FROM COBAN TO QUEZALTENANGO. 115 
Several piers of the bridge we were crossing had fallen ; 
but the masonry was good, and they generally held 
well together, forming bowlder-like masses, on which new 
piers had been built: in one case this process had been 
repeated. No doubt the bridge will soon break down 
again; and two wire cables are stretched from cliff to 
cliff to provide transit in case of accident. We went up 
a steep paved street to the Plaza, where Senor Placido 
Estada, the comandante, assigned us quarters in the 
cabildo, and exerted himself to find us a boarding-place. 
Whether the climate was favorable, I know not; but we 
were always very hungry when we were where food could 
be got: where it was wanting we did not care for it. 
Here we did full justice to the senora’s cinnamon- 
flavored chocolate whipped to a froth. 
The church was small, and, like that of Cunen, built at 
the right of an older and much more extensive edifice 
now shattered by earthquakes and used only as a burial- 
place. We climbed the bell-tower and found one bell 
with the date 1683, another with that of 1773; all 
were bound to the supporting crossbeams by raw-hide 
thongs. The chief ornament of the Plaza was an ancient 
Ceiba-tree (Eriodendron ) of immense size and tradi¬ 
tionary antiquity. Below the terrace of the Plaza was 
a court, in which a fountain of odd design furnished 
water for the town. Animals were fed here over the 
gravestones that paved the court, and Frank remarked 
that in an earthquake country people chose stable ground 
for their graves. Our photographing attracted such 
a crowd that we walked away to the ruined bridge. 
Originally this was nine feet wide and about two hun¬ 
dred and fifty feet long. Its age we could not learn; but 
