Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/100

80 The strictness of his arrangements would not allow of their being put aside: and as the business upon which I was travelling was of very different importance, I, of course, accommodated myself to the plans of my proposed companion.

I used to go to bathe, about two miles from the town, in a small river called the Tequisquilco, the water of which is beautifully transparent and cool. It was formed, a few years since, by the irruption of Isalco, the volcano of Sonsonate, which is about fifteen leagues off. It is eighty years since its first irruption took place: the same, however, has been carried on, at intervals, and frequent light shocks of earthquakes are, consequently, experienced in the neighbourhood. It is most dangerous when not burning; so that the flames I saw issuing from it were at once awful and satisfactory.

The inhabitants of Sonsonate, particularly the Creoles, are dreadfully afflicted with the goître, or as they here call them,