APPROACH TO GUATIMALA. 



187 



over my spirits. Leaving Gustatoya, for some distance 

 I rode through a cultivated country, and the fields were 

 divided by fences. Very soon I forgot all apprehen- 

 sions of robbers, and, tired of the slow pace of the car- 

 go-mules, rode on, leaving them far behind. At eleven 

 o'clock I entered a ravine so wild that I thought it could 

 not be the main road to Guatimala ; there were no 

 mule- tracks visible ; and, returning, I took another 

 road, the result of which was that I lost my way, and 

 rode the whole day alone. I could gain no certain 

 intelligence of Augustin and the muleteer, but contin- 

 ued on in the belief that they were before me. Push- 

 ing on rapidly, at dark I rode up to a hacienda on one 

 side of the road, at which I was very kindly received 

 by the proprietor, who was a mulatto, and, to my great 

 surprise, I learned that I had advanced to within one 

 long day's journey of Guatimala. He made me anx- 

 ious, however, about the safety of my luggage ; but for 

 that night I could do nothing. I lay down opposite 

 a large household altar, over which was a figure of the 

 Virgin. At about ten o'clock I was roused by the ar- 

 rival of Augustin and the muleteer. Besides their ap- 

 prehensions about me, they had had their own difiicul- 

 ties ; two of the mules broke down, and they were 

 obliged to stop and let them rest, and feed them. 



Early the next morning, leaving the luggage with 

 the muleteer (which, by-the-way, was at that time a 

 very imprudent proceeding), and taking merely a 

 change of apparel, I set out with Augustin. Almost 

 immediately we commenced ascending a rugged mount- 

 ain, very steep, and commanding at every step a wild 

 and magnificent view ; and from the top saw, at a great 

 distance below us, in the hollow of an amphitheatre of 

 mountains, the village of El Puente, the ground around 



