Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/333

CH. XXII.]

I a visit this day to the president: he kindly informed me that he had ordered communications to be sent to the different departments to furnish as speedily as possible the information which I had previously solicited. My departure was arranged for the middle of next month, because I wished to avail myself of a passage home in one of the mercantile vessels which sail, with convoy from Belize, on the 1st of August.

I had heard that proceeding through the Gulf of Florida in a single vessel was, at this time, almost certain exposition to piracy of the most sanguinary nature, and as the journey to the coast would be almost