little lower than that of commander.  A glass of brandy made him eloquent, and he took a position in the middle of the cabildo, and gave us an oration on the people of Honduras, in a style singularly grotesque and demonstrative.  In broken and scarcely intelligible English,—­for he had nearly forgotten the language of his youth,—­he denounced them as “thieves and liars,” and then asked them, “Is it not true?” Imagining, doubtless, that he was declaiming their praises, the enthusiastic assemblage responded, "Si! si!" (Yes! yes!) Not a crime so gross, nor a trait of character so degraded, but he laid it to their charge, receiving always the same vehement response, "Si!  Si!"

We got rid of our paisano with difficulty, and only under a promise to visit his chacra, somewhere in the vicinity, next morning.  But we saw no more of him,—­not much to our regret; for John Robinson, I fear, was sadly addicted to brandy, of which our supply was far too small to admit of honoring many such drafts as he had made the preceding evening.

One and a half miles to the southeast of Aramacina is a ledge of sandstone rock, with a smooth vertical face, which is covered over with figures, deeply cut in outline.  This ledge forms one side of a rural amphitheatre overlooking the adjacent valley, and is by nature a spot likely to be selected as a “sacred place” by the Indians.  It faces towards the west, and from all parts of the amphitheatre, which may have answered the purposes of a temple, the morning sun would appear to rise directly over the rock.  The engravings in some places are much defaced or worn by time, so that they cannot be made out; but generally they are deep and distinct,—­so deep, indeed, that I used those which run horizontally as steps whereby to climb up the face of the ledge.  I should say that they were two and a half inches deep.  A portion had been effaced by a rude quarry which the people of Aramacina had opened here to obtain stone for their church.

Some of the figures are easily recognizable as those of men and animals, while others appear entirely arbitrary, or designed simply for ornament.  Enough can be clearly made out to show the affiliation of the engravers with the ancient Mexican families of Nicaragua and San Salvador.  The space covered by these inscriptions is about one hundred feet long, by twelve or fifteen in height.  A quarter of a mile to the southward are other smaller rocks with figures, too much defaced, however, to be traced satisfactorily.  Vases of curious workmanship, human bones in considerable quantities, and other relics and remains, it is said, may be discovered by digging in the earth anywhere within the natural amphitheatre to which I have referred.  This is another circumstance going to favor the belief that this was anciently a place of great sanctity; for it is a universal custom among all nations to bury their dead in the neighborhood of shrines and temples.