Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/410

390 path, and, peeping round the trunk of a tree, made hideous faces at us as we passed: amidst the high matted reeds, sometimes, we observed or fancied we observed the rustling of some animal, when we instinctively put our hands upon our holsters: it might be a tiger, for these animals are not wanting to this wild seclusion: the poor mules, in the mean while, were plunging, every few paces, up to their girths in deep morass, and, if the ground was hard, it was so slippery with the wet that they could scarcely maintain a footing.

On entering the route, this day, toward the mountain, we descended into large plains, skirted with forests. When about a league from Mico, it was discovered that one of the baggage mules was missing: half an hour's search was made, but no mule appeared; the animal had been left in one of the forests through which we had passed, and nothing could be done but to go back in search of it. In this predicament, my faithful Murillo again stepped