Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/142

122, the fact, and so much the more remarkable, as it is, probably, almost the only road that is repaired throughout the whole of the continent of South America.

On proceeding out of the town towards the capital, you ascend a hill about a mile and a half long, a little winding, with ditches on the sides to carry off the water, and with plastered embankments, surmounted by a railing: it had quite a European look, and only wanted the Brighton Rocket or Birmingham Balloon to come rattling down it at the rate of seventeen miles an hour, to assure you that it was a veritable piece of McAdamism. What added to the delusion, on my part, was the meeting with two sportsmen with shooting-jackets and guns, who were getting over the fence into the road, as we passed: a boy accompanied them, carrying a fawn which they had just killed, and which we, of course, wished to purchase, seeing that we were in the habit of living chiefly by