32 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



hope that in due season it will multiply the name and 

 make it respectable among the Caribs. 



We returned to the steamboat, and in a few minutes 

 were again under way, steering for the Rio Dolce. An 

 amphitheatre of lofty mountains stretches for many 

 miles along the coast, and back till they are lost to the 

 sight. In one small place this lofty range opens for 

 the passage of a gentle river. On the right bank of 

 the coast was one of the places I intended to visit. It 

 was called by the familiar name of Livingston, in hon- 

 our of the distinguished citizen of Louisiana whose 

 criminal code was at that time introduced into Guati- 

 mala ; and it was supposed, so advantageous was its 

 position, that it would become the port of entry of 

 Central America ; but these expectations were not re- 

 alized. 



It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and, in steering 

 toward it, the captain told me that, if we cast anchor, 

 it would be necessary to lie there till morning. I was 

 loth to lose the only opportunity I shall probably ever 

 have of stopping a steamboat ; but I had an eager, al- 

 most a burning curiosity to see the Golfo Dolce, and 

 we all agreed that it would be wanton to lose such an 

 opportunity of seeing it to advantage. I therefore di- 

 rected the captain to move close to the bank and pass on. 



The bank was elevated about thirty feet above the 

 water, and rich and luxuriant as at Puenta Gorda. 

 The site of the intended city was occupied by another 

 tribe of Caribs, who, like the first, driven from their 

 home by war, had followed up the coast, and, with 

 that eye for the picturesque and beautiful in natural 

 scenery which distinguishes the Indians everywhere, 

 had fixed themselves upon this spot. Their leaf- 

 thatched huts were ranged along the bank, shaded by 



