264 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Excursion to La Antigua and the Pacific Ocean.— San Pablo.— Mountain Scene 

 ry. — El Rio Pensativo. — La Antigua, — Account of its Destruction. — An Octo« 

 genarian. — The Cathedral. — San Juan Obispo. — Santa Maria. — Volcano de 

 Agua.— Ascent of the Mountain. — The Crater. — A lofty Meeting-place. — The 

 Descent.— Return to La Antigua. — Cultivation of Cochineal. — Classic Ground. 

 — Ciudad Vieja. — Its Foundation. — Visit from Indians. — Departure from Ciudad 

 Vieja. — First Sight of the Pacific. — Alotenango. — Volcan del Fuega. — Escuint- 

 la. — Sunset Scene.— Masagua. — Port of Istapa. — Arrival at the Pacific. 



On Tuesday, the seventeenth of December, I set out 

 on an excursion to La Antigua Guatimala and the Pa- 

 cific Ocean. I was accompanied by a young man who 

 lived opposite, and wished to ascend the Volcano de 

 Agua. I had discharged Augustin, and with great dif- 

 ficulty had procured a man who knew the route. Ro- 

 maldi had but one fault : he was married ; like some 

 other married men, he had a fancy for roving ; but his 

 wife set her face against this propensity ; she said that 

 I was going to El Mar, the sea, and might carry him 

 off, and she would never see him again, and the affection- 

 ate woman wept at the bare idea ; but upon my paying 

 the money into her hands before going, she consented. 

 My only luggage was a hammock and pair of sheets, 

 which Romaldi carried on his mule, and each had a 

 pair of alforgas. At the gate we met Don Jose Vidau- 

 ry, whom I had first seen in the president's chair of the 

 Constituent Assembly, and who was going to visit his 

 hacienda at the Antigua. Though it was only five or 

 six hours' distant, Seiior Vidaury, being a very heavy 

 man, had two led horses, one of which he insisted on 

 my mounting ; and when I expressed my admiration of 

 the animal, he told me, in the usual phrase of Spanish 

 courtesy, that the horse was mine. It was done in the 



