198 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



and we determined not to be diverted from the course 

 we had marked out. 



The next morning we had one painful moment with 

 the cura, and that was the moment of parting. He was 

 then calm and kind, his irresistible laugh and his en- 

 thusiasm all gone. We had one village to pass at 

 which he told us the Indians were bad, for which rea- 

 son he gave us a letter to the justitia ; and in the kind- 

 ness of his heart insisted on my accepting one of his 

 beautiful quezales. 



As this was Holy Week, we had great difficulty in 

 procuring a guide. None of the Indians wished to 

 leave the village, and the alcalde told an alguazil to 

 take a man out of prison. After a parley with the in- 

 mates through the grating, one was selected, but kept 

 in confinement till the moment of starting, when the al- 

 guazil opened the door and let him out, our roll of 

 luggage was put on his back, and he set off. The bat- 

 tered soldier accompanied us a short distance, and Bobon 

 went before, carrying on a stick the royal bird of Quiche. 

 Crossing the plain and the ravine on which the city 

 stood, we ascended a mountain in the rear, command- 

 ing a magnificent view of the plain of Quiche, and de- 

 scending on the other side, at the distance of two 

 leagues reached the village of San Pedro. A thatched 

 church, with a cross before it, stood near the road, and 

 the huts of the village were a little in the rear. The 

 padre had told us that the Indians of this place were 

 " muy malos," very bad ; and as our guide, when he re- 

 turned, had to be locked up in prison, to avoid the ne- 

 cessity of stopping we tried to induce him to continue ; 

 but he dropped his load at the foot of the cross, and 

 ran back in such haste that he left behind his rag- 

 ged chamar. The justitia was a Mestitzo, who sent for 



