Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/213

CH. XIII.] was very old and indifferent, although it was marked, "New Patent, by Astor, 79, Cornhill."

3d June. I was introduced to-day by Mr. Bayley, the agent of Messrs. Barclay and Co., to the Padre Dighero, deputy for Antigua or ancient city of Guatemala: he was a canon of Guatemala Vieja, and known to be a man of great scientific research, and, amongst other articles of valuable information, he gave me a sketch of a road which it was proposed to form between the city of Santiago and the South Sea; the distance being about eighty-six miles. I understood from Mr. Bayley that the plan was likely to be carried into effect, by a company about to be formed by the house he represented: he also told me that there was every probability that the same firm would get the privilege of opening a water communication between the two seas at the lake of Nicaragua. Although the carrying into effect of the latter object might, in some degree, annul the