Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/113

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
CH. VII.]
TO GUATEMALA.
93

Aguachapa is the most considerable town between Sonsonate and the capital: it contains from five to six thousand inhabitants, who follow the same habits and occupations as the two other towns alluded to. On entering it, the road was nearly blocked up by earthenware, which they had just been taking out of the kiln, and which consisted of utensils of all shapes and sizes for domestic use,—the same constituting one of the staple articles of the manufacture of the place. We alighted at one of the best houses in the town, belonging to a respectable man of the name of Padillo. He was much older than his wife, who, although she had, now living with her, a family of five daughters and three sons, the eldest of whom was seventeen years of age, bore the vestiges of a clever, pretty little woman. She had, doubtlessly, been very handsome, for her little daughters, whose ages were from seven to fourteen, were strikingly so, and all of them very much resembling herself. Her