CHARACTER OF CARRERA. 249 



by his enemies. He seemed intelligent and capable 

 of improvement, and I told him that he ought to trav- 

 el into other countries, and particularly, from its con- 

 tiguity, into mine. He had a very indefinite notion as 

 to where my country was ; he knew it only as El 

 Norte, or the North ; inquired about the distance and 

 facility for getting there, and said that, when the wars 

 were over, he would endeavour to make El Norte 

 a visit. But he could not fix his thoughts upon any- 

 thing except the wars and Morazan ; in fact, he knew 

 of nothing else. He was boyish in his manners and 

 manner of speaking, but very grave ; he never smiled, 

 and, conscious of power, was unostentatious in the ex- 

 hibition of it, though he always spoke in the first per- 

 son of what he had done and what he intended to do. 

 One of the hangers-on, evidently to pay court to him, 

 looked for a paper bearing his signature to show me as 

 a specimen of his handwriting, but did not find one. 

 My interview with him was much more interesting 

 than I had expected ; so young, so humble in his ori- 

 gin, so destitute of early advantages, with honest im- 

 pulses, perhaps, but ignorant, fanatic, sanguinary, and 

 the slave of violent passions, wielding absolutely the 

 physical force of the country, and that force entertain- 

 ing a natural hatred to the whites. At parting he ac- 

 companied me to the door, and in the presence of his 

 villanous soldiers made me a free offer of his services. 

 I understood that I had the good fortune to make a fa- 

 vourable impression ; and afterward, but, unluckily, 

 during my absence, he called upon me in full dress 

 and in state, which for him was an unusual thing. 



At that time, as Don Manuel Pavon told me, he pro- 

 fessed to consider himself a brigadier-general, subject 

 to the orders of the government. He had no regular 



Vol. I.--I I 



