appears, been

in the evening: whilst supper was preparing, we strolled about: the population with its vicinities, amounts to 8,000 souls: provisions and the necessaries of life are very cheap: every man has his horse: there are two churches with one curate and a coadjutor: the place is beautifully situated, and about thirty-four leagues from I zabal. The Alcalde, who was a man of some information, had, it accustomed to converse a good deal, of late, with foreigners: he was a hearty jovial companion, and his ideas of liberality were as generalized as could possibly be wished for by the most indiscriminate advocates for moral emancipation: he told me that Messrs. Wright and Pistock of Belize, had, about a year since, made a plan of the road from Izabal to Guatemala.

The next morning, before we started, I went with Don Eugenio to call upon a young Spaniard who was on his way to the capital from the coast, in order that we

might send letters by him to Eugenio's family, informing them of the arrival of their despatches by our new servant. In the house at which we called, the three daughters of the family were all up, at six o'clock in the morning, sitting on a dresser, making papelillos or paper cigars.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Leave Zacapa for Gualan, and thence for

Encuentros.

At four leagues from Zacapa, we stopped to sleep at a miserable little village called San Pablo, consisting of 300 Indians, living in cane huts: the inhabitants are particularly stupid, ill formed, and very diminutive. I went into some of these hovels, and sat down to chat with the inmates, but could make nothing out of them : they knew little of the capital of Guatemala, and had never heard of their present rulers: they knew how to make tortillas, cakes of Indian corn, and drink aguadiente; not that the habit of drunkenness was common amongst them, but that in the preparation of these two necessaries seemed to consist all their enjoyment of life. The accommodation which we received at this place was of course very wretched : as we were starting, a drunken woman begged very importunately for a half rial to buy some brandy: so unrean sonable a request was of course not complied with ; and we had the pleasure of being well on our road by six o'clock, stopping to lunch at a hamlet called Zinzin: the abode at which we put up was tenanted by a very large family, consisting of a mother and six daughters, the youngest of whom was five years old. The mother was engaged in cooking in a separate hut, and the children were sprawling about in the hammocks or on the bedsteads of the chief apartment. They were fine children, and, apparently, as innocent as they were comely, but not likely to continue so, for the mother was very far from being an exemplary character.

We continued our journey through a country richly wooded and highly picturesque, and, after travelling eleven leagues in the course of the day, stopped at Gualan, putting up at the house of Doña Santa Maria Zafra: it

was here found expedient to renovate our provisions: the bread, having been packed whilst it was hot, had fermented and become sour as well as hard: we had hitherto managed with it pretty well, but as we seldom met with any thing but tortillas, and were still less likely to meet with bread during the remainder of our journey, some care was taken by the good young lady above named in providing us not only with that, but such other necessaries as we might require.

Annexed to the Gran Sala was a room in which were four or five females, who were employed as seamstresses and in other light occupations, such as making puros and paper cigars. I pleased them much

, by purchasing largely of these commodities; and by my manner of payment for them, they were induced, I apprehend, to think rather highly of the generosity of the English character, which was the impression I wished them to feel. They congra