Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala from Mexico/Chapter 27
CHAPTER XXVII.
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 unreasonable 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 Gualañ, 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 congratulated me upon having so large a freight of tintas, or indigo, and inquired if I was going to take it with me to my own country. On telling them that my trunks contained no merchandize whatever, they seemed much surprised and very anxious to know the nature of my baggage. The daughter of the establishment, Doña Francisca, a placid, good natured, domestic girl, came and sat by us whilst at supper, gave up her bed in the chief apartment, and seemed to have as much pleasure, as other girls might have found trouble, in waiting upon us. In the mean while, we discovered that she had a very extensive acquaintance in the town; and that, by some curious coincidence, they all appeared unanimously disposed to visit her, at the same time: ladies young and old came to see the little quiet Doña Francisca: she, at first, appeared surprised at so many unexpected calls; but, however, bore their intrusion with great patience, having discovered that their visits were prompted rather by a curiosity of seeing the lion than the lamb.
Her curiosity was equally excited the next morning by the few ordinary articles of my dressing case, which were now reduced to those only of indispensable utility; for, in the course of my journeys, I had found little difficulty in inducing the admirers of such paraphernalia to accept of them: nevertheless I gave her a small-tooth comb which she appeared particularly to fancy, and I was honoured by her commission to bring her, on my return to the country, one of the finest pair of scissors that England could produce:—I hope she will not be disappointed.
Having the next day, the 20th July, seen Don Juan Atondo, correspondent of Mr. Bayley, of the house of Messrs. Barclay, and also the curate Don Miguel Reyna, the only padre whom I had met with at home on my route from Guatemala, we set off at four o'clock in the evening, and traversing a park-like country, reached some sheds standing in an elevated spot, in the open fields, clustered round with large groves and thickets, and stopped here for the night: this halting place, which is four leagues from Gualañ is called the Rancho, or farm, of Iguana: the mules were turned loose into the fine pastures, for the night, and, as I apprehended, took an hour or two longer in being collected in the morning than was agreed on for the time of our departure. One had strayed away from the rest, and the peons having scoured the country for half a league round, at last brought her up by means of the leading yegua, or mare. This animal is bred a sort of natural pioneer, and one of them is quite necessary for every separate drove. The young leader (a filly is always preferred, and of a light colour as being more distinguishable by the beasts of burthen) is habituated to accompany its dam, and being accustomed to keep by her side, instinctively, ever after takes the lead of the other animals: this she is the more easily enabled to do, as she carries nothing but the insignia of office, a bell round her neck, to attract and keep together her companions. The mules will distinguish the sound of this bell when inaudible by the human ear: having a dread of losing it, they voluntarily follow up at a sharp trot to put themselves in a commanding distance of it, when they will leisurely pursue their arduous course, as before. Considering the richness of the pasture, there was no excuse for the mule which had thus detained us, excepting that it was a young one, and being plenteously fed, might have wandered about for dainty morsels, or overslept itself in consequence of overeating: it was probably some such act of indiscretion, for the peons sorely punished the young delinquent for the trouble which it had given them; though, at the same time, they derived a real satisfaction in being able to assure me of the impossibility there would now be of proceeding any farther, that day, than to Encuentros, which was only five leagues distance.
The country for this space, was like English park scenery, on a magnificent scale: fine verdant glens, a mile in length and as level as a bowling green, were intersected by lofty undulating hills, round the sides of which the route passed, and the whole ornamented with noble trees: on the tops of some of these eminences were oaks and firs and other trees peculiar to the colder regions, but which flourish the more luxuriantly in a temperate climate: in passing up to the summit of one of these small mountains, there is a deep ravine across which one of these fine trees had fallen, as if to indicate the feasibility of connecting the paths which travellers have to pass along on either side of it, but which now requires a detour of at least two miles, exceedingly steep and craggy, and the journey up which, by the way we were going, took us an hour's hard labour: other fine trees are growing close to the one which is fallen, and, such are the natural facilities which are offered, that twenty men might in one day make a solid and effectual bridge over the pass alluded to: the road might also be shortened in other spots by the same simple process. The last two leagues of this journey are as rapid in its descent as the former in its rise: you continue proceeding downwards till you arrive at the hamlet of Encuentros, which means the meeting of the waters of the Motagua and Mancegua, two fine abundant rivers. You plunge all at once into a tropical climate: vegetation becomes so thick that you can scarcely make your way amongst it: the palms and bananas and other tropical shrubs hem in the narrow path, till at length you see, when you arrive at their very doors, the few cane cottages and mud built huts which form the village of Encuentros.