352 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



and friends. He was a good-looking fellow, dashing- 

 ly dressed, and wore a basket-hilted Peruvian sword 

 more than six feet long. Behind him was strapped a 

 valise of scarlet cloth, with black borders, part of the 

 uniform of a Peruvian soldier. It would have been cu- 

 rious to remember how many times he told his story : 

 of military service and two battles in Peru ; of impress- 

 ment for the navy and desertion ; a voyage to Mexico, 

 and his return to Guatimala by land ; and always con- 

 cluded by inquiring about his wife, from whom he had 

 not heard since he left home, " la povera" being regu- 

 larly his last Avords. As we approached his home his 

 tenderness for la povera increased. He could not pro- 

 cure any direct intelligence of her ; but one good-na- 

 tured friend suggested that she had probably married 

 some one else, and that he would only disturb the 

 peace of the family by his return. 



A league beyond Heredia we came to another great 

 ravine. We descended, and crossed a bridge over 

 the Rio Segondo. A few months before, this river 

 had risen suddenly and without any apparent cause, 

 swept away a house and family near the bridge, and 

 carried with it consternation and death. But little is 

 known of the geography of the interior of the country, 

 and it is supposed that a lake had burst its bounds. 

 Rising upon the other side,'Hezoos pointed out the scene 

 of the battle in which the officer at La Garita had lost 

 his arm, and in which he himself had taken part, and, 

 being a San Jose man, he spoke of the people of the 

 other town as an Englishman in Lord Nelson's time 

 would of a Frenchman. 



On the top of the ravine we came upon a large table 

 of land covered with the rich coffee-plantations of San 

 Jose. It was laid out into squares of two hundred feet, 



