130 
GUATEMALA. 
every desire to get on to Solola, we agreed that in 
the darkness it was unwise to travel, and we looked 
anxiously for a camping-place, although the muddy 
ground, dripping bushes, and threatening sky gave no 
hope of a comfortable night. Twice we were misled by 
the gleam of fireflies, whose glow is so steady that we 
mistook it for light in a distant house. As we could find 
no safe place for a camp, a high bank on one side and a 
seemingly deep ravine on the other bordering the narrow 
cart-road, we w r alked on in the utter darkness until we 
almost ran into two ox-carts with a squad of white- 
coated soldiers, who told us we had lost our path in the 
dark, and were on the road to Totonicapan, and a long 
league beyond Encuentros. We returned with them to 
the latter place, where we found comfortable lodgings in 
the house prepared for the expected visit of the President. 
We occupied his room, which was temporarily furnished 
with plenty of Vienna bent-wood furniture, and decorated 
with a full-length, life-size painting of President Barrios 
and a small portrait of his wife. Two bedsteads of the 
box variety were quite bare, as His Excellency always 
carries his bedding, and we did not. After some excel¬ 
lent chocolate, but no other food, we spread our blankets 
and slept. 
How cold that Thursday morning was when we started 
at daybreak! The thermometer marked 46° at half-past 
six o clock, and we were at an elevation of eight thousand 
feet. We had a fine carriage-road for our travel to-day, 
on which I used Prank’s mare, while he tried his luck 
with my “ trick horse.” For a while all went well, and 
Frank made the little beast go ahead, while I stopped to 
pick up some lava fragments in one of the cuttings; and 
