Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Volume I by John L. Stephens

Author:John L. Stephens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2013-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XI.

The Provesor.—News of the Day, how published in Guatimala.—Visit to the Convent of La Concepcion.—The Farewell of the Nun.—Carrera.—Sketch of his Life.—The Cholera.—Insurrections.—Carrera heads the Insurgents.—His Appearance in Guatimala.—Capture of the City.—Carrera Triumphant.—Arrival of Morazan.—Hostilities.—Pursuit of Carrera.—His Defeat.—He is again uppermost.—Interview with Carrera.—His Character.

THE next three or four days I passed in receiving and paying visits, and in making myself acquainted with the condition of the country. Among the most interesting visiters was the venerable provesor, since the banishment of the archbishop the head of the church, who, by a late bull of the pope, had been appointed bishop; but, owing to the troubled times, had not yet been ordained. A friend in Baltimore had procured for me a letter from the archbishop in that city, to whom I here acknowledge my obligations, recommending me to all his brother ecclesiastics in Central America. The venerable provesor received this letter as from a brother in the Church, and upon the strength of it, afterward, when I set out for Palenque, gave me a letter of recommendation to all the curas under his charge. During the day my time passed agreeably enough; but the evenings, in which I was obliged to keep within doors, were long and lonely. My house was so near the plaza that I could hear the sentinels’ challenge, and from time to time the report of a musket. These reports, in the stillness of night, were always startling. For some time I did not know the cause; but at length learned that cows and mules straggled about the city, which, heard moving at a distance and not answering the challenge, were fired upon without ceremony.

There was but one paper in Guatimala, and that a weekly, and a mere chronicler of decrees and political movements. City news passed by word of mouth. Every morning everybody asked his neighbour what was the news. One day it was that an old deaf woman, who could not hear the sentinel’s challenge, had been shot; another, that Asturias, a rich old citizen, had been stabbed; and another morning the report circulated that thirty-three nuns in the convent of Santa Teresa had been poisoned. This was a subject of excitement for several days, when the nuns all recovered, and it was ascertained that they had suffered from the unsentimental circumstance of eating food that did not agree with them.

On Friday, in company with my fair countrywoman, I visited the convent of La Concepcion for the purpose of embracing a nun, or rather the nun, who had taken the black veil. The room adjoining the parlatoria of the convent was crowded, and she was standing in the doorway with the crown on her head and a doll in her hand. It was the last time her friends could see her face; but this puerile exhibition of the doll detracted from the sentiment. It was an occasion that addressed itself particularly to ladies; some wondered that one so young should abandon a world to them

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