ferent States,-Mines,-Corpus,-Tabanco,--Im- ports and Exports,-Ports of the North,-Roads,- River Polichic,-Ports of the South Sea,--Indepen- dencia,―Impediments to Commercial Prosperity. 206 Aboriginal Population,-Conquests of Alvarado,—— Utatlan, Palaces &c. of the King of Quiché,-- Languages,-Establishment of the Roman Reli- gion,-Las Casas and the Dominicans,--Popula- tion,--Employment,--Mode of Life and Customs, Taxes,---Physiognomy,---Bodily Construction,- 246 258 297 . 309 PREFACE. ← The following sketches have been published chiefly from the conviction that Central America is in great measure unknown ground. In order to insure the correct statement of historical events, the author requested the late British Consul, as well as the Consul General of the Low Countries, to examine his MS. The former was occupied in doing it a few days before the melancholy event happened which occasioned his death; and to the friendship of the latter gentleman, in whose company he made the tour, which forms the last part of his book, the author is indebted for many valuable communications. He is aware that there are individuals who will complain of his work not being more exclusively religious. To such he can only reply that piety was intended to sanctify, not to exclude the business of the world; and in his opinion, in order to do good in any country, it is necessary to know it, not merely in a moral and religious point of view, but politically and statistically. Considerable trouble has been taken in order to procure a map for insertion, but after a careful examination of all those which have yet been published, the idea has been laid aside, because it was found impossible to obtain one, which on account of numerous and important errors, was not more calculated to mislead than to inform. PART I JOURNEY FROM ENGLAND TO THE CITY OF NEW GUATEMALA BY THE BAY OF HONDURAS. CHAPTER I. Voyage to the Bay of Honduras,—Sun set,— Night at sea,—West India Islands,—Jamaica, —English Quay. A Favourable voyage across the Atlantic cannot of necessity be very rich in incident. Each succeeding day bears the features of its predecessor, and its events are only varied by perhaps a sail in the distance, or the appearance of some one of the various inhabitants of the deep- In the absence of all the artificial excitements of society every object acquires an interest, and the wonders of nature in one department at least are for a time rescued from the neglect to which they are generally condemned. After losing sight of the shores of England, if the winds be favourable, the voyager soon finds himself rolling in the restless bay of Biscay. We entered it in the month of January. Its dark blue waves heaved heavily—a few wandering sea gulls roamed over the face of the deep, and the sun beamed upon the waters with a warmer and a brighter ray. From hence to the Islands the traveller must content himself with the few objects of natural history, which present themselves. To watch the grampus, the porpoise, or perhaps the great white shark playing around the vessel and darting before its bow as if offering to guide its course through the trackless deep, are the daily amusements of every landsman in these seas; and with a few flocks of stormy petrels, a wandering albatross, or that most beautiful of all the finny tribe the dorado, relentlessly pursuing its unhappy victim the flying fish, they constitute almost the only novelties. But at sea the every day occurrences of nature seem to exhibit themselves in new forms, and acquire a freshness which clothes them with a new interest. Oftentimes will the sun set with a peculiar splendour, pouring a flood of glory over the whole horizon, and as he dips beneath the waters the reflection of his beams clothe the western clouds in a thousand different hues, abundantly supplying to the fancy golden lakes and palaces adorned with all the magic tints of a fairy creation. Nor is night without its charms. A large vessel with all her sails set, gliding gently over the bosom of the ocean, her canvass scarcely swelled by the light |