Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/153

CH. IX.] I was, thought I:—why didn't I pull the trigger?—I dashed my spurs into the sides of my little horse, who never wanted that encouragement, and was up with my companions, in a twinkling. He continued fretful and gaysome till we had passed the theatre for bull-fights, about a mile out of the town; but, as we entered it, his spirit, most unaccountably, began to flag, his strength and energy seemed, in a moment, to have left him: neither whip nor spur would keep him in a moderate walk; he staggered down the long street which led to the abode whither we were going, and, as I alighted in the court yard, had hardly strength to resist the effort of my dismounting.—I was sorry for the poor animal, for he had brought me safely to the place of my destination.

The late Mr. Secretary Canning, in his letter of the 3d of January 1825 to Mr. Morier, instructed me, after the signing of the Mexican treaty, to proceed to Guatemala, there to ascertain "The present state