NEW DANGERS IN PROSPECT. 131 my search for a government, as he was on the track with his own credentials. The doctor advised me not to undertake the journey to Palenque. In my race from Nicaragua I had cheered myself with the idea that, on reaching Guatimala, all difficulty was over, and that our journey to Palenque would be attended only by the hardships of travelling in a country destitute of accommodations; but, unfortunately, the horizon in that direction was lowering. The whole mass of the Indian population of Los Altos was in a state of excitement, and there were whispers of a general rising and massacre of the whites. General Prem, to whom I have before referred, and his wife, while trav elling toward Mexico, had been attacked by a band of assassins; he himself was left on the ground for dead, and his wife murdered, her fingers cut off, and the rings torn from them. Lieutenant Nichols, the aiddecamp of Colonel M'Donald, arrived from the Balize with a report that Captain Caddy and Mr. Walker, who had set out for Palenque by the Balize River, had been speared by the Indians; and there was a rumour of some dreadful atrocity committed by Carrera in Quezaltenango, and that he was hurrying back from that place infuriate, with the intention of bringing all the prisoners out into the plaza and shooting them. Every friend in Guatimala, and Mr. Chatfield particularly, urged us not to undertake the journey. We felt that it was a most inauspicious moment, and almost shrunk; I have no hesitation in saying that it was a matter of most serious consideration whether we should not abandon it altogether and go home; but we had set out with the purpose of going to Palenque, and could not return without seeing it. Among the petty difficulties of fitting ourselves I may mention that we wanted four iron chains for trunks, but could only get two, for every blacksmith in the place was making chains for the prisoners. In a week from the time of my arrival everything was ready for our departure. We provided ourselves with all the facilities and safeguards that could be procured. Besides passports, the government furnished us special letters of recommendation to all the corregidors; a flattering notice appeared in the government paper, El Tiempo, mentioning my travels through the provinces and my intended route, and recommending me to hospitality; and, upon the strength of the letter of the Archbishop of Baltimore, the venerable provesor gave me a letter of recommendation to all the curas under his charge. But these were not enough; Carrera's name was worth more than them all, and we waited two days for his return from Quezaltenango. On the sixth of April, early in the morning, he entered the city. At about nine o'clock I called at his house, and was informed that he was in bed, had ridden all night, and would not rise till the afternoon.. The rumour of the atrocity committed at that place was confirmed. After dinner, in company with Mr. Savage, I made my last stroll in the suburbs of the city. I never felt, as at that moment, its exceeding beauty of position, and for the third time I visited the hospital and cemetery of San Juan de Dios. In front was the hospital, a noble structure, formerly a convent, supported principally by the active charity of Don Mariano Aycinena. In the centre of the courtyard was a fine fountain, and beyond it the cemetery, which was established at the time of the cholera. The entrance was by a broad passage with a high wall on each side, intended for the burial of "her etics." A BURIAL-PLACE. 133 There was but one grave, and the stone bore the inscription Teodoro Ashadl, de la Religione Reformada. July 19 de 1837. At the end of this passage was a deadhouse, in which lay, on separate beds, the bodies of two men, both poor, one entirely naked, with his legs drawn up, as though no friend had been by to straighten them, and the other wrapped in matting. On the right of the passage a door opened into a square enclosure, in which were vaults built above the ground, bearing the names of the wealthy inhabitants of the city. On the left a door opened into an enclosure running in the rear of the deadhouse, about seven hundred and fifty feet long, and three hundred wide. The walls were high and thick, and the graves were square recesses lengthwise in the wall, three tiers deep, each closed up with a flat stone, on which the name of the occupant was inscribed. These, too, were for the rich. The area was filled with the graves of the common people, and in one place was a square of new-made earth, under which lay the bodies of about four hundred men killed in the attack upon the city. The table of land commanded a view of the green plain of Guatimala and the volcanoes of the Antigua. Beautiful flowers were blooming over the graves, and a voice seemed to say, "Oh do not pluck these flowers, A bier approached with the body of a woman, which was buried without any coffin. Near by was a line of new-made graves waiting for tenants. They were dug through skeletons, and sculls and bones lay in heaps beside them. I rolled three sculls together with my foot. It was a gloomy leave-taking of Guatimala. The earth slipped under my feet and I fell backward, but saved myself by stepping across a new-made grave. I verily believe that if I had fallen into it, I should have been superstitious, and afraid to set out on my journey. I have mentioned that there were rumours in the city of some horrible outrage committed by Carrera at Quezaltenango. He had set out from Guatimala in pursuit of Morazan. Near the Antigua he met one of his own soldiers from Quezaltenango, who reported that there had been a rising in that town, and the garrison were compelled to lay down their arms. Enraged at this intelligence, he abandoned his pursuit of Morazan, and, without even advising the government of his change of plan, marched to Quezaltenango, and among other minor outrages seized eighteen of the municipality, the first men of the state, and without the slightest form of trial shot them in the plaza; and, to heighten the gloom which this news cast over the city, a rumour preceded him that, immediately on his arrival, he intended to order out all the prisoners and shoot them also. At this time the repressed excitement in the city was fearful. An immense relief was experienced on the repulse of Morazan, but there had been no rejoicing; and again the sword seemed suspended by a single hair. And here I would remark, as at a place where it has no immediate connexion with what precedes or what follows, and, consequently, where no application of it can be made, that some matters of deep personal interest, which illustrate, more than volumes, the dreadful state of the country, I am obliged to withhold altogether, lest, perchance, these pages should find their way to Guatimala and compromise individuals. In my long FEARFUL STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 135 journey I had had intercourse with men of all parties, and was spoken to freely, and sometimes confidentially. Heretofore, in all the wars and revolutions the whites had the controlling influence, but at this time the Indians were the dominant power. Roused from the sloth of ages, and with muskets in their hands, their gentleness was changed into ferocity; and even among the adherents of the Carrera party there was a fearful apprehension of a war of castes, and a strong desire, on the part of those who could get away, to leave the country. I was consulted by men having houses and large landed estates, but who could only command two or three thousand dollars in money, as to their ability to live on that sum in the United States; and individuals holding high offices under the Central party told me that they had their passports from Mexico, and were ready at any moment to fly. There seemed ground for the apprehension that the hour of retributive justice was nigh, and that a spirit was awakened among the Indians to make a bloody offering to the spirits of their fathers, and recover their inheritance. Carrera was the pivot on which this turned. He was talked of as El rey de los Indios, the King of the Indians. He had relieved them from all taxes, and, as they said, supported his army by levying contributions upon the whites. His power by a word to cause the massacre of every white inhabitant, no one doubted. Their security was, as I conceived, that, in the constant action of his short career, he had not had time to form any plans for extended dominion, and knew nothing of the immense country from Texas to Cape Horn, occupied by a race sympathizing in hostility to the whites. He was a fanatic, and, to a certain extent, under the dominion of the priests; and his own acuteness told him that he |