ESQUIPULAS AND QUIRIGUA. 
223 
the Motagua. It was pleasant to get among the pines 
again, and on solid dry ground: I think I dread mud 
more than any other impediment in the road. When we 
struck the u camino real ” late in the afternoon, Santiago 
went to the little village of Quirigua to get the traps he 
had left there, while Frank and I went on to the hacienda 
of Seiior Rascon, late Jefe of Izabal, whom we had met in 
the office of Secretario Sanchez in the City of Guatemala. 
This hacienda was a mud-house with poor accommoda¬ 
tions and little food; but as it cost us only two reals, we 
had no reason to grumble. The old senora in charge had 
only one egg; but overcome by Frank’s plaintive appeal, 
she scrambled under the bed where the hens were roost¬ 
ing, and managed to coax another from one of them. 
We were here entertained by the process of branding 
cattle, — not an attractive exhibition of brute force and 
brute suffering. 
We were in the saddle at seven, expecting a hard 
day’s journey. The road was bad enough, muddy even 
when steep. In places it was paved ; but this was worse 
still. The flowers were interesting, and the splendid 
butterflies were flitting all the way. A fine passion¬ 
flower which Frank gathered for me, and a cypress-vine 
(. Ipomcea ), were among the old friends in a new place. 
Several trains of pack-mules on their way to Guatemala 
City passed us, and we had to use care to avoid being 
bruised by their loads, which they did not hesitate to 
push into us if not driven aside. As Mabel had cast a 
shoe, Frank walked almost all the way, using the mare 
occasionally as a bridge when the stream to be forded was 
wide. As we came out on the northern slope of El Mico 
we had an attractive view of the Lago de Izabal, and later 
