166 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



of them as would make it impossible to go there. Car- 

 rera had left a garrison of soldiers in Solola, and we 

 called upon the commandant, a gentlemanly man, sus- 

 pected of disaffection to Carrera's government, and 

 therefore particularly desirous to pay respect to his pass- 

 port, who told me that there had been less excitement 

 at that place than in some of the other villages, and 

 promised to send the luggage on under safe escort to the 

 corregidor of Totonicapan, and give us a letter to his 

 commissionado in Santa Cruz del Quiche. 



On our return we learned that a lady had sent for us. 

 Her house was on the corner of the plaza. She was a 

 chapetone from Old Spain, which country she had left 

 with her husband thirty years before, on account of wars. 

 At the time of Carrera's last invasion her son was alcalde 

 mayor, and fled. If he had been taken he would have 

 been shot. The wife of her son was with her. They 

 had not heard from him, but he had fled toward Mex- 

 ico, and they supposed him to be in the frontier town, 

 and wished us to carry letters to him, and to inform him 

 of their condition. Their house had been plundered, 

 and they were in great distress. It was another of the 

 instances we were constantly meeting of the effects of 

 civil war. They insisted on our remaining at the house 

 all night, which, besides that they were interesting, we 

 were not loth to do on our own account. The place 

 was several thousand feet higher than where we slept 

 the night before, and the temperature cold and wintry 

 by comparison. Hammocks, our only beds, were not 

 used at all. There were not even supporters in the 

 cabildo to hang them on. The next morning the mules 

 were all drawn up by the cold, their coats were rough, 

 and my poor horse was so chilled that he could hardly 

 move. In coming in he had attracted attention, and the 



