EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES. 385 
I have mentioned the deposits of volcanic sand found 
on the north shore of the Lago de Izabal, in a region 
surrounded by what are thought to be calcareous moun¬ 
tains ; and I may add that several peaks in the Cocks¬ 
comb Range of British Honduras appear from a distance 
of perhaps forty miles to be volcanic cones. 
Passing over the traditional outbreaks of the Central 
American volcanoes before the Conquest, the earliest 
recorded eruption was that of Masaya in 1522; and the 
Spanish chroniclers tell a very amusing story of the at¬ 
tempt of the Dominican friar Blase and his companions 
to draw up the molten gold (lava) in an iron bucket from 
El Infierno de Masaya, or Hell of Masaya. The bucket, 
as well as the chain which held it, melted on approaching 
the lava ; and the pious Churchmen, instead of being en¬ 
riched by the precious metal, were poorer by the cost of 
the expedition. According to the same authority, the 
Indios at certain seasons cast living maids into the crater 
to appease the fire, that it might not break forth and 
injure their crops. This would indicate a continued state 
of activity, without an outbreak from the crater, much as 
in the Haleinaumau of the volcano Kilauea. It is curi¬ 
ous that in Yucatan the Mayas sacrificed maidens to 
water by casting them into the sacred well or Cenote of 
Chichen Itza; 1 and a similar sacrifice has been made at 
Ilopango in modern times. In 1772 the next real eiup 
tion took place, and in 1858 another slight one. The 
cone is directly over the Lake of Masaya, the only 
source of water in that dry land; and its ejections aie 
encroaching upon the area of the lake. But I will put 
the eruptions in a tabular form for convenience . 
1 Brasseur de Bourbourg, ii. 44. 
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