Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/382

362 Accordingly, we waded carefully across for about thirty yards, when the river became more and more shallow, and at last ended in a small straggling island: we had, from this spot, the mortification to discover that the passage across to the opposite bank was three times as wide as that which we had encountered, and that the water was dark and without ripple, a fearful prognostic of its depth: farther up, there was an appearance of shallows, and, beyond, on the opposite side was an opening which might be the place of landing: we traversed slowly up the river, seldom finding it shallower than up to our saddle girths, and came upon a sand-bank: the view from this spot gave us a still more unfavourable opinion of the depth of the water: it was evidently the main bed which we had yet to pass; and, being both of the same opinion, we immediately returned.

In so doing, we were directed by the bearing of certain large trees which we had