Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/390

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370
OFFICIAL VISIT
[CH. XXVI.

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 Izabal. The Alcalde, who was a man of some information, had, it appears, been 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