Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/42

22 all the huts in the village, accompanied by their parents, their grandfathers and grandmothers: some of them were extremely old and feeble, and I was forced to listen to a long series of all the ills "which human flesh is heir to."

The poor Indians of this country think that every Englishman is, ex-officio, a physician. I began to conceive myself one of those who has attached to his pretensions "advice to the poor gratis, on Sundays:" but I could not practise even without greater liberality than this, for my patients not only did not pay any fees, but expected to receive them for the trouble they had subjected themselves to in taking my advice. A dollar or two changed into half rials, which reversed the proverb, by throwing bad money after good, saved my credit and my patience. The latter was nearly exhausted, but the former continued to increase so rapidly that as I mounted my horse and walked him off slowly on my way, I beheld faces looking anxious at my departure, and heard