ACROSS THE CONTINENT, WESTWARD TO COBAN. 07 
saw such a river, — a very Proteus, it presented a new 
form every time I saw it; and Frank, who is far more 
familiar with its face, tells me I have never seen it in its 
glory, which comes in July, when the brilliant orchids 
are all aglow. Now a cereus with crimson blossoms 
was prominent; so were the bromeliads, parasites on 
almost every tree. But among roses I saw the thorn. 
Our Caribs discovered a huge serpent asleep on a white 
cliff far above us. Frank, with a laudable blindness to 
all that was not pleasant, could see nothing but a fallen 
tree. I saw only a few feet of the head end, which had 
a diameter of about six inches ; and I obstinately refused 
to fire at the reptile, since he was quite as near as it was 
desirable to have him, and should my bullet wound but 
not kill him, it was quite possible that he might wriggle 
down into the river below. Porpoises were common far 
up into the Golfete, where they were pursuing the abun¬ 
dant freshwater fish. A light sea-breeze helping us, we 
anchored for the night far above Cayo Paloma. Our 
mozo , Santiago, slept on one of the thwarts, which he 
exactly fitted, being slightly less in stature than the 
average New Englander. 
Our anchor was up betimes; and before six o’clock in 
the morning we came to San Felipe, — a place we both 
had great curiosity to see; for in the absence of any 
definite account of the old Spanish fort, we allowed our 
imagination to build a very imposing, picturesque, and, 
withal, strong castle. 
We found that Spanish castles in Guatemala were 
almost as unsubstantial as chateaux en Espagne; and it 
was some time before we distinguished the Castillo de 
San Felipe through the morning mist. At the outlet of 
