he intended to march directly agains Guatimala. By forced marches I might overtake him, and go up under the escort of his army, trusting to chance to avoid being on the spot in case of a battle, or from my acquaintance with Carrera get passed across the lines. Fortunately, the captain of the condemned ship wished to go to San Salvador, and agreed to accompany me the next day.

There were two strangers in the place, Captain R. of Honduras, and Don Pedro, a mulatto, both of whom were particularly civil to me. In the evening my proposed travelling companion and I called upon them, and very soon a game of cards was proposed. The doors were closed, wine placed on the table, and monte begun with doubloons. Captain R. and Don Pedro tried hard to make me join them; and when I rose to leave, Captain R., as if he thought there could be but one reason for my resisting, took me aside, and said that if I wanted money he was my friend, while Don Pedro declared that he was not rich, but that he had a big heart; that he was happy of my acquaintance; he had had the honour to know a consul once before at Panama, and I might count upon him for anything I wanted. Gambling is one of the great vices of the country, and that into which strangers are most apt to fall. The captain had fallen in with a set at San Miguel, and these two had come down to the port expressly to fleece him. During the night he detected them cheating; and telling them that he had learned in Chili to use a knife as well as they could, laid his cane over the shoulders of him who had had the honour to know a consul once before, and broke up the party. There is an oldfashioned feeling of respect for a man who wears a sword, but that feeling wears off in Central America.

JOURNEY то SAN SALVADOR.

41

CHAPTER III.

Journey to San Salvador.-A new Companion.-San Alejo.-San Miguel.-War Alarms. Another Countryman.-State of San Salvador. - River Lempa. — San Vicente.-Volcano of San Vicente.-Thermal Springs.-Cojutepeque.Arrival at San Salvador.- Prejudice against Foreigners.- Contributions.Pressgangs.-Vice-president Vigil.-Taking of San Miguel and San Vicente. -Rumours of a March upon San Salvador.-Departure from San Salvador

AT five o'clock the next afternoon we set out for San Salvador. Don Manuel Romero furnished me with letters of introduction to all the Gefes Politicos, and the captain's name was inserted in my passport.

I must introduce the reader to my new friend. Captain Antonio V. F., a little over thirty, when six months out on a whaling voyage, with a leaky ship and a mutinous crew, steered across the Pacific for the Continent of America, and reached the port of La Union with seven or eight feet water in the hold and half his crew in irons. He knew nothing of Central America until necessity threw him upon its shore. While waiting the slow process of a regular condemnation and order for the sale of his ship, General Morazan, with an escort of officers, came to the port to embark his wife and family for Chili. Captain F. had become acquainted with them, and through them with their side of the politics of the country; and in the evening, while we were riding along the ridge of a high mountain, he told me that he had been offered a lieutenant-colonel's commission, and was then on his way to join Morazan in his march against Guatimala. His ship was advertised for sale, he had written an account of his misadventures to his owners and his wife, was VOL. II.-F

tired of remaining at the port, and a campaign with Morazan was the only thing that offered. He liked General Morazan, and he liked the country, and thought his wife would; if Morazan succeeded there would be vacant offices and estates without owners, and some of them worth having. He went from whaling to campaigning as coolly as a Yankee would from cutting down trees to editing a newspaper. It was no affair of mine, but I suggested that there was no honour to be gained; that he would get his full share of hard knocks, bullets, and sword-cuts; that if Morazan succeeded he would have a desperate struggle for his share of the spoils, and if Morazan failed he would certainly be shot. All this was matter he had thought on, and before committing himself he intended to make his observations at San Salvador.

At ten o'clock we reached the village of San Alejo, and stopped at a very comfortable house, where all were in a state of excitement from the report of an invasion from Honduras.

Early the next morning we started with a new guide, and a little beyond the village he pointed out a place where his uncle was murdered and robbed about a year before. Four of the robbers were caught, and sent by the alcalde, under a guard of the relations of the murdered man, to San Miguel, with directions to the guard to shoot them if refractory. The guard found them refractory at the very place where the murder had been committed, and shot them on the spot. At eight o'clock we came in sight of the Volcano of San Miguel, and at two entered the city. Riding up the street, we passed a large church with its front fallen, and saw paintings on the walls, and an altar forty feet high, with columns, and images sculptured and gilded, exposed to the open

air.

Al along the road we had heard of war, and we found the city in a state of great excitement. The troops of Honduras were marching upon it, and then only twelve leagues distant. There were no soldiers to defend it; all had been drawn off for Morazan's expedition. Many of the citizens had already fled; in fact, the town was half depopulated, and the rest were preparing to save themselves by concealment or flight. We stopped at the house of John, or Don Juan, Denning, an American from Connecticut, who had sold an armed brig to the Federal Government, and commanded her himself during the blockade of Omoa, but had married in the country, and for several years lived retired on his hacienda. His house was deserted and stripped, the furniture and valuables were hidden, and his mother-in-law, an old lady, remained in the empty tenement. Nobody thought of resistance; and the captain bought a silver-mounted sword from one of the most respectable citizens, who was converting his useless trappings into money, and who, with a little trunk in his hand containing la plata, pointed to a fine horse in the courtyard, and without a blush on his face said that was his security.

The captain had great difficulty in procuring mules; he had two enormous trunks, containing, among other things, Peruvian chains and other gold trinkets to a large amount; in fact, all he was worth. In the evening we walked to the plaza; groups of men, wrapped in their ponchas, were discussing in low tones the movements of the enemy, how far they had marched that day, how long they would require for rest, and the moment when it would be necessary to fly. We returned to the house, placed two naked wooden-bottomed bedsteads in one, and having ascertained by calculation that we were not

likely to be disturbed during the night, forgot the troub. les of the flying inhabitants, and slept soundly.

On account of the difficulty of procuring mules, we did not set out till ten o'clock. The climate is the hottest in Central America, and insalubrious under exposure to the sun; but we would not wait. Every moment there were new rumours of the approach of the Honduras army, and it was all important for us to keep in advance of them. I shall hasten over our hurried journey through the State of San Salvador, the richest in Central America, extending a hundred and eighty miles along the shores of the Pacific, producing tobac co, the best indigo and richest balsam in the world. We had mountains and rivers, valleys and immense ravines, and the three great volcanoes of San Miguel, San Vicente, and San Salvador, one or the other of which was almost constantly in sight. The whole surface is volcanic; for miles the road lay over beds of decomposed lava, inducing the belief that here the whole shore of the Pacific is an immense arch over subterraneous fires. From the time of the independence this state stood foremost in the maintenance of liberal principles, and throughout it exhibits an appearance of improvement, a freedom from bigotry and fanaticism, and a development of physical and moral energy not found in any other. The San Salvadoreans are the only men who speak of sustaining the integrity of the Republic as a point of national honour.

In the afternoon of the second day we came in sight of the Lempa, now a gigantic river rolling on to the Pacific. Three months before I had seen it a little stream among the mountains of Esquipulas. Here we were overtaken by Don Carlos Rivas, a leading Liberal from Honduras, flying for life before partisan sol