Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/107

CH. VII.] with a bowl of pure water. I began to think the habits of my new friend, Don Simon, very abstemious. My former companion used to shudder when I put water to my brandy, but this one would not even allow me brandy to my water.

We reached Apaneca about ten o'clock, so called from the mountain at the foot of which it stands: it contains about 1,000 inhabitants, all Indians and mixed castes. It struck me, from the appearance and bearing of the mountain, that it was the town we had remarked as the only symptoms of habitation which we had been able to notice on coasting down to Sonsonate. The belfry-door of the church being open, I ascended to the top of the steeple, when the view of the surrounding country and the ocean, which was just visible, confirmed these conjectures.

We stopped at the house of the padre or curate. His sister, the widow of an officer who died in the late revolution, a matronly woman, above fifty, took care of the