THERMAL SPRINGS. 



219 



was discussed and settled, and in the course of the 

 day two friends undertook to visit Guatimala on the 

 cura's behalf. "We intended that day to ascend the 

 Volcano of Quezaltenango, but were disappointed in 

 our guide. In the morning we made purchases and 

 provisions for continuing our journey, and as one of 

 our mules' backs was badly galled, we requested the 

 gobernador to procure us Indian carriers. 



In the afternoon, in company with the corregidor, we 

 rode to the warm springs of Almolonga. The road 

 crosses a spur of the volcano, and descends precipitous- 

 ly into a deep valley, in which, about a league distant, 

 stand the village and hot springs. There is a good 

 bathing-house, at which we were not allowed to pay, 

 being considered the guests of the city. Outside, in a 

 beautiful natural reservoir, Indian men, women, and 

 children were bathing together. 



We returned by another road, passing up a valley of 

 extraordinary beauty, and the theme of conversation 

 was the happiness the country might enjoy but for wars 

 and revolutions. Beautiful as it was, all wished to 

 leave it, and seek a land where life was safe — Mexico 

 or El Norte. Toward evening, descending the spur of 

 the volcano, we met several hundred Indians returning 

 from the ceremonies of the Holy Week, and exceeding 

 in drunkenness all the specimens we had yet encoun- 

 tered. In one place a man and woman, the latter with 

 a child on her back, were staggering so near the brink 

 of a precipice, that the corregidor dismounted and took 

 the child from them, and made them go before us into 

 the town. 



There was no place we had visited, except ruined 

 cities, so unique and interesting, and which deserved to 

 be so thoroughly explored, as Quezaltenango. A month, 



