322 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



went out I called upon Don Manuel de Aguila, formerly 

 chief of the State of Costa Rica, but about a year be- 

 fore driven out by a revolution and banished for life. 

 At his house I met Don Diego Vigil, the vice-president 

 of the republic, the same gentleman whom I had met 

 on the bridge, and the only existing officer of the Fed- 

 eral Government. From observation and experience 

 in my own country, I had learned never to take the 

 character of a public man from his political enemy; 

 and I will not soil this page with the foul aspersions 

 which men of veracity, but blinded by party prejudice, 

 threw upon the character of Seiior Vigil. He was 

 about forty-five, six feet high, thin, and suffering from 

 a paralytic affection, which almost deprived him of the 

 use of both legs ; in dress, conversation, and manners, 

 eminently a gentleman. He had travelled more ex- 

 tensively in his own country than most of his country- 

 men, and knew all the objects of interest ; and with a 

 politeness which I appreciated, made no reference to my 

 position or my official character. 



His business at Zonzonate showed the wretched state 

 of the country. He had come expressly to treat with 

 Rascon, the head of the band which had prevented my 

 coming from Guatimala by land. Chico Rascon, as he 

 was familiarly called in Zonzonate, was of an old and 

 respectable family, who had spent a large fortune in 

 dissipation in Paris, and returning in desperate circum- 

 stances, had turned patriot. About six months before 

 he had made a descent upon Zonzonate, killed the 

 garrison to a man, robbed the custom-house, and re- 

 treated to his hacienda. He was then on a visit in the 

 town, publicly, by appointment with Seiior Vigil, and 

 demanded, as the price of disbanding his troops, a 

 colonel's commission for himself, other commissions for 



