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84 is not adopted with a view to injure the neutrals, but to injure the enemy." Perhaps Perceval felt that this argument might lead too far, and that on such a doctrine England might appropriate the world on every declaration of war; for in the next paragraph he pleaded the particular war in which England was actually engaged as his warranty:

 * "When an enemy arises who declares to all the world that he will trample upon the law of nations, and hold at nought all the privileges of neutral nations when they do not suit his belligerent interests; and when by the great extent of his power he is enabled in great measure to act up to his declaration,—it is evident that if those Powers with which he is at war should continue to hold themselves bound to rules and obligations of which he will not acknowledge the force, they cannot carry on the contest on equal terms. And the neutral who would control their hostility by those rules and laws which their enemy refuses to recognize, and which such neutral does not compel that enemy to observe, ceases to be a neutral by ceasing to observe that impartiality which is the very life and soul of neutrality."

This allegation differed from the first. Perceval began by maintaining that England possessed a right, if she chose, to suppress the existence of America or of any other neutral, provided the suppression were consequential on an intent to injure France. He next argued that the existence of America might be equally suppressed because she had not yet succeeded in compelling France to observe neutral


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1807. , which so far as she was concerned had not been violated. If these two propositions were worth making, they should have settled the question. Yet Perceval was not satisfied; he took a third ground:—
 * "This question, however, need not now be argued to the extent which was necessary to justify the assertion of the late Government; because whatever might be the doubts upon it when the decree of France first issued, and before it was known to what extent neutrals would resist or acquiesce in it, since those neutrals have acquiesced in it, or at least have not resisted or resented it to the extent of obtaining a formal recall of the decree and an open renunciation of the principle which dictated it, nor the abandonment of the practices which flow from it,—they by their acquiescence and submission have given to Great Britain a right to expect from them (when her interests require the exertion of measures of correspondent efficacy) a forbearance similar to that which they have shown toward her enemy."

If Perceval's two opening premises gave a strange idea of English statesmanship, his third was little creditable to the English bar. He took the ground that England might do what she would with American commerce, because America, whatever effort she might have made, had not already forced Napoleon to recall a decree from the application of which the United States notoriously had till within six weeks been exempted. Lord Castlereagh's doctrine that America's exemption aggravated her offence was a wide-minded argument by the side of Perceval's assertion that America's acquiescence was proved by the


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Rh and are singularly faithful to their keepers. The negroes follow the example of their superiors, and prostitution is universal.

The lamentable consequences of such a state of things, must be visible to every one. Society instead of improving, degenerates, and an effectual bar is placed to the advancement of the coloured population. Alas, that the majority of our countrymen who visit these shores, should only come, like a moral pestilence, bringing with them the contagion of their example!

The provision for religious instruction is scanty. A church has been erected at an expense of £30,000 currency, and an incumbent appointed, whose salary is considerable. His talents are respectable; but he is unfortunately one of those polished preachers, who

The Baptist and Wesleyan missionary societies have each stations here. A large chapel has been erected by the former, but to very little purpose. About 30 or 40 negroes, and three or four white residents, attend the services, which are conducted precisely the same as in England. There is a Sunday school attached to this place, and the names of many children are on the books, but not more than from 10 to 20 attend on an average. This station has already cost the society several


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Rh thousand pounds. The Wesleyan missionary has but just arrived, and at present has no congregation.

The diiiiculties attendant on imparting religious instruction to the negroes are very great. Their language is a mixture of creole French and broken English, and it is not easy to understand their meaning; while their mental indolence is so excessive, as to lead them freely to assent to every thing, whether understood or not.

The present condition of many of our missionary stations, proves how greatly their committees have erred in taking upon themselves the expense of permanent establishments, without first deputing some well qualified individual to visit the point they had fixed upon, and to make himself well acquainted with the moral character and peculiar circumstances, both of the native population and European residents. This species of information (as needful, under such circumstances, as a knowledge of its consumption is to a merchant who establishes a commercial house) would enable them not only to choose peculiar men for peculiar stations, but in some degree to judge of the prudence of the plans their agent may be pursuing.

Connected with the established church is a free school, conducted on Dr. Bell's system, in which the Scriptures are read, but it is in a wretched


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Rh state. Not more than 50 attend, and these very irregularly, although 120 are stated as the number of scholars. There is also an auxiliary of the Bartlett's Buildings Society, but excepting in the compilation of an annual report, the labours of its committee are unheard of. No census has been taken of the number of individuals able to read or write, nor is it possible to say what number of copies of the Scriptures are in circulation, but there is every reason to suppose they are few.

Besides the negro and the creole, the Carib, the Indian, and the Mosquito man are frequently met with in Belize.

The Caribs, formerly inhabitants of the most easterly islands, are now found principally about Truxillo and Omoa, whither they were removed by the Spaniards. They are chiefly employed by the mahogany cutters up the rivers, and are little removed from barbarism.

The Indians mostly come from the interior, with letters and messages, which commissions they execute with the greatest fidelity.

The Mosquito men arrive in considerable numbers from the Mosquito Shore, which comprises the eastern part of the provinces of Honduras and Nicaragua. They possess great muscular strength, and a fine symmetry. Their tall and erect forms, little concealed by covering, their vacant countenances and long greasy hair,


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Rh give them a wild and savage appearance, and strikingly portray the powerful barbarian.

These people now consider themselves under the protection of the British government, and some of their kings have been educated in Jamaica. On the accession of the last king to the throne he expressed a wish to be crowned at Belize, and orders were received by his Britannic majesty's superintendent to gratify his wish, and to defray all attendant expenses.

From a friend I have received some particulars of the ceremony. On the previous evening, cards of invitation were sent to the different merchants, requesting their attendance at the court house early in the morning. At this plane, the king, dressed in a British major's uniform, made his appearance; and his chiefs, similarly clothed, but with sailors' trowsers, were ranged around the room. A more motley group can scarcely be imagined. Here an epaulette decorated a herculean shoulder, tempting its dignified owner to view his less favoured neighbour with triumphant glances. There a wandering button


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Rh displayed a greasy olive skin, under the uniform of a captain of infantry. On one side, a cautious noble might be seen, carefully braced up to the chin, like a modern dandy, defying the most penetrating eye to prove him shirtless; while the mathematical movements of a fourth, panting under such tight habiliments, expressed the fear and trembling with which he awaited some awful accident.

The order of the procession being arranged, the cavalcade moved towards the church; his Mosquito majesty on horseback, supported, on the right and left, by the two senior British officers in the settlement, and his chiefs following on foot, two by two. On its arrival, his majesty was placed in a chair, near the altar, and the English coronation service was read by the chaplain to the colony, who, on this occasion, performed the part of the archbishop of Canterbury. When he arrived at that part of the service, where it is written, “And all the people said, Let the king live for ever, long live the king, God save the king,” the vessels in the port, according to previous signal, fired salutes, and the chiefs, rising, cried out, Long live king Robert!

His majesty seemed chiefly occupied in admiring his finery, and, after the anointing, expressed his gratification, by repeatedly thrusting his hands through his thick bushy hair, and applying his


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Rh fingers to his nose! in this expressive manner, indicating his delight at this part of the service. Before, however, the chiefs could swear allegiance to their monarch, it was necessary they should profess Christianity, and, accordingly, (with shame be it recorded,) they were baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” They displayed the most total ignorance of the meaning of the ceremony, and when asked to give their names, took the titles of lord Rodney, lord Nelson, or some other celebrated officer, and seemed grievously disappointed when told they could only be baptized by simple Christian names.

After this solemn mockery had been concluded, the whole assembly adjourned to a large school room, to eat the coronation dinner, where the usual healths were drank, and these poor creatures all intoxicated with rum! a suitable conclusion to a farce as blasphemous and wicked as ever disgraced a Christian country.

The inhabitants of the Mosquito shore, like most other savages, are distinguished for their apathy. Hunger alone compels them to seek food, which is easily provided in the woods or lakes. Careless about the dressing, they devour it voraciously, and then, stretching themselves at full length, sleep till the cravings of nature again arouse them. The paddle, the harpoon, and the


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Rh canoe comprise all their wealth, and these supply all their necessities.

Enclosed by inaccessible mountains and morasses, and protected by a coast full of rocks and shoals, they are exposed to few dangers from without; a country abounding in game and provisions, spontaneously supplies their daily wants; a climate more salubrious than that of the West India islands, removes the necessity of clothing; while entire freedom from the destructive ravages of hurricanes and earthquakes, enables the slightest hut to afford them sufficient shelter. In such a situation every stimulus to exertion is removed, and, in this state, they may rather be said to vegetate than to live.

Several attempts have been made to introduce Christianity amongst them, by the Dominican monks from Guatimala, but hitherto without effect.

A Mr. Fleming and his wife left England in the year 1825, for this shore, under the direction of the Baptist missionary society, but, unhappily, they both died on their arrival at Belize.

The king has expressed his willingness to receive and protect any individual who would reside as a teacher amongst them.

Of their religious belief little is known, excepting that they acknowledge a good and a bad spirit. The latter, however, is the only object of worship,


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Rh from dread of his anger; the good spirit they consider too merciful to injure them, and plead this as a sufficient reason for neglecting to adore him.

“At their funerals they are accustomed to inter, with the body of the deceased, his paddle and harpoon, supposing that he will need them to provide sustenance in another world.” These slight sketches comprise all the information I have been able to gain of the inhabitants of the Mosquito shore.

Such a people cannot be uninteresting to the Christian philanthropist. Nations, still darker, and more besotted, have been visited by the messengers of Jesus, and blessed with the tidings of a Saviour's love. May it not then be hoped, that the time is not far distant, when the echoes of these hills shall join in transmitting from land to land, the sacred song, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that bring the glad tidings of salvation.”


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Voyage to Yzabal,—Quays,—Settlements,—Coast of Yucatan,—Rio Dulce,—Pirates,—Castillo del Golfo.

spending two months very agreeably in Belize, we left it on Friday, the 4th of May, on board a schooner bound for the port of Yzabal.

The light winds which generally prevail at this season of the year, prevent a very rapid progress, but the traveller is abundantly repaid by the picturesque appearance of the numerous beautiful little quays, which surround the bay on every side. Some of these have not more than a mile in circumference, and are covered with bushes; on others are to be seen a few huts, and one of them (St. George's) has several good houses, and is the favourite resort of the inhabitants of Belize.

Very near to a cluster of these quays, lies a part of the Spanish main, called, by the English, “False Bite.” On the shore is a settlement of creoles, who chiefly employ themselves in raising stock


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Rh and vegetables, which are sent to Belize. The land cultivated runs close along the shore, and is backed by the mountains. It is of excellent quality, and well watered. The settlers find it healthy, and complain only of the immense number of flies, especially of the cantharis, or Spanish fly, (the Lytta Vesicatoria of Linnæus,) great numbers of which abound here, and are considerably more annoying than the mosquito.

Leaving this, and passing Northern Standy Creek, a settlement of Caribs, and Mullands river, where there is another small settlement of creoles, we came to an anchor at a point called Manavique, by the Spaniards, or Three Points, by the English. Before us lay stretched a rich line of coast, belonging to the province of Yucatan, low, and thickly wooded to the shore. No vestiges of inhabitants were to be seen, excepting one or two straggling huts, probably belonging to fishermen. The woods abound in game of every kind, and are said to be infested both by tigers and serpents; some of the former are of considerable size. There is, however, little doubt but that this animal, which is called, by all who frequent these shores, the tiger, is in fact the jaguar, bearing a strong resemblance to the ounce, both in size, and in the form of the spots with which his skin is diversified.


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Rh The beach swarms with the cayman, or alligator, generally small in size, although they are sometimes met with 18 or 20 feet long. These so nearly resemble the crocodile of the Nile, that they may be considered the same species, allowing for the trifling variation which difference of climate will produce. The number of sharks is also considerable.

Sailing from this point, the traveller soon comes in sight of the Rio Dulce. The entrance to this beautiful river, viewed from a distance, is enchanting, and takes a powerful hold upon the imagination. On either side are high mountains covered with the richest verdure and apparently leaning over as if to meet each other; while the peculiar bend which the river takes very near the entrance, throws forward the woods which skirt the side of the hills, and the whole forms an archway of consummate beauty. The effect is exquisite and surpasses description.

Between these mountains the river Hows in a serpentine direction for near twenty miles, and it is impossible for words to do justice to its scenery. As the vesel glides slowly and silently along, or is propelled by oars when the stream is contrary, the eye is regaled with all the varieties of foliage, which adorn the various trees and bushes, hanging over the sides of the mountains, and towering


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 almost to the clouds; the ear receives the mingled notes of an infinite variety of birds, singing in security among crags and precipices where the foot of man has never entered to destroy or to molest; while the discordant cry of the various tribes of monkeys inhabiting the woods, and every instant playfully springing after each other from tree to tree, gives a diversity to the scene at once novel and delightful. In addition to this, the windings of the stream are so abrupt, and the effect so varied, that it is in fact a perpetually changing picture. Nature would appear on this spot to have lavished all her beauties, nor can the most imaginative mind conceive a scene of grester loveliness.

The abundance of her gifts, are however in a considerable degree counterbalanced by the intense heat of a tropical sun, which darts its rays with amazing force between these hills, oftentimes unrelieved by the least breath of air; while the heavy dews that fall during the night, together with the damps of the rainy season, render it a dangerous habitation for man.

About half way up, the river falls into a lake 10 miles in width, and surrounded by high mountains. On its opposite side commences the upper part of the Dulce, which presents a very different aspect to the lower. The land on either side is


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Rh low and marshy, and the mountains fall into the distance.

After ascending a few miles further we anchored about 8 o’clock on a fine moonlight evening. A sultry stillness reigned on every side, disturbed only by the distant cries of the various animals in the woods—the solitary splash of some passing fish, or the gentle rippling of the stream against the sides of the vessel.

The conversation turned on the atrocities of the pirates, who infest these parts; and among other stories the history of the sacking and scuttling of the very vessel in which we then were, was related. It is a melancholy tale, but as the circumstances are of recent date, and the sufferers known, it is worth remembrance.

She was at that time manned by a captain and four men, and had on board a clerk of the house to which she belonged. They were returning from the Spanish coast to Belize, when they fell in with a schooner of similar size which they immediately recognized as belonging to the bay. This vessel it appears had been taken the day before by the pirates, who now attempted to board them. Deceived by her appearance they were totally unprepared for resistance. The wretches had no sooner placed their feet on her deck, than they proceeded to murder every soul on board, with the exception of one black man who jumped


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Rh overboard, and although wounded, miraculously escaped by swimming. Having hung the body of the master at the yard arm, they first sacked and then scuttled the vessel, supposing she would sink; but they were too confident and careless, she drifted ashore and told her own tale—a few days after this the party landed, and soon excited suspicion by their lavish prodigality; they were arrested and sent to Jamaica for trial, and sufficient evidence being procured against them, were condemned and executed. So quickly does the hand of God sometimes take vengeance for blood.

As the night came on we stretched ourselves upon the deck to sleep, leaving one to watch, but the excitement of these stories, together with the novelty of the situation, banished it from most of our eyes. About midnight, the lightning which had been for some time playing about the hills, became exceedingly vivid, and as its flashes glanced upon the sleepers, reclined on different parts of the deck, each one with a loaded musket and cutlass by his side, they seemed to exhibit a scene rather of romance than of reality.

At day-break we rose, and the current being still unfavourable, some of the party went into the woods to shoot, and succeeded in killing three small birds not unlike the common partridge. Every report of the musket seemed to awaken all


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Rh the echoes of the hills, calling and answering one to another as if their reverberations would never cease. One of the sailors had also dived, and brought up three fine young turtles, and these with the birds provided us no contemptible dinner.

Slowly ascending the river, and passing an immense number of beautiful little creeks, diverging to the right and left, many of which contain springs of excellent water, the traveller reaches the mouth of a second lake, where the Spaniards have erected a fort, called by them Castillo del Golfo, or the castle of the gulph. The appearance of its huts from the river is picturesque. The fort however consists only of a ruinous wall defended by about twenty carib soldiers, who live there surrounded by their families.

We landed to show our passports, and were led to the commandant's house, through rows of plantain trees, on the fruit of which he and his troops subsist. It was a miserable hut, with a clay floor not even levelled. A hammock was slung across the room in which an old woman was reclining,—a few coarse prints of the virgin, and a brass crucifix ornamented its mud walls, and two or three common wooden stools constituted the whole of its furniture. But as if to make the contrast more striking, on one of them stood several beautifully cut-glass decanters, cream jugs and tumblers, with three or


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Rh four clay jars of excellent water. One of these was handed to us with a glass, by a fine young woman, apparently about sixteen and nearly naked. The females here seemed to have lost all sense of modesty and propriety, wore considerably less clothing than the men, and appeared if possible more depraved. They perform all the manual labour, and are treated as a degraded sex: numbers of them were bathing round the vessel and some of them asked permission to come on board.

This settlement is very beautiful, and its inhabitants unconscious of their wretchodness seem to a superficial eye contented and happy.

Our passports being backed by the commandant's secretary, who seemed to have some difficulty in inscribing his name, we crossed the lake on the shore of which stands the little town of Yzabal. Here we anchored for the night, and landed early in the morning.


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Yzabal,—Mountain of Mico,—Indians,—Character of these Aborigines,—Superstitions,—Iguana.

port consists of about fifty or sixty huts raised at the foot of one of the mountains, and is in fact only a depot for goods passing from Belize to Guatimala.

On landing we were conducted to the commandant's house, and before him our boxes were opened, but immediately closed on an assurance that they contained nothing contraband, with “tengo confianza en vmds” “I have confidence in you,” and no further notice taken of them. In one of the largest of these habitations we took up our temporary residence, boarding with the owner, and sleeping at a neighbouring hut. The provision was by no means despicable, consisting generally of soup, eggs, a hashed fowl and a clarety kind of wine mixed with water for dinner, and coffee in the morning and evening. This hut, by far the best in the place, was spacious, well built of wild cane, and covered with the leaf of the bay tree.


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Rh Considerable quantities of goods were remaining in it, waiting for mules to be forwarded over the mountains. Besides the requisite articles of furniture it contained a thermometer, a French writing desk, and about thirty volumes of books neatly bound, chiefly translations from the French, one or two of Mad. Genlis' novels, and a life of Napoleon.

About 6 o'clock every evening the drum beats to call out the military force of Yzabal, which is composed of about twenty men, not only out of uniform, but almost without dress, one wanting a hat, a second a coat, and all without shoes or stockings. These armed with rusty muskets and old swords, and totally without discipline, are its only defence.

The people are excessively indolent, sleeping the greater part of the day on mats stretched upon the floor, and lying on the ground at their house doors, talking with each other during the night. The heat is considerable, varying during the hottest months from 90 to 100° Fahrenheit, in the shade; and to Europeans the climate is very dangerous.

Our mules having at length arrived, we prepared to set out over the mountain the following morning at day break. The bustle of preparation, saddling and loading of cargo being over, we started in good spirits and good temper, one


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Rh another merrily, and forming a line of considerable length. Our party consisted of a lady and four gentlemen; three servants followed with provisions, and the arriero or muleteer with fifty mules loaded with goods brought up the rear. Each Spaniard was armed with a brace of pistols in holsters, and a large knife fixed in his belt, and the servants with swords.

Immediately on leaving Yzabal the traveller begins gradually to ascend the mountain, winding in a serpentine direction towards its summit, through narrow passes, lined on each side with trees. In consequence of this circuitous rout, without which it would be utterly impassable, the ascent is very gradual, and is not one continued rise, but varies according to the difficulties of the way.

After riding onward for about an hour the road becomes very steep, some of the ascents appearing almost perpendicular from their base. Over these the mules pass with amazing care and sagacity, invariably placing their feet on the same lodge of rock or treading on the same crag, over which their predecessors have passed. Many of these are worn with their footsteps, and they are never willing to change them.

On reaching the summit of one of these precipices, a most beautiful ravine suddenly burst upon our view, into which we immediately began slowly


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Rh to descend; along the beds of the different channels formed by the autumnal rains. A rivulet of clear spring water flowed murmuring along over the numerous pebbles and pieces of rock which impeded its course, a variety of trees in full luxuriance shaded it from the intense heat of the sun, while the melody of birds regaled the ear with harmony; depicting one of those scenes which poets have described, when they have sung of the days of the golden age.

At least so it seemed to us, for here we breakfasted, not on aerial food, but on good cold fowls and wine which we had taken the precaution to store for some such occasion. How far this beverage might operate on the fancies of hungry travellers, so as to lead them to exaggerate the natural beauties of the spot, must be left for the reader to determine.

The remainder of the journey over the mountain is relieved by a constant repetition of similar scenery. In some places the passes are lined by trees rising most majestically to the height of 90 and 100 feet. At other times rows of palms branching on either side form a continued gothic archway, or rather series of archways, far surpassing those of art: while in other situations the abruptness of the transition from hill to dale, and from mountain to ravine relieve the eye and considerably heighten the effect.


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Rh At times one half of a party separated by the roads are some distance in advance, and then the shouts of the muleteers calling one to another, or to their mules, and the answering whistle of the stragglers in the rear as they wind down or ascend the different glens, now appearing and then as suddenly concealed by the intervening trees, render the scene singularly picturesque. A few wandering Indians conveying parcels from Gualan to Yzabal or loaded with maize, are the only human beings to be seen till about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, by which time in favourable months the mountain is generally passed, and the traveller arrives at a small Indian town called Mico, another depot for goods.

During four months in the year it is however almost impassable, and the journey far from being agreeable is one of the most difficult and painful that can he experienced. In many instances travellers are obliged to pass the night on its summit drenched hy the rains, and terrified by the proximity both of tigers and rattlesnakes.

After resting at Mico a short time, it is customary to ride forward about a league, to a solitary hut, where parties generally remain for the night on account of the superior forage for the mules. On alighting at this house we inquired for something to eat, but could get no other reply than “no hay” there is none. At length however after


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86 French decree itself. Considering that America had in this sense acquiesced in Sir William Scott's decisions and the wholesale confiscation of her commerce, in the impressment of her native citizens and their compulsory service in the British navy, in the blockade of New York, in Fox's paper blockade of the German coast, in Lord Howick's Order in Council, and perhaps even in the "Chesapeake" outrage, Perceval's argument must have seemed convincing to Napoleon, if not to President Jefferson. If the law of nations thus laid down was sound, the continued presence of American citizens in British ships of war was alone sufficient proof of American acquiescence in impressment to warrant Napoleon in acting without regard to neutral rights. From a neutral or French point of view Perceval's reasoning not only conceded the legality of the Berlin Decree, but barred his own right of retaliation, since England, as the first and worst offender, could not properly profit by her own misdeeds.

There Perceval rested his case, so far as concerned the law. His three grounds were (1) That as a neutral the United States could complain of no retaliation between belligerents, unless this retaliation was avowedly adopted with a view to injure neutrals; (2) That America ceased to be a neutral from the moment that she wished England to observe rules which France refused to recognize, and which America did not at once compel France to recognize; and (3) That the continued existence and


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 of navigable waterway. The department is divided into the arrondissements of Privas, Largentière and Tournon, with 31 cantons and 342 communes. It forms the diocese of Viviers and part of the archiepiscopal province of Avignon. It is in the region of the XV. army corps, and within the circumscription of the académie (educational division) of Grenoble. Its court of appeal is at Nîmes. Privas, the capital, Annonay, Aubenas, Largentière and Tournon are the principal towns. Bourg-St Andéol, Thines, Mélas and Cruas have interesting Romanesque churches. Mazan has remains of a Cistercian abbey founded in the 12th century to which its vast church belongs. Viviers is an old town with a church of various styles of architecture and several old houses. ARDEE, a market-town of Co. Louth, Ireland, in the south parliamentary division, on the river Dee, 48 m. N. by W. from Dublin on a branch of the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1901) 1883. It has some trade in grain and basket-making. The town is of high antiquity, and its name (Ather-dee) is taken to signify the ford of the Dee. A form Ath-Firdia, however, is connected with the ancient story of the warrior Cuchullain of Ulster, who, while defending the ford against the men of Connaught, was forced to slay many with whom he was on friendly terms, and among them the warrior Firdia, whom he regarded with special affection. A castle of the lords of the manor was built early in the 14th century, and remains, as does another adjacent fortified building of the same period. Roger de Peppart, lord of the manor early in the 13th century, founded the present Protestant church and a house of Crutched Friars. There was also a house of Carmelite Friars, but neither of these remains. Ardee received its first recorded charter in 1377. It had a full share in the several Irish wars, being sacked by Edward Bruce (1315) and by O’Neill (1538); and it was taken by the Irish and recaptured by the English in the wars of 1641, and was occupied later by the forces of James II. and of William III. It returned two members to the Irish parliament. A large rath, or encampment, with remains of fortifications, stands to the south of the town. ARDEN, FOREST OF, a district in the north of Warwickshire, England, the “woodland” as opposed to the “felden,” or “fielden,” i.e. open country, in the south, the river Avon separating the two. Originally it was part of a forest tract of far wider extent than that within the confines of the county, and now, though lacking the true character of a forest, it is still unusually well wooded. The undulating surface ranges for the most part from 250 to 500 ft. in elevation. Wide lands in this district were held in the time of Edward the Confessor by Alwin, whose son Thurkill of Warwick, or “of Arden,” founded the family of the Warwickshire Ardens who in Queen Elizabeth’s time still held several of the manors ascribed to Thurkill in Domesday. Shakespeare, whose mother Mary Arden claimed to be of this family, knew the district well, living as he did at Stratford; and its natural characteristics, then still unchanged, inspired his pictures of forest life in As You Like It. The name of the Forest of Arden, besides remaining a convenient designation of a well-marked physical area, is preserved in such place-names as Henley-in-Arden and Hampton-in-Arden. ARDENNES, a district covering some portion of the ancient forest of Ardenne, and extending over the Belgian province of Luxemburg, part of the grand duchy, and the French department of Ardennes. Bruzen Lamartinière states in his Dictionnaire Géographique that the Gauls and Bretons called it by a word signifying “the forest,” which was turned into Latin as Arduenna silva, and he thinks it quite probable that the name was really derived from the Celtic word ardu (dark, obscure). The Arduenna Silva was the most extensive forest of Gaul, and Caesar (Bello Gallico, lib. vi. cap. 29) describes it as extending from the Rhine and the confines of the Treviri as far as the limits of the Nervii. In book v. the Roman conqueror describes his campaign against Indutiomarus and the Treviri in the Ardenne forest. Strabo gave it still greater extent, treating it as covering the whole region from the Rhine to the North Sea. It is safer to give it the more reasonable dimensions of Caesar, and to accept the verdict of later commentators that it never extended west of the Scheldt. At the division of the empire of Charlemagne between the three sons of Louis the Débonnaire, effected by the pact of Verdun in 843, the forest had become a district and is called therein pagus Arduensis. It was part of the division that fell to Lothair, and several of the charters of 843 expressly specify certain towns as being situated in this pagus. In the 10th century the district had become a comitatus, subject to the powerful count of Verdun, who changed his style to that of count of Ardenne.

The Belgian Ardennes may be said now to extend from the Meuse above Dinant on the west to the grand duchy of Luxemburg and Rhenish Prussia as far north as the Baraque de Michel on the east, and from a line drawn eastward from Dinant through Marche, Durbuy and Stavelot to the Hautes Fagnes on the north, to the French frontier roughly marked by the Semois valley in the south. Within these limits there are still some of the finest woods in Europe, which seem to have come down to us almost intact from the days of the Arduenna of Caesar. Notable among these portions of the great forest are the woods of St Hubert, the woods round La Roche, and those of the Amerois, Herbeumont, and Chiny on the Semois. In the grand duchy the forest has almost entirely disappeared, but owing to the compulsory law of replanting in Belgium this fate does not seem likely to attend the Belgian Ardennes.

In addition to being a forest the Ardennes is a plateau, and it offers to the geologist a most interesting field of investigation. The greater part of the Ardennes is occupied by a large area of Devonian beds, through which rise the Cambrian masses of Rocroi and Stavelot, and a few others of smaller size. Upon the folded slates and schists which constitute these inliers the Devonian rests with marked unconformity; but north of the ridge of Condroz Ordovician and Silurian beds make their appearance. Near Dinant carboniferous beds are infolded among the Devonian. Along the northern margin lies the intensely folded belt which constitutes the coalfield of Namur, and, beneath the overlying Mesozoic beds, is continued to the Boulonnais, Dover and beyond. The southern boundary of this belt is formed by a great thrust-plane, the faille du midi, along which the Devonian beds of the south have been thrust over the carboniferous beds of the coalfield.

The Ardennes are the holiday ground of the Belgian people, and much of this region is still unknown except to the few persons who by a happy chance have discovered its remoter and hitherto well-guarded charms. There is still an immense quantity of wild game to be found in the Ardennes, including red and roe deer, wild boar, &c. The shooting is preserved either by the few great landed proprietors left in the country, or by the communes, who let the right of shooting to individuals. Occasionally it is still stated in the press that wolves have been seen in the Ardennes, but this is a mere fiction. The last wolf was destroyed there in the 18th century. ARDENNES, a department of France on the N.E. frontier, deriving its name from that of the forest, and formed in 1790 from parts of Champagne, Picardy and Hainault. Pop. (1906) 317,505. Area, 2028 sq. m. It is bounded N. and N.E. by Belgium, E. by the department of Meuse, S. by that of Marne, and W. by that of Aisne. In shape it is quadrilateral with a cape-like prolongation into Belgium on the north. The slope of the department is from north-east to south-west, though its longest river, the Meuse, entering it in the south-east, pursues a winding course of 111 m. in a north-westerly, and afterwards through deep gorges in a northerly, direction. The other principal river, the Aisne, crosses the southern border and takes a northerly, then a westerly course, separating the region known as Champagne Pouilleuse from the more elevated plateau of Argonne which forms the central zone of the department and stretches to the left bank of the Meuse. The highest points of the department are found in the wooded highlands of the Ardennes which, with an altitude varying between 980 and 1640 ft., cover the north and north-east. The climate is comparatively mild in the south-west, but becomes colder and more rainy towards the north and north-east. Agriculture is carried on to

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A considerable portion of the present Volume has been printed from manuscripts hastily thrown together, in consequence of which some errors have escaped observation.

The quotation from the Journal at Page 136 in which Louisiana and Georgia are referred to, was not intended for insertion. The reference to those states, the author is now aware was altogether erroneous. In the early part of the Volume, the mark denoting seconds (") has been fixed to those figures which represent minutes ('); these errors will not however be found to have occurred after page 184.

Page 229 for Dr. Rhy, read Dr. Rhys.


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Rh path, kept us almost continually on a run, except when interrupted by falls, from which our guides although possessing the advantage of bare feet, were not exempt. As we descended the clouds partially cleared off, and we enjoyed the prospect of the dilferent towns and villages, varying in elevation, which are spread at the foot of the mountain. On afavorable day the view fiom the summit is one of the most extensive that can possibly be enjoyed, being bounded both on the north and south, by the two oceans, while eastward the province of San Salvador, and westward the plains of Chiapa may be discovered. By five o'clock we had again arrived at the Antigua, completely worn out by fatigue, and although gratified by the excursion, feeling no anxiety to make a second trip. The following day we bent our course homeward, and arrived safely at the capital.


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Rh considerable persuasion the female was induced to move, and in a short time two fine fowls and some eggs were produced. The servants lighted a fire, and after roasting the fowls and preparing the eggs with the addition of chocolate, we threw ourselves on the ground, and by the light of the fire ate a hearty supper. Soon after this most of the party were soundly sleeping.

Notwithstanding the excessive fatigue of the day's ride, I could not rest. During the whole of the night, some thousands of monkeys that inhabit the woods around Mico kept up a loud and discordant yell, any thing but grateful to the ear; while the light of the fire glared only upon three or four wild figures, gliding from one part of the hut to another, and appearing at such an hour and by such a light more like demons than men.

These Indians are a scattered portion of the aborigines of the country, and their original character and condition does not appear to have been much improved. Generally speaking they have the character of being trusty and harmless, and excepting when under the influence of intoxicating liquors display considerable mildness. As messengers they are very faithful, finding their way through bushes and thickets before untrodden, with a degree of instinct which is truly surprising. They subsist solely on maize, and drink little besides water, unless it be a kind of spirit called


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Rh pesso, which is made by the rind of limes rubbed with corn, and allowed to ferment, and then mixed with honey; this they esteem a great luxury.

The maize they grind into a powder between two stones, and after moulding it into a kind of dough with water but without salt, they bake it in small cakes which they call tortillas. In appearance they are not unlike the English oatcake, but very tasteless.

Their huts are altogether without furniture. Some of them have a hammock, but this luxury is by no means general. Their usual custom is to sleep on mats upon the floor.

These scattered families all profess the Roman Catholic religion, and are under the pastoral care of the Padre at Gualan, the nearest town to their residence, who visits them two or three times a year for the purposes of confession and absolution. The whole of them are exceedingly ignorant and superstitious, and are most completely under the dominion of their religious superior. The women of this hut had each of them small silver crucifixes suspended round their necks by light gold chains, which they seemed to regard with the highest degree of reverence.

Owing to the obstinacy of the muleteers it is almost impossible to set out early in the morning, and as the road from hence is open and unshaded by trees, this perverseness often becomes a source


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Rh of considerable distress and vexation. The inconveniences of horse or rather mule exercise under a tropical sun, are soon found not to be trifling.

After ascending for some time from Mico, the edge of an immense valley presents itself, surrounded by high mountains gradually sloping to the ground, and forming a very large circus or amphitheatre, thickly wooded on every side chiefly with pine, and having at least sixty miles of circumference. Its appearance is sublime, but the intense heat of the sun when we crossed it reflected on all sides, with scarcely a breath of air, greatly impeded our enjoyment of its scenery. The soil here was very sandy, and in some parts the face of the country completely sterile. Vegetation seemed to be entirely burned up by the rays of the sun.

Towards evening another hut appears in the distance called Iguana, and after the exhaustion produced by the heat and fatigue of the day, it is a most agreeable resting place.


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Iguana,—Gualan,—Town,—Morals,—Customs, Intolerance,—Superstition,—Trade,—Education,—Prisons,—Scriptures.

people of Iguana unlike those of Mico, are very accommodating, and willingly render every attention in their power to travellers; so that with very little trouble, a comfortable lodging is procured for the night; that is to say, so far as the idea of comfort can be connected with eating on the ground, and sleeping in the open air, circumstances to which the mind becomes reconciled in a much shorter time than one could imagine.

From this place to Gualan the distance is but short, consisting of only four leagues, and chiefly lying through plantations, some of them in a state of considerable luxuriance. Nearly the whole of the land along the road between Iguana and Gualan is more or less cultivated, principally by Indians, who bring the produce to market at the latter place.


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1807. recent enforcement of the Berlin Decree were sufficient proof of the neutral's acquiescence.

Thus a measure of vital consequence to England was proposed to the Cabinet on grounds which would hardly have been sufficient to warrant an injunction to restrain a private nuisance. So far as argument was concerned, Perceval had no more to say. Having in his opinion established his legal right to do what he pleased with American commerce, he next discussed the policy and extent of the proposed interference. His first idea was comparatively moderate.

 * "If we actually prohibit all intercourse between neutrals and the enemies' colonies," he continued, "or between neutrals and the enemies' continental possessions, it would be such a severe blow upon the trade of America as might make it no unreasonable choice on her part to prefer the dangers and chances of war to such a restriction upon her trade. I should therefore wish to leave such advantages still to neutral trade as to make it quite clear to be the policy of America, if she is wise, to prefer the neutral trade that will be left to her to the total stoppage of her trade with the enemy and with ourselves which a war might occasion....  With this view, therefore, I would recommend to relax thus far in the rigor of our retaliatory prohibitions as to leave to neutral nations the right of trading directly in articles of their own growth, produce, and manufacture exported in their own vessels to enemies' countries, and of importing from the enemies' countries for their own use articles the growth, produce, and manufacture of such enemies'


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Rh Gualan although a town of inconsiderable size, is the only one of importance between Yzabal and Guatimala, (excepting Zacapa, which did not lie in our route.) The entrance to it is by the principal street, at the end of which is the plaza, or market-place, and a neat church. The houses are all of them low, consisting of one story only, with white plastered walls, and red tiled roofs, and very heavy antique windows, having balustrades before them mostly of wood.

The town is estimated to contain about 2000 inhabitants, but no census has been taken.

In Gualan as in all the other towns of Central America, there is no inn, or house set apart for the reception of travellers; we therefore accompanied our Spanish friends to the house of their agent, at which place the alcalde soon arrived to examine our packages. This he did with considerable care, although accompanied with as much civility as could be expected.

The interior of the houses generally consists of only two rooms, separated from one another by a slight wooden partition. In the one which it was our lot to occupy, the whole of us, including the family of our host, dined, and the greater part of us slept; five small beds being placed around it for that purpose. A large wooden table, (a fixture,) and some common wooden chairs, composed the rest of its furniture; two hammocks swung constantly


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Rh from one end of the room to the other, and three or four swords with several muskets, ornamented its walls.

Soon after our arrival several of the neighbours entered the house, which seemed always open to every visiter [sic]. One threw himself in a hammock, others seated themselves on the table, or on beds, and all began at once to inquire the news, and to discuss politics with the greatest vehemence, smoking and spitting on the floor most profusely.

Nothing can exceed the indolence, licentiousness, and ignorance of these people. Their only idea of freedom is, the absence of all restraint, and consequently, in manners and morals they have levelled themselves with the brute creation.

The mistress of the house, a young woman of about twenty, was a complete specimen of filth and vulgar finery. Terribly afflicted with a güegüecho, or swelling of the glands of the neck, she still had sufficient vanity to suppose herself handsome; and dressed in a dashing printed gown, made very low in the body, with pink shoes, and silk stockings, and two gold chains hanging about her neck, she paraded the room like a sultana of the east. A more pitiable object could scarcely be seen. Her husband, an old man of about sixty, exceeded her if possible, in grossness. In this house it was our misfortune


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Rh to be obliged to remain nine days. The servants, as is invariably the case, imitate their masters, and are lazy and indolent. It is said they have considerably deteriorated since the revolution.

Immediately after rising in the morning, coffee was prepared, and about nine we breakfasted on stewed meat, eggs, frijollis or black beans, bread, and coffee. Dinner generally consisted of four courses, two dishes to each, and included beef cut up and hashed, fowls, turkeys, and sausages, but all roasted to pieces, soaked in bad butter, and thickly strewed over with onions; frijollis, eggs, and a milk pudding followed, and wine and water to drink. In the afternoon chocolate was prepared, and in the evening, about nine o'clock, a supper similar to the dinner, but with less variety of viands. For these accommodations each individual paid a dollar per day. The whole of these messes were prepared under a shed, in a large dirty yard, which served as a kitchen, and was full of filth of all kinds. The knowledge of this, with the sight of the servants, had no tendency to quicken our appetites. The spoons, cups, and knives and forks were of silver, and two lamps hanging from the roof, cased in silver, but quite neglected, betokened a country that had once been rich in metals.

The morning after our arrival we were presented in form to the alcalde. The old man


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Rh received us reclined on a mat, and apologized for not rising, as he was unwell. The only furniture in the room was an old bed and two miserable chairs. His wife and daughter made their appearance, with massy gold chains about their necks, and silver crucifixes suspended by them, but there was nothing else in character with this display.

This individual is the only officer of justice: complaints are lodged before him in writing; the offender, if the facts are notorious, is committed to prison, and the papers are referred to the capital. It rarely happens that more is heard of the business, and the incarceration of the poor wretch depends chiefly upon his interest with the alcalde or the priest.

The prison is a miserable barn, with a clay floor, to which the prisoners are chained; they are now very few in number, as crimes are rarely punished.

The temperature of this place is excessively hot. The chain of porphyritic mountains which encircle the town, while they give it a very picturesque and beautiful appearance, materially increase the heat, both by impeding the circulation of the air, and by reflecting the rays of the sun. In the month of June, 1827, the thermometer averaged 100° Fahrenheit in the shade. It is far from being healthy, and in the months of September and October the number of deaths is


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Rh considerable. Fevers are the chief cause of this mortality. Small pox is rare, as vaccination is generally practised by the medical men, (if such they may be called.) There is not, in fact, a single individual in the place, who has the slightest knowledge of medicine; and if an inhabitant be taken ill, nature has to struggle not only with the disease, but with a bad climate and an ignorant quack; it need not therefore, excite surprise that she often fails.

There do not appear to be any books whatever in the place, excepting a few mass books, and these are little used. The priest, a sottish being, is generally despised, and the church greatly neglected. The inhabitants appear destitute of all religious feeling. A copy of the Scriptures is probably not to be met with in Gualan, nor are they permitted to be sold or distributed without the notes of the church. There is a very considerable degree of intolerance mixed with this neglect of every thing divine. I had with me a number of the “Ocios,” (a periodical published by the Spanish emigrants in London,) which contained a paper in favour of religious toleration. I read a part of it aloud, but was immediately stopped with assurances that it could never be thus in America: they evidently disliked the principle. Yet these are republicans!


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Rh The men when dressed “a la Inglesa,” of which they are very fond, are in manners and appearance the exact prototypes of English ploughmen at a country fair. A few of the women have some degree of softness and polish in their manners, but generally speaking, they are disgusting.

No provision is made for the education of the people, and the children grow up in ignorance, and oftentimes uncontrolled. Soon after the revolution a schoolmaster was sent from Guatimala, but as he could not get paid by the government, and the people had no disposition to do it, the doors of his establishment were soon closed.

The inhabitants of Gualan are composed of agents employed in the transmission of goods to and from Guatimala, Omoa, and Yzabal; mariners who convey them by the river Motagua, in their pitpans; and agriculturalists, (the Indian population,) who grow wheat and maize. There are also two potteries, which employ about twenty men in the manufacture of red tiles for the floors and roofs of the houses, and a few household utensils. The market is held daily in the plaza, but it is very irregularly supplied.

Near the town flows a river of excellent water, in which the inhabitants are constantly bathing. At the bottom of one of these hills is a very fine spring, at which the servants fill their pitchers every


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Rh evening for the succeeding day. It is their general rendezvous about seven in the evening; and to watch them winding up the hill, through the orchards which lead to the fountain, each with her red pitcher on her head, and following one another in a continued line, is quite a primitive scene, and by far the most interesting sight in Gualan.

About a mile from the town are two mines, one of gold, the other of silver, which are said to belong to individuals who have not money to work them. Some attempt must however have been made, as they say they are not of the first quality, and it would be long before they could be made to pay. At length we heard of the arrival of our mules, and joyfully prepared to leave a place which possessed so few attractions.


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San Pablo,—Ampú,—Simplicity of the Inhabitants,—Chimalapa—Sulphureous Springs,—Entrance into Guatimala.

Gualan and passing through two small Indian villages in the route, we came to San Pablo, a town containing about sixty thatched houses, and a neat church. The road from hence to Ampú is tolerably level, but in many parts unshaded, and in these situations, during the hot months the sun darts his rays with a force that makes it almost impossible to enjoy the scenery.

Passing two other villages and descending a very steep barranca or precipice, we entered a narrow defile between two high hills, which appears to form the bed of a considerable stream in the rainy season, but was now quite dry; and chiefly excited notice from the immense number of butterflies which swarmed in it, many of them very large in size, and clothed in every diversity of colour. No inconsiderable number of the 760 kinds which Linnæus has reckoned up, might


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Rh have been collected in this spot. The hills on each side are thickly wooded, and to these on our approach they rapidly winged their flight.

From hence passing over a small chain of hills nearly devoid of vegetation, and composed entirely of calcareous earths, we arrived at the little village of Ampú, where for the first time, we observed lands enclosed by hedge rows, and cattle grazing under the eye of their owners.

This place does not lie in the regular route from Gualan to the capital, and is consequently rarely visited by strangers. The whole of the inhabitants soon appeared at the house where we had stopped, the news of the arrival of an “Ingles” and his “Señora,” having rapidly spread throughout the neighbourhood. Though exceedingly inquisitive, examining the dress of the lady with the greatest attention, they were very respectful and polite. From my having a few medicines, they at once concluded I was a physician, or “gran medico,” and several came to complain of their infirmities. One had rheumatism, another calentura or fever, a third colic. To all of these very simple remedies were offered, and we were loaded with thanks. Towards evening we took tea, and amused ourselves by letting them taste it, which some of them did with strange contortions; while others, with a courtier-like politeness declared it to be “muy bueno,” very good, at the same time


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Rh secretly stepping towards the door, in order to empty their mouths of it unobserved. Many of these people had never passed the bounds of their native village, and knew as little of the tumultuous world, as the world knows of them.

From hence the following morning, we started for Chimalapa, across dry and arid plains of considerable extent, bearing scarcely any signs of vegetation. A few leafless trees and shrubs were scattered over them, high and sterile mountains rising one above another, enclosed them on every side, while the reflection of the sun's rays on the sandy soil, rendered the heat almost intolerable. After riding onward over these plains, for about six leagues, we passed two small Indian settlements, where the soil appeared better in quality, was a little cultivated, and in some places enclosed.

Towards evening, we arrived at Chimalapa, a town containing about 500 inhabitants, several good houses, and a neat church. The population is entirely Indian, and altogether uninstructed. During the night the thunders echoed over the neighbouring mountains, which were brilliantly illuminated by numerous and vivid flashes of lightning, accompanied by heavy rains; the first that had fallen here for several months.

0ur following day's journey was very uninteresting. With the exception of a few pines, some maguey and cactus plants, the face of the


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Rh country is sterile, and appears almost entirely uninhabited. One Indian settlement, where we remained for an hour or two, in the heat of the day, was cleaner, more compact, and had a greater air of comfort about it, than any we had yet seen. About four leagues from this little spot runs a range of high mountains chiefly composed of porphyry, which it is no easy task to ascend after a long day's journey. Once accomplished however, the traveller is abundantly repaid. From this elevation the country again becomes level, and he suddenly finds himself transported into a fresher and cooler climate. The difference of temperature is truly surprising. After being oppressed with heat, we found ourselves at once chilly, and when we arrived at Guastatoya, a village situated about a league from the summit, wet with the rain, which had for some time been falling in torrents, we should have rejoiced at the opportunity of surrounding a blazing fire.

This village is one of the most interesting in the whole journey. Its elevated situation and beautiful scenery, rendered still more agreeable by the refreshing rains that had so lately fallen, pleased us exceedingly, and we could willingly have remained here some days, had our time permitted it. The house we inhabited was one of the best in the place, and was at that time


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Rh tenanted by an old widow lady and her two daughters. The chairs, doors, and two old fashioned couches, were all of mahogany antiquely carved; three niches in the wall of the largest room contained images of saints, and a large crucifix, while in an inner apartment, an old four-post mahogany bedstead, with a few better articles of furniture indicated some degree of superiority in the owner. It had probably been the residence of a priest in former days, having every appearance of a decayed parsonage. The yard was well stocked with fowls, turkeys, and good milch cows; and under a shed was a loom on which one of the women was weaving coarse cotton.

The ride from this place to Omoyta, the next village, is very agreeable; the first four leagues of the way lies through cultivated fields, chiefly of maize, and watered by the river Platanos, which flows in this direction so circuitously as to oblige the traveller to ford it ten times in the course of a few hours. In some places this stream is four or five feet deep, and has a rapid current, but generally it merits rather the name of a rivulet. In the rainy season however, it augments so much, as to render it necessary, in several places, to have ferry boats, while in others, the post from Gualan to Guatimala is not unfrequently detained several days, owing to the sudden swelling of the waters. The latter four


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Rh leagues are shaded by the woods, through which the road is cut; in many places these are open, and partake greatly of the character of park scenery.

At Omoyta we were received into the house of the Padre, at that time inhabited only by his nephew and niece, the former of whom, a man about thirty, lay ill of a fever he had contracted on the coast. We found him lying on the floor of one of the rooms, with every door and window carefully closed, smoking a cigar. In this room he had remained shut up fourteen days, using no other means of recovery, and impressed with the idea that fresh air and cleanliness would be injurious to the last degree. This we found afterwards to be the general opinion, and that the plan he had pursued was the regular course of treatment in fevers. With some difficulty we persuaded him to allow the windows to be opened, that he might see the light of heaven, and breathe an untainted atmosphere. We then gave him a few simple medicines, but as we left early in the morning, we heard nothing more of our patient.

This house, which stood by itself on the hill, overlooking the Indian village at its foot, was considerably decayed, and greatly neglected. Adjoining to it was a neat chapel, or “Oratorio de la Misa,” which they willingly showed us. It contained one tolerable painting of the taking


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Rh down from the cross, and several images, but was, in other respects, very plain. Here the villagers assemble to say mass, every feast day. A small bell raised above the building, serves to call them together out of the valley, and were it to join in simple and spiritual worship, it would yield in such solitudes as these, one of the most interesting and delightful of sounds.

From Omoyta to San José the country is for the most part sterile, and the scenery uninteresting. After passing one or two considerable barrancas, the road suddenly turns by a beautifull little spot, cultivated with the sugar cane. A good house, belonging to the proprietor, and a trapiché or sugar mill, surrounded by a luxuriant plantation, and well watered by a stream, running through the grounds, appeared a little paradise in the midst of these wilds.

About three leagues further, the country becomes exceedingly mountainous, and the roads very rugged. Several of these mountains are supposed to contain rich veins of silver, but they have never been worked, and from their locality, the attempt would be difficult and expensive. A little beyond these flow two considerable streams powerfully sulphureous; one hot, the other cold: near the source of the former the temperature of the water is boiling heat.


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Rh From hence at the distance of about a league, is the village of San José. The spot on which it stands has many natural advantages, but the houses are wretchedly built, and the accommodations miserable.

Leaving San José, the road to Guatimala lies for several leagues, over a narrow and elevated plain. On each side are deep valleys thickly wooded, chiefly with pine and evergreen oaks, and behind these rise undulating lines of hills, backed by high mountains. As we approach nearer the city, the eye opens on an extensive plain studded with trees, and ornamented by numerous hedge rows, enclosing the lands near the capital. In the midst of the plain stands the city of New Guatimala.

Its appearance from this spot about a league distant, is singularly picturesque. Its numerous turrets and cupolas, glistening in the sun, and its white low houses regularly arranged at right angles, with orange trees, thickly interspersed among the buildings, form a middle ground, while the mountains encircling it, and especially the beautiful “Volcano de Agua,” as it is termed, generally crowned by clouds, complete a picture, which, for interest and beauty, will bear comparison with any prospect in the world.

The descent from this elevated situation into the valley is by a road cut out of the rock, and


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Rh down it. On one side are deep precipices, and on the other high and perpendicular rocks, each clothed with hanging woods, and the richest verdure.

At the end of this pass stands the eastern gate, where our passports were required. Between this and the outer street of the city, are orchards and meadows for about two miles, and after these a few straggling houses, till we gradually enter the more populated districts. When we arrived, the place appeared almost deserted: the streets were as silent as if the plague had ravaged them, and most of the houses were closed. This we found afterwards to be partly owing to our having entered at the hour of siesta, and partly to the civil war, then at its height. The opposing party had a short time before assaulted the city, and the inhabitants were still in a state of confusion. After riding through ten or a dozen streets, all equally silent, and some of them covered with grass, we arrived safely at the place of our destination.


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THE CITY, ITS MANNERS, CUSTOMS, &C.—POPULATI0N,—POLICE,—MORAL AND RELIGIOUS STATE, &C. &C.

Former Sites of the City,—Its present situation and advantages,—Public Buildings,—Streets,—Houses, &c.

entering upon a description of the city, as it now exists, it will be advisable to give a short sketch of the different situations which it has occupied, and the circumstances that have produced its frequent removal.

From Juarros we learn, that soon after the conquest of the country by Pedro Alvarado, he and his followers began to look out for a suitable spot on which they might found a capital for the newly conquered kingdom. “Taking their route


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Rh by the villages on the coast, and overcoming whatever force attempted to dispute their passage, they arrived at the base of the “Volcan de Agua.” This situation, says Remesal, (lib. i. ch. ii.,) pleased the Spaniards so much by its fine climate, the beauty of the meadows, delightfully watered by running streams, and particularly from lying between two lofty mountains, from one of which descended rivulets of water in every direction, and from the summit of the other issued volumes of smoke and fire, altogether rendering the place remarkable for its locality, that here they determined to establish themselves, and on this spot (about ten leagues from the present city) they founded the capital, on the 4th of November, 1527. Mass was said by Juan Godinez, chaplain to the army, and the feasts and military rejoicings lasted for three days.

This continued to be the principal town till the year 1541, when it was entirely ruined by the inundation of a dreadful torrent of water from the mountain, which, sweeping before it immense masses of rock, overwhelmed many of the buildings, and deeply injured the rest. Many of the inhabitants perished in the ruins, and amongst the rest the widow of Alvarado. After this calamity the principal survivors met together, and resolved unanimously to remove the capital about a league further, where it would be better


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Rh from further inundations by the neighouring hills. Here they founded the city called Old Guatimala or La Antigua, on the 22d of October, in the same year, and immediately proceeded to erect convents, hospitals, churches, an university, and other public buildings.

Favoured by innumerable local advantages, the new metropolis rapidly grew in importance, and promised to compete, if not in size, at least in beauty, with the most distinguished cities of the new continent. But notwithstanding all its natural advantages, it was doomed to share a similar fate to its predecessor. Between the date of its foundation and the year 1773, when it was finally abandoned as the capital, it suffered dreadfully from the calamity of earthquakes. Nine different times during this period was it in greater or less measure, overthrown, and as often rebuilt or repaired, until at length, after the shock of the year 1773, which left one part of the city in ruins, and severely injured the rest, “the inhabitants, wearied with rebuilding, resolved for the third time to remove their situation further from the volcanoes, the prolific source of all their miseries,” and after many examinations, at length fixed upon a part of the Valley of Mixco, ten leagues removed from them, where, by virtue of a royal decree, they founded in 1776 the third metropolis.


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Rh To this situation removed in succession the university, parishes, convents, and churches, as their different buildings were completed. “Many of the artizans and a great part of the people still wished to remain in their old abodes, “but in the month of June, 1779, the governor issued a proclamation, (certainly a tyrannical one,) commanding that every inhabitant should quit the city within a prescribed number of days, and that from the date of the proclamation “no artificer should there exercise his trade, without being liable to very severe penalties.” In compliance with these positive orders, “the city from being the busy haunt of men, was at once transformed into a dreary solitude.” It remained in this state for some time, until at length many of its former occupants covertly resumed their abodes, and it has by degrees, again become peopled, though far inferior both in size, population, and wealth, to New Guatimala.

This city as the present capital of the republic of the United Provinces, merits a more minute description. It is situated in the midst of the plain of La Virgen, which is five leagues in diameter, and forms part of the Valley of Mixco, one of the nine smaller valleys, which constitute what is termed the great Vale of Guatimala or Pasuya. It lies in 14° 37" N. latitude, and


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Rh 90° 30" W. longitude, and is 90 leagues from the Atlantic, 26 from the Pacific, and 400 from the city of Mexico.

The valley is watered by several streams and lakes, which conduce to its fertility, and the city is surrounded by numerous small villages, which regularly supply its markets with the various fruits and vegetables of the country. In point of situation it is certainly inferior to the old city. The scenery is not so romantic, nor are the lands immediately adjoining so well cultivated, yet still it is rich enough in natural beauties to bear in this respect, comparison with almost any other city in the world.

Owing to the style in which the houses are built, it occupies a very considerable portion of ground, and appears to an European eye, when viewed from a little distance, much more populous and extensive than it really is. It contains about sixty manzanas or squares of houses, formed by the intersection of streets at right angles, which vary in extent from l50 to 350 yards in front, and these are arranged so as to form one large square. On each side of the city, as the suburbs have increased, other houses have been erected without much regard to uniformity.


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266 Now for a spectacle of a different kind. On the Feast of the Three Kings, or the Commemoration of Christ's Manifestation to the Gentiles, we paid a visit to the Propaganda. There, in the presence of three cardinals and a large audience, an essay was first of all delivered, which treated of the place in which the Virgin Mary received the three Magi,—in the stable; or, if not, where? Next, some Latin verses were read on similar subjects; and after this a series of about thirty scholars came forward, one by one, and read a little piece of poetry in their native tongues,—Malabar, Epirotic, Turkish, Moldavian, Hellenic, Persian, Colchian, Hebrew, Arabic, Syrian, Coptic, Saracenic, Armenian, Erse, Madagassic, Icelandic, Bohemian, Greek, Isaurian, Æthiopic, etc. The poems seemed for the most part to be composed in the national syllabic measure, and to be delivered with the vernacular declamation, for most barbaric rhythms and tones occurred. Among them, the Greek sounded like a star in the night. The audience laughed most unmercifully at the strange sounds; and so this representation also became a farce.

And now (before concluding) a little anecdote, to show with what levity holy things are treated in Holy Rome: The deceased cardinal, Albani, was once present at one of those festal meetings which I have just been describing. One of the scholars, with his face turned toward the cardinals, began, in a strange pronunciation, ''Gnaja! Gnaja! so that it sounded something like canaglia! canaglia!'' The cardinal turned to his brothers, with a whisper, "He knows us, at any rate."

How much has Winckelmann done! and yet how much reason has he left us to wish that he had done still more! With the materials which he had collected he built quickly, in order to reach the roof. Were he still living, he would be the first to give us a recast of


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Rh The streets are mostly broad, but wretchedly paved, with a considerable declivity on each side, which forms a gutter in the middle, so that while after a heavy shower of rain, they are almost impassable from the sudden stream of water, at other times the sharp pointed and ill arranged pebbles extort groans from the unhappy sufferer, who, in light shoes, is doomed to undergo the miserable penance of passing over them.

In walking through the city, the first thought that strikes a stranger is, that Guatimala is one of the dullest places he has ever entered. This melancholy appearance is chiefly occasioned by the way in which the houses are built. Consisting of only one story, and occupying a great deal of ground, they present to the street only a series of white washed walls and red tiled roofs, with here and there a window, carefully gnardedguarded [sic] by large bars of iron, and a pair of massy folding doors, studded on the outside with heavy nails, thus giving to it, at the best of times, more the appearance of a deserted than an inhabited city.

The plaza or market-place is a square of about 150 yards each way, with a fountain in the middle, and besides the daily market, is occupied by numerous temporary shops or stalls, and surrounded by buildings, offices, and shops. Projecting piazzas form a covered walk on three


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Rh sides, under which trifling articles are exposed for sale. The public buildings are numerous, and consist of an university, five convents, four nunneries, a cathedral, four parish churches, and fifteen other churches or chapels of minor importance; besides a treasury, mint, and other government offices. Most of these are in a good style of architecture, and some of them judiciously decorated. In comparison with the churches of Puebla and Mexico they may possess few attractions, but remembering the circumstances under which they were built, they do credit both to the zeal and taste of those who superintended their erection.

Most of the images of the saints, termed by Juarros “beautiful statues,” are very common pieces of sculpture, and disfigured by absurd and vulgar dresses, while many of the paintings which he says are “by the best masters” are only very ordinary copies. The utensils of gold and silver are splendid, and among other ornaments, the church of St. Domingo has a statue of the Virgin del Rosario, nearly six feet high, of massy silver.

The history of the university is not very interesting. The first lectures were delivered in the old city, about 1620, and a rector, students, and collegial form of discipline were regularly appointed in 1678. Lectures were delivered


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Rh to the old scholastic method until 1778, when the first course of experimental philosophy was begun. Juarros speaks of examinations in surgery, of a royal cabinet of natural history, of schools of mathematics, and a college of physicians. All these things may have existed, but in the present day they are unknown. The examinations have ceased, the cabinet is without specimens, and the college of physicians, and the schools of mathematics alike destitute of students and professors.

The vanity which prompted Juarros to speak of these institutions in the way he has done, seems to be a national vice. Similar instances are occurring every day, especially in the speeches of the public authorities, and in the statements of the weekly papers. A stranger looking through the latter, would receive the impression that a military college, a national bank, and Lancasterian schools were long ago established in the republic, but on inquiry he will find that, although each of these has been proposed in the assembly, reported upon and agreed to, not one of them has ever been commenced.

In connexion with the university, there are twelve professorships, and an academical senate of fifty doctors. It is needless to enumerate the chairs. They are of Latin, philosophy, theology, morals, &c. What the precise mode of


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Rh instruction may be, matters little. It is sufficient to know that the students generally leave the college with similar acquirements to those Gil Blas possessed when he departed from the university of Salamanca. The chief of the state in his speeches to the assembly, has several times alluded to the necessity of a change in the plan of study, but hitherto it has remained unaltered.

There is besides an academy of drawing, which has now about nine or ten students, and merits notice as being the only memorial of a society which was formed in the year 1795, called the Economical Society of Friends of the Kingdom, for the diffusion and encouragement of Literature and Science. Its labours were suspended by an arbitrary decree of the court of Madrid, in 1799.

The public offices of government are conveniently arranged, but as edifices possess no peculiarities. The three hospitals which are described by Juarros as existing in the old city, are now comprised in one, called St. Juan de Dios, which consists of four cuadros or squares, around which are the different wards for the sick. The rooms are high, and tolerably clean, but not well ventilated. It is calculated to hold 300, but at the time I visited it, had not more than 200 occupants, mostly wounded in drunken quarrels, of whom about a fourth were females. This


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Rh is supported chiefly by a tax upon flour, which produces annually about 16,000 dollars. Before the revolution ten dollars daily were paid to it from the royal treasury, but this has of course, now ceased. It is also occasionally assisted by charitable contributions.

But that which chiefly distinguishes Guatimala from the other cities of the New World is, its numerous and beautiful aqueducts and pilas for the regular distribution of water all over the metropolis. From a fine spring, which rises in the mountains, at about one league and a half S. E. of the city, the stream is conducted by means of pipes into no less than twelve public reservoirs, from which it is again carried into every private house, regularly supplying, sometimes one, and oftentimes two or more pilas or stone baths with excellent water. This aqueduct must have cost an immensity of labour to complete, being brought in some places, over valleys, upon ranges of arches, and in others, carried under ground by means of tunnels.

The public fountains and reservoirs are many of them of very superior workmanship, and ornament the streets in which they are placed. Most of these have rows of troughs connected with them, in which those of the lower classes who have not water in their houses wash their linen. It is amusing to see sometimes thirty or forty


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Rh women busily employed in this manner, and most industriously rubbing the piece of cloth they wish to clean, against a stone, a plan which is universally pursued, although manifestly to the speedy destruction of the article undergoing the operation. But like many other good housewives, the Guatimalian ladies have their prejudices, and will not be persuaded that hot water is preferable to cold, and would remove the necessity of such rough treatment.

The houses of the respectable citizens are well built, and commodiously arranged. A description of one will give an idea of the rest. Let us enter then at that great folding door, looking like an inn gate, with blank walls on each side. We open it, and immediately find ourselves in a large square court-yard, in the middle of which is an orange-tree in full bloom. All around it is a covered walk or piazza, raised about a foot from the ground, the roof supported by wooden pillars. Under this piazza are seven or eight doors, leading into different apartments, each one having an interior communication with the rest, and all of course on the ground floor, stairs being almost unknown in Guatimala. The first room will probably be a common chamber, the next a sala or drawing-room, furnished with ten or a dozen antique chairs, an old fashioned settee, with a slip of mat before it for a carpet, and two small


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Rh dressing tables, placed at an immense distance from one another, each holding the image of a saint carefully enclosed in glass. Three or four pictures will adorn the clean white-washed walls, and two lamps, cased in silver, will be hanging from a roof in which all the naked beams are to be seen, with here and there a straggling cobweb. The floor, like that of all the rest of the rooms, will be paved with red tiles, its cleanliness depending upon the civilization of its owner.

From hence we pass into a third apartment, probably the chief bed chamber, serving also for a daily sitting room, in which to receive visiters [sic]. It will contain a handsome bed, a large mahogany wardrobe, a few chairs, and a cupboard with glass doors, in which may be seen carefully arranged all the stock of china, from the blue wash-hand basin down to the diminutive coffee cup, till lately a more valuable property than a similar service of silver. By the side of the bed will hang an image of the Saviour on the cross, under a little scarlet canopy, and on a small table in another corner, will be placed St. Joseph or the Virgin. The two next rooms will have little furniture besides a bed, a chair, and an image. We shall shall therefore pass on into the comedor or dining room, which will contain only one large oak table, (a fixture,) and seven or eight common wooden chairs. Next to this will be the cocina;


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Rh in one corner a large baking oven of an oval shape, and in the middle of the room a mass of solid brickwork, three or four feet high, containing six or seven cavities for small charcoal fires, and conveniences for preparing the thousand different stews which are compounded in a Spanish kitchen. To the right of this will be an inner yard with its pila or cistern of water, and further on the stables, with a second for the use of the cattle. The remaining apartments will be occupied according to the property or family of the owner, and this is a fair description of a respectable house, letting for a rent equal to about £80 a year, English money, in the city of New Guatimala.


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Rh his great work. What further observations, what corrections, he would have made! to what good use he would have put all that others, following his own principles, have observed and effected! And, besides. Cardinal Albani is dead, out of respect to whom he has written much, and perhaps concealed much.

15, 1787.

And so, then, "Aristodemo" has at last been acted, and with good success, too, and the greatest applause: as the Abbate Monti is related to the house of the Nepote, and highly esteemed among the higher orders, from these, therefore, all was to be hoped for. The boxes, indeed, were but sparing in their plaudits. As for the pit, it was won, from the very first, by the beautiful language of the poet and the appropriate recitation of the actors; and it omitted no opportunity of testifying its approbation. The bench of the German artists distinguished themselves not a little; and this time no fault can be found with them, considering they are at all times a little overloud.

The author himself remained at home, full of anxiety for the success of the play. From act to act, favourable despatches arrived, which changed his fear into the greatest joy. Now there is no lack of repetitions of the representation, and all is on the best track. Thus, by the most opposite things, if only each has the merit it claims, the favour of the multitude, as well as of the connoisseur, may be won.

But the acting was in the highest degree meritorious, and the chief actor, who appears throughout the play, spoke and acted cleverly: one might have fancied he saw one of the ancient Cæsars come on the stage. They had, very judiciously, transferred to their stage dresses the costume which in the statue strikes the spectator as so dignified; and one saw at once that the actor had studied the antique.


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Customs and Manners,—Tobacco,—Morning Calls,—Occupations of a Domestic Man,—Scenes in the Plaza,—Evening Parties,—Gambling,—Superstitions,—Marriages and Funerals,—Almoneda or Auction.

the various occupations which employ the time and attention of a traveller in a foreign land, few are more amusing, and if properly exercised, are capable of being made more instructive, than to observe the variety of customs which that imperious tyrant, general usage, has imposed upon its inhabitants. We are generally too apt to exult in the thought of our own superior civilization, and while we smile sometimes contemptuously at what we deem the absurdities of other nations, forget that we ourselves are no less under similar bondage, and act oftentimes in a way equally opposed to unsophisticated nature.

Still there are fashions in Guatimala which it would require more than common charity to speak of with respect, and among these stands


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Rh foremost the immoderate use of tobacco by both sexes. In private or in public—alone or in society, the Guatimalian must have his cigar, and the lady her cigarrito. His proudest accomplishment is to strike a light with his pocket match, neatly cased in silver, and present his lighted cigar to her genteely, and she in return, permits him to spit in every corner of her room, without molestation. A gentleman consumes daily from fifteen to twenty puros, and a lady of moderate pretensions to celebrity, fifty cigarritos. Here far from being “destructive of society's chief joys,” the “pernicious weed” gives a zest to every conversation, and supplies all those vacuums which, in English society, are filled up by gazing on the carpet. No business can be transacted, no bargain made, without exchanging the cigar, and both in the streets and public places of amusement, the ladies are to be seen smoking as composedly as in their own houses.

A history of the occupations of a domestic man during one day, will lay ,open in great measure the habits of the more respectable families.—At six he rises, and if it be one of their numerous feast days, accompanies his wife to mass, at which rich and poor, masters and servants indiscriminately


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Rh kneel without distinction of rank or place. Returning about seven they take chocolate, which answers to our breakfast, with this exception that it is not made a social meal. Each one enters the comedor at the hour most agreeable to himself, and is then supplied with his cup of chocolate, made very thick and sweet, which with a small loaf of bread, an egg, a little fried meat and a glass of clear spring water serves him till dinner.

At this hour during the warmer months, the habit of bathing, for which the houses afford so many conveniences, is very general, but in any other way the inhabitants appear to have the greatest aversion to the application of water. For weeks together the most respectable inhabitants never wash their hands, faces or teeth, and the slightest sickness serves as a pretext for delaying the operation as well as that of shaving, frequently for months; so that you have only to look at a gentleman's beard to know how long he has had a cold, or to a lady's face to discover when she last fancied herself indisposed.

From ten to twelve are the usual hours for morning calls and receiving visits. These possess in general the same characteristics as in other parts of the world. Friends meet as lovingly, talk as scandalously, hate each other as cordially and lie as gracefully here, as in the most polished cities of civilized Europe. The only points of


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Rh difference are, that the ladies shout out their observations in the highest note of the gamut, becloud each other's beauties with the fumes of tobacco, and part with an embrace as cordial as the majority of modern English kisses. These parties generally meet in the lady's bedroom, the gentlemen dressed “a la Inglesa” with coats cut any thing but anatomically, and the ladies in black silk, with lace mantilla for the head, splendidly worked silk stockings, and shoes almost diminutive enough for the Empress of China. Modesty and prudery are here understood to be synonymous, and subjects are freely discussed in mixed parties to which common delicacy would seem to forbid the slightest allusion.

At one they dine on soup, rice, vegetables and meat of various kinds cooked in as many different ways, with dulces or sweetmeats for a dessert, of which about 200 different sorts are prepared. Fish frequently appears towards the close of the meal, and fruit is introduced before the cloth is drawn. Scarcely any wine is drank. In many of the most respectable families it does not even make its appearance on the table. The whole concludes with a recitation, miscalled a thanksgiving. Well-bred people in Guatimala, like well-bred people in England, naturally feel that any thing like serious thanks to their Maker would subject them to the charge of fanaticism, and