trade, they are regulated by the
quantity in market and the demand; but, not being staple articles,
like cotton and indigo, they were held at fancy prices, and at that time
were dull of sale. I paid fifty dollars for Copan. There was never any
difficulty about price. I offered that sum, for which Don Jose Maria
thought me only a fool; if I had offered more, he would probably have
considered me something worse.

We had regular communications with the hacienda by means of Francisco,
who brought thence every morning a large waccal of milk, carrying it a
distance of three miles and fording the river twice. The ladies of the
hacienda had sent us word they intended paying us a visit, and this
morning Don Gregorio's wife appeared, leading a procession of all the
women of the house, servants, and children, with two of her sons. We
received them among the ruins, seated them as well as we could, and, as
the first act of civility, gave them cigars all around. It can hardly be
believed, but not one of them, not even Don Gregorio's sons, had ever
seen the "idols" before, and now they were much more curious to see Mr.
C.'s drawings. In fact, I believe it was the fame of these drawings that
procured us the honor of the visit. In his heart, Mr. C. was not much
happier to see them than the old Don was to see us, as his work was
stopped, and every day was precious. As I considered myself in a manner
the proprietor of the city, I was bound to do the honors; and, to the
distress of Mr. C., brought them all back upon him.

Obliged to give up work, we invited them down to the hut to see our
accommodations; some of them were our patients and reminded us we had
not sent the medicines we promised. The fact is, we avoided giving
medicines when we could, among other reasons, from an apprehension that
if any one happened to die on our hands we should be held responsible;
but our reputation was established; honors were buckled on our backs and
we were obliged to wear them. These ladies, in spite of Don Gregorio's
crustiness, had always treated us kindly, and we would fain have shown
our sense of it in some other mode than by giving them physic; but to
gratify them in their own way, we distributed among them powders and
pills, with written directions for use; and when they went away escorted
them some distance, and had the satisfaction of hearing that they
avenged us on Don Gregorio by praises of our gallantry and attentions.

[As regards the