enjoyments, as well as to observe the
peculiar religious ceremonies, of the great Catholic festival, in that
intensely interior city.

At this place, while loitering to procure information and guides for
their future journey to Santa Cruz del Quiche, they got acquainted with
Sr. Pedro Velasquez, of San Salvador, who describes himself as a man of
family and education, although a trader in indigo; and his intermediate
destination, prior to his return to the capital, happening also to be
the same city, he kindly proffered to the two Americans his superior
knowledge of the country, or any other useful service he could render
them; and he was accordingly very gladly received as their friend and
companion on the way. It is from a copy of a manuscript journal of this
gentleman, that the translator has obtained the only information as yet
brought to the United States concerning the remarkable results of the
exploring expedition which he will proceed to describe, or of the fate
of Messrs. Huertis and Hammond, its unfortunate originators and
conductors, or of those extraordinary living specimens of a _sui
generis_ race of beings, hitherto supposed to be either fabulous or
extinct, which are at once its melancholy trophies and its physiological
attesters. And it is from Senor Velasquez alone that the public can
receive any further intelligence upon this ardently interesting subject,
beyond that which his manuscript imperfectly affords.

In order, however, to avoid an anticipatory trespass upon the natural
sequence of the narrative, it may be proper to state, that prior to his
departure in their company from Coban, Senor Velasquez had received from
his fellow travellers no intimation whatever concerning the ulterior
object of their journey, and had neither seen nor heard of those volumes
describing the stupendous vestiges of ancient empire, in his native
land, which had so strongly excited the emulous passion of discovery in
their minds.

Frequently called by his mercantile speculations, which he seems to have
conducted upon an extensive scale, to perform long journeys from San
Salvador, on the Pacific side of the Cordilleras, to Comyagua in the
mid-interior, and thence to Truxillo, Omoa, and Ysabal, on the Bay and
Gulf of Honduras, he had traversed a large portion of the country, and
had often been surprised with sudden views of mouldering temples,
pyramids, and cities of vast magnitude and marvellous mythology. And
being, as