GEORGE.  “Thank you, Charles.  How pleasant it is to get all the information we require, without the trouble of searching in great dusty books.  Now, Emma, will it please you to travel onward?”

EMMA.  “What, George!  Have you, too, caught the mania, that you are in such a hurry to get to California?”

GEORGE.  “Not to go gold-hunting, indeed; but the Rocky Mountains are up in the north, and I have a story about them.”

EMMA.  “Well, to oblige you and ourselves too, we will proceed.  The Gulfs of Fonseca and Conchagua are deep indentations, about the middle of the coast of Guatemala, to which country Costa Rica belongs.”

MRS. WILTON.  “The city of Guatemala was founded in 1776.  It is situated on table-land, 5000 feet above the sea and enjoys a delicious climate,—­literally, a perpetual spring.  Beautiful churches and buildings adorn this city; but the houses are built only one story high, in order more effectually to resist the action of earthquakes; for you must know this city has close to it two burning mountains—­Fuego and Agua, which prove the volcanic nature of the earth.  Among all the phenomena of nature few appear to be attended with such horrible consequences as earthquakes.  Thousands, who in one moment are full of busy life, are, the next, swallowed up as if they had never existed, or crushed to death by fragments of falling buildings.  In six minutes, by the great earthquake of Lisbon, in 1755, sixty thousand souls were launched into eternity; and though none in this city have equalled in destructiveness the great one at Lisbon, yet Guatemala has been several times nearly destroyed by earthquakes, combined with the eruptions of the neighboring volcanoes.”

MR. BARRAUD.  “The inhabitants are mostly of Spanish origin; consequently, mostly Roman Catholics; and a recent traveller says that from the moment of his arrival, he was struck with the devout appearance of the city of Guatemala.  At matins and vespers, the churches were all open, and the people, particularly the women, went regularly to prayers.  Every house had its figure of the Virgin, the Saviour, or some tutelary saint, and on the door were billets of paper with prayers.  You will be surprised to hear that nearly all the ladies in Central America smoke.  The married ladies smoke puros, or all tobacco; the unmarried ladies smoke cigars, or tobacco wrapped in paper or straw.”

DORA.  “What an odd indulgence for a lady!  In England, ladies never smoke; although I must say I have often seen poor women with pipes in their mouths, and thought what a dirty habit it was.”

MRS. WILTON.  “It is the custom of the country, and were you a Spanish lady, Dora, I have no doubt you would enjoy a cigar as much as any of the senoritas.  We shall next see the shore of Mexico.  What gulfs must we pass to accomplish this?”

EMMA.  “Only the Gulf of Tehuantepec which is worth noticing.”