CHAPTER IV.
PURCHASING A BRIDLE—A SCHOOL AND ITS REGULATIONS—CONVERSATION WITH AN INDIAN—CHIQUIMULA—A CHURCH IN RUINS—A VETERAN OF THE FRENCH EMPIRE—ST. STEPHANOS—A LAND OF MOUNTAINS—AN AFFAIR WITH A MULETEER—A DESERTED VILLAGE—A RUDE ASSAULT—ARREST—IMPRISONMENT—RELEASE.
The next day we were obliged to wait for our muleteer. Our guide of the night before had stolen one of our bridles; and here we found the beginning of an annoyance which attended us throughout Central America, in the difficulty of buying anything ready made. There was a blacksmith who had a bit partly made, but had not charcoal enough to finish it. Fortunately, during the day an Indian arrived with a back-load, and the bridle was completed. The headstall we bought of a saddler, and the reins, which were of platted leather like the lash of a whip, we were lucky enough to obtain ready made. The arrival of the charcoal enabled the blacksmith to fit us out with one pair of spurs.
At Zacapa, for the first time, we saw a school-house. It was a respectable-looking building, with columns in front, and against the wall hung a large card, headed—
"1st Decurion (a student who has the care of ten other students). 2d Decurion.
MONITOR, &c.
"Interior regulation for the good government of the school of first letters of this town,
which ought to he observed strictly by all the boys composing it," &c.
with a long list of complicated articles, declaring the rewards and punishments. The school, for the government of which these regulations were intended, consisted of five boys, two besides the decurions and monitor. It was nearly noon, and the master, who was the clerk of the alcalde, had not yet made his appearance. The only books I saw were a Catholic prayer-book and a translation of Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws. The boys were fine little fellows, half white; and with one of them I had a trial of sums in addition, and then of exercises in hand-writing, in which he showed himself very proficient, writing in Spanish, in a hand which I could not mistake, "Give me sixpence."
We were rather at a loss what to do with ourselves, but in the afternoon our host called in an Indian for the purpose of enabling us to make a vocabulary of Indian words. The first question I asked him was the name of God, to which he answered, Santissima Trinidad, "The
