208 
GUATEMALA. 
hills around us, I had my camera at work. The daylight 
showed what a queer bedchamber we had chosen. Acacia- 
brambles were thick enough, and there was no level 
ground; while behind us was a high limestone cliff closely 
resembling a columnar basaltic formation, and just across 
the road a precipitous descent to the river. We sent the 
mozos on at six o’clock, and followed soon after. At 
Santa Elena we saw many fan-palms, cultivated as mate¬ 
rial for hats. At Yado Hondo we could resist the temp¬ 
ting river no longer, but had a delightful swim in the 
clear, cool water. All the valley was beautiful, and gen¬ 
erally cultivated, — here with sugar, there with corn, 
and we saw several small sugar-mills. 
As we approached the lower valley the sun broke 
through the clouds and was very hot; but when we came 
to the w 7 ide gravel bed of the sometimes broad river above 
which Chiquimula stands, the heat was most unbearable. 
On a plateau to the right stood the ruins of an immense 
church, while far away to the left stretched a fertile 
valley. We rode up hill into the town at eleven o’clock, 
and, as usual, found no posada. We did, however, find 
good food and a very comfortable room at the large mer¬ 
cantile house of Seilora Anacleta Nufio de Monasterio (this 
was the mark on her china). The house was large, and 
in the patio were orange-trees and a fountain of good 
water. The important matter of lodgings settled, we 
went to church, finding it out of repair and dingy. To 
put ourselves in thorough moral order, I decided to offer 
here at this ecclesiastical centre two tallow candles, —• 
a penance we wished to perform at Quezaltepeque, but 
could find no candles for sale near at hand. I placed 
the candles, lighted, in silver candlesticks, which were 
