74 
GUATEMALA. 
a good sized stream from the river flowed into the yard 
and through the house. The poultry had taken refuge on 
the roof, and the Indian proprietors waded through the 
flood. Luckily the oven, or fire-place, was raised on sticks 
several feet above the water, so that the senora could make 
us some tortillas, — eight for a real. Eggs were the same 
price. Slight as the forage was, it was very acceptable, 
as our food was nearly gone, and we were already depen¬ 
dent on the Caribs for their cassava-bread. The river, 
these persons said, w T as falling, so we pushed on with new 
courage. 
A fine spider-lily ( Crinum) grew on the bank where 
we moored our canoa. We noticed that whenever we 
made fast to the cane-brake, the black-flies bothered us 
far more than when we had trees overhead ; was it not 
because the cane did not afford roosts or concealment for 
the fly-catching birds and reptiles ? The blossoms of the 
cane were very beautiful, indeed as attractive as those we 
had noticed on the Chocon. Mahogany-trees were seen 
here and there, and we were told that there was much of 
this fine wood on the Rio Zarco, just at hand. I also saw 
a goyava-tree, some eighteen inches in diameter and eighty 
feet high. In the afternoon we passed wullows ( Sauce ), 
and about five o’clock were startled by an unusual noise 
behind us, when a huge three-storied structure came sweep¬ 
ing up the stream, as if in pursuit; it was the steamer 
“ City of Belize,” a flat-bottomed stern-wheeler. As the 
current was very strong and the channel narrow, we has¬ 
tened to make fast to a large fig-tree overhanging the 
stream. Before, however, our arrangements were made, the 
steamer was upon us, and her surge, added to the current, 
tore us from our mooring and swept us under the tree. 
