142 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



be better for exercise, and for the last time we bade 

 farewell to our kind host. 



Don Pepe escorted us, and crossing the plain of El 

 Vieja in the direction in which Alvarado entered it, 

 we ascended a high hill, and, turning the summit, 

 through a narrow opening looked down upon a beau- 

 tiful plain, cultivated like a garden, which opened to 

 the left as we advanced, and ran off to the Lake of 

 Duenos, between the two great volcanoes of Fire and 

 Water. Descending to the plain, we entered the vil- 

 lage of San Antonio, occupied entirely by Indians. 

 The cura's house stood on an open plaza, with a fine 

 fountain in front, and the huts of the Indians were built 

 with stalks of sugarcane. Early in the occupation of 

 Guatimala, the lands around the capital were parti- 

 tioned out among certain canonigos, and Indians were 

 allotted to cultivate them. Each village was called by 

 the canonigo's own name. A church was built, and a 

 fine house for himself, and by judicious management 

 the Indians became settled and the artisans for the cap- 

 ital. In the stillness and quiet of the village, it seemed 

 as if the mountains and volcanoes around had shielded 

 it from the devastation and alarm of war. Passing 

 through it, on the other side of the plain we com- 

 menced ascending a mountain. About half way up, 

 looking back over the village and plain, we saw a sin- 

 gle white line over the mountain we had crossed to the 

 Ciudad Vieja, and the range of the eye embraced the 

 plain and lake at our feet, the great plain of Escuintla, 

 the two volcanoes of Agua and Fuego, extending to 

 the Pacific Ocean. The road was very steep, and our 

 mules laboured. On the other side of the mountain the 

 road lay for some distance between shrubs and small 

 trees, emerging from which we saw an immense plain, 



