ANOTHER PATIENT. 



343 



coming; in an hour crossed the river of Jesus Maria, 

 and at seven o'clock stopped to breakfast at the hacien- 

 da of the same name. 



It was a miserable shell, vi^ith an arbour of branches 

 around it, but had an appearance of cleanliness and com- 

 fort ; and'Hezoos told me that the proprietor had on it 

 two thousand head of cattle, and owned all the land 

 over which we had ridden from the sea. 'Hezoos was 

 quite at home ; and, as he afterward told me, he had 

 once wanted to marry one of the daughters ; but the fa- 

 ther and mother objected, because he was not good 

 enough. He added that they were surprised at seeing 

 him return in such prosperous circumstances, and that 

 the daughter told him she had always refused to marry 

 any one else on account of her affection for him. 



While breakfasting, the mother told me of a sick 

 daughter, asked me for remedies, and finally requested 

 me to go in and see her. The door opened from the 

 shed, and all the apertures in the room were carefully 

 closed, so as to exclude even a breath of air. The in- 

 valid lay in a bed in one corner, with a cotton covering 

 over it like a moscheto-netting, but lower, and pinned 

 close all around ; and when the mother raised the cov- 

 ering, I encountered a body of hot and unwholesome 

 air that almost overcame me. The poor girl lay on her 

 back, with a cotton sheet wound tightly around her 

 body ; and already she seemed like one laid out for 

 burial. She was not more than eighteen ; the fever 

 had just left her, her eye still sparkled, but her face 

 was pale, and covered with spots, seams, and creases 

 of dirt. She was suffering from intermitting fever, that 

 scourge which breaks down the constitution and carries 

 to the grave thousands of the inhabitants of Central 

 America ; and, according to the obstinate prejudice of 



