever since his arrival in the country 

 he had been accustomed to hear Carrera spoken of as a 

 robber and assassin, and the noblesse of Guatimala rid- 

 iculed, and all at once he found himself in a hornet's 

 nest. He now heard Morazan denounced as a tyrant, 

 his officers as a set of cutthroats, banded together to as- 

 sassinate personal enemies, rob churches, and kill 

 priests ; they had met the fate they deserved, and the 

 universal sentiment was, so perish the enemies of Gua- 

 timala. The captain had received a timely caution. 

 His story that Morazan would have killed every man of 

 Figoroa's if the horses had not been so tired, had circu- 

 lated ; it was considered very partial, and special inqui- 

 ries were made as to who that captain was. He was 

 compelled to listen and assent, or say nothing. On the 

 road he was an excessively loud talker, spoke the lan- 

 guage perfectly, with his admirable arms and horse equip- 

 ments always made a dashing entree into a village, and 

 was called " muy valiante," " very brave but here he 

 was a subdued man, attracting a great deal of attention, 

 but without any of the eclat which had attended him on 

 the road, and feeling that he was an object of suspicion 



