DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 209 



not to suffer an outrage that had become notorious to 

 be treated lightly, I addressed a farther note to the sec- 

 retary, asking specifically whether the officer and al- 

 calde referred to had been punished, and if so, in what 

 way. To this I received for answer that, in the cir- 

 cumstances in which the country was placed by means 

 of an extraordinary popular revolution, and the dis- 

 trust prevailing in the frontier villages, the local au- 

 thorities were more suspicious than usual in the matter 

 of passports, and that the outrage, el atropellamento," 

 which I had suffered, had its origin in the orders of a 

 military officer, " un official militar^'^ who suspected 

 that I and my companion were " enemies," and that 

 General Cascara, as soon as he was informed of the cir- 

 cumstances, had removed him from his command ; the 

 reply went on to say that the government, much to its 

 regret, from the difficult circumstances in which the 

 country was placed, had not the power to give that se- 

 curity to travellers which it desired, but would issue 

 preventive orders to the local authorities to secure me 

 in my farther travels. 



I had understood that General Cascara had removed 

 the officer, but the intelligence was hardly received in 

 Guatimala before Carrera ordered him to be restored ; 

 and I afterward saw in a San Salvador paper that he 

 had threatened to shoot General Cascara if his degra- 

 dation was not revoked. In farther communications 

 with the secretary and the chief of the state, they con- 

 fessed their inability to do anything ; and being sat- 

 isfied that they desired it even more than myself, I did 

 not consider it worth while to press the subject ; as in- 

 deed, in strictness, I had no right to call upon the state 

 government. The general government had not the least 

 particle of power in the state, and I mention the cir- 



VoL. I.— Dd 



