90 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



All parted at the hacienda of San Antonio with kind 

 feelings except our surly muleteer, who was indignant, 

 as he said, that we made presents to everybody except to 

 him. The poor boy was most grateful, and, unfortu- 

 nately for him, we had given him a knife, which made 

 the muleteer jealous. 



Almost immediately from the hacienda we entered 

 a thick wood, dense as that of the Mico Mountain, and 

 almost as muddy. The ascent was toilsome, but the 

 top was open, and so covered with that beautiful plant 

 that we called it the Mountain of Aloes. Some were 

 just peeping out of the ground, others were twenty or 

 thirty feet high, and some gigantic stalks were dead ; 

 flowers which would have kindled rapture in the breast 

 of beauty had bloomed and died on this desolate mount- 

 ain, unseen except by a passing Indian. 



In descending we lost the path, and wandered for 

 some time before we recovered it. Almost immediate- 

 ly we commenced ascending another mountain, and 

 from its top looked completely over a third, and, at a 

 great distance, saw a large hacienda. Our road lay di- 

 rectly along the edge of a precipice, from which we 

 looked down upon the tops of gigantic pines at a great 

 distance beneath us. Very soon the path became so 

 broken, and ran so near the edge of a precipice, that I 

 called to Mr. Catherwood to dismount. The precipice 

 was on the left side, and I had advanced so far that, 

 on the back of a perverse mule, I did not venture to 

 make any irregular movement, and rode for some mo- 

 ments in great anxiety. Somewhere on this road, but 

 unmarked by any visible sign, we crossed the bounda- 

 ry-line of the state of Guatimala and entered Hon- 

 duras. 



At two o'clock we reached the village of Copan, 



