124 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



mending me very highly, and stating my purpose of 

 travelling through the country. This last letter was 

 more important than anything else ; and if it had been 

 directed to one of the opposite party in politics, it would 

 have been against us, as confirming the suspicion of 

 our being " ennemigos." Never was greatness so 

 much under a shade. Though vexatious, it was almost 

 amusing to be obliged to clear up our character to such 

 a miserable party as Don Miguel, his wife, and Barta- 

 lo ; but it was indispensable to relieve them from 

 doubts and anxieties, enabling us to remain quietly in 

 their wretched hut ; and the relief they experienced, and 

 the joy of the woman in learning that we were tolerably 

 respectable people, not enemies, and not in danger of 

 being put up and shot at, were most grateful to us. 



Nevertheless, Don Miguel advised us to go to Guati- 

 mala or to General Cascara, procure an order to visit 

 the ruins, and then return. We had made a false step 

 in one particular ; we should have gone direct to Guati- 

 mala, and returned with a passport and letters from the 

 government ; but, as we had no time to spare, and did 

 not know what there was at Copan, probably if we had 

 not taken it on the way we should have missed it alto- 

 gether. And we did not know that the country was so 

 completely secluded ; the people are less accustomed to 

 the sight of strangers than the Arabs about Mount Sinai, 

 and they are much more suspicious. Colonel Galindo 

 was the only stranger who had been there before us, 

 and he could hardly be called a stranger, for he was a 

 colone.l in the Central American service, and visited the 

 ruins under a commission from the government. Our 

 visit has perhaps had some influence upon the feelings 

 of the people ; it has, at all events, taught Don Gre- 

 gorio that strangers are not easily got rid of; but 1 



