164 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



and after an hour's ascent came out upon the lake, 

 rode a short distance upon the brink, with another im- 

 mense mountain range before us, and breaking over the 

 top the cataract which I had seen from the canoe. 

 Very soon we commenced ascending ; the path ran zig- 

 zag, commanding alternately a view of the plain and 

 of the lake. The ascent was terrible for loaded mules, 

 being in some places steps cut in the stone like a regu- 

 lar staircase. Every time we came upon the lake there 

 was a different view. At four o'clock, looking back 

 over the high ranges of mountains we had crossed, we 

 saw the great volcanoes of Agua and Fuego. Six 

 volcanoes were in sight at once, four of them above 

 ten thousand, and two nearly fifteen thousand feet high. 

 Looking down upon the lake we saw a canoe, so small 

 as to present a mere speck on the water, and, as we 

 supposed, it was sent for us by our friend Don Saturni- 

 no. Four days afterward, after diverging and return- 

 ing to the main road, I found a letter from him, direct- 

 ed to " El Ministro de Nueva-York," stating that he 

 found the road so terrible that night overtook him, and 

 he was obliged to stop three leagues short of Atitan. 

 On arriving at that place he learned that the canoe was 

 on his side of the lake, but the boatmen would not 

 cross till the afternoon wind sprang up. The letter 

 was written after the return of the canoe, and sent 

 by courier two days' journey, begging us to return, 

 and offering as a bribe a noble mule, which, in our 

 bantering on the road, he affirmed was better than 

 my macho. Twice the mule-track led us almost with- 

 in the fall of cataracts, and the last time we came 

 upon the lake we looked down upon a plain even more 

 beautiful than that of Panachahel. Directly under 

 us, at an immense distance below, but itself elevated 



