Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-01-24
Incidents and Scenes from Travel in
San Salvador.

Contributed to the Public Ledger
We left San Miguel quite early on
the morning of April 18th, wishing to
take advantage of the delightful
morning air before the intense heat
set in and drove us to shelter ourselves
in the middle of the day. Morning
dawned and we were winding about
among the mountains, which stretch
ed out into interim. sable ranges III
every direction, with their tallest
peaks girdled in belts Of cloud. There
is no period in the tropics so delight
fully pleasant as the
HOUR OF SUNRISE.
The cool morning air is laden with
the perfumes of numerous aromatic
plants, and from the forests. glittering
with thousands of diamond dew drops.
comes the mingled notes of hundreds
of natures warblers. The gaudy
humming bird, the plaintive trOgon,
the piping manakin, the lovely wood
pigeon, the noisy parrot, the ceaseless
chatterer, the Ginning thrush, are
each pouring forth his peculiar note.
Large butterflies OF the richest hue.
are bathing in the golden beams, dis.
playing all their gaudy %colors, and
from the flowers about you comes the
hum of myriads Of gayly-coated in
sects.
For the first time, since leaving San
Pedro, we now had a good road. If we
except our journey through the great
plain of COmayagua. Indeed. the car
mino real from San Miguel to San
Yicinte was the finest road we en-
countered in Central America. 1t had
been, in better days, used as a stage
line, and though abandoned for that
purpose now, wa still kept in decent
style by the natives along its route.
The country between these two cities,
as | said, is very mountainous, though
our course was almost exclusively
confined to the valleys, which were
teemiDg with
RICH VEGETATION.
Immense groves of cocoa and man.
zoe trees, large maize fields, and cof,
fee and banana plantations we're fire.
quent. But, remote from these, and
where nature seemed in her widest
state, the underground on each side Of
the road was almost impenetrable and
seldom entered, except by some fear
less hunter in pursuit of the tapir.
These jungles are also the home of
the leopard-tiger, the fuma and the
peccary, where they remain during the
day, and at nightfall each starts in
pursuit of his fayorite prey. But the
most frequent, and at the same time
the shyest Of all animals you meet
here, is the monkey. No matter what
%precautiou you may take, he is sure to
see you first, and you will invariably
observe him scampering away. 1t i,
very rare that you get a sight of a full
grown babbO0n; so cautious and shy i,
he that he makes his home far from
all human habitatiOns, and away from
all avenues of travel, but amid tn,
densest thickets his deep, loud vote,
is heard above everything else So
loud and deep, in fact. that at a dis
tance it sounds like the boom of ;
eanuon. On being caught and tame,
they are seldom known to exert theii
powerful lungs, it seeming a PECULIAR
ty common only to their wild state
Unlike the little white-faced specie.
who, on being caught and Gagged. 70
many days keep up a most sorrowfu
wall. refusing all food and water, un
iii pushed by hunger and thirst to ac
cept it. | will here relate an inciden
which | had omitted. We met wit
an instance where a tame monkey
named
POGO
was placed in a coop with a newl,
captured specimen Of his tribe. Ate
an angry strut or two about his viii,
brother, he angrily lcaped upon him
and after he had pounded, bit anC
pulled him about for some time, re
tired into a corner, the wild monke,
showing no fight but meekly followed
POGO into the corner and lay down De
side him. POGO eyed him %strangel,
for a moment and then began to gently
stroke him with his paw, as if ashameC
Of his conduct. and from that momenI
they became firm friends. A cat wal
then introduced into the cage to see j
the same amicable relations could b,
established, but the two monkeys in
stantly leaped upon him with a fury
only eQualed by the cats fearful en-.
deavors TO get out. His cat
ship finding it impossible to pursue
his peaceful inclinatious and also OBJ.
serving a liberal proportion Of his own
wool flying about the coop, wheeled
suddenly about and at once gave forci.
bic tokens that "he wasn't that sort
Of a cat. And the way that he went
for those two monkeys would all but
rival the famous fight Of the Kilkenny
cats, where only a couple Of tails anC
a promiscuous scattering OF hair wer,
left 20 tell tho story Of the combat
L at once became necessary to liberat,
that cat, for his angry misn aud ruff
fed tail were unmlstakable symptom
that he meant business, and if hi.