Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/383

CH. XXVI.] purposely noticed on the banks we had just left; but the night was closing rapidly in, and by the time we had re-landed in the gully, it had become so dark, owing to the deep shade with which the spot was surrounded, that we could scarcely distinguish any path at all. My young friend, whom I now began to rally for his bad conductorship, dismounted, and groped about amongst the underwood: at length he came up to me and said he had found the route: he prevailed on me to accompany him back again to the side of the river where we had entered it, and turning his mule shortly round to the right, clambered up a steep bank, and, after a few paces, we again found ourselves in the forest, in a mule track, which, from all appearances, had been occasionally used as such, and that too at no distant period, as the prints of the animal's feet might still be distinguished in the path.

After half an hour's quick riding through sombre glens and upon a rich green turf, we espied a light, and came into a small