9 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL 



IN 



CENTRAL AMERICA, CHIAPAS, AND YUCATAN. 



CHAPTER I. 



Departure. — The Voyage. — Arrival at Balize. — Mixing of Colours. — Government 

 House.— Colonel M'Donald. — Origin of Balize. — Negro Schools.— Scene in a 

 Court-room. — Law without Lawyers. — The Barracks. — Excursion in a Pit- 

 pan. — A Beginning of Honours. — Honours accumulating. — Departure from 

 Balize.— Sweets of Office. 



Being intrusted by the President with a Special 

 Confidential Mission to Central America, on Wednes- 

 day, the third of October, 1839, I embarked on board 

 the British brig Mary Ann, Hampton, master, for the 

 Bay of Honduras. The brig was lying in the North 

 River, with her anchor apeak and sails loose, and in 

 a few minutes, in company with a large whahng-ship 

 bound for the Pacific, we were under way. It was 

 before seven o'clock in the morning : the streets and 

 wharves were still ; the Battery was desolate ; and, at 

 the moment of leaving it on a voyage of uncertain du- 

 ration, seemed more beautiful than I had ever known 

 it before. 



Opposite the Quarantine Ground, a few friends who 

 had accompanied me on board left me ; in an hour the 

 pilot followed ; at dusk the dark outline of the high- 

 lands of Never sink was barely visible, and the next 

 morning we were fairly at sea. 



My only fellow-passenger was Mr. Catherwood, an 



Vol. I.— B 



