424 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



for my personal safety to reach Guatimala while yet 

 the road was open. 



I would have gone on immediately, but felt that I might 

 exert myself too far, and break down at an awkward 

 place. In the afternoon, in company with Mr. Bailey 

 and Mr. Wood, I walked down to the lake. At the 

 foot of the street by which we entered, built out into the 

 lake, was an old fort, dismantled, and overgrown with 

 bushes and trees, a relic of the daring Spaniards who 

 first drove the Indians from the lake ; probably the ver^ 

 fortress that Cordova built, and in its ruins beautifully 

 picturesque. Under the walls, and within the shade of 1 

 the fort and trees growing near it, the Indian women 

 of Grenada were washing; garments of every colour 

 were hanging on the bushes to dry and waving in the 

 wind ; women were wading out with their water -jars, 

 passing beyond the breakers to obtain it clear of sand ; 

 men were swimming, and servants were bringing horses 

 and mules to drink, all together presenting a beautifully 

 animated picture. There were no boats on the water ; 

 but about half a dozen piraguas, the largest of which 

 was forty feet long, and drew three feet of water, were 

 lying on the shore. 



END OF VOL. I. 



114 



