ESQUIPULAS AND QUIRIGUA. 
211 
Frank had to do the work himself with hammer and axe; 
and his general handiness again stood us in stead. There 
was little enough to attract us in this town, and early 
the next morning (Sunday) we sent the mozos ahead and 
followed before the weekly drill of the militia was fin¬ 
ished. In Zacapa the Government has a large tobacco- 
factory ; and the “ Zacapa puros ” are much liked by 
smokers. 
All the way out of town the fields were dry, although 
we passed several small streams, and beyond San Pablo a 
grove of fan-palms watered by a fine brook. No fruit 
was anywhere to be seen, not even on the great cacti. 
The Motagua River we had looked for at every turn, and 
at last we came upon a stream so rapid that it does not 
even water its dry banks. A swim was out of the ques¬ 
tion, but our bath was very refreshing. 
At Zacapa we left the volcanic region; and afterwards 
we saw no more lava or tufa, but a formation resembling 
old red sandstone, mica schist, slates, milk-quartz, and 
some serpentine. We were then in the metamorphic 
mountain-belt. The shapes of the hills of course changed 
with their geological nature, and we missed the beautiful 
cones that had formed a characteristic of our daily land¬ 
scape since we had our first glimpse of Tajumulco from 
the Chixoy valley many weeks before. 
On this road we saw the Palo Cortez, — one of the 
most splendid flowering-trees I ever saw. It was large, 
leafless, and covered with dark-pink flowers. Never in 
large numbers, it brightened the dark forests with its 
mass of rich color, and as many as five or six would be 
in sight at once. Surely we could have made a cal¬ 
endar marked by some remarkable plant each day ; and 
