192 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



tured out at night, and Mr. Hall wondered how I had 

 been able to wander through the streets without being 

 molested. All this was not very agreeable, but it could 

 not destroy my satisfaction in reaching Guatimala. 

 For the first time since I entered the country, I had a 

 good bed and a pair of clean sheets. It was two 

 months that day since I embarked from New-York, and 

 only one since I entered the country, but it seemed at 

 least a year. 



The luxury of my rest that night still lingers in my 

 recollections, and the morning air was the most pure 

 and invigorating I ever breathed. Situated in the " Ti- 

 erras templadas," or temperate regions, on a table-land 

 five thousand feet above the sea, the climate of Guati- 

 mala is that of perpetual spring, and the general aspect 

 reminded me of the best class of Italian cities. It is 

 laid out in blocks of from three to four hundred feet 

 square, the streets parallel and crossing each other at 

 right angles. The houses, made to resist the action of 

 earthquakes, are of only one story, but very spacious, 

 with large doors and windows, protected by iron bal- 

 conies. In the centre of the city stands the Plaza, a 

 square of one hundred and fifty yards on each side, paved 

 with stone, with a colonnade on three sides ; on one of 

 these stands the old vice-regal palace and hall of the 

 Audiencia ; on another are the cabildo and other city 

 buildings ; on the third the custom-house and palace 

 of the ci-devant Marquisate of Aycinena ; and on the 

 fourth side is the Cathedral, a beautiful edifice, in the 

 best style of modern architecture, with the archiepisco- 

 pal palace on one side, and the College de Infantes on 

 the other. In the centre is a large stone fountain, of 

 imposing workmanship, supplied with pipes from the 

 mountains about two leagues distant ; and the area is 



