Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/23

CH. I.] should be sent by express, pointing out to Captain Brown the urgency of the case, and thus, without waiting for his reply, I prepared to make all the arrangements for my immediate departure; and on Thursday the 21st of April, at five o'clock in the evening, left San Cosme.

My equipage consisted of ten baggage mules, besides two for my servants; one sumpter mule for myself, and three horses, with an escort of ten soldiers. I had made inquiries, some days previous, for any persons who might be likely to be going the same journey, and discovered, to my satisfaction, that a merchant, Don Mateo O—, who was trading alternately between Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia, was about setting off to Acapulco. He joined me just as I was starting, and putting into my hands two papers of gold, each containing eighty doubloon pieces, requested me to lock them in my desk, as he expressed it, for greater security. There was no room for them there, and he therefore put them,