Guatemala

by William Tufts Brigham

In the afternoon we strolled among the ruins of Antigua, which are very fascinating. All the churches were of solid masonry, with vaulted roofs,—some still entire, and supporting a mass of vegetation, among which the Phytolacca was common. The outlay of money in building all these elaborate churches must have been enormous for material and transportation (many of the tiles being Spanish), although the actual labor was by unpaid slaves. We were told strange stories of the skeletons of mother and child found walled in a church; tunnels connecting the churches and nunneries just outside the city; infant skeletons in a vault of one of the nunneries, etc. With these romantic associations in mind, we poked hither and thither among the mighty ruins; but we found only the curiosities of architecture (of these there were enough to occupy me many days) and the traces the treasure-hunters had left in the walls. Frank found in one of the vaults a well-drawn fresco covered with a thick coat of whitewash, and we tried to pry off a portion; but could not succeed without too much damaging it. Horses were pasturing on the grass-grown roof of a part of one of the churches, and a few had portions still in use as places of worship, while another was occupied by a blacksmith. In one of these we saw some finely carved wooden panels. All about the city eucalyptus-trees had been planted. The roads are very good, and the alameda, or public promenade, is attractive. The corner houses often had most comfortable projecting windows, so placed that one could see in both streets at once.

Ruined Church in Antigua.

There are two industries in Antigua of considerable interest to the visitor,—the carving of cane-heads, which is done in a most artistic manner, equalling, perhaps, the famous ivory carvings of Dieppe, in Normandy; and the manufacture of dolls, or effigies, mostly of cloth, representing every costume and occupation of the Indios. These little figures—seldom more than five inches high—have often an expression that would not be thought possible, considering the material of their fabric. Sololà is another place where these dolls, or muñecos, are made,—a single family, I believe, having the monopoly; but in Antigua we found a much greater variety. Especially good are their figures to represent the Nativity of Christ; for it is customary in many of the towns to keep open house at Christmas-tide, and each household tries to provide a Bethlehem,—much as in Germany a Christmas-tree is arranged; but the groups of Shepherds, the Wise Men from the East, as well as the Holy Family, are often made in the most careful and artistic way, all from bits of cloth.

Here I bought my first mule, paying for her eighty dollars in Guatemaltecan money (silver of the value of the buzzard dollar of the United States), the purchaser giving United States gold at twenty per cent premium; consequently the mule cost really sixty-six dollars and sixty-seven cents. After riding her two months I sold her for a hundred dollars. We engaged two mozos de cargo, and then felt at leisure to look more about the city. Near the hotel was a chichería, or place where chicha is sold. This drink is here made from jocotes, and the cider-like beverage is drunk from pint bowls or calabashes. Intoxication follows; and we frequently heard women shrieking in the arms of men, while unearthly yells and laughter greeted the outcries. Owing to indulgence in this dissipation, our mozos could not walk in the morning, and we spent some hours in searching for others. The best we could do was to get one for six reals to take our carcaste to Ciudad Vieja, the Jefe at Antigua giving me a requisition on the comandante there for another. We sent Santiago with a drunken mozo direct to Guatemala City; and we afterwards found that the wretched mozo, when well out of the city, dropped his burden and ran away, compelling Santiago to get a substitute, with whom he arrived safely.

For ourselves, we retraced the road of yesterday to Ciudad Vieja, and found the cabildo, where the soldiers captured the necessary mozo,—literally at the point of the bayonet; but he was a capital fellow, in spite of his forced service. While the hunt was in progress, we looked about the town; but there was not much to see, except the elaborately wrought doors of the church. There were few indications of the awful ruin the flood from Agua had brought upon the town in 1541; but some of the buildings seemed to be partly resting on substructures of older date. Some of the slaves in uniform called soldiers told us we could not go into the presence of the comandante without taking off our spurs; so I haughtily declined to go in, or even dismount, and ordered him to come out and receive the Jefe’s letter. He meekly obeyed, seeming to be a very decent fellow. Clouds covered both volcanoes, and our road led southward between them. We had a good enough road, down hill constantly, and winding into the valleys on the side of Fuego,—often crossing fine streams of clear cold water. The crater of the volcano was still smoking,—as it has been since 1880, when there was a slight eruption. We could see that the crater-wall was broken down to give issue to what looked more like scoriæ than lava. Gases have acted extensively on the whole summit, which displays many colors, from the decomposition of the lavas.

As the day closed, the road became bad and full of small stones. The foothills were capped with irregular masses of lava, which in the sunset looked not unlike the ruined castles on the Rhine. We were in the region of canefields, and we often caught a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. At seven we rode into Escuintla and found the hotel comfortable enough; but all night there was a horrid noise,—drums, rockets, bombs, and shouts, and we dreamed that the town was being captured by storm.

We had entered the region of railroads again; and our train started next morning at half-past six for San José, on the Pacific. The fare for the round trip was three dollars. We had a second-class carriage, as the only first-class carriage is reserved for the President. At the station, in the lowest part of the town, the height above sea-level is eleven hundred feet; and for the first three miles out the grade is rather steep. The remaining twenty-five miles offered no difficulties in road-building; but the culverts and bridges are fast decaying, and as they are not promptly repaired, the road is not safe. The run was made in two hours,—certainly not a high rate of speed. There were fine views of the volcanoes, and some interesting scenes at the stations. As we approached the coast the line crossed several shallow lagoons, and the country looked low and uninviting. I did not, however, see evidence of much ill-health among the natives, although the manners and customs were loose enough. The railroad (ferro-carril) ended in a respectable station in San José, at the head of a fine iron pier extending some six hundred feet into the sea,—beyond the surf, but not where vessels can come alongside.

We had seen the Pacific the day before as we rode from Antigua, and it was, as always, a welcome sight to me, for some of the pleasantest years of my life have been passed on its shores or on its islands. To-day its waves rolled up on the sand in so inviting a way that as soon as we had found the hotel on the beach and ordered almuerzo, we returned to the pier, and, under its shelter, stripped and waded in. The rollers took us off our feet; and as large sharks were snuffing about just outside the iron piles of the pier, within a few yards of us, we had a sufficiently exciting bath. I have never seen such large sharks before, even in the shark-haunted shores of the Antilles or the Hawaiian Islands; but it is claimed that they dare not venture between the piles. The young sharks however have no such scruples; and we kicked several of the little fellows out of our way. The ironwork was thickly covered with barnacles and other crustaceans, and it took considerable skill to avoid being dashed against this.