294 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



and among strangers, where no one would care for 

 him. His house was the outside of the major-domo's 

 hut, but his home was in the hearts of his friends, and 

 perhaps some of them would be dead before he return- 

 ed. The wife of the major-domo seemed a good spirit 

 in tempering the hearts and conduct of these wild and 

 half-naked men. I promised to give him money to pay 

 his expenses home when he should wish to return, and 

 he agreed to go with me. At three o'clock the old ma- 

 jor-domo was shouting in my ears. I was not familiar 

 with my own name with the don prefixed, and thought 

 he had " waked up the wrong passenger." The courage 

 of the young man who wished to travel failed him, and 

 he did not make his appearance ; in the expectation of 

 his going my guide did not come, and I set out alone. 

 Before daylight I passed for the third time through the 

 village of San Pedro, and a little beyond overtook a 

 bundle on horseback, which proved to be a boy and a 

 woman, with one poncha over both. 



The River Michetoya was foaming and breaking in 

 a long succession of rapids on our right, and we rode 

 on together to San Cristoval. I rode up to the convent, 

 pounced upon the cura at the witching hour of break- 

 fast, mounted again, and rode around the base of the 

 Volcano de Agua, with its cultivated fields and belt of 

 forest and verdure to the top. Opposite was another 

 volcano, its sides covered with immense forests. Be- 

 tween the two I passed a single trapiche belonging to 

 a convent of Dominican friars, entered a large and 

 beautiful valley, passed hot springs, smoking for more 

 than a mile along the road, and entered among the no- 

 pals or cochineal plantations of Amatitan. On both 

 sides were high clay fences, and the nopals were more 

 extensive than those of the Antigua, and more valuable, 



