Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/278

258 situated at Mexico, and was the exact cause of the coolness which was politically existing, at this moment, between the same authorities in the Central Republic. Previously to adverting more particularly to the civil disturbances of which the unfortunate encouragement of this feeling has been productive, and which has prevented the British Government from entering into relations with this highly favoured republic, I shall trouble my readers, whilst I am sitting in company with my refractory host, Don Juan, the President of the State of Guatemala, to cast their eyes over the following short notices of the revolution of the republic at large, which has led to the independence and present system of its government:—they will, thus, be enabled to trace the sources from which the now-existing authorities have been established, and to judge of the probability of their ultimate consistency and strength.

The first symptoms of a desire for independence were manifested upon the French