ON THE WAY TO THE COAST.
Although the work which my husband had planned to do at the ruins
was not nearly finished, we had reluctantly to cut short our stay
at Quirigua, as we learnt that the next steamer to leave Livingston
would be the last to carry passengers to New Orleans without a long
detention on account of quarantine. As far as our personal comfort was
concerned I was sincerely glad of the move, for as the season advanced
the heat and steamy dampness had become exceedingly trying. A few days
before setting out, an exceptionally heavy shower had driven a party
of women, who were passing by, to take shelter in our house; one of
them carried in her dress a baby squirrel, a charming little brown
creature with a long, grey, feather-like tail. I longed to possess it,
and with some hesitation made an offer for it of five reals, about
1_s._ 6_d._ of our money, which was eagerly accepted, and the tiny
thing became our property. I gave him a grass saddle-bag for a bed and
hung him inside my mosquito curtain, where he slept through the night
without disturbing me. During the day, when not cuddled up asleep in
my hand, he was rushing about the house, prying into all the corners,
and amusing my lonely days by his pretty ways and the grace of his
movements. "Chico," as we named him, took most kindly to his afternoon
tea, a habit which has grown upon him so that he shows much impatience
when it is not served at the proper time; but the first time he drank
tea, the effect upon his nerves was disastrous, he could not sleep, and
a long midnight run on the sand-bank was necessary before he could be
quieted.
On the 14th April we were ready to leave Quirigua for the port of
Yzabal, and, sad as was the thought that this was to be our last day's
ride under the lovely sky of Guatemala, I plead guilty to a feeling of
relief when our house and its surroundings were out of sight and we
were once more wending our way along the forest beneath the arches of
great coroza palm-leaves. Thence we rose again to the pine-woods and
rode over the hills to the eastward, striking the main road from the
capital to Yzabal, and, looking back, we caught lovely glimpses of the
llanos of the Motagua River and the forest we had left. It was late in
the afternoon when we crossed the gap in the Sierra del Mico and began
the descent to the Golfo Dulce, which we could see lying tranquilly
below us, and the moonlight was playing its usual tricks, lighting up
the scattered palm-trees and throwing a glamour of beauty even over
the white-washed houses of the village when we rode into Yzabal.
It was indeed a delicious change from the stifling heat of the forest,
for a refreshing breeze was blowing from the lake, and I was lulled to
sleep by the cooling sound of the wavelets lapping on the beach.
[Illustration: QUIRIGUA, STELA D, EAST SIDE.]
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE RUINS AT QUIRIGUA.]
Chico's first day's journey into the great world had been rather trying
to us both: from the moment I mounted my mule until our arrival at
Yzabal he never ceased running up and down from my saddle to the top
of the mule's head, tugging at the string which held him and trying to
jump into all the overhanging branches. He was so excited and wilful
that I was sorely tempted to set him free to return to his native
forests, where, however, he would probably have died of hunger or
fallen a prey to some snake or carnivorous beast; but when we reached
Yzabal, all trouble with him was at an end, the poor little creature
had so exhausted himself that he at once crept to his saddle-bag and
slept without stirring for many hours. This was indeed the only day on
which he gave us any trouble during the whole of our journey to London.
In our cabin on the steamer he made himself quite at home; through the
bustle and noise of a railway station he always remained quietly in his
bag, and although during the long railway journey to New York, he took
many a scamper round our state room, he used the utmost discretion in
always retreating into his bag on the approach of the guard, as though
he knew the stringent rules against carrying animals in a Pullman
car. Ever since his arrival in England he has been the household pet;
he has the run of the house, under certain restrictions, and London
life seems to suit him wonderfully well. The summer after our return
he passed through what appeared to be a bad attack of distemper with
severe convulsions; but it may have been only the effect of teething,
for, strange to say, he has twice lost his upper incisor teeth. As soon
as the teeth became loose he was very anxious to get rid of them, and
when I took hold of them between my thumb and finger, he would pull
hard against me and try to work them out. When he is ill he becomes
pathetically affectionate and loves to be petted, and seems sincerely
grateful for one's care of him. During his second summer in England, we
were living on the banks of the Thames, and Chico was allowed the free
run of the garden during the daytime. He never wandered far, and made a
home for himself in a hole in a walnut-tree on the lawn, and spent many
hours carefully lining it with leaves. Here, if he were not caught and
brought in when he came down for his five o'clock tea, he would prepare
to spend the night, and the only time he ever showed temper was when he
was hauled out of this favourite hole and carried off to his own bed.
One morning, as Chico was scampering about among the trees, he
unluckily attracted the attention of some men who were passing in a
boat, and before I could make out what they were after, one of them
had landed and knocked poor Chico off the tree with an oar. When I ran
towards him, the man made off and I picked up the poor little animal,
who lay in my hand as I thought dying, breathing in gasps and with
quivers of pain passing through his little body. A dose of brandy and
ammonia partly revived him, and a careful examination showed that his
forearm was broken near the elbow. Twice was he put under chloroform
and attempts were made to set the tiny limb in plaster bandages, but
the bandages always slipped off, and after the second attempt the
veterinary surgeon, who had been called in, said he could do no more
for him. During the first night after the accident, he slept by my
side and became restless as soon as I removed my hand from him; the
next day he at last consented to lie still in his own bed and slept
for hours together, putting up his head when he awoke to be fed with
milk from a spoon. By degrees he began to get about again, and at the
end of a fortnight the bones seemed to be firmly knit, and although he
has ever since had a stiff joint, it seems to cause him very little
inconvenience, and he enjoys the most robust health. He is beautifully
clean and his coat is without the smallest trace of scent of any
kind, and he is fastidious in his food, delighting in a hot roll at
breakfast, and cake with his tea, but scornful of baker's bread. He
likes fruit and is especially fond of cherries; but he refuses all
English nuts and has to be provided with Spanish chestnuts and pecan
nuts from America, and these latter he expects to have cracked for him,
as he has never yet learned to open a nut himself. He is indeed as
charming, gentle, and attractive a pet as one could wish for; but alas!
he has no respect for the furniture, which shows only too visibly the
marks of his teeth.
On the 17th April, having disposed of our mules and bidden farewell to
Mr. Price and the tearful Gorgonio, who, faithful to the last, strove
to make everything comfortable for our journey, we embarked on the
little steamer which plies between Yzabal and Livingston, where we were
to take the steamer for New Orleans. The sail down the great lake was
devoid of interest until we approached the narrows which separate the
Golfo Dulce from the Golfete. Here the castle of San Felipe guards the
passage, a ruined seventeenth-century fort of which little remains but
the crumbling bastions and a solitary cannon, but around which hangs
many a legend of the bold buccaneers who infested the coast during the
days of the Spanish dominion. As the steamer threaded its way between
the islands which dot the placid waters of the Golfete, we were many
times hailed by the occupants of heavily laden canoes, who were on the
watch to deliver their cargoes of bananas for conveyance to the ocean
steamer. Then the waterway narrowed, the hills closed in on us, and we
entered the gorge of the Rio Dulce. The cliffs rose precipitous around
us, densely clothed with vegetation wherever a root could find a hold;
trailing creepers, graceful tree-ferns, and feathery bamboo gave a
lightness as of lacework over the denser masses of green, and here and
there the living veil was rent by gigantic buttresses of white-veined
rock. The windings of the stream are so abrupt that at times one felt
that the steersman must have lost his head and was madly charging the
mighty wall in front with his pigmy craft, then at the last moment a
sudden turn would open up a new scene of beauty bathed in ever-changing
light and colour. One longed to be drifting quietly along in a canoe
instead of being hurried down the stream with the rattle and smoke of a
steamer, and we seemed hardly to have time to drink in all the beauty
of our surroundings before the hills opened again, and we were fast
moored to the wharf at the little settlement of Livingston, within
sound of the roar of the Atlantic surf.
Livingston bears the name of an American who surveyed the coast, and
its most numerous inhabitants are negros, whose first western home was
the Island of St. Vincent, where they are supposed to have intermarried
with the Indians, and have thus come to be known as Caribs, although
one can detect little trace of Indian blood by their appearance. Their
language is a mixture of Spanish, French, English, and some Negro
dialect, and they seem to be an exclusive people, who give one the
idea of tolerating the white population of the village rather than
being tolerated by them. This indifference to their white neighbours
is curiously exhibited in the sale of fish. When a Carib fishing-boat
comes in, it is at once surrounded by the Carib women, who, with
petticoats rolled up, stand knee deep in the water round the boat,
taking out, weighing, and selling fish to their fellows; but until the
wants of every Carib household are supplied no white person is allowed
to buy, and not infrequently the whole catch is disposed of to the
Caribs and the white people get none of it.
As a port Livingston is a modern creation, and is likely to fall again
into desuetude as soon as the railway connecting Puerto Barrios with
the city of Guatemala is completed; even at the present time, whilst it
enjoys the advantage of being the sole port of entry on the Atlantic
seaboard, it can hardly be called a success. No ocean-going steamer
can cross the bar, or rather the two bars which stand across the mouth
of the river; and a passage in a dug-out Carib dorey from the wharf to
a steamer when a strong wind is blowing may not be always a dangerous
operation, for the boats sail well and are beautifully handled by the
negro boatmen, but it is by no means a pleasant experience, as we found
out when we had in sudden haste to catch a steamer after dark. We had
refused to engage a passage in the overcrowded mail-boat, preferring to
take our chance in a trading steamer, which was gathering in a cargo
of fruit further down the coast and had to call at Livingston on the
way home. The arrival of the steamer was signalled just as the sun was
setting, and we had to cross the bar and scramble on board in the dark.
However, we were fortunate in our choice of vessels; and as there were
18,000 bunches of bananas on board, the Captain was bent on getting
them to market as soon as possible, so, favoured with fine weather
in the Gulf, we passed the jetties of the Mississippi River about
ninety-three hours after leaving Livingston. Thus ended the interesting
part of our most delightful journey; but there was, unluckily, a bad
time to follow, for no sooner had I landed in the United States than
a "calentura" laid me low, contracted, I think, in the fever haunted
forest near the banks of the Motagua.
[Illustration: CARIBS BUYING FISH AT LIVINGSTON.]