THE ABBE' HUC'S NEW WORK ON CHINA. Just published, in 2 vols. 8vo. price Sis. cloth, CHRISTIANITY CHINA, TARTAEY, and THIBET. By M. L'ABBE' HUC, formerly Missionary Apostolic in Cbina. Translated with the Author's sanction. OPINIONS OF " M. Hue h.is earned the ROod-wlU of ! English readers, not only liy his boolis, 1)ut by the kind of jiersonal adventure de- tailed in them. As a traveller lie is brave, liberal, and shrewd, a man whom Kng- lishmen can uiiderstand and like, none the less because tlie.-e qualities arc accompa- nied with devout zeal en behalf of what he holds to be the trr.e relii,'ion. In these | volumes our friend the Abl | with reference tointercoui- Kast and Wesvt, even 1 etoi > i Christ, rchttes all the C'hiiu i jiroplucies of a fireat man \^ : in the West (which led tot n of Uuddlii?m), and refers tlui lehcni; collects tlien all the c\ !■ favour of the tradition tliat St. 1 was the first Apostle to the Ind ends in these volunic^ ' r •' ■ -• i , tho nau'.e of Ferdin n honours paid to A' Tchd, the first Kur, queror himself, wh. cntcriuK I'ckin^ ol t Alantcliou Tartars \ . ■ Chun Td.C in the um.un.- ..i un .-i>eii- tecnth century." Kxamik kb, "M. Hue knows humanity as it should be known by a nrie * ''■■ ' " "'''^ a quick eye, andtel s :■ ' o tunlts anil the rou' o whom he meets, ll^ , i iy, THE PRESS. and intelligent; endowed with a d: humour and a straightforward naiteti the recital of his strange adventui es. whi' make this record of the expedltii'n priests of St. Lazare into the realms of Monjjolir. one of t' amusing books in 11 '' 1' tiling' to find a m.i land of the Grand 1 itself; but it is doii! :.. i : a man has the quick c\. w ay of telling his story ti ;i M.Huc." Jb "Wer.anktl;eAbl«llur writers on China. He h;i- ment from certain 5clf--i ' ties; but Ol ; ' concur with history aim r-.ti.,,ii.. 1,. aii.l ■'■■ l>aiii ■'! thci' . , "■■■ and ii.o.,i,.ii ...i. .^.- ." ■ '■:■■'.. ■■■■■ ;•; lifrioua history of the empne ui this al mirable and entertaining book." LEADrs. Other Worlm on China, hy the Abb6 Hue, recently published. The CHINESE EMPIEE, translated with the Author's sanction. Second Edition ; with coloured Map of China. 2 vols. 8vo. 2-ls. " His volumes teem w ith valuable information, and contain one of the 1 e?' of Cliina we have met w ith since the I'ays of the Dominienn iiilgrims.. . . H ■ tion is real and picturesque. It r.nfolds the life of China ; it displays the cli; - ■ ■• ■ ■ ..... .. . . ud manner ATHKNiErM. the people, and evinces a thortugh knowledge of Asiatic history and manners HTJC'S JGUliKET through TABTAKT, THIBET, and CHINA, a condensed Translation, intheTraveller't Libraiy. 16mo.2s.Cu. London : LONGMAN, DROWN, GREEN, LONGMANSr and ROBERTS. 5 !?':^!^'^$r!,';. Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2011 with funding from Researcii Library, Tine Getty Researcii Institute http://www.archive.org/details/travelsinfreesta01sche TRAVELS IN THE FREE STATES CENTML AMERICA. VOL. I. London : Printed by Spottiswoode & Co. New-street Square. 4 / ^ MAP OF ILLUSTRATING D^ SCHERZERS TRAVELS TEAVELS IN THE FREE STATES OF CENTRAL AMERICA: NICARAGUA, HONDURAS, AND SAN SALVADOR. DR. CARL SCHERZER. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, & ROBERTS. 1857. PREFACE. The encouraging reception given by my country- men to the " Studies of the Republic of Costa Rica," a joint production of my esteemed friend and colleague, Dr. Moritz Wagner, and myself, has induced me to offer the results of our obser- vations in our subsequent wanderings through the States of Nicaragua, Honduras, and San Salvador. As, however, the present volumes bear my name only, it is necessary for me to state that the immense and disproportionate accumulation of purely scientific material, the detailed description of the geological features of Central America, of new species of plants and animals, meteorological observations, hypsometric A3 VI PREFACE. measurements, &c., made during our journey, induced Dr. Wagner to devote himself exclu- sively to that portion of the subject, leaving to me what was more adapted to the general reader. We sometimes also found it desirable, for the purposes we had in view, to separate ; and the description of some of the towns on the west coast of Nicaragua, which he only visited, as well as of the terrible catastrophe of the de- struction of San Salvador, of which he was an eye-witness, have been furnished by him. It has been my object in the following volumes, besides furnishing a faithful account of the States and their inhabitants, to point out the great ad- vantages offered by these magnificent countries to trade and emigration, and to show that there exist in Central America tracts of measureless extent, in which prudent and industrious Euro- pean settlers may not only secure a prosperous and healthy material existence, but maintain their nationality, and remain in commercial and PREFACE. VU political relation with the land of their birth. However welcome may be to a scientific tra- veller the idea that his inquiries and observa- tions have tended in any degree to advance the cause of knowledge, it is certainly no less satis- factory to be able to point out to our poor countrymen, driven from their homes by the pressure of social evils, the parts of the earth which will offer him an ample reward to his in- dustry and patience in a secure and honourable subsistence obtained without any risk to health ; and I have therefore kept this purpose steadily in view. In conclusion, I beg to offer my thanks to all friends in the countries described who kindly afforded me assistance in the prosecution of my task, and to express a hope that the susceptibi- lity of the Hispano- American may not find any cause of offence in my plain speaking. A tra- veller making his observations public is not like a portrait-painter, who may, out of complaisance a4 Vlll PREFACE. to a bitter, bestow a few of the skilful touches by which a defect may be concealed or even turned into an agreeable peculiarity; he is rather like a surgical operator, who must sometimes unavoidably give pain, but does so with the view of effecting a cure. CONTENTS THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER I. THE world's highway. The great Westward Migration. — The Passengers. — Bio- graphical Anecdotes. — Bahia de la Virgen, or Virgin Bay. — Californians and Natives. — Nicaragua and its In- habitants The " Good Green Wood " of La Virgen. — Meeting and Parting - - - - Page 1 CHAP. IL PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NICARAGUA. Boundaries. — Variation of Surface. — The Cordilleras and the Western Volcanic System. — The great Basins and Lakes. — The River San Juan and its Significance. — Nicaragua as a World Passage. — Its Vegetation and Zoology. — Natural Character of Nicaragua, as compared with Costa Rica - - - - - 2o CO>«"TENTS OF CHAP. IIL Rivas, or Nicaragua. — The Cacique Nicaragua. — San Jorge. — Don Tiburcio Chaparia and the New Testa- ment. — Recent Changes. — Situation of Granada. — Population. — The Lake Shore. — The Volcano of Mom- bacho. — Aspect of Granada. — The Clergy. — Social Life ------ Page 47 CHAP. IV. Travelling in the dry Season. — Its bright, and its shady Side. — Massaya. — Indian Weddings. — A Town without Water. — Proposed Remedy. — Prosperity of the Place. — Managua and its Lake. — Matiares. — A Colony of Apes. — Filial Attachment in a juvenile Ape. — Nagarote. — Pueblo Nuevo. — Vegetable Pillars - - 6G CHAP. V. LEOX. Situation of the City. — Modern and ancient Freebooters. — A Democratic Bishop. — Leon in the Year 1665. — A luxurious Life. — Mahomet's Paradise. — The Cathedral of St. Peter. — A Church turned into a Citadel — Indian Bishops. — A Bird's-eye View of Leon. — La Merced Recoleccion. — Subtiaba. — The Population of Leon The Indians Cruelties of the Spaniards to the Natives. — Man-baiting The Hispano- Americans, and the Ex- piation of their Offences - - - - 84 THE FIRST VOLUME. XI CHAP. YI. THE STATE OF KICARAGUA. A District in ill Repute. — An unpleasant Meeting. — Com- pany on the Road. — Riverado Felon. — An edifying Conversation with the Commandant of Leon. — Attempt to visit the Volcano of Marabios frustrated. — A Protest, that shares the Fate of most Protests. — Persons who cannot be drowned. — An Advantage of the Democratic Party of Leon. — The culpable Loitering of the Natives, and the Seven-Leagued Boots of the Yankees. — Com- mon Instruments to a noble Purpose. — Chinandega. — The Harbour of Realejo - . - Page 98 CHAP. VIL POLITICAL CONDITIOX, AGRICULTURE AJS'D TRADE. Effects of Party Strife. — Financial Distress. — State of Education. — Of Agricultural Production. — Culture of Cacao and Tobacco. — Ornamental Dye and Building Woods. — Breeding of Cattle Mines and Metals. — Gold Mines of Chontales. — Coal. — Lead. — Copper. — Trade in Exports. — Lnports from Europe, North Ame- rica, &c Realejo. — San Juan del Sur. — San Juan del Norte, or Greytown - - - - 113 Xll CONTENTS OF CHAP. VIII. Tipitapa. — Reports of Robbers. — San Benito. — A power- ful Argument. — Scarcity of Water. — Rio Assesse. — An Accident. — Noon-day Rest. — An unpleasant Ride. — A Night in a Forest Hut. — Poverty and Sickness. — The Poor of Central America and the European Pauper. — A travelling Saint. — Itinerant Images of Catholic Saints in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. — Medical Consultation. — Awkward Journey through the dark Forest. — Arrival in Matagalpa. — The Prefect of the Town. — Singular Night Quarters . - - - Page 136 CHAP. IX. THE INDIAN TOWN OF MATAGALPA AND ITS ENVIRONS. Physiognomy of the Town. — Population. — Climate. — Cul- tivation. — Prices of the Necessaries of Life. — Excursion to the Gold and Silver Mines of the Environs. — Don Liberato Abarca. — San Ramon la Leonesa. — A North American Doctor. — El Ocote. — La Luna. — Monte Grande. — Ucalca. — San Pablo The cultivated Lands of Matagalpa and Northern Emigration. — Generous In- tentions of my New-Spanish Companion Don Liberato. — Medical Visit to the Prisoners in the Cabildo. — A dying Murderer. — Medical Experiment on an Indian Convert under Sentence of Death. — The Result and the Fee. — Some of the most remarkable Diseases. — Aversion of the Indians to Inoculation. — Terrible Ravasres of Malignant THE FIRST VOLUME. XIU Small Pox among the Natives. — A humane Hint for cloistered Nuns. — Cutaneous Diseases and Hooping Cough. — Travelling Doctors. — Practice first and Study afterwards ----- Page 16o CHAP. X. JOURNEY TO TOTOCALPA. Northern Vegetation. — Inodega. — Cheerful Aspect of the Place. — Another Quack. — The Priest asks Medical Ad- vice. — A Benediction for a Fee. — Beauty of the Environs of Inodega. — A peculiar Kind of Hunting. — A musical Band of Robbers. — Arrival at San Rafael. — A Murder and its Consequences. — Old Don Miguel Lansas. — Historical Details concerning San Rafael. — How a Vil- lage arises in Central America. — Delay of our Journey. — Political Conversation with Don Miguel. — His Views upon Louis Napoleon. — A Catholic Mode of finding a Mule. — A good Catholic, but a bad Servant. — The Mule really appears again. — Dangerous Consequences. — Farewell to Don Miguel. — An Adventure. — The Valley of Jales. — The Hacienda of Bromadero. — A Scale of Vegetation. — Palacaquina An importunate Family. — Totocalpa. — Central American Indians and German Peasants - - - - - 184 XIV CONTENTS OF CHAP. XL JOURNEY TO DIPILTO. The Indian Village of Ocotal. — Padre Bonilla. — A Meeting with the Saint of Mosonte. — The Saint talks Politics, and declares himself decidedly for the Russians. — What this Saint wants to be really a Saint. — Further Journey. — The Silver Mines of Macoeliso. — Misericordia. — Santa Rosa. — Las Animas. — Dolores. — San Jose. — Guada- loupe. — Decrease of mineral Riches. — Dipilto. — Hono- rina Leclerc. — Humanising Influence of a Parisian Woman in the Forest Wilderness of Dipilto - Page 212 CHAP. XIL DIPILTO AND ITS SILVER MINES. The Mountain Village of Dipilto. — Don Francisco Paguaga. — Excursion to the Mines. — Scenery. — The Produce of the San Rafael Mine. — Probable Produce of all the Mines of Dipilto. — A Serenade. — A Night Bivouac in the Fir-woods. — Critical Situation. — Biped and Quadru- ped Murderers. — How New Spaniards look Danger in the Face. — Cerro Colorado, the Fi'ontier of Nicaragua. — The Highland Glens of Segovia as a Place of Settlement for Emigrants. — Statement of a German Settler concerning Wages at Home and Abroad — The Future - 222 THE FIRST VOLUME. XV CHAP. xiir. PROJECTS FOR THE CONNECTION OF THE ATLANTIC WITH THE PACIFIC OCEAN. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec. — Lake Nicaragua. — The Isthmus of Panama. — The Isthmus of Darien. — Boca del Toro. — The Railroad from Puerto de Caballos to the Gulf of Fonseca, in the Pacific - - Page 238 CHAP. XIV. HONDURAS. Discovery and first Settlement. — Separation from Spain. — The Islands belonging to Honduras in the Atlantic and Pacific. — Physical Character of the Country. — Plateau, Rivers, &c. — Laguna de Yojoa. — Gulf of Fonseca. — Sacate, or Grass Island. — Tiger Island. — Seaports on the East Coast. — Roatan . _ _ 262 CHAP. XV. The first Village in Honduras. — Variation in the Cha- racter of the People, and its probable Cause. — A Bath in the Rio Grande. — Heaps of Stones for a Road. — Yuscaran. — Don Felix Sierra. — Costly Patriotism. — Demands made by France and England on the Govern- ment of Honduras for wilful Destruction of Property. — XVl CON'TENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Climate of Yuscaran. — Religious Procession. — Divine Service. — Visit to the Silver Mines. — ]\Ialacate. — A Lesson in Geography. — Renowned " Good Nature " of Vienna. — Montserate. — A German Miner. — High Postages. — The Valley of Yeguare. — San Antonio : its Population and its Mines. — First Aspect of Teguci- galpa. — Arrival. — A Mystification - - Page 276 CHAP. XVL TEGUCIGALPA. Physiognomy of the Town. — The Cathedral. — The Church of Los Dolores. — The Bridge over the Rio Grande. — The Market Place. — The Population. — Advantages of Agriculture over Mining. — Trade. — Tone of Society. — The first Pianoforte. — A Central American Love Story. — General Morazan, the Pride of Honduras. — His Days of Glory and his Death. — Santos Guardiola, the Tiger of Honduras. — The Federation an Impossibility in Central America . . . . _ 300 NICAEAGUA, HOXDUEAS, &c. CHAPTER I. THE world's highway. The great "Westward Migration. — The Passengers. — Bio- graphical Anecdotes. — Bahia de la Virgen, or Virgin Bay. — Californians and Natives. — Nicaragua and its Inhabitants. — The " Good Green Wood " of La Virgen. — ^Meeting and Parting. The most animated scene of the great Westward movement now going on in Central America, is that presented at the narrowest part of the Isth- mus, between Chagres and Panama. The great steamers of the Pacific Ocean, and those of va- rious sizes that form the line between New York, Xew Orleans, and Chagres, are perpetually coming foaming and panting to the coast on VOL. I. *B 2 NICARAGUA. either side, but they remain at those bad anchor- ing grounds only just long enough to pour out their crowds of passengers, and take in another living cargo bound for the opposite direction ; ex- changing Californian travellers, hurrying eagerly towards the Land of Gold, for Californian tra- vellers, wlio, not so often rich and satisfied as wearied and disappointed, are once more turning their faces eastward. But in addition to these two classes, the Central American Isthmus serves now as a world's bridge for wayfarers proceeding in other directions, and almost the whole of the passenger traffic to the western coast of South America now takes this route. Cape Horn, with its freezing horrors and its everlasting storms, sees few travellers, except actual sailors ; for they must be ver}^ poor or very patient passengers who would not prefer the brief torments of the Isthmus and a deck passage, to the intolerably tedious navigation round the southern point of America ; and many whose ultimate destination is Australia, China, the Philippines, or some of the islands of the Southern Ocean, cross this narrow neck of land, proceed to St. Francisco or Lima, and seek there the means of transit over THE TRANSIT COMPANr. the broad Pacific. The difficulties of this land passage, of which so much has been said, are now in a great measure obviated by the comple- tion of the railroad ; and the only disagreeable features of the journey consist in the landing and re-embarkation, especially on the side of the Pacific, where the surf is so violent that the vessels have to anchor at a considerable distance from the coast, and in stormy weather it is often impossible to embark for days together. In the years 1852 and 1853 the Vanderbilt Transit Company made great profits, though the number of passengers by the Isthmus of Nicaragua scarcely amounted to the half of those forwarded by the Panama Company ; and in spite of the political disturbances in Nica- ragua, the concourse continued, until Walker and his Free Bands arrived from California, and the democratic party of Leon gained possession of the Government, and declared the contract of the Transit Company null and void. Before this many travellers had only taken the route by Nicaragua when they could get no passage in a Panama vessel. The steamers employed on that line were not of sufficient capacity for the moving multitude they were intended to con- B 2 4 NICARAGUA. vey ; for the Isthmus passengers were estimated at 10,000 a month, of which 7000 went by Panama ; and notwithstanding this formidable rivalry, the Vanderbilt Company did extremely well up to the year 1855. The best points of view from which to ob- serve this tumultuous migration are, after the ports of Chagres and Panama, the two harbours of the San Juan del Norte on the Caribbean Sea, and San Juan del Sur on the Pacific ; and espe- cially Bahia de la Yirgen, or Virgin Bay, on Lake Nicaragua, where meet the two opposite currents of this stream of wanderers. Formerly the plan was so arranged that a few hours after the magnificent steamers of the lake had landed their passengers at La Yirgen, the countless throng of Californians, with their pack- horses and mules, came rolling in like a tide. The spectacle lasted but a few hours — at most not more than a day ; — but very striking and picturesque was this brief and sudden meeting of active energetic men from all the regions of the earth. What other corner of the world could present to the artist such groups of ro- mantic-looking figures, some so glowing hot with fervid passion that they almost seem to CURIOUS TRAVELLING COMPANIONS. 5 emit sparks ; some hard, cold, rugged as rocks, and others again worn and old, and decaying before their time under the effects of the hard- ships and reverses of their stormy existence ? What work might there be for a confessor in La Yirgen could these men be induced to pour into his ears the story of their past lives, their sins and sufferings, and in many cases adventures more wild and terrible than ever haunted the imagination of a Hoffman or a Eugene Sue, and life histories of fearful serpent-like fascination ! Some vague hints of this kind may be gathered on the decks of the ocean steamers of this line, as they glide majestically over the blue glassy surface, escorted by dolphins and sharks, and bearing frequently among their freight still more hateful biped monsters. When the tongues of the latter are set in motion by whiskey, and the want of something else to do, there arises a jargon of many languages, English, German, Spanish, French, and Chinese, in which curious adventures, reminiscences, and hopes for the future, are interchanged by white, yellow, brown, and olive-coloured passengers ; and some who look on in gloomy silence, or with a sinister smile, might, perhaps, have still more startling B 3 b NICARAGUA. life episodes to relate than any of the others ; but they open not their mouths, and therein, perhaps, they do well. One cannot look into heart and brain, to know what thoughts and feelings are working there; but those features, where every fierce passion has ploughed deep its traces, — those keen, restless eyes that flash like dagger points beneath the bushy eye-brows, — do set one upon forming conjectures. People are not very fastidious on the Isthmus concerning their acquaintance and company, or very inquisitive as to who their neighbours may be ; and the public authorities are not at all in the habit of asking inconvenient questions about the antecedents of their visitors. So that no crime has been committed on the spot, a man may be guilty of the whole catalogue, and yet go free as air. The world's passage is open alike to the just and the unjust ; to honest men, and villains of every possible variety ; and he who has provided himself with the requisite amount of dollars has nothing more to fear. And yet, thoughtlessness, or the love of gossiping, or perhaps the gnawing pangs of conscience, do often induce criminals to disclose their past deeds ; but no one interferes with their liberty GLIMPSES INTO BIOGRAPHY. 7 in consequence, or troubles liimself about such revelations : indeed, the frankness of these gen- tlemen sometimes gains them friends and com- rades amongst those whose biographies exhibit similar little spots of rust. An American, six feet and a half long, of stern, energetic, and gloomy physiognomy, came with us in the steamer from New Orleans to San Juan del Norte ; and when he had drank enough to make him talkative, he confided to one of his fellow-passengers — a Swiss, whom he had known in Kentucky — that he had murdered his wife out of jealousy, and that he was taking a trip to California on that account, as well as to satisfy his thirst for gold. The Swiss, who had a still more unfavourable expression of face, though he was not so communicative, seemed quite attracted by this little anecdote, and joined company with him immediately, as did also another American from Texas, an Irishman, and a German. We met the party again on the Sarapiqui river, in the interior of the country, and could not help travelling with them to San Jose, as they had hired mules from the same owner. Each of these gentlemen carried a rifle, a revolver, B 4 8 NICARAGUA. and a long knife ; and if their looks did not belie them, had not always carried them merely for show. As they journeyed together, they perhaps found comfort in some mutual out-, pourings of the heart concerning their past lives ; but we heard only the confession of the Kentuckian, who, as I have said, did not find the above-mentioned fact in his history act at all to his disadvantao;e.* It would, however, be a great mistake to suppose that all, or even the majority, of the Isthmus passengers were runaway thieves and great criminals : most of them were such as pass very well in the AVest for gentlemen, and could not be said to be more than " smart;" a predicate that is thought rather complimentary than other- wise, and merely signifi.es a sharp fellow, who knows how to overreach another without com- mitting any gross fraud ; who has a stout, roomy conscience, but can make dollars without * I met tliis uncomfortable American some months after- wards in the primeval forests of the Cordilleras. He was always gloomy and silent, and groaned so in his sleep that it was painful to hear him. Before I left Costa Rica a fever had carried him off at a saw-mill on the west coast, where he was working as a day labourer. A SMAKT MAN. i) bringing himself within reach of the law. A certain Herr C , for instance, whom we met in Nicaragua returning from San Francisco, was a good specimen of a " smart man." He was by birth a German, but had been many years in California, where he had carried on the various professions of gold-digger, innkeeper, apothecary, physician, night Avatchman, and horse dealer; but as all these speculations had, sooner or later, turned out unfortunately, and the dollars Avere becoming extremely scarce, he bethought himself to shave his head, put on the cowl and habit of a Capuchin monk, and set up as itinerant confessor among the gold-diggers of Spanish origin in the side valleys of the Rio Sacramento, his black beard, and his familiarity with the Spanish language, being excellent qualifications for the office. There was plenty of work for a confessor among the gold-diggers, so that he had quite a rush of penitents, and he was liberal of abso- lution, though rather strict about the fees of his holy office, and would only receive them in gold. This " dodge" was at that time new, and there- fore extremely profitable ; but it was afterwards spoilt by competition. Competition is indeed, in the West, a terrible 10 NICARAGUA. power, which the weak find it very hard to struggle against, and which occasions in com- mercial life a lateral pressure more painful than a bureaucratic pressure from above ; but also, it must be confessed, acting as a much stronger spur to industry. To return, however, to Herr C . Having made a pretty little sum as father con- fessor, he became a cattle dealer again, and then, somehow or other, got rid of his money once more ; whereupon he resolved to take his leave of California, establish himself on the Isthmus, and levy contributions upon passengers as a hotel-keeper; and to that end, as part of his stock in trade, he provided himself with a hand- some wife, who was, like himself, of a specu- lative turn and fond of travelling. But how many Californians fought for her pretty face, or in general how the worthy pair fared after that time, I cannot undertake to say. I should not be at all surprised to hear that he became an officer of high rank in General Walker's army. I might furnish many similar biographical sketches from my experiences in the Isthmus, or from that of others ; but I shall probably make myself more useful, if, leaving those anecdotes as promising materials for romance writers, I give. ENTEETAINMENT FOR TRAVELLERS. 11 apropos to the last-mentioned phase of Herr C 's chequered life, a word of good advice to emigrants to California, and other travellers to the various countries and stations on the Pacific. In the two San Juan harbours, as well as in Virgin Bay, Chagres, and Panama, let them avoid as much as possible all inns and houses of public entertainment. They are actual dens of robbers, haunted by rogues of all varieties, whose smallest offence is that of poisoning their guests with bad adulterated drinks. The very best of these hotels and boarding-houses carry on busi- ness in the most fraudulent manner ; and I be- lieve there would be no injustice in giving strangers a similar general caution against nearly all the tradesmen, artisans, and labourers settled on the Isthmus, who are mostly the foulest scum and dregs of their respective classes in North America and Europe. La Yirgen, or more properly Bahia de la Virgen, lies on the south-western shore of Lake Nicaragua, where the two streams of tra- vellers from opposite directions meet ; but in spite of its favourable position it is a wretched little place ; and though founded in 1851, when the Yanderbilt Company was formed, does not 12 NICARAGUA. yet count more than half a hundred huts and sheds roofed with pantiles and palm-leaves, and about a dozen stores and public-houses, which form a street extending in a south-westerly di- rection from the lake. The most deplorable of these houses, which have nothing to offer their guests but the over-peppered dishes of the American kitchen, bad spirits, matting ham- mocks, and billiards, bear, nevertheless, the sounding titles of Washington Hotel, Jackson Plouse, Lafayette Hotel, &c. ; for the heroes of American history must, it seems, like other heroes, often serve to entice people to their ruin. The most tolerable among these fleecing esta- blishments was, in 1854, the one called Transit House, where you paid a dollar for each meal and another dollar for the privilege of passing a sleepless night in the hanging mat, where mosquitoes in the wet season, and other small tormenting demons in the dry, never failed to share your couch. Yet what a beautiful situation has this La Virgen, with its lake panorama, and the twin giants Omotepec and Madeira rising from the noble expanse of water into the blue tropical sky! There is something in the scene that VIRGIN BAY. 13 reminds you of the Bay of Naples, and certainly without being at all inferior to it ; for neither Vesuvius nor any of the extinct volcanoes of Italy can be compared with these mountains for stately symmetry of form. As an island, too, Omotepec, with its gorgeous tropical vegetation, bathed by the clear bluish-green waters of the lake, is more picturesque than either Capri or Ischia. The native population of this island had probably, in former days, its own caciques, like the districts on the outer shores of the lake ; but fine populous cities, such as Utatlan, or the capital of the Aztecs, have never existed in Nicaragua. Along the shore of Lake Nicaragua, to the north of La Yirgen, lie a number of scattered huts inhabited by a rabble of Indians and half- Indians, called Ladinos ; and as the wandering colonies of the white race are followed every- where by rats, flies, and bugs, so the Yankees bring in their train to the Isthmus a swarm of biped parasitical animals, who live on what falls from American pockets. Porters, mule-drivers, thieves, women of bad character, alight and settle here alone or in groups ; for it is easy 14 NICARAGUA. to settle in a country of warm, equable climate, where comfort and luxury in domestic arrange- ments are unknown, and therefore undesired. A rancho is built in a few hours with six stakes and a roof of palm-leaves, and few of the natives have any other dwellings than these, by the side of which the most paltry of American houses look like palaces. The furniture, too, is on an equally economical scale. A hanging mat, made of aloe fibres, serves for a bed, and costs only six reals (about half-a-crown) ; or an ox-hide spread on the ground, with which many are content, still less ; and if a man is hungry he can generally find some bananas, mangoes, or cocoa- nuts in a neighbour's garden, or get a maize tor- tilla given to him if he beg for it in the nearest habitation. The forest begins at only a few yards' distance from La Virgen; and though it has not here the majestic primseval character of the forests of Guatemala and Costa Rica, it is thick and luxuriant enough to serve for a shel- ter for much rascality, as well as for a Paphian bower for the tender but transitory loves of the Californians with the brown Circes of the Nica- ragua Lake. Few who for any purpose seek refuge in its THE NEIGHBOURING FOREST. 15 shades have to dread any interference of the police. In the neighbouring state of Costa Rica it used to be said that the roads were so safe, and the popuhxtion so honest, that a child might cross from one ocean to the other, with a golden crown upon its head, and fear no molestation. If so, it was wonderfully different from La Yirgen, so near its frontier, for there no one dares to move without being armed ; and further to the north- west, in the direction of Pueblo Xuevo and Leon, the danger from banditti and highwaymen is said to be still greater. When, on the second day of my stay in La Yirgen, I took my fowling- piece and pistols, and went on an excursion into the woods, I met in the loneliest spots many half- naked, unpleasant-looking fellows, who w^ore their gleaming machetes without a sheath ; and instead of stepping timidly on one side, as the wild Indians are accustomed to do in such cases, they looked impudently in my face and saluted me with " Good morning. Sir ; how do you do?" in English, and spoken in very good parrot style. I had been advised not to enter into any conversation with these gentlemen, and to keep an eye upon my weapons, and I did so ; but fortunately for me the Nicaraguans are not 16 NICAEAGUA. usually more brave than they are honest, and have an amazing respect for good fire-arms. They regard with especial awe the bold spirits and strong sinews of the Californians, as well as their bowie-knives and revolvers; and a single one of the bull-dogs of Ohio and Kentucky is often a match for a whole troop of these " Cuyotes " of Spanish America, who, like their relations, the jackals, seldom attack any but sleeping or decaying vic- tims. As lonii^ as the stranofer shows the steel teeth that he carries, and keeps his eyes about him, he may generally be considered pretty safe from murderous attacks on the Isthmus, in spite of the treacherous character of the population, though Californians who have allowed liquor to steal away their brains, do sometimes disappear without leaving a trace behind. In these cases they have probably been first enticed into the snare by some dusky Judith, and the body, after the pockets have been emptied, has been thrown into the lake, where it has been welcomed by the caimans. Walker's sharp practice has, how- ever, very nearly put an end to adventures of this sort — at least, so say the reports of Ame- rican "Correspondents from Nicaragua." Thanks to the wholesome severity of the General's pro- AMERICAN IMPROVEMENTS. 17 ccedings, the security of life and property has been once more established. One cannot avoid feeling respect for the energy and practical genius of the Americans, when one casts a glance at the fine plank road connecting La Viro;;en with the harbour of San Juan del Sur on the Pacific Ocean, the three fine steam- vessels that there await the traveller, and gene- rally the means provided for the transit of three thousand passengers a month, all since 1851. In consideration of these things one may forgive them their indigestible dishes, their adulterated brandy, and even the shameless extortions of their hotels. You think of these injuries, too, more mildly, when you find how quickly you can escape from them. During our brief sojourn the Transit Company had been buying up about two hundred horses, with a view of conveying the passengers in car- riages across the neck of land between the lake and the ocean ; and in most things there is a tendency to rapid improvement : the new world is urged forwards incessantly by the spur of competition, so that whatever anyone's natural disposition may be, the comfortable easy stag- nation of thought and action, in which people VOL. I. c 18 NICARAGUA. often vegetate in our quiet bureaucratic country, becomes an impossibility. The republican in- stitutions and restless enero^ies of the Ano-lo- Americans are carrying them on at a pace to which the Spanish-Americans, Indians, and mixed races of the South are not equal ; and they must inevitably be beaten in such a struggle, sooner or later. In 1854 such an acceleration had been effected in the means of transport across the Isthmus, that the whole passage, including the stoppages at various points, was reduced to five-and-twenty hours. Still further improvements, however, gave hopes that it might be shortened to six- teen, although, it is true, exceptional cases oc- curred, in which it took twice or three times as long ; namely, when any accident happened, or when the water in the San Juan river was so low that the little steamers grounded, or so high that they could hardly make head against the current. But when neither the elements nor American carelessness opposed any obstacles, the little vessels bustled in and out up the windings of the river pretty briskly, and twice as fast when they were going in the opposite direction Avith the returning Californians. PASSAGE OF THE SAN JUAN. 19 It is, I have said, a curious spectacle this sud- den brief encounter between two crowds of bold, active, enterprising men, rushing past each other in opposite directions, but nearly all engaged in the same pursuit, namely, that of dollars. Those coming from the East, from the great seaports of the Union, are mostly shipwrecked adven- turers of all classes, often the quintessence of " smart men " going to seek their fortune again in California, and speculating upon large profits and quick returns for a very small amount of labour. ]\Iore or less, perhaps, they are all in- dulging in mere illusions ; but without illusions how could there be that love of wandering that prevails as an epidemic all over the North American continent ? It is the fatal gift of the Oriental Prometheus that has been inherited by the men of the West ; but after all, what would have become of the history of the human race without some of that " blind hope " that the Titan planted in the breast of his children ? After a short stay at the port of San Juan del Norte, our steamer commenced its westward journey, and the marvellous productions of the equatorial zone began to unfold themselves : the tree-like ferns ; the mighty palms, with their c 2 20 NICARAGUA. crowned heads; the luxuriant bananas; the merry, chattering parrots ; the diamond gleam of the humming-birds, darting with the swiftness of ar- rows from one bank to the other ; the countless ring-tailed monkeys, leaping and sporting about the tops of the trees, curiously peeping at the steamer, or screaming and darting away in ter- ror ; and, lastly, the detestable grey caimans, which the rush of the paddle has waked out of their afternoon's nap on the sand-banks. But all these new and strange objects attract but slightly the attention of most of the passengers, absorbed as they are in thoughts of their own affairs, in dreams of the yet uncertain future, or, it may be, in dark remembrances of the past. At Castillo a few hovels have been put up near the river's bank, and here you land and breakfast. A little way further on, where your progress is stopped by some batteries, you have to disembark, and proceed a short distance by land to avoid some rapids, and then you embark again on another steamer. At Fort San Carlos, where the real river San Juan begins, you change vessels once more, and find yourself in a steamer of a much larger size. The voyage now proceeds with greater rapidity, and you soon enter the ARRIVAL AT LA VIRGEN. 21 great lake, and pass tlie islands of Pajaro, Sapote, Chinecaste, and the larger group of Soltiname, all of volcanic origin, but which do not, like the two great volcanoes of Omotepec, show signs of energetic action having gone on for hundreds of years. Past this island, too, rushes the panting steamer ; and then such a glorious landscape opens upon the sight, that even these men, who seem to have scarcely any sense of natural beauty, are startled into momentary admiration. The feeling, however, is very tran- sitory, and the fixed brooding eye again rests upon the western shore which we are rapidly approaching, and Avhere a spectacle of a diiFerent kind is awaiting us. There stands the throng of wayfarers from the Valley of the Sacramento, and from the waves and storms of the great ocean, impatiently ex- pecting our arrival. And a most motley crowd they are ! Ame- ricans, Germans, Irishmen, Frenchmen, Mulattoes, Negroes, Spanish Creoles, Chinese, &c. Keen glances are exchanged, a few brief salutations and shakings of hands, and a few eager questions : "What's the news from Ne^v York — New Orleans — Havannah? How goes business ? Any c 3 22 NICARAGUA. new annexation ?" These are the questions of the passengers from the Pacific when they do not happen to meet with acquaintances, in which case of course there are private inquiries to be made concerning relations and friends. On our side the queries are, "What's doing in San Francisco? How's business ? Is the gold still growing out of the paving stones?" &c. It often happens that in consequence of some accident there is a delay here, and time for more circumstantial questions, and, it may be, also for a few sighs of disappointment ; but everj^ return- ing traveller seems to have looked at this world of the West through the spectacles of his own good or ill fortune, and the state of the pocket often determines whether the country and the people they have left are to meet with praise or blame. Those who have made their fortunes are usually mild in their judgments ; but those who have found their hopes and plans frustrated, pour out a whole flood of bitterness upon men and things on the Sacramento. The valley of the golden river is a type of the infernal regions, and the great city of San Francisco, from one end to the other, a mass of fraud and wicked- THE INHABITANTS OF THE PLACE. 23 ness, deserving of no better fate than Sodom and Gomorrah. Were the " fire and brimstone" at the command of the speakers, they would certainly not be sparing of them. The groups of natives in this harbour pre- sent a very different picture from that of the travellers. They have a most vulture-like appe- tite for news ; and Indians and Ladinos, half or entirely naked, come thronging round us as soon as we land, to the horror and scandal of some American ladies from Boston and Philadelphia, devout and dollar-loving, but without the aesthetic trainino- that mio^ht enable them to look with calm, artistic admiration on the display of mas- culine strength and beauty in these brown athletic forms, with their arched chests, well-formed necks, and faultless limbs, that would certainly have gained approval in the Roman circus. The faces that accompany these fine figures, are, it must be owned, mostly very ugly ; and there are among them some frightfully deformed objects, and mongrels of all races, who pick up a living by bringing bananas, cocoa-nuts, and mangoes to the travellers, or by acting as porters and boat- men. There are plenty of brown damsels, too, with their raven hair twisted carelessly round c 4 24 NICAKAGUA. their heads, or floating free in the Bacchante style, and gold or mock gold ornaments on their high, somewhat too full bosoms, which they dis- play with a liberality far exceeding even that of our ball costumes. They are by no means timid or retiring in their deportment, and make for- midable attacks on the pockets as well as the hearts of gallant Californians. But the signal bell sounds : one crowd of passengers hurries on board the steamer ; the others find what accom- modation they can in waggons or on mules, that are to transport them to the shores of the Pacific ; and the animated scene is over, which, however ugly some of the individual features and minor details may be, is certainly on the whole a grand and exciting one to those who reflect on its significance to the present time, or its bearings on the future. 25 CHAP. II. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NICARAGUA. Boundaries. — Variation of Surface. — The Cordilleras and tlie Western Volcanic System. — The great Basins and Lakes. — The River San Juan and its Significance. — Nicaragua as a World Passage. — Its Vegetation and Zoology. — Natural Character of Nicaragua, as compared with Costa Rica. The Free State of Nicaragua which under the Spanish rule formed a province of the general captaincy of Guatemala, constituted, after the liberation, one of the five states of the Federative Republic of Central America. The Federation was dissolved in 1839, and since then it has been declared an independent republic, though with a somewhat uncertain boundary. The pro- vince of Guanacaste, on the south side, which formerly belonged to it, is now regularly incor- porated with Costa Rica ; and the right, to the southern shore of Lake Nicaragua and of the 26 NICARAGUA. river Sail Juan, is in dispute, though de facto in possession of Costa Rica. These regions are, however, mostly quite un- cultivated and almost impenetrable forest wilder- nesses, of no value whatever to either state ; so that it has fortunately not been thought neces- sary to resort to arms to settle this Boundary Question, and both parties have contented them- selves with reserving their rights. The state of Nicaragua finds itself in a some- what similar position with respect to its eastern boundary ; for the Indian chief of Bluefields, whom England has lately decorated with the title of King of the Mosquito country, and ac- knowledged as an independent sovereign, claims the whole strip of coast from the mouth of the Rio Escondido to the mouth of the San Juan, and extending inland to the north-eastern slope of the Cordilleras. But in that direction, too, the country con- sists of an untrodden forest, or one in which certainly no Spaniard ever set his foot, and which is practically of no value at all; and the real point in dispute is the possession of the important harbour of San Juan del Norte, at the mouth of that river. The Spaniards, it is certain, BOrXD ARIES OF NICARAGUA. 27 never troubled themselves about the sovereign rights of the Mosquito Indians. According to the present position of political affairs, we may take for the southern boundary of Nicaragua the river San Juan, the southern shore of the great inland sea, and the vrooded ridge that crosses the narrow isthmus from the mouth of the Sapoa river to the Gulf of Salinas ; the Pacific Ocean forms an uncontested bound- ary line to the west ; on the north-west Fonseca Bay separates it from the republic of San Salva- dor ; and towards Honduras its frontier line is formed by the little river Xegro, and the more considerable Escondido, which rises in the high- lands of Segovia and falls into the Caribbean Sea ; the Cordillera, with an uninhabited forest wilderness, makes a somewhat uncertain limit for the narrow space between the sources of these two rivers. The territory of the state of Nica- ragua extends, therefore, from 10° to 13° 18' north lat., and from 84° 40' to 87° 30' west long, (from Greenwich) ; its superficial extent is roughly estimated at 35,000 English square miles. From this position the country, it 'will be seen, belongs entirely to the equatorial zone ; 28 NICARAGUA. but climate and orgauisation are here, as in tlie other states of Central America, greatly modi- fied by the conformation of the ground. Nearly one-half of the above-mentioned area consists of mountain land, of an elevation varying from 2000 to 7000 feet above the sea, and the climate of this region is mild and healthy. The larger portion, including the two great lakes, is mostly flat, but rising in some parts as much as 1500 feet, the limit of the hot country where the cacao-tree still prospers. All the towns are situated in this portion. The essential difference of character in the soil of Nicaragua and the other states of Central America is this predomi- nance of plain and hollow ; whilst in the other four by far the greater part is mountain or steppe country. Most of the towns and villages in these states lie in a temperate region. The prevailing direction of the Cordilleras is from south-east to north-west, but they throw out spurs in opposite directions, and the lakes near the south-western declivity form two deep basins, probably of the same date as the elevation of the great trachyte range. As far as the district of Segovia the Cordillera consists of a single chain ; but further on it divides into two branches, of PHYSICAL STRUCTURE. 29 which one follows a northerly direction through the most unknown part of Honduras. The pre- vailing stone of the highest range is the variety of trachyte called andesit, and which is mostly found in the form of boulders in the lake basins. The steeper declivity of the mountains here is to the south-west, the gentler towards the north- east, as might be supposed from the configuration of the country ; but whether they present towards the ]\Iosquito territory the same prevailing form of steppe and terrace land as in Guatemala and Costa Rica is at present unknown. The two mountainous provinces of Segovia and Chontales have fine highland valleys with a healthy climate, but none of the elevated table lands which, in the other states of Central America, ofi*ered the Spaniards such favourable opportunities for settlements. The height of the Cordilleras seldom exceeds 5000 feet ; and the imposing cones which speak of volcanic eruptions are onlv seen on the coast resjion near the Pacific. In the province of Chontales, the granite, with beds of gold quartz, makes its appearance for a considerable extent, and is probably the continu- ation of the granite range that passes through Guatemala and Honduras. Specimens of this 30 NICARAGUA. quartz were brought to us at Granada by gold- seekers who had just come from Chontales. The most remarkable peculiarity of Nicaragua, and the feature which chiefly distinguishes it both from the other states of Central America and from Mexico, is the extensive hollow basin, lying almost parallel with the great mountain range, and with its two lakes stretching to the centre of the country, the lakes being fed by the numerous small streams that flow from the south-western declivity of the Cordilleras. The English engineer Bailly, who visited the country for surveying purposes, and to ascertain the most favourable points for a passage, estimates the length of Lake Nicaragua at about 100 miles, and its greatest breadth at from 40 to 45 miles; its height above the Pacific he gives at 128, and that of Lake Managua at 156 feet. The deepest part yet sounded is forty fathoms, the average depth being from eight to twenty fathoms. North-east winds prevail on these lakes the greater part of the year, and in storms the action of the waves is violent, irregular, and often dangerous to shipping, especially in the neighbourhood of the islands, which are exceed- ingly numerous. They are of volcanic origin, PHYSICAL STRUCTURE. 31 and probably of various structure, some being of trachyte or basalt, and of a conical form ; others real volcanoes with distinct craters. They seem mostly to belong to the most recent geological epoch, and not to that of the formation of the great central range. The largest of these islands, that formed by the twin volcanoes Omotepec and Madeira, has evidently been the theatre of a long- continued eruptive action. It is extremely fer- tile, covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, and was at one time thickly peopled, though at present only inhabited by a few hundred Indians. The summit of the Omotepec is 5100, that of Madeira 4190 feet high. The island of Zapatero, lying north of Omotepec, consists of a single for- merly active volcano, whose crater is found at an elevation of 1900 feet. This island is not now inhabited, and it is uncertain whether it ever was ; but it was probably of some importance with relation to the religious festivals and sacrifices of the natives, as there still exist on its surface some large stone idols. Further still to the north lies a group of many little islands called Los Corales ; and in a southerly direction the Soltiname islands form the most remarkable group. 32 NICARAGUA. The lake is tolerably "u^ell supplied ■svitli fish, amongst which a rather dangerous one, called the freshwater shark, is not unfrequently met with. Caimans are still more common, but seldom more than ten feet long, and they are not as much feared as the sharks. Crustacea are very scarce, and molluscs seem to be entirely wanting, — we have never, at least, been able to hear of a single shell being found on the shore, — a deficiency that may perhaps be ascribed to the absence of chalk in the neiohbourino- mountain rano;es. The single means of effluence for this great inland sea is that formed by the river San Juan, whose length is estimated by Bailly at ninety English miles, and which is the only river of America that reallv breaks throug-h the Cor- dilleras. Unfortunately it presents both shallows and rapids, which considerably diminish its value as a channel of communication ; but one part of it could be turned to use in the proposed ocean- canal ; and the direction of this watery highway has been plainly enough indicated by Nature, though, doubtless, the assistance of human art and industry is indispensable before so grand an ADVANTAGE OF THE NICARAGUA PASSAGE. 33 advantao;e for the commerce of the world can be obtained. There is much in the physical character of Nicaragua to indicate that it has been specially destined to become a neutral passage and high- way to a great free trade market for the nations of the earth. The harbour of San Juan del Xorte is certainty not the best that could be imagined, but it is the best that can be found on the Atlantic side ; on the Pacific, Nicaragua possesses Salinas Bay, and San Juan del Sur, both good, as well as Realejo, and the magnificent Gulf of Fonseca ; which, as a natural harbour, scarcely has its equal in the world, and might alFord a secure refuge for the greatest merchant fleets. This wealth in harbours alone appears to me decisive of the question as to the superiority of the Isthmus of Nicaragua over that of Panama for the world passage, since the latter has no good ports on either ocean. Another important advantage is possessed by Nicaragua in its abundant supply of fresh water, and its vast lake will undoubtedly be of immense significance to the future civilisation of these regions. VOL. I. D 34 NICARAGUA. The description that had been given us of the splendid exuberance of vegetation in Nicaragua appeared to us exaggerated ; for though we traversed the whole western region, from the frontier of Costa Rica to Fonseca Bay in the north, we could nowhere discover the paradise we had been led to expect, though here, if any- where, it must be found. This is the most cultivated district, and here are the chief towns. The finest cacao grows here, and here the loftiest palms raise their feathery crowns ; but the wild vegetation does not attain the same gorgeous exuberance as in some parts of Costa Rica ; the forest trees do not reach the colossal height of those of Sarapiqui, nor do their trunks exhibit a gorgeous variety of decoration from parasitic plants, like those of the declivities of the Andes, between San Miguel and Costa Rica. The soil of western Nicaragua is from January to April much parched ; the grassy carpet of the small forest savannahs is burnt up ; and though blos- soms and gay-coloured fruits are never entirely wanting on the trees and shrubs, there is nothing to compare to the paradisiacal luxuriance of the same season in the beautiful valley of Revantazon. There the flowers never disappear from the slirubs FLORA OF NICARAGUA. 35 and mountain meadows ; the earth is always moist, the temperature that of a soft, warm May ; and a never-ceasing perfume exhales from trees, which, like their prototypes spoken of in Genesis, are " pleasant to the sight, and good for food." The aspect of the landscape between the Lake of Nicaragua and the Pacific is rather tame. The underwood consists mostly of bro- melias, agaves, and cacti, which indeed alone give it its tropical character ; but above these rise only trees of mediocre size and ordinary appearance. The most common fruit in the forest is a kind of wild pine-apple, of a greyish - blue tint, which is found in many places. Among the largest trees the most striking are a lofty species of mimosa, with broad spreading branches and delicate feathery foliage, the ceiba or silk- cotton-tree, and a very thick-trunked cedrela ; but lofty palms, pandaiiacece^ musacece, and scitamince^ are as scarce in these woods as the giant maho- gany-tree, or the still more colossal volado. The magnificent tree-like fern with its elegant crown is entirely wanting, and the aspect of the woods here did not inspire the feeling of awe with which we entered for the first time beneath the solemn and stupendous shades of the Sarapiqui forest, D 2 36 NICARAGUA. and saw before us, in their grandest, mightiest development, the vegetable wonders that we had known only by feeble diminutive specimens in conservatories. The foliage here is not so dense but that a sunbeam can now and then force its way through it ; indeed, the woods between Rivas and Granada, and Managua and Leon, are so light, that there was sun enouoh to be almost intolerable to us German wayfarers as we passed through them. Lianas, bauhinias, vignonias, and passiflora are found here, as well as many hundred species of climbing and creeping plants, and those noble kinds of parasites which neither droop mournfully nor cling fast to the old trunks, but develop themselves at their summits into beautiful bouquets and vases ; but there are not so many species, nor are the specimens on so grand a scale, as in the east side of Costa Rica. Still less are you here reminded of the noble and varied mountain scenery that strikes you so forcibly in Cariblanca and Desengano ; and the dry volcanoes of Nicaragua lack the charm of those foaming cascades which, in the Cordillera of Costa Rica, dash down the dark green moun- tain declivities into giddy depths below. No such spectacle as that of the magnificent arch CULTIVATED TLANTS. 37 formed by the Rio de los Angelos, as it rushes over into one of the most picturesque ravines of the Andes, can be seen here ; and you miss the terrace-like formation which is so favourable to the effect of a landscape, — such, for example, as that of the valleys of Turrialba and Angostura (the projected German colonies). Where the rushing current of the Revantazon has worn itself a bed in the deep trachyte rock, there rises on the terraces an amphitheatre of richest vege- tation, tree above tree, wood above wood, in beautiful and imposing masses, to which there is nothing to compare in the region between Lake Nicaraf>;ua and the Pacific. On the other hand, the cultivated flora of Nicaragua is in many parts richer than in Costa Rica. Not only are the rigid forms of the cactus, which make a living impenetrable fence round many of the haciendas^ here more colossal and massive in their growth than elsewhei^e, but there are to be found in the plantations many of the noblest kinds of palms. The cocoa-palm is nowhere to be seen of statelier form, or richer with heavy fruit. The yellow gleam on its green leaves, and especially on their tops and on the leafstalk, makes this tree recognisable for a con- D 3 38 NICARAGUA. siderable distance. The stem is ru£:2:ed, like that of most palms, but not set ^vith long spikes like the Cuyol-palm. so that the Indian boys easily clnnb up them ; and the masses of nuts, AYhich are sometimes seen hanging domi at the same time with thick bunches of blossoms, are so enormous, that you wonder how the stalks can support such a burden. The cocoa-palm is generally regarded as a littoral tree, requiring a salt and sandy soil ; but we found it in the in- terior of Nicaragua taller and richer in fruit than even on the Gulf of Xicova. But whoever wishes to see the cultivated plants of Central America in all their grace and glory, should visit the Indian village of Xindiri, between Mas- saya and Managua. Here the landscape is darkened by no gloomy primeval forest, while the sparklins: waters of the crvstal lake ^rive it freshness and animation ; and all around the village extends a park-like plantation of the most beautiful productions of the tropical flora. There are orani^e-trees of almost incredible size, certainly little, if at all, inferior to that of our limes, and superbly laden with their golden fruit, — single trees being known to yield a liar- vest of above ten thousand ; citron and lemon- CULTIVATED PLANTS. 39 trees are on the same grand scale ; and the dark green leafy mango produces its fruit of the finest flavour, and in such enormous quantities, that no one ever gives himself the trouble to pick up what falls, but leaves it for the pigs and fowls. A still greater rarity for the northern stranger is the crowned papaya ( Carica Papaya)^ one of the most elegant trees of the equinoctial zone. In the form of the crown, as well as the trunk, it bears considerable resemblance to the tree- fern ; its leaves form a beautiful diadem at the top of its tapering trunk, and its longish fruit hangs by short stalks, not from the boughs, but from the trunk itself, beneath the leafy crown. The flavour is much like that of the melon. Here is also the milk-tree, with its blue spheri- cal fruit, so sweet and refreshing to the taste ; the butter-tree, the flavour of wdiose fruit is quite peculiar, and cannot be compared to any other ; and the cacao, which flourishes best under the shade of the banana, and bears a dozen of its aromatic kernels in one large pod. The cofiee- tree appears here as a small, but very pretty shrub, with shining pointed green leaves, and dark red berries, in which the renowned beans D 4 40 NICARAGUA. are enveloped in a sweetish, jell3'-like substance, and are always found in pairs. All these are to be seen at Xindiri. The pine-apple is planted in rows, and covers the s^ardens of the Indians with fruit of enormous size and exquisite perfume, so that the most fastidious epicure of the Restaurant Very or Yefour mi^ht envv the naked Indian of Xindiri his dessert. The latter would certainly regard many of the specimens, for which so high a price is paid at the Palais Ro3-al, as poor little sour abortions, not worth eating, and good only for pigs ; but even the finest pine-apples are inferior to the anone, decidedly the most delicious fruit of tropical America. The tree is insignificant in appearance, and sometimes found growing as a mere hedge-plant ; the fruit is about the size of an apple, with a smooth green rind, peculiar scale-like elevations, and a flavour that is really incomparable. The Indians of Xindiri do not, however, estimate it so highly, but prefer the egg-shaped golden or scarlet fruit of the Mauritius palm, which is more farinaceous and nourishing, and scarcer here than the anone. The soil and cUmate have in this district endowed the poor Indian with a wealth of fruit CACTUS COLONNADES. 41 such as no European horticulturist and no im- perial conservatory can emulate ; and the best that is placed upon royal tables in our quarter of the world, is but like that with which naked Indian boys pelt each other, as ours do with snowballs at the same season. Single plantations of these fruit-trees are to be found in the environs of all the towns, and in the haciendas of Nicaragua ; but such an astonish- ing abundance of thera as is seen in all directions at Nindiri, I have seen nowhere else. These gardens are defended by a colonnade of perpen- dicular six or nine-sided cactus pillars, often twenty feet high. Humboldt has compared them to organ pipes, but they are sterner and more massive in appearance ; we should rather liken them to the columns with broken capitals in the ruins of Palmyra, but that instead of appearing in scattered groups, they are here drawn up in close rank, stiiF, dark, and unmoveable, like the gre- nadier guard on the Petersburg Parade. Above these sturdy keepers of the Indians' enchanted gardens, rises the banana, the indis- pensable tree to the inhabitant of the tropics, and even to the Indians ; but its delicate green colossal leaves are all torn by the north winds, 42 NICAEAGUA. and the tree itself is not so tall and handsome as in the moist regions near the coast of Costa Eica. Above these the cocoa-palms raise their crowned heads, their feathery foliage waving softly in a gentle breeze, but their heavy masses of nuts keeping up a tumultuous rattling in storms. The animal kingdom is not so abundantly re- presented here as in Costa Rica. The small stag (the betiaos), which in Miravalles and Guana- caste is often met with in pairs, and sometimes seen flying in troops across the savannahs, is very seldom found in the wooded plain between Rivas and Realejo ; but the American lion, the tiger- cat, the tapir, the wild hog, and an animal much resembling the jackal of the old w^orld, and called the coyof, are all occasionally seen near the shores of the lake. Ring-tailed monkeys are common ; and the racoon, the armadillo, the opossum, the sloth, and the agutis, keep the hunter busy, if he does not disdain such small game ; while the most lovely little squirrels, with line long-haired and prettily marked fur, rejoice the eye of the lover of the animal creation. Birds are numerous here, as in most lightly- wooded regions, and generally of gay plumage. THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 43 The large, beautiful woodcock, the peacock, the gigantic crax-alector, with its plumed head, and some others, are less numerous and noisy than in the forest of the Sarapiqui ; but you have better opportunities here of observing the movements and habits of life among tropical birds. As the trees are of a very moderate height, the scarlet, crimson, and blue macaws, the cockatoo, and small green parrots, approach near enough, especially in the mornings and evenings, for the sportsman to get a shot at them, whilst in the woods of the Sarapiqui they are often quite out of range. The gay toucans, the magnificent curucui, the chatterer, the wood- pecker with its purple crest, the yellow-tailed Montezuma bird (Cassicus Mojitezuma), whose voice resembles the creakino; of a bouo-h in the wind, all these, and many other kinds of birds, are seen in the woods of Nicaragua in the dry sea&on, as well as flocks of pretty turtle-doves, the smallest of which are not bigger than a thrush in the vicinity of the towns. In this season all animals are chiefly found in the districts near the lakes, which they approach from all directions ; and great troops of apes of 44 NICARAGUA. various species scramble up and down tlie rocky wall above the water, a dangerous promenade even for them. In the immediate neighbourhood of the lake the vegetation was still wonderfully fresh in the month of February, and the shrubs and trees clothed with gay flowers to their very summits ; while the small, nectar-sucking hum- ming-birds were buzzing about among the blos- soms, the gleaming splendour of their wings far exceedini)!; that of the finest orchidacea?. One of the largest, most beautiful, and most common of these colibri, the trochihis riibmeus, with the green metallic lustre on his wings and back, and his ruby gleaming throat, often ap- proaches you curiously to within a few yards, and seems to contemplate you attentively while he keeps himself poised for a few seconds in the same spot ; and near these charming little crea- tures in the air and among the flowers, you see in the lake the abominable alligators, often of terrific size, floating, like logs of wood, on the top of the water, though with only the head and a part of the scaly armour of the back rising above the surface. jMore than once I have seen the humming-birds, while hovering about the water-lilies that rose out of it, alight upon the MODERN LOVERS OP THE PICTURESQUE. 45 back of a crocodile as if it had been the trunk of a tree. The delight in nature — the kind of senti- mental interest in beautiful scenery — of which we now hear so much, is, according to a great German poet, entirely a product of modem times, of which antiquity had no conception. The Greeks, according to Schiller, felt no more emotion in the description of a beautiful land- scape, than of a shield or a weapon ; and without entering into the question as to how far he is justified in this assertion, we may feel pretty sure that much of the enthusiasm manifested by tourists at celebrated spots, — the Rigi, in Switzer- land, for instance, where the good folks are piped out of their beds by the Ranz des Yaches to witness a sunrise according to the rules in such case made and pro\'ided, — is a very artificially manufactured article indeed, and greatly de- pendent on fashion. In Central America we have seldom found that the sio:ht of the oflorious scenery around them awakened emotion enough to stop the complaints of travellers concerning bad roads, ants, mosquitoes, heat, sand, flies, and the other plagues that flesh is heir to when travelling in tropical regions; and it must be 46 NICARAGUA. admitted that, to enjoy the beauties of nature in these countries, one must submit to a good deal of personal discomfort. But, thank Heaven, none of these things could destroy or materially abate the delight of my Vienna friend or myself at the sight of such an enchanted garden of creation as was here opened to us, for example, at Nindiri ; and whoever has a mind for such enjoyments may turn his steps this way with the certainty of re- ceiving gratification, but we warn him that he cannot behold the spectacle without paying the price of admission. 47 CHAP. III. Rivas, or Nicaragua, and its Inhabitants. — The Cacique Nicaragua. — San Jorge. — Don Tiburcio Chaparia and the New Testament. — Eecent Changes. — Situation of Granada. — Population. — The Lake Shore. — The Volcano of Mombacho. — Aspect of Granada. — The Clergy. — Social Life. The town of Rivas, or Nicaragua, which the North- American condottiere Walker made his head-quarters during the spring of 1856, and which has become the seat of the new demo- cratic government of the Republic, lies only four leagues north of Virgin Bay. It was the scene of the bloody contest that took place between Walker, in person, with his North American bands, and the troops of Costa Rica. The town consists of an agglomeration of six or seven Indian villac^es connected with each other, in the centre of which lies the real city of Nica- ragua. The three principal of these villages bear the names of Obrajo, Potosi, and Buen- Ayre, which, with their lovely gardens of lofty 48 NICARAGUA. cocoa-palms, dark green mangoes, shining yellow bananas, citron, lemon, orange, and cacao-trees, encircle the actual town with a superb garland of tropical vegetation. The houses are low, one- storied, and spacious ; and the town is said to stand upon the very spot where Gil Gonzalez Davila, the Spanish discoverer of the country, found the residence and capital of the mighty Indian cacique Nicaragua, whose name has been given to the country. The population of Rivas is estimated at 12,000, of which about 7000 are Indians, the remainder Ladinos, Sambos, and other hybrids ; but in the time of the cacique the country in general was much more thickly peopled, as well as more flourishing than it is now : and it is a question not yet solved where the people obtahied all the gold of which the Spaniards found them in possession, and of which the cacique very good- naturedly gave a large quantity to the newcomers, Avho, in return, liberally presented him with a linen shirt, a piece of silk, and some holy water. The gold found in the country now is chiefly gold-dust from the district of Chontales, con- cerning which there were many wonderful tales told in 1853, but which have since all died away. INDIANS OF THE 16X11 AND IfTH CENTURY. 49 It would be difficult to find now among the Indians so intelligent a person as this cacique Nicaragua is said to have been, for he puzzled the Spaniards considerably with his questions on the causes of day and night, the origin of the world and of the first man ; how the soul could exist without a body, and what it could occupy itself with, &c. The only thing his descendants take much interest in, is the gold of which Nicaragua seems to have thouo-ht so little. In as^riculture they have scarcely made any advances beyond what had been made by their ancestors in the sixteenth century. As long as the Yanderbilt Company continued undisturbed its transport of passengers across the Isthmus, the people of Eivas and the neigh- bourhood made great profit by the sale of pro- visions and all kinds of tropical fruits ; but since then the whole department has sufi'ered much from the fines and exactions of Walker and his bands. In this beautiful but unfortunate country the right of the conqueror is as little contested as that of the condor among birds ; and he makes as free as he pleases with the purses and throats of his neighbours, until he himself gets an idea VOL. I. E 50 NICAEAGUA. of some other right than his own by feeling his rival's bullet in his body. After a two hours' ride through pretty light woods from Virgin Bay, we reached the little harbour of San Jorge, also on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. It is an extensive village, and may be regarded as a sort of suburb to Rivas ; in the middle of it is a white church in the Byzantine style, and among the houses it is mostly easy to distinguish those of the two races, Indians and Ladinos, by which it is inhabited. The huts of the Indians are roofed with palm-branches, and even the walls consist of plaited palm-twigs, through which the air passes freely ; but the La- dinos, who though morally inferior to the Indians are more active and intelligent, build their habi- tations in a more solid style, with clay walls and roofs of pantiles. It happened to be Sunday when we arrived, a.nd the brown inhabitants had on their cleanest shirts, and were crouching in groups about the square before the church and at the doors of their houses, some of them playing upon the Indian guitar. The village of Buen-Ayre almost joins San Jorge; and we rode for more than an hour in the direction of Granada, between the AN UNEXPECTED SIGHT. 51 most beautiful gardens and plantations, — cacao- trees, papayas with their crowns of jagged leaves, bananas with their immense bunches of fruit gleaming golden beneath their vast and shining leaves, orange-trees far larger and more fruitful than in North Africa, lofty groves of the cocoa- palm, mangoes, sapotes, anones, and many other delicious fruits of the equatorial zone rising above the living hedges of cactus and agave, whose sharp thorns keep off the cattle more cer- tainly than the best North American fence. The excessive heat of the day forced us to enter one of the haciendas, denominated " El dulce nombre de Jesus," in which modest little habitation we met with a friendly reception. The proprietor, Don Tiburcio Chaparia, was deeply engaged with a book when we saluted him, and begged his permission to seek a shelter from the heat for some hours beneath his hos- pitable roof. As it was a very unusual thing to see a Ladino reading with such profound atten- tion, we afterwards begged to look at his book, and found to our surprise that it was a New Testament, in Spanish and English, which he had bought for a trifle from an American in A'^irgin Bay. To our question whether he did not fear £ 2 52 NICAEAGUA. to read a book that, though holy, was forbidden by his Church, he smiled, and said their priest did not trouble himself about what people read, or whether they read at all, provided only they went to confession once a year and paid their church-rates punctually. He seemed to be inte- rested in what he was reading, but could not give us any very clear account of the impression made on him. This planter was an opulent man. He pos- sessed more land than many a nobleman among us, and his garden was perfectly gorgeous with its wealth of fruit ; but his house was in such a simple and rough style, as many of our poor would be almost ashamed of. The verandah was supported on rough stakes ; the single large room was furnished with chairs made of pieces of cow-hide stretched over wooden frames clumsily joined together ; and along the whole length of the room were rano-ed the never-failins; hammocks of agave fibre, in which people here will lie swinging themselves for whole days without ever speaking and scarcely moving a muscle. We got into a long conversation with Don Tiburcio concerning the past and present of Nicaragua ; and he described to me with much ECONOMICAL CHANGES. 53 eloquence how everything was changed since the Americans had come into the country, and since the Transit Company had established themselves at Virgin Bay. The first effect had been a great change in the value of money and the prices of provisions, the results of which for the hacienda proprietors had been both good and evil. The produce of their land brought four-fold what it had done, but the wages of labourers had risen in equal proportion. A real, or about sixpence, a day had been formerly the customary wages, and they were now four, or, in the time of the cacao harvest, often much more. On the other hand, there was now a sale for such things as mangoes and cocoa-nuts, which formerly had been of no value at all. In the cool of the evening we continued our journey from Rivas to Granada, passing as before through light woods, much less grand and im- posing in their character than those of Costa Rica. We met many Indians walking singly and on foot to the market of Granada, and carry- ing bundles on their backs ; but even the smallest Indian boy was never without his gleaming machete. We crossed on our route only a single slender stream, which takes its rise among £ 3 54 NICARAGUA. the low coast hills, and soon falls into the sea. The want of water is much felt during the dry season in this western country, and in many villages we were obliged to buy the well-water for our mules. The reception of strangers in these regions is not always very hospitable ; and, with the exception of Realejo, Granada, and the stations of the Transit Company, there is not an inn in the whole country. Granada lies on the north-western shore of the great Lake of Nicaragua- It is not the most populous town, but the richest, and by its position the most important in the republic. Since the reign of Walker it has lost its almost exclusive privilege of choosing the members of the government from its own patrician families, — a privilege that was divided between it and Leon ; but it may console itself with the reflection that its rival has fallen far lower in power and pros- perity, and certainly has no very enviable fate under the rule of the ex-Prussian cornet, Bruno von Nazmer. Under the Spanish dominion Granada was more wealthy and prosperous, but not more populous, than at present. At the beginning of 1854 it counted nearly 15,000 inhabitants, and CIVIL WAR. 55 the number would in all probability have in- creased if the country had enjoyed the peace that was hoped for after the conclusion of the Clayton- Bulwer treaty ; but the terrible civil war that broke out with the revolt of the town of Leon, and the incursion of the democrats from Hon- duras, has occasioned Granada more suffering than all the anarchy and party struggles of pre- ceding 3^ears. Chamorro, the unfortunate pre- sident, threw himself into the place with his defeated army, and defended himself with bar- ricaded streets and barred-up houses, like a jaguar at bay, against double the number of democrats. Steel, lead, and fire did their work in the streets ; many lives were sacrificed, and many opulent families escaped to the lake, where Chamorro, with the aid of some Indians from Chontales, and his large vessels, still maintained the superiority. The Vanderbilt Compan}', with its steamers, remained strictly neutral ; but some Americans from, the States fought on both sides, and Chamorro engaged at a high price the services of some Californian riflemen, who did him good service by killing many of his rivals by well-aimed shots from the roof of the parish church. But Walker's arrival subsequently de- E 4 56 NICARAGUA. cided the aiFair in favour of the democrats, and gave a fresh impulse to the emigration from Granada. The foreign merchants are said to have all left the place, or been ruined. The situation of Granada is not so picturesque as it has sometimes been described ; it stands neither close to the lake nor at the foot of the volcano of Mombacho. The low-lying eastern part of the town is a quarter of an hour's walk from the water side, and separated from it by a sort of marshy wilderness in which only a few insignificant plantations of bananas, palms, and sugar-cane appear as oases ; but it is peopled by swarms of pretty wild turtle-doves, which, as well as the harmless carrion kite, flutter about as confidingly among human dwellings as sparrows do with us. The wide arch of the bay forms the harbour, which is protected towards the south-east by a group of volcanic islands, called the Corales, whose picturesque masses of stone are draped and wreathed with luxuriant vegetation ; but to- wards the north it is quite open to the winds. Large vessels, as for instance the steamers of the Transit Company which come here twice a month, anchor at a considerable distance on the STATE OF THE LAKE NEAR GRANADA. 57 east side of the bay ; and only the Bongos, or great flat canoe of the natives, can enter the actual harbour. After a prevalence of easterly winds, the water of the lake near the shore is impregnated with a mass of decaying vegetable matter, which gives it a dirty appearance, and probably generates the miasma which, in connexion with other causes, produces the dangerous intermittent fever that sometimes rages in the town, and still more in the cottao;es near the lake. Pro- bably it was for the sake of a healthier situa- tion that the Spaniards, under Hernandez de Cordova, built their houses at some distance from the lake; they would not purchase a com- mercial advantage at the price of health. The mountain of Mombacho, which rises at a league south of Granada, is an isolated, burnt- out volcano, of the form of an irregular truncated cone, the outline of which has some resemblance to the island of Capri in the Gulf of Naples. Even in the dry season its summit is usually veiled in clouds, which, floating up and down under the action of the wind, give it the appear- ance of a smoking crater. A dense tropical forest clothes it from the base to the summit, and 58 NlCAPxAGUA. would render the ascent very difficult without the additional hindrance of the poisonous snakes and tigers that abound in it. It is, however, far less fear of the snakes and tigers than simple laziness that has prevented the people of Granada from making the attempt. Its height appears to be about 4000 feet above the level of the lake, but no trigonometrical measurement of it has ever been made. From attentive observa- tion of its summit with the telescope, we inferred that considerable changes had taken place in its original form, and that the old crater had fallen in. Granada is one of the oldest of the Spanish settlements in Central America, and was founded by Hernandez de Cordova in 1522, shortly after the discovery of the country by Gil Gonsalez Davila. Its central position was well adapted to facilitate the communication between the two oceans, and probably led to the settlement of the Spanish colony. The Irish missionary, Thomas Gage, who visited it in 1665, describes it as having hand- somer houses than the capital Leon ; and the merchants as rich and enterprising, carrying on an active trade not only with the neighbouring states of Honduras, San Salvador, and Guate- MISSIONARY STATEMENTS, 17TH CENTURY. 59 mala, but also with Carthagena, Panama, and the harbour of Peru. He mentions having seen caravans laden with indigo and cochineal, and another with a large quantity of silver for the treasury of the King of Spain. He also maintains, however, that he saw in the harbour large ships that sailed direct to Carthagena, and even to Spain. But it is not possible to believe this, as Granada can have had no other water communication with the Eastern sea than by the river San Juan, which is so full of shallows and rar>ids, that even the smallest American river steamers with their little drauo;ht find difhculties in the navisration, and the flattest of theni cannot pass the raudales. Of the city of Granada itself there is not much to be said ; the suburbs have a deplorable aspect, and are inhabited by a poor and dirty mongrel population. The interior of the town is regu- larly built, and, like all old Spanish towns, has a certain grand solidity of character in its archi- tecture, but little that is graceful or pleasing. The houses are of only one story, with very thick, strong walls, and spacious courts and gal- leries in the Moorish Andalusian style ; and many of them have now a very ruinous appear- 60 NICARAGUA. ance. They seem to have been entirely neglected since the time when Central America threw off the Spanish yoke ; and whatever may have been gained by that movement, there have certainly been no advances in public security, peace, or prosperity. All the churches and public build- ings date from the Spanish time : from the former the valuable ornaments have all dis- appeared ; and though their altars still display abundance of gilding, the massive gold has found its way into revolutionary hands. In general, all that has been done since the Liberation has a poverty-stricken make-shift as- pect, and seems only intended to serve a tem- porary purpose ; and it may be doubted whether, without the infusion of the more vigorous ele- ments from the North, the country could even maintain the shadow of political existence. Among the various races by which it is peopled, the pure Indians form the most industrious, useful, and respectable portion of the population. In the towns they are mostly day-labourers ; and those resident in the neighbouring villages pro- vide the market of Granada with maize, fruit, fodder for cattle, and some tritiing productions of their industry. These Indians all exhibit in SPANISH CREOLE INHABITANTS. 61 their features the well-known type of the South American races, except that they are of a some- what lighter complexion. Unfortunately, though they are peaceful and well disposed, they are very timid, apparently incapable of intellectual pro- gress, and chiefly animated by two passions, namely, hatred to the Ladinos, and love for brandy. The Spanish Creoles, though their number scarcely amounts to 1200, still retain all the ad- vantages of Avealth and political influence, and they exhibit a decided mental superiority over the other races, however corrupt and degraded in other respects. The president of the state, the ministers, generals, and ofiicers of rank, magis- trates, priests, ambassadors, and almost all offi- cial persons, are Creoles ; that is, of Spanish descent ; or, at least, endeavour to pass for such, and carefully conceal the smallest mixture of Indian blood that may have polluted the pure Castilian fluid. The Creoles of Nicaragua struck us, neverthe- less, as less purely Spanish than their neighbours of Costa Rica, and their Castilian sounded less genuine than that of San Jos^ and Cartago. Among the opulent inhabitants of Granada the 62 NICARAGUA. French fashions have also of late years replaced the simple national costume, though not so en- tirely with the women as with the men. The high, equable temperature of the climate makes a light and easy costume indispensable ; and the ladies in Granada appear in their ordinary do- mestic life with arms and neck bare. The tight- fitting fashions of Europe would be, one would suppose, intolerable here ; and yet some fair ladies of patrician families have condemned themselves to this torture. The propaganda of the fashions makes many more converts than that of religious faith, as may be seen in Central America as well as on the Bosphorus. The daily life and occupations of the Creole population may be described in very few words, for human life under the tropics is as simple and uniform as organic nature is varied and mani- fold. The higher classes of Granada are far more morally corrupt than the lower, though their corruption is covered with the varnisli of Spanish courtesy. The long-continued exhaust- ing, tyrannous colonial rule of Spain, the recent thoughtless and profligate proceedings of the Central American demao-oo-ues, the ever-re- curring horrors of revolution and civil war, the rage of parties, the rivalry of towns, the anti- LOW MENTAL CONDITION OF GRANADA. 63 pathy of races, and the more private forms of envy, hatred, and malice, have acted most inju- riously upon the character of Nicaragua ; and the paroxysms of anarchy which occur about once every three years have often changed it for a time into a very slaughter-house. In these times no life or property was safe, and no one ever left his home without being well armed. The people of Granada, like all Xew Spaniards, prefer trade, and especially petty traffic, to any other occupation ; but as they are in the highest degree untrustworthy in business, and no reliance can be placed on their word, every undertaking of European merchants in connexion with them must be at still greater risk than even in Mexico. In addition to matters of trade, political party intrigues, the struggle for places, and what selfish use may be made of power when gained, form the sole daily topics of conversation. Granada was in the first year succeeding the Liberation democratically disposed ; but has fre- quently changed her political colours since then, and, when I was there, had lately been the focus of the aristocratic or conservative party, whose leader, in 1854, was the well-known Presi- dent Don Fruto-Chamorro. Another of the regular employments of the 64 NICARAGUA. Granada people, and one of their predominant passions, is gambling, and especially the betting on cock-fio[hts : but some little time also is taken up by religious ceremonies, the clergy being more powerful and influential, but also much more corrupt, than in Costa Rica. Singularly enough, too, they generally incline to the revolutionary or democratic party, especially in Leon, where most of the patrician families are devotedly attached to it. The masculine population of Granada is not very devoutly disposed, but mostly leaves the church-going to the seiloras and senoritas, of whom a dozen may always be seen kneeling on the flags of the church for one caballero who shows himself there. In other matters social life is here, as in most of the other towns of the country, in the highest degree tedious and insipid. Whoever is not compelled by hunger to work, swings himself the greater part of the day in his hammock, smokes paper cigars, which even the ladies do not disdain ; gapes through the always open windows at the blue tropical sky, and enjoys in perfection the state of do-nothingness which passes here for life. The exertion of the brain is in Granada dreaded even more than that of FEMININE ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 65 the muscles. The ladies have, indeed, within these few years begun to play a few waltzes and polkas on the piano, or perhaps some very easy pieces out of Italian operas, though this custom is of European introduction. But people read nothing, not so much as a romance or a news- paper, and think as little as possible ; and their conversation consists only of vapid and insincere conventional commonplaces, which are a disgrace to the noble Castilian language in which they are uttered by these degenerate descendants of the conquerors of America. VOL. I. 66 NICARAGUA. CHAP. IV. Travelling in the dry Season. — Its bright, and its shady Side. — Massaya. — Indian Weddings. — A Town without Water. — Proposed Remedy — Prosperity of the Place Managua and its Lake. — Matiares. — A Colony of Apes. — Filial Attachment in a juvenile Ape. — Nagarote. — Pueblo Nuevo. — Vegetable Pillars. The month of February falls in Nicaragua in the midst of the Ve7'a7io, or dry season, and offers to the traveller who wishes to become well ac- quainted with the country, the inestimable ad- vantage of being able to make all his rambles and excursions under a clear sky, and on firm ground. This at least is the case in the west- ern part of the state, where the forest is not dense enough to intercept the sunbeams. Wan- dering naturalists or hunters, if they can bring themselves to disregard the attacks of the garra- patos, — a kind of tick or flea of various sizes which swarm in the bushes, and delight in an opportunity of having a bite at a human skin, — THE VERANO. 67 may follow their several pursuits with advantage during the verano ; and the game generally crowd towards the spots where some little runnel of a brook still affords them the refreshment of water. Mules and horses, too, get less fatigued in this season, when they have not to toil through mire and pools in their woodland path; though it is true that they do not find the abundant green food of the rainv seasons, but have to content themselves often with the dried stalks of Indian corn, which is all the Indian ranchos afford. They do not indeed always afford that without obvious unwillingness ; and one has to give both hard reals and good words, both " love and money," to obtain even a very scanty supply ; for their laziness generally hinders them from planting more than is just sufficient for their own consumption. This want of fodder for horses and mules during the dry season, is a great hindrance to military operations ; and be- tween the months of February and May, when it is scarcest, the passage of troops becomes almost impossible. In Granada we had hired mules for our jour- ney to Managua, and, in spite of all our care and caution, were after all cheated by the Ladino; for F 2 68 NICARAGUA. though, short as the distance is, we were to pay him four piastres each for them, he sent us only wretched, tired animals. Our first station was to be at Massaya, one of the smallest but most in- dustrious, peaceful, and prosperous of all the towns of this much agitated and unfortunate republic of Nicaragua, in which the elements of revolution and anarchy appear as inexhaustible as the com- bustible matter beneath its volcanic soil. The town lies on a small but elevated plain, consisting almost entirely of tuiFa and the de- posit from old volcanic eruptions, mud and ashes alternating with beds of lava. The soil is un- commonly fertile ; indeed this light tuffa is a real blessing, for even in summer, when rain is en- tirely wanting, the sprouting, blossoming, and ripening of plants goes on. The maize, which is just carelessly thrown into the ground, returns five hundred fold, and there are three harvests in the year. The green shoots of the banana may be almost seen to grow, and it bears fruit in nine months. Cacao-trees and tobacco, too, flourish wonderfully ; and the town, with its industrious and harmless population, would seem most de- lightfully situated if it were not for the scarcity of water, which can only be obtained from a lake MASSAYA. 69 lying 1200 feet lower, and which is merely the filled-up crater of a volcano. Masaaya is the most cheerful-looking town in Nicaragua: the streets are broad, air}'-, and planted with trees ; the houses low, as they commonly are in this country, in most cases for fear of earthquakes ; but the climate and the abundance of space favour this mode of building even where, as in Massaya, there is little danger, as the safety valve of an open active volcano is found in the neighbourhood. The walls of the houses here are thick and solid ; the roofs of tiles ; and many have verandah sand balconies towards the street. Those of the opulent Creoles frequently possess spacious courts and galleries supported on pillars, and many remind you of the style of those in Andalusia. Tlie Indian inhabitants of the suburbs and surrounding vil- lages, seldom adopt this Spanish mode of archi- tecture, but content themselves with poor cot- tages without verandahs, or even with open ranchos. In such a climate as this, there is no great anxiety about how you are to be housed ; and if Massaya exhibits more approach to wdiat we call comfort than most of the other small F 3 70 NICARAGUA. provincial towns, it is merely from its greater industry and prosperity. The preparation of the hanging mats, or hammocks, is here carried on on a large scale, as well as the plaiting of coloured mats for various purposes, and the manufacture of the ordinary palm hats, and of shoes, saddles, coarse cotton cloth, and a variety of less important articles, including dulce.s, a sweatmeat in the form of jelly, from a fruit called toronja, which is a good deal like guava jelly. Particularly good tobacco is raised here, and many cigars sent to various foreign countries as well as to different parts of Nicaragua ; and articles of European manufacture are seen here oftener than anywhere else in the country. The most remarkable building is the church, which is in a mixed Byzantine and Gothic style of architecture, with a massive quadrangular steeple. It stands in the middle of the square that serves as a market-place, where, when we were there, hundreds of Indians were offering for sale the productions of their gardens, es- pecially the most delicious fruits, and also an in- credible variety of siveeties of all sorts, in which the people greatly delight. From early morning, EMPLOYMENT OF INDIAN WOMEN. 71 even before sunrise, there was a constant clamour going on before the doors of the church, as some Indian weddino-s -were beino; celebrated to the accompaniment of loud but melancholy music, and the firino^ of a mortar. The ceremonv is got through pretty quickly : the bells ring ; the priest gives his blessing ; the Indians pay ; and then the bridal pair return to their pueblo, where they eat a few sweetmeats, take a sip of brandy, and then go about their ordinary business. The Spanish Creoles and Ladinos, however, celebrate their weddings with more pomp and show, and on leaving the church fire off rockets, and con- tinue their feasting and jollification half the day. The Indian women appeared to be almost all day long employed in climbing up and down the steep and difiicult path to the lake with their water pitchers. We visited this lake several times, and met crowds of them on the path cut in the precipitous volcanic rock down which also a great number of horses, mules, and cows were being led to water. Below, on the margin of the lake, were hundreds of brown women, occupied in getting water or washing their clothes; but the scenery around was indescribably wild and F 4 72 NICARAGUA. solemn. Vast andesit rocks rise abrupt and per- pendicular from the bosom of the lake ; and the barren grandeur of the stony wall is only occa- sionally relieved by the tropical vegetation which here and there has forced its way through the clefts and hangs its trailing lianas and bauhinias over the crag ; and by the gambols of the ring- tailed m^onkeys that scramble up and down to drink ; for the animals, too, suffer much from the prevailing w^ant of water. That of the lake has a peculiar taste, but is said not to be unwholesome. Since the Americans have begun to concern themselves about this almost forgotten isthmus country, a plan has been formed for relieving the people of Massaya from the everlasting toil and trouble of this water- carrying. Two French merchants who have been settled here for twenty years, issued, in November 1851, a prospectus of a company '•'■ por la distrihucion del aqua en la ciudad de Massaya^ It w^as to be started with a capital of 80,000 piastres in 8000 shares; a steam-engine to be sent for from France ; and the town to be easily and abundantly supplied. In this prospectus the population is taken at from 20,000 to 2.5,000, and it is calculated that PROPOSED WATER COMPANY. 73 at least 4000 women and children are daily em- ployed in the laborious and unhealthy occupation of fetching water from the lake. The quantity they obtain is said to be on an average about 12,000 caiitaros (the cantaro is about five gallons) ; and the company undertakes, with the aid of the steam-engine, to draw 64,000 cantaros, and to deliver it at the rate of sixteen cantaros the real. It is assumed that under these circumstances the consumption of water -would be greatly increased, and that with a daily receipt of 500 piastres a very satisfactory prospect would be afforded to shareholders ; but so many obstacles have arisen to the actual execution of the plan, that for the present there seems little hope of the poor Indian women being released from their weary task of carrying heavy water pitchers on their heads up a height of ] 200 feet. With the exception of this sad inconvenience of the want of water, this mountain plateau, on which both Massaya and the before-mentioned beautiful village of Xindiri are situated, must be regarded as a very favoured district. Lying from 1000 to 1500 feet higher than Granada, it is cooler and probably healthier ; and with a good road to the capital, which is but 74 NICARAGUA. tv\'elve miles off, and to the lake, it would find a ready market for the numerous productions which its rich soil brings forth in unusual quan- tity and excellence. The far greater prosperity and comfort of external existence in Massaya, seems even to have awakened something of the taste for the beautiful which is generally so strikingly deficient in these countries. Some of the better sort of Indian houses, where the ma- nufacture of the swinging mats is carried on, have arranged the kind of rope-walk required for it into beautiful regular avenues of banana, orange, or mango-trees ; and others have made a neat and tasteful arrangement of their pieces of ground, and surrounded them with cactus hedges. Nindiri lies about three miles north of Mas- saya, and the space between them is nearly filled up with haciendas and pueblos. The road leads throuirh the same lio;ht forest; but as, at the time of year when we passed through it, the water had become scarce, most of the animals had forsaken it, and it seemed lonely and dull. Even a bird was very rarely seen. The town of Managua, which we reached after a moderate day's jour- ney, lies on the southern shore of the lake to MANAGUA. 75 which it gives its name, and is said to have 10,000 or 12,000 inhabitants. Its distance from Massaya is about eight leagues, or twenty- four miles ; and it forms the centre of the level lake district extending eastward, without inter- ruption, to Lake Tipitapa, and westward to Matiares. In the year 1854. it was the seat of govern- ment, and the President Chamorro kept here the nucleus of the armed force with which he threat- ened the lovers of revolution in Leon. We took up our quarters in the hospitable mansion of Don Hyppolito Prato ; and his wife, a stately, portly dame, pla3^ed her part of hostess with nmch decorum, and with a sort of geniality not common among the New Spaniards. The house was large and clean, and the spacious court planted with oranges, bananas, and pine- apples. In spite of the strong sea breeze that was blowing from the north-east, the atmosphere in Managua was hot and dry. At eight o'clock in the morning the thermometer stood at 82° Fahr., and by noon it had risen to 9G°. I went down to the lake to get a bath, and found the thick- looking, yellowish-green water violently agitated 76 NICARAGUA. by the wind, though the waves were not so high as in the more extensive Lake of Xicaragua. The shore consists of beds of tuffa and con- glomerate, in layers of from a foot and a half to two feet thick ; it is an alluvial formation, containing remains of still living species. The mountain ranges to the north and east have not a picturesque outline, and the ridge of the Cordillera does not rise above 4000 feet. The declivity of the mountain towards the lake is sometimes wooded, bur in other parts naked and rocky ; and the promontory of Childepe, about a mile off ^lanagua, projects into the lake in a bold and striking form. Four arched headlands rise about 2000 feet above the water, the last approaching the vol- canic form and truncated, but showing no crater, and with no appearance of having ever been in ac- tion. On the shores, too, I found none of the heaps of pumice-stone so common in Nicaragua, and not a trace of shell-fish, though in fish of other kinds this great fresh-water lake abounds. I even saw caimans of eight or ten feet long, though not quite of such terrible appearance as Thomas Gage describes, floating on the surface of the water ; and they were so still, that if I had not LAKE MANAGUA. < t distinguished with my telescope their scaly ar- mour, I should not have known them from logs of wood. There were great numbers of herons and turtle-doves drinking at the brink of the lake, and a crowd of women and girls washing ; they were mostly Indians, and naked to the waist, with their hair hanorinof down : a little way off there were some young men bathing. In the low mountains south of Managua there are several small basin-shaped lakes, the largest of which, that of Xihapa. about two leagues off, is the crater of an ancient volcano, and it has on its rocky walls some of the old Indian sculptures. These lakes (except one which is salt) are full of fish, and are much used by the inhabitants for washing and bathing. Xone of them seem to have any mode of effluence, and they are mostly very deep. The journey from Managua to Leon lies through what is supposed to be one of the most dangerous districts in the country ; but I tra- velled it safely in company only with a single Indian, who led my two beasts of burden. During the first day we passed through dry woods, at a short distance from the shore of the lake; and when the path approached it, and 78 NICARAGUA. there was an opening in the forest, we caught gUmpses of some fine volcano scenery on the north- west, but otherwise the landscape was extremely monotonous. The lofty and still active volcano of Momotombo forms here a vast regular cone of beautiful proportions, only inferior to Orao- tepec ; its greatest breadth is from south- west to north-east; its summit is cut off, but no smoke was visible from its crater Avhen we saw it. At Matiares I found some poor quarters for the night in the house of a mulatto woman, who gave me a scanty supper of eggs and chocolate, for which she made me pay a Spanish piastre. The place had a small garrison on account of the robbers that haunt the neiorhbourino- forest, as well as to serve as a guard to the convicts who work here at road-making, chained two and two together, with heavy fetters on their ankles. There were more Ladinos and Sambos among them than Indians ; some of them with terribly deceitful and murderous-looking faces. The mulatto house swarmed so with vermin that, in spite of the gale that was blowing, I left it in the middle of the night, and lay down on the ground wrapped in a blanket, which did not however protect me from the A PATRIARCHAL FAMILY. 79 clouds of dust that the north wind brought with it. My Indian slept quite soundly in spite of the fleas, the inguas, and the roaring of the storm, and would not even have been up in the mornino: in time to load the mules, if I had not waked him. When he had given them some water, we set off in the direction of Pueblo Nuevo, where the plain passes into a hilly country consisting of horizontal alluvial beds, and rising to about 300 feet above the sea. The character of the forest was the same as that we had passed on the preceding day, and the voices of the turtle- doves were saluting the rising sun in plain- tive tones. My journal mentions, as the only phenomenon that struck me, the appearance of a colony of monk-apes: they are the least timid of all the species ; but yet even they usually retire at the sight of a human being, though not in such hurried leaps as their rela- tives the ring-tailed monkeys, nor with such abominable howls as some other species. This time, however, they remained sitting quietly on the ceiba-trees, and looked with apparent satis- faction at the biped and quadruped wayfarers as they passed. There was an old surly-looking 80 NICARAGUA. fellow (probably the patriarch of the family), and about twenty younger members, partly grouped about him on the same tree, partly on some neighbouring ones, where some of the most juvenile swung themselves about and chattered at us : and there was an elderly lady with a young one on her back who gave a screech or two, and flung some twigs from the tree, to ex- press either astonishment or anger at the sight of us. That these apes did not rush away as usual, may perhaps be attributed to the phlegm and love of repose of the aged head of the famil}'', who appeared to suffer from some of the infir- mities natural to his time of life, and did not like to be disturbed ; or it might be that this tribe was accustomed to the^ sight of men, and to not being disturbed by them. I felt con- siderably tempted to shoot the old she-ape, in order to make prize of her young one ; but my Indian, who noticed my movement with my gun, begged me not to do it, saying the flesh of these creatures smells unpleasantly, is very tough and bad to eat, and that, moreover, a particular curse rested upon the hunter who shot one of this white-headed race. He can FAMILY AFFECTION. 81 never get any large game for a whole year, but is sure to miss them if he is ever so close. Whilst my brown companion was thus pleading the cause of the ape family, there awoke in me a certain remorseful recollection that com- bined with his advocacy to incline me to com- passion. In the valley of the Rio Jesus Maria, on the western side of Costa Rica, I once shot a mother ape, who, when falling mortally wounded from a tree, threw herself upon her breast as if, it seemed to me, she was anxious even in death to guard from damage the poor little hairy fellow that was sitting upon her back. It Avas not hurt, and I took it with me to the rancho in which I and my companion were at that time living. But all my caresses, and the best ba- nana food I could get for it, never enabled it to get over the aversion it seemed to have for me. It could not, apparently, forgive me for the slaughter of its mother. Between Nagarote and Pueblo is the district especially haunted in war-time by hordes of banditti. Nagarote is a wretched Indian villao-e of mud huts thatched with palm-straw, and VOL. I. G 82 NICAEAGUA. where the very dirty and repulsive-looking in- habitants would sell us neither eo-o^s nor milk. Pueblo Nuevo is a larger place, with perhaps a thousand inhabitants of mixed Indians and Ladinos. A few Creoles live here too, and, as usual, are the owners of the shops and of the cleanest houses. One peculiar ornament of the place consists of the enormous cactus pillars, of from twenty to thirty feet high, which enclose the courts and gardens. No production of the tropics, not even the cocoa-palm, is so new and strange to the north- ern visitor as these. Looking at them from a little distance, he may really take them for artificial columns ; for it is only at about the height of twenty-five feet they become slender enough to wave slightly in the wind. They form the very best fence for property that can be desired ; and if they could be transplanted to the olive gar- dens of Italy and Provence, the proprietors might save the expense of their walls and the trouble of their array of broken glass. For the latter, nature has furnished the cacti with a most efficient substitute in the sharp thorns, four or five inches long, with which she has provided CACTI AT PUEBLO NUEVO. 83 them, and which might enable them to defy the boldest " fence-breaker " of the Xorth American prairies. I must own, however, I never saw these vegetable columns of such size and strength as at Pueblo Xuevo. G 2 84 NICARAGUA. CHAP. V LEON. Situation of the City. — Modern and ancient Freebooters. — A Democratic Bishop. — Leon in the Year 1665. — A luxurious Life. — Mahomet's Paradise. — The Catliedral of St. Peter. — A Church turned into a Citadel. — Indian Bishops. — A Bird's-eye View of Leon. — La Merced Recoleccion. — Subtiaba. — Tlie Population of Leon The Indians. — Cruelties of the Spaniards to the Natives. — Man-baiting. — The Hispano- Americans, and the Ex- piation of their Offences. The former capital of Nicaragua lies in a hot, but beautiful and fertile plain, between Lake Managua and the Pacific Ocean, not far from the cele- brated volcano of Marabios, from which the fiery subterranean powers have so often burst forth in unrestrained fury. The regular plan on which the city is built, and its broad streets, come upon you rather as a surprise, and preserve to it, even in its decay, some trace of its former grandeur. It covers more ground than the city of Havannah ; the houses are low but spacious, and surrounded AI?CIENT GRANDEUR OF LEON. 85 ^Yith courts and gardens. From its foundation by Hernandez de Cordova in 1523 to the present day, Leon has played an important part in the history of Central America ; and no town, not even the unfortunate Granada, has suffered more from political catastrophes. The freebooting ex- pedition of Walker, and the last revolution got up by Castellon against Charaorro, though the causes of much mischief, were still only trifles compared with the piratical attack of Dampier in 1685, in which he burnt the churches, convents, and palaces ; or the horrible scenes of the civil wa7 of 1823, which began with a night of St. Bartho- lomew. The numbers of mao-nificent buildino^s, half or entirely in ruins, testify to these things as well as to the former magnificence of Leon ; but its greatness has passed away for ever with the establishment of the independence of Cen- tral America ; the tocsin of freedom has been the knell of its glory. The most furious passions of faction have raged in its streets, and the well-kno^vn bishop Don Jorge Yeteri y Ungo, the head of the demo- cratic party, a man of great energy, and the most eloquent agitator of the country, used to go into the pulpit armed with sword and pistols, G 3 86 NICAEAGUA. and, in the sacred aisles of the cathedral, urge the people to an attack on the rival party. Thomas Gage, the renowned traveller and missionary before referred to, the only observer who in 1665 had ever succeeded in penetrating into the country in defiance of the gloomy sus- picion of the Spanish rulers and of the Inqui- sition, relates wonders concernino; the mao;nifi- cence of the capital of Nicaragua, and the life of luxurious pleasure led by its inhabitants in sight of the threatening volcano. It was, ac- cording to him, a land flowing with milk and honey, where life was all enjoyment; a city of stately houses with elegant verandahs; of gardens filled with exquisite flowers and fruits, where pleasure was the only pursuit of the voluptuous inhabitants, who shunned every kind of labour, and left to others the toil of commerce for which it was so advantageously situated. This city was, with one exception, the most im- portant in the vice-kingdom of Guatemala, and the seat of the provincial governor, of a numerous nobility, and of a still more numerous clergy. A large portion of the revenues and taxes flowed towards it; and the rich Spanish landowners, who forced the natives to ^vork harder for them PRESENT DESOLATION. 87 than the AYest Indian planters ever did their negroes, settled at Leon, where they formed a privileged caste, and wasted in revelry, in their haciendas, wdiat the groaning Indians earned for them by their toil under the burning sun. The mode of life customary in Leon obtained for it the appellation of " Mahomet's Paradise," which, it must be owned, sounds like a mockery to the present poverty-stricken population, who, but for their bananas and beans, might have died of hunger in the recent revolutionary times; and when you stand in its desolate streets, in which no sound of carriage-wheels, and scarcely that of a horse's hoof, breaks the gloomy silence, it is hard to believe in its former luxury and splendour. Its palaces, the bishop's only excepted, are lying in ruins ; whichever way you look, you see signs of the dreariest neglect and decay ; and the few inhabitants that are to be seen usually pass each other in gloomy silence. The cathedral of Leon, which stands in the great square in the middle of the town, is con- sidered the most important piece of architecture in all Spanish America. It was only completed in 1743, had taken thirty-seven years in build- G 4 88 NICARAGUA. ing, and is said to have cost 5,000,000 of Spa- nish piastres. It is in the Renaissance style, massive and imposing, but somewhat lieavy in its effect. That it has withstood the power of all earthquakes for above a hundred years may be regarded as a sufficient proof of its strength and solidity ; and it has also been subjected to other trials, for in every revolution cannon have been directed ao;ainst it. Thev have done it but little damage, however ; and as for musket-balls, they have not much more effect on it than hail- stones. Even the great conflagration of 1823 — when the partisans of the two factions ran about the streets, setting fire to churches, palaces, con- vents, and private houses — did but blacken a little the massive walls of the cathedral; and it lias served as a citadel, and its terraced roof been planted 'with cannon in all the civil wars. The interior of this cathedral has been described by both Stephens and Squier the American resident, and the latter has given a tolerably good drawing of it. An extremely beautiful panoramic view of the town and country round is obtained from this terrace. The eye ranges to the w^est over Chi- nandega and Realejo to the blue expanse of the VOLCANIC RANGES. 89 Pacific world of waters ; nortliward, the view of the Gulf of Fonseca is intercepted by the vol- canic range of the Marabios, extending from the giant Moniotombo, near Lake Managua, to the volcano el Viego (the Ancient One), but se- parated by a plain from the Cosequina group. Between these two colossal cones, the extremities of this remarkable volcanic range, rises the beau- tifid peak of the Telica ; and the whole range is distinguished from those of Costa Rica and the southern part of Nicaragua, by its baldness, its volcanic activity having been probably much more recent. Rugged, wild, and rent, its decli- vities, covered with lava, have hitherto resisted all the crumbling influences of the atmosphere ; and in 18i:9 there was an eruption from one of these volcanoes, whicli was witnessed by Mr. Squier, and of which he has given a most pictu- resque description ; but no one of the nine showed any signs of activity in February, 1854. The Indian town of Subtiaba, which was in existence when the country was first discovered, and is still inhabited by a pure native population, is close to Leon ; and, indeed, forms a part of it, though it has a separate municipal government. It has a large church, regarded as, next to the 90 KICARAGUA. cathedral, the finest in the country; and the Indians are not only more religious, but more civilised than in any other town of Central Ame- rica. Here, at the time of the Spanish conquest, resided the mighty cacique of Xagrando, and a spacious temple with idols stood in the place now occupied by the church of La Merced. The monk Fray Francisco de Bobadilla, so often mentioned in the history of this country, and who was animated by so fiery a zeal for the propagation of the faith, burnt the temple, destroyed the idols, and, by the combined influ- ence of persuasion, threats, and holy water, induced the cacique, with 40,000 of his subjects, to be transformed from " idolaters and children of the devil " into good baptized Christians. The present population of Leon is about 20,000, — one-third of what it was under the Spanish rule ; and even if that of the neighbour- ing Indian villages should be included, it could not be made to amount to more than 30,000. Among these there are not at most more than 1500 persons of pure Spanish descent, and they do not, as in Granada, occupy themselves with com- merce; indeed, the trade of Leon has either gone altogether to ruin, or Avithdrawn itself towards INDIANS OF THE PLALS' OF LEOX. 91 the sea-coast, where a Hamburg mercantile house and some English ones have established depots of goods, though they are not secure from plun- derers in times of revolution. The Ladinos are more numerous than Indians in Leon Proper, as the latter are chiefly gardeners and tillers of the soil ; and they supply the market abundantly with the vegetables and fruits of the tropic zone, especially bananas, pine-apples, and water-melons. All foreigners settled here, and persons ac- quainted with the country, — in particular the British Consul, Manning, who has lived in Xica- raoTia for thirtv vears, and traversed it in all directions, — agree in the opinion that the Indians of the plain of Leon are the best part of the population ; the most peaceful, industrious, and honest. The noble Toltek blood would seem to have remained purer in them than in others, with less mixture of the Chichemek ; their complexion is much lighter than that of the Indians of Rivas, who bear a very indifferent character among the native races. The Indians mostly remain passive in the qW}\ wars, and take no part in the strife unless they are compelled by the military chiefs, or excited by agitation from the pulpit. 92 NICARAGUA. This part of Nicaragua was at the time of the Spanish conquest particularly populous and well cultivated ; the native towns were not so large and magnificent as in the kingdoms of the Quiches and Aztecs, but the inhabitants were considerably advanced in civilisation, built them- selves neat palm-huts as well as temples, and formed under their caciques regularly organised communities ; but inhuman treatment by their white conquerors has enfeebled their minds and diminished their numbers, even more here than in Peru and Mexico. One of the most faithful chroniclers and an eye-witness of the condition of the Indians under Spanish rule, was the noble Bartolomeo de las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, who visited the province of Nicaragua and its capital in the 17th century, and has described the terrible tyranny exercised over the natives by Pedrarius Davila. The Indians, without distinction of age, sex, or rank, were compelled to perform the services of slaves for their Spanish masters. Grey-haired old men, women and children, nobles, and even caciques, had to labour almost day and night in tilling the ground, building haciendas, carrying heavy loads of timber, &c., to the harbour. CKUELTIES OF THE SPANIARDS. 93 Thousands sunk under the cruel fatigue they had to under2;o, and the number of them trans- ported as slaves to Panama and Peru is esti- mated by Las Casas at half a million. The pen shrinks, he says, from describing the barbarous tyranny of the governor and his tools. The smallest excuse was thought sufficient for cutting down an Indian, whether man or woman : if their contribution of corn were not punctually de- livered, or if any part of their labour was not performed to the satisfaction of their masters, they were immediately condemned to death. The chronicler Oviedo relates instances of in- ventive cruelty in this Davila that even surpass the deeds of Pizarro. In 1528 a circumstance had occurred that afforded some ground of suspicion against the Indians. The treasurer, Alonzo de Peralta, had, in company with some other Spaniards, gone on an excursion from Leon to some of the Indian villages of the plain, and had not since been heard of. All attempts to discover the murderers failed, and thereupon Davila sent his soldiers to seize seventeen caciques of the surrounding country; and, though there was not the slightest evidence against them, the monster condemned 94 NICARAGUA. them to the most torturing death he could devise. They were to be brought to the public square, and, in the sight of the people, torn to pieces by dogs. This spectacle took place on the 16th of June, 1528, and the Spaniards, accustomed to the horrible exhibition of their auto-da-fes^ came in crowds to witness it. By way of improving the entertainment of the spectators, the tortures of the Indian princes were to be prolonged in the manner of the bull-fights (another means of train- ing the people to cruelty), and each of the princes was provided with a stick to keep off his assailants as well as he could. At first four or five young dogs were let loose on each, and against these the Indians defended themselves ; but just as the un- fortunate sufferers thought they had gained the victory, half a dozen older and more experienced bloodhounds were urged into the arena, and in a few moments they had seized the caciques, dragged them to the ground, and torn them to pieces. All the seventeen perished, and their bodies were left on the place for the dogs to devour. The actual perpetrators of these crimes often escaped punishment (in this life, at least), and RETRIBUTION. 95 preserved their health and their appetite un- impaired by the stings of conscience. These chivalrous, devout miscreants of Castile, who never neglected to repeat their evening prayers upon the cross of their sword-hilts before lying down to rest, did not always meet with the fate of a Pizarro or an Antonio Peralta. Their lives, which had been a series of alternate fero- cious crimes and sensual indulgences, were fre- quently closed in the odour of sanctity, not un- attended by the consolations of the Church. But great historical misdeeds are sure to be visited on the nation guilty of them, if not on the in- dividuals ; and this Spanish- American race of tyrants and oppressors seems to have been cursed by the incapacity of learning any other mode of acquiring wealth than that of robbery and murder. They never understood the art of association and co-operative labour; their de- scendants, the Creoles, are constantly becoming poorer and poorer, and the last lingering prestige of their former greatness is now passing away from them. In Guatemala, the first city of Central America, an Indian chief is now the lord and master, before whom the posterity of the proud Spaniards have to crawl in the dust. In 96 NICAEAGUA. Nicaragua, San Salvador, and Honduras, half- Indians have made their way into the offices of state ; and but for the natural privilege of the superiority of the nobler white race, the Creoles would probably have altogether disappeared. That they are rapidly declining is obvious ; but a storm is threatening them from the north that may bring their fate to a speedier termination. The unamiable, but incomparably bold, energetic, and active nation that has carried its republican banner in triumph from the Hudson to the Valley of the Sacramento, is not unlikely before long to drive the progeny of the Spaniards with little ceremony from their blood-stained inlie- ritance. After having clipped off considerable portions of Mexico, they are now making a similar attempt on the Isthmus of Central Ame- rica, and using as the instrument for this purpose the scum and refuse of their great cities, the bands of Filibusters, who may be regarded as the Cossacks of North America, and Avhose chief streno^th lies in the word annexation. More powerfully and more irresistibly will these at- tempts be repeated by the increase of their navigation and the extension of their trade across this world's passage ; and most of all by INDIANS OF THE ISTHMUS. 97 their superior genius for colonisation, in "which art the warlike conquerors from Castile and Andalusia were mere bunglers. How, then, is it possible for the sloth and corruption of their off- spring to stand against such a tide as is now rolling in on them ? But the pure Indian race being peaceful and industrious, an agricultural and not a hunting nation, like the tribes of North America, may not improbably continue to vegetate under the rule of the new conquerors for hundreds of years after the Creoles of Nica- ragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and San Salvador have been swept away. VOL. I, 98 NICARAGUA. CHAP. VI. THE STATE OF NICARAGUA. A District in ill Repute. — An unpleasant Meeting. — Com- pany on the Road. — Riverado Pelon. — An edifying Conversation with the Commandant of Leon. — Attempt to visit the Volcano of Marabios frustrated. — A Protest, that shares the Fate of most Protests. — Persons who cannot be drowned. — An Advantage of the Democratic Party of Leon. — The culpable Loitering of the Natives, and the Seven-Leagued Boots of the Yankees. — Com- mon Instruments to a noble Purpose. — Chinandega. — The Harbour of Realejo. The district between Managua and Leon passed, when we were in the country, for one of the most insecure in Nicaragua ; and the part of the road between Matiares and Pueblo Nuevo was especially distinguished in this respect. The most worthless part of the popvdation — the refuse of the Ladinos and Sambos, the sweepings of the revolutions and civil wars — haunted it continually ; and most of all when, by the fierce PDBLIC MORALS IN NICARAGUA. 99 strife of parties in Leon and Granada, anarchy was established en permanence. Partisans of both sides, cowardly hirelings who deserted from one to the other, vagabonds and professional thieves from the towns and " pueblos," and others who had just discovered that robbery was an easier employment than working all day in the haciendas, — all this good company was to be met with in abundance in the years 1853 and 1854, under the adminis- tration of Charaorro, who would sometimes draw the reins tight, and make an effort to establish order, and at others employ as his political agents the most notorious rogues in the coun- try, and bestow on them his civil and military appointments. Before leaving Costa Rica, a fortunate little state Avhich has maintained quite an exceptional position among the New Spanish republics, we had been warned of the character of the neigh- bour state. " In that low, hot country on the other side of Guanacaste," said the German Dr. St r (who now holds an important position in St. Jose), " you will learn to prize the one you are now leaving. Here, you know, a child might pass in safety with a golden diadem from one H 2 100 NICARAGUA. sea to the other ; in Nicaragua the calf is not safe in the cow. Whenever you see two men standing together on a lonely road, take my ad- vice, and cock your pistols. Distrust everybody, from the highest officer of the republic to the lowest peon. He who will not rob you openly will cheat you secretly, or overreach you in some way, you may depend upon it." The Doctor knew both countries well ; but he had been unluck^^ in several speculations in Nicaragua, and this may very probably have given a touch of bitterness to his judgment con- cernino^ it ; thouorh I have heard the same thino^ from others who could have had no such bias. You do reallv find a wonderful chancje in cha- racter as well as physiognomy when you cross the wooded range of uninhabited mountains that separates the two countries. At dawn of day, on the 26th of February, 1854, I left the village of Matiares in company with a single Indian, and took the narrow path across the wooded heights in the direction of Pueblo Nuevo ; and, with my preconceived ideas on the subject, was rather startled to meet sud- denly at a turn of the path a half-naked In- dian, with his gleaming machete uplifted, but MUY MALA GENTE. 101 whether with hostile intent, or only with the peaceful purpose of cutting from the tree some fodder for his cow, I could not, in the dimness of the forest, see clearly enough to determine. My hand went to my pistol ; but when the In- dian saw the gesture, he struck his knife into the ground, and made me a peaceful salutation. He did not, however, seem surprised at my sus- picion, perhaps because in this district travellers are usually suspicious ; and, after my guide and he had exchanged a few words, we proceeded quietly on our way. Half a mile before Nagarote the hills, which are of alluvial formation, sink very low ; a slender little stream is seen winding through the bottom of the ravine ; and on the right, between the trees, you see the blue gleaming mirror of the Managua lake. On the bank of the stream were standing four Ladinos armed with knives, of course, but otherwise also of very doubtful aspect ; and, mindful of the warning I had re- ceived, I took my double-barrel from ray shoul- der, and laid it ready across the neck of my horse, calling out at the same time some words in a loud tone, as if I had some companions behind. The Ladinos looked at me with a H 3 102 NICARAGUA. sullen expression, and without making any salu- tation ; but they saw that my gun was point- ing in their direction, and the banditti of this country, Avho can seldom muster any but very poor firearms themselves, have, as I have said, a great respect for a good double-barrel. They drew a little aside, and began to talk and ges- ticulate to one another ; and in the meantime I and my guide were making the best of our way past them. At a point where the road rose a little I turned and looked back, and saw that the fellows were still standing on the same spot. I asked my Indian guide what sort of people he took them for; and he answered, " J/z/y mala ge7ite — very bad people ! " and I noticed that he had all the time kept his hand on the hilt of his machete. We had passed the greater part of the road to Pueblo Nuevo, the woods had become liiihter and were varied by little dry savannahs in which stood some scattered Indian huts, and I was just thinking I was now safe from any risk of an ad- venture, when I heard the sound of a horse's hoofs behind me, and immediately afterwards a salutation of the rider — " Buenas tardesf cabal- lero — Beso sus manos." The phrase was ut- RIVERADO PELON. 103 tered, with a sort of grinning civility, by a man who had the most decidedly villanous counte- nance that I had ever met with in the country. He was a Sambo (a cross between the Indian and the Negro) of the name of Riverado Pelon, and no less a person than a captain in the service of the President of the republic, whose acquaintance I had had the honour of making a few days before on the road between Nindiri and Managua, when he was in the suite of a staff officer of rank. The audacious though sinister expression of the man's face had forcibly struck both me and my travelling companion on our first meeting. He was now, however, full of compliments and civilities, and wished, he said, to travel to Leon, whither he had been sent by the President, in my company. He thought that, to avoid the heat of the day, we should do well to travel in the night; and he promised that at Pueblo Nuevo, whither we were going, he would procure me fresh horses and a good supper ; and, according to the custom of the country, all sorts of amiable and flattering expressions accompanied the pro- posal ; but all the while he was uttering them, a certain sneering, mocking look was never H 4 104 NICARAGUA. absent from his face. I received his civilities very coolly, and tried all sorts of ways to get rid of him, but to no purpose. If we rode fast, so did he ; — if we loitered, he held in his power- ful horse to keep us company. At Pueblo Nuevo it was inevitable that we should alight at the same posada, and then I in- formed the disagreeable fellow in very few words that I declined his proposal and would not travel in the night ; for my suspicion of him had been further increased by a conversation he had had with two armed horsemen just before we entered the village. As it was not yet late, and I heard the cry of birds close at hand, I could not resist the temp- tation of a ramble in the neighbouring woods : so, taking my gun, I set off, having first placed my luggage and my pistols in the apartment of the landlord, where I considered them safe, as, even in this land of rogues, they usually would have been. As soon as ever I returned, however, I perceived that my pistols were gone ; and on examining my carpet-bag, I found that it had been broken open, and several articles stolen from it. My host declared he knew nothing of the matter, but admitted that Kiverado Pelon, A ROBBER IN THE PAY OF GOVERNMENT. 105 with whom he was personally acquainted, and whom he had taken for a friend of mine, had been alone in the room. Some of the neighbours, it appeared, had seen him mount his horse and ride away with my pistols in his girdle. The question was now, what was to be done ? This impudent theft, in a house, excited some indignation even here, where highway robberies are mere matters of course. The alcalde of the place was fetched, but he did not give us much assistance ; I therefore had a written statement of the affair made out, and properly attested, and the next day rode oiF as fast as I could to Leon, where Colonel Flores was then acting as Commandant. The only German who, to my knowledge, was then residing in the city, was a Dr. Theodore Wissmer, a physician and apothecary ; and to him I first turned for counsel. Fortunately, he at- tended the Commandant in his medical capacity, and now immediately went to him and informed him of the robbery. Senor Flores, however, replied that he had no power over Riverado Pelon, who was certainl}'' a very dangerous man, but in the personal service of the President, Chamorro, to whom in various party struggles lOb NICARAGUA. he had rendered essential service as spy, agent, recruiting officer, &c. ; and lately, in particular, when he had obtained a number of false witnesses to make a declaration upon oath, against some heads of the opposition, and so afforded the President a pretext for banishing them from the country. " Advise your friend," said the Commandant, " not to meddle with this man ; and to think himself very lucky that he was not stripped of everything he had." Upon being informed of this curious magis- terial advice, I went to the Commandant myself. After the exchange of the usual salutations and polite phrases without the smallest real meaning in them, I produced my English letters of re- commendation, and laid them before him ; and then the followino- conversation besjan : — " A countryman of yours has been telling me that you have had a disagreeable adventure with Kiverado Pelon. My dear sir, I am excessively sorry. This Pelon is indeed a most thorough villain ! " " Yes, Commandant ; and I hope that you will help me to obtain justice and to recover my property." INTERVIEW WITH THE COMMANDANT. 107 " I regret very much that that is out of my power. This Riverado Pelon is a most danger- ous man ; he is closely connected with all the cheats and robbers in the country ; and, more- over, he is now travelling on private business for the President." The Commandant looked me in the face as he said these words ; and as he could, without much difficulty, perceive my disgust, he added, sooth- ingly : " It is a hard case, indeed, that we have to spare men of this sort because we have need of them. Yes ; this Pelon is certainly a most notorious rascal, an arch villain — in a word, a Sambo!" " But surely," I exclaimed, " the President will not take under his protection a common highwayman, who plunders an unoffending stranger recommended to his government ? I have witnesses to prove the truth of my accusa- tion. Will you not at least send for them and examine them ?" " Ah ! you seem to have very little idea of what the revolutions have made of us and our poor country. Every means and every instru- ment is considered good if it will serve party 108 NICAKAGUA. purposes. This Pelon has made himself useful to the President, and so he does just what he pleases. You had better take care that he does not get you murdered, for all the bad fellows in the country are at his command. Here, in the city of Leon, indeed, I can protect you ; but my power does not extend a pistol-shot beyond it." I threatened that I would seek the interven- tion of the British consul. " It will not avail you anything," said the Commandant, drily. " If we have not ourselves power to punish thieves, what do you suppose a foreign consul can do ? Be patient, and submit to circumstances. If you stay much longer in our country you will find that you must do so. These accursed revolutions have upset all law and justice, and it will be long before we can undertake to put down robbers, or even to do without their help. Once more I advise you to have patience. Do not irritate this Riverado Pelon ; and when you leave Leon, don't let any one know in what direction you are going. I dread this man myself, but he is useful to the President. I tell you there is no greater brignnd in the country. He is a Sambo ! " (No hay RIVERADO PELON AGAIN. 109 un mas grande ladron en este p<2i'5. Es un Sambo !) After this, it was not of much use to think of prosecuting my complaint any further; but I remained some days in Leon, in hopes of being able to make an excursion to the volcano of Marabios. My landlord, however, an old Spaniard, and an honest man, to whom I had mentioned the affair of the robbery, came to tell me, with much anxiety, that he had seen Don Riverado Pelon in earnest conversation with the owner of the mules that I had hired, and on this account it was thought prudent for me to re- nounce my design. I resolved now to leave Leon quite quietly, engaged other mules, and at midnio^ht set out in the direction of Chinandefra ; but I must own I did not breathe quite freely till I found myself on the soil of San Salvador, where public affairs were at that time in a tolerably tranquil state, and there was conse- quently more private security than in Nicaragua. From San Salvador I wrote, by the advice of the Prussian vice-consul, M. Hornmeyer, to the President, Chamorro, giving him the history of the affair and demanding justice and compensa- 110 NICAEAGUA. tion. But I took nothing by my motion, and never had any answer to my letter. General Chamorro had, it is true, enough business on his hands just then; for he was expecting at the same time an invasion from Honduras, and an insurrection in Leon. When it took place he was shamefully beaten in the first onset, and fled to Granada, where he defended himself for five months in barricaded streets, until he was at length overpowered by his rival Castellon. Riverado Pelon had met bis fate some time before, or so at least I was told by a merchant resident at Chinandega, whom I met half a year afterwards at the house of Mr. Wyke, the British charge d'affaires at Guatemala. The villain had fallen into the hands of Castellon, who, without further cere- mony, had him hung. It does not appear, from the facts I have related, that the members of the democratic party of Leon were at all superior in point of morals to their conservative rivals, although Mr. Manning, who knew the country well, maintained that they were; but at any rate they did not seem to enter- tain the same virulent hatred of foreigners. They coquetted, indeed, with North America, though THE AMERICANS IN THE ISTHMUS. Ill certainly only for the purposes of their own selfish ambition ; and when the sanguinary civil war seemed to be going against them, it was they who called in the aid of Walker and his Filibusters. There can be no doubt that the plans pursued b}'' the Americans for the extension of their domi- nion and their principles are often subversive of every national right ; but if ever the principle of the end justifying the means (which has been adopted by others as well as by them) could be admitted, it would be here, where a country which by its position, its structure, and its wonderful natural endowments, might be one of the first in the world, has been made by the Spanish race, who have possessed it for three centuries and a half, little better than a wilder- ness and a den of thieves. Of Chinandega, which I reached on the first evening after leaving Leon, I have little to say. It is a large, straggling town, with about 11,000 inhabitants, and with more trade than any other in the country, except Granada. The harbour- town, Realejo, three leagues off, seemed likely to rise rapidly when the Californian transit took this direction ; but it has declined since the 112 NICARAGUA. route by Virgin Bay and San Juan del Sur has been adopted in preference. It has at present a population of about a thousand persons, in two hundred houses and huts ; and some English merchants, a Hamburg one, and some specula- tive Spaniards, Italians, and Frenchmen, have established themselves here, as well as a German medical doctor. Some of the houses are hand- somely built with upper stories and galleries ; and in a rather desolate-looking square stands a church, in the Moorish style, said to have been built in the sixteenth century. It has a very decayed appearance ; its walls are dirty, and even sooty ; weeds are shooting up high over its vaulted roof; and its high altar is placed in a low, dark niche. Outside the door is an inscrip- tion in English, in large letters, requesting foreign visitors, when they enter it, to " take off their hats, and refrain from smoking, or any other indecorous behaviour;" a caution probably in- tended for the Californians. It is unfortunate for this town that the marshy nature of the coast prevented its being built close to the sea ; and it is, in fact, almost a league from the real harbour. 113 CHAP. VII. POLITICAL CONDITION, AGRICULTURE AND TRADE. Effects of Party Strife. — Financial Distress. — State of Edu- cation. — Of Agricultural Production. — Culture of Cacao and Tobacco. — Ornamental Dye and Building Woods. — Breeding of Cattle — Mines and Metals. — Gold Mines of Chontales. — Coal. — Lead. — Copper. — '1 rade in Exports. — Imports from Europe, North America, 8ec. — Realejo. — San Juan del Sur. — San Juan del Norte, or Greytown. Since the clay of the declaration of independence, Nicaragua has scarcely enjoyed a moment's tran- quillity ; its political authority and its trade have declined, and the morals of its inhabitants and their circumstances have alike deteriorated under the blighting influence of internal strife. What makes the matter worse is, that the struggles which have rent this beautiful country have been no contests for principle — no battle for freedom and the right ; but miserable squabbles between the inhabitants of Leon and Granada for the privileges of government and the VOL. I. I 1 1 4 NICARAGUA. upper hand in the state. The Leon party, indeed, calls itself the Ejercito democratico, and justifies its proceedings by the pretended violation of popular rights on the part of its rivals, who profess more conservative principles : but the one has no more real zeal for liberty, than the other has for law and order, and the objects of both are alike selfish; and, as might be expected, the struggle has less the character of a national movement than of a petty family quarrel, in which the mean and envious tendencies of the New Spaniards are unpleasantly manifested. Few of them have any notion of true freedom or patriot- ism ; but nobody likes to have any other than one of his own relations for the head of the state, or that any other town than the one he was born in should become the seat of govern- ment, and enjoy the material advantages apper- taining to that position. This political narrow- mindedness and egotism will afford a key to many of the deplorable events of which Central America has been the theatre almost ever since the Spanish rule was thrown off: one town has envied another, one village owed a grudge to its neighbour on account of certain advantages to which it deemed itself entitled. The citizens of JEALOUS RIVALRY AMONG THE CITIES. 115 Leon and Granada, of San Jose and Cartago, of Tequigalpa and Comayagua, of San Salvador and San Miguel, of Guatemala and Quisaltenango, have been continually engaged in a series of little duels ; and where the flames of envy, hatred, and malice have not broken out into open war, they have offered perpetual obstacles to every kind of improvement. In no one of the five states did this mean jealousy display itself in a more openly hostile and invidious manner than in Nicaragua ; and its idle, quarrelsome, and passionate population seems now to have acquired quite a taste for the disorder, lawlessness, and excitement of civil strife.* * The melancholy political condition of Nicaragua cannot be better described than in the words of one of its own minis- ters, in a report made to the Chambers in 1853. '^ JVada existe," he says, speaking of the numerous treaties made with the other Central American States, " nada existe sino la experiericia de nuestra disgracia, pero iina experiencia ciega que solo alienta personalidades y local'isinos miserahles, en donde vemos e?i pugna tin Jioinbre contra otro, una contra otra familia, un pueblo contra otro departemento, y con tal eterogenidad de ititereses jamas podra formarse de extos elementos un estado." — Report presented to the Legis- lative Chambers of Nicaragua, February 16th, 1853. 1 2 116 NICARAGUA. When we visited Managua, the then seat of government, in the beginning of 1854, Don Frato Chamorro had been President for nine months, and by great energy and the most unsparing severity had maintained tranquillity for an un- usual time. From the conversation we had with him we were led to entertain some hopes that the future might have better things in store ; but before four months more had passed, the Presi- dent was engaged in a furious civil war ; all in- tercourse between the two capitals, Leon and Granada, was cut oiF; trade was completely stag- nant ; the roads were unsafe from the crowds of deserters ; and the prospects of peace and a stable government were more remote than ever. It was after the death of Chamorro that North Americans were for the first time seen among the combatants; and, what was a very curious circumstance, and of mournful augury for the cause of freedom, they were fighting on both sides, and frequently opposed to each other. Another main cause of the critical condition of Nicaragua is the shattered state of the finances, which were, during the last session, in such con- fusion that no report at all was laid before the Chambers. The chief sources of revenue are SOURCES OF REVENUE. 117 the duties on exports and imports, the monopoly of gunpowder, stamps, and spirituous liquors, and the sale of foreign wines. The two latter, it appears, are always more productive in pro- portion to the increase of distress and immo- rality among the people — a consideration in itself sufficient to point out their unfitness for a source of profit to the state. They were in 1854 farmed out to two brothers, mulattoes, resident in Granada, who had paid a high sum for the privilege, but had ample means of making themselves amends. From these sources of revenue the whole ex- penditure of the state has to be defrayed, in ad- dition to the interest on the public debt ; and as they are often found insufficient for these pur- poses, the debt is constantly on the increase. The capital of the country is too small, and there is too little patriotic feeling, for any attempt on the part of individuals to free the state from its dilemma ; no credit is any more to be obtained from foreign countries, — indeed the foreign credi- tors are becoming pressing '.or the liquidation of existing claims, — and it does not really appear how, without a sacrifice of national independence, this beautiful Xicaragua can save itself from the I 3 118 NICARAGUA. abyss into which party spirit, selfishness, and the indolence of the masses have plunged it. In this extremity the only hope appears to be in the United States. " The need is great, and the Yankees are near ! " It can hardly be supposed that, in the state the country has been in for many years, there should have been much done for education. There are two universities, at Leon and Granada, of which the first has a library of only 1500 volumes, the other no library at all ; and the instruction afforded in them is stated, in a report of the minister of the interior in 1853, to be extremely defective. The expenses are defrayed partly from old endow- ments, and partly by a fee of twelve dollars a year from each pupil ; but, from the scantiness of the receipts, the professional chairs are very badly filled, and the institutions are falling more and more into decay and discredit, so that many of the more opulent families prefer sending their sons to graduate at Guatemala. Besides these two universities, as they are called, there are, in the whole republic, sixty primary schools for EDUCATION. 119 boys, with a total of 2800 pupils ; about a hun- dredth of the population. There is no attempt in these schools to teach anything more than reading and arithmetic, and in some few cases writing, but this is on account of the ex^jense of writing materials. Female education is, of course, in a still more deplorable condition, and there are not more than five girls' schools in the whole country. After the abolition of the convents in 1829, Morazan devoted a great part of these funds to the purposes of education, and for a time it seemed to be making rapid progress ; but this progress was soon checked by the miserable party quarrels, and the money diverted to other purposes. There is, perhaps, scarcely a people on the earth that has obtained so small an advantage from the wealth bestowed on it by nature as the people of Nicaragua ; and were it not that the earth yields spontaneously most of what is necessary to life, the majority of the inhabitants would probably, before now, have died of hunger. One would suppose that a country uniting within itself many of the advantages of two hemispheres, and whose soil is of the most exuberant fertility, must at I 4 120 NICARAGUA. least have been able, in some one branch of cul- ture, to attain surpassing excellence, and thereby have promoted national as well as individual prosperity ; yet the fact is, chiefly in consequence of the everhisting political disturbances, that its agriculture is decUning, that its production of corn is scarcely sufficient for its own consumption, and that even its foreign trade, notwithstanding the splendid geographical position of Nicaragua, is rather retrograding than advancing. Ten years ago the yearly produce of indigo in the lowlands of Chinandego, Leon, Rivas, and Granada, amounted to 750,000 lbs., and it was sold at a dollar a pound. Now most of the in- digo fields are lying was'e and desolate. In the Departemento Oriental, including the capital Granada, is the greatest amount of agricultural activity; and since this department has become the seat of government, besides being tlie first in point of intelligence, more attention has been paid to statistical details than elsewhere. It is indeed the only part of the country where people seem to know anything at all of the amount of production and consumption, or of the state of the population ; and even for this, I must, in the absence of more recent authentic details, have AGRICULTURAL TRODUCTION. 121 recourse to a statement drawn up in the year 1847 by the then prefect, Don Jose del Monte- negro, and which was obtained for us by the kindness of the fervent patriot Dr. Pedro de la Rocha of Granada. It is very indicative of the state of national economy in Nicaragua, that in its richest, most populous department, extending over more than 2810 square leagues, the capital employed in agriculture only amounts to 600,000 dollars, that invested in land to 232,000. and in trade to 450,000. Cattle-breeding employs 900,000, but this is very trifling in comparison with the im- mense extent of land devoted to it. Of the 208,700 fanegas^ of maize raised, 177,000 we find are consumed in the department as well as 19,000 head of cattle, which would give about forty pounds of beef yearly for each person ; but the consumption of the villages is very much less, so that the greater part must be reckoned to the town. Of foreign cotton the calculated consumption is twenty-five ells for each individual. This statement, however, refers, as 1 have said, to the * The fanega is 6 cwt. 122 NICARAGUA. condition of the country ten years ago ; there has been no public document of the kind since, and trade, agriculture, and industry have alike lan- guished under the blighting influence of war and civil discord. Corn, rice, sugar, coffee, cotton, cacao, tobacco, are mostly grown only for home consumption, and the export trade has no advantage from these articles, though they might be made rich sources of national prosperity ; and almost as little use is made of the immense riches of the coast districts in medicinal plants, such as sarsaparilla, vanilla, ipecacuanha, rhubarb, tamarinds, &c., which nature seems almost to force on the people's acceptance. The cacao (Theobroma Cacao, Lin.), which was found in the country by the Spanish conquerors, and among all cultivated plants requires the greatest and most equable warmth, is grown, for the most part, only in the low, marshy districts, and does not occupy more than 3000 manzanas of land.* The most favourable situation for it is in the Palmas district, and what is called the Con- secuit territory. There are not in the whole * The manzana is equal to two English acres. CULTURE OF CACAO. 123 country more than forty-five or fifty cacao plan- tations, each containing on an average 40,000 trees, so that on the whole there may be reckoned about 2,000,000 of fruit-bearing cacao-trees. They are seldom more than twenty feet high, and between every two there is planted a tree of about sixty feet high to protect them. This is called the Madre Cacao^ and the three trees together a casa. About 500 of these casas stand on a manzana of land. The cacao-tree bears at seven or eight years old, and goes on for forty or fifty years, yielding three harvests a year, — the first in January, the second in May, and the third in September. Each tree gives about thirty pounds of nuts at each harvest, worth in money seven or eight dollars. The numerous oval pods often contain as many as sixty nuts, and a single labourer can do all that is required for the care and cultivation of a thousand trees. The usual market price of cacao here is, for the cajuela of twenty -five pounds, twenty reals; or for sixty nuts, "twelve handfuls," fivepence-farthing. About two acres of land planted with cacao-trees are, or were, worth 1000 dollars. The bulk of the cacao produced in Nicaragua is consumed in the 124 NICARAGUA. state itself, and only a small part finds its way to San Salvador and Costa Rica. In bad years, indeed, the home demand sometimes exceeds the supply, and it has to be imported from Guaya- quil; but the use of coffee instead of chocolate is beginning to prevail in this country. In many families it is now taken as the first meal in the morning, and after dinner, and chocolate only at luncheon and supper. The lower class of people have also another use for the cacao-nuts ; they make them serve as cur- rency, one nut being considered equal to the for- tieth part of a medio. In small trading transac- tions they are so regularly employed as money that you sometimes see scarcely any other in the fruit markets, so that in Nicaragua it is literally true that money grows upon the trees. Next to cacao, tobacco is the most important article of cultivation ; it is of excellent quality, and yields two harvests in the year ; for the first the seed is sown in May and reaped in August, and for the second sown in October and reaped in February. The most considerable tobacco plan- tations are in the neighbourhood of Ma^saya, where, it is calculated, there are 15,000,000 of tobacco plants ; and also near Matagalpa, where ARTICLES OF EXPORT. 125 the exact quantity is not known. A thousand plants yield, in the two harvests, between 250 and 300 lbs. of tobacco. Fifteen hundred plants may be cultivated on a manzana of land, but the planter has to pay to the state a tax of five dollars for every thousand. Of this article, also, little more is raised than suffices for home consumption. The most valuable exports of Nicaragua con- sist, not of those things that human industry produces with the help of nature, but of what nature produces altogether, without requiring any exertion from man ; for instance, dye and ornamental and other woods, which are prin- cipally obtained in the neighbourhood of the west coast ; the English house of Manninor and Co. is at the head of these undertakings. About 150 tons of mahogany, Brazil, and other useful and valuable woods, are yearly shipped at the two western ports of Nicaragua, as well as some horned cattle and hides. Ten thousand head of cattle are sent annually to the neighbouring states of San Salvador and Costa Rica ; but the price is extremely variable, and can scarcely be reckoned at more than 300,000 dollars. Of hides, the yearly export 126 NICARAGUA. from Nicaragua is about 30,000 ; and the price of an ox-hide weighing from seventeen to twenty pounds, is three reals, though in retail trade a dollar is sometimes charged. For tiger-skins a dollar is the regular price. Of the precious metals very little is obtained in Nicaragua, and the few hands devoted to mining would be better employed in the cultiva- tion of the ground in a country where the actual is so very far behind the possible production. The most important works of this kind are the silver mines of Matagalpa and Dipilto in the province of Segovia; the gold mines of Santa Rosa de Venci, twenty-four leagues north of Leon ; and those found in the province of Chon- tales in 1849, the produce of which has been so ludicrously exaggerated by American speculators that it may be well to give a few particulars con- cerning them. The mines of Chontales lie about 50 miles from the sea coast, 114 north-east from the town of Granada, and 36 from Lake Nicaragua. The minino; region extends over an area of about 80 miles, and lies 1500 feet above the Atlantic Ocean ; and the richly-wooded mountains that enclose it rise 1000 or 2000 feet higher. The THE GOLD OF CHONTALES. 127 metal is found in quartz, red sandstone, and slate ; but the works are not carried on syste- matically, but by a crowd of adventurers who go rummaging almost at random in the bowels of the mountain, of whose riches such fabulous accounts have been spread in order to entice labour to the district, and so increase the value of land. In 1854 there were about 300 men at work here : they came chiefly from the mines of Honduras in the hope of higher wages, and were a motley crowd of North American, Irish, French, and German vagabonds, who used to go digging to-day here, to-morrow there, and consuming in the evening what they had earned during the day. The population attracted to this lonely mountain district in search of gold does not, however, altogether amount to above 600 persons ; while the Indian population of the province of Chontales amounts to 10,000, who maintain themselves almost exclusively by hunt- ing; and fishinor. There are also forsaken Indian villages and banana plantations to be seen in va- rious parts of it, that indicate its having been at some period far more populous than it is now; and it is known to be one of the most anciently settled parts of Nicaragua. 128 NICARAGUA. Up to March, 1854, no gold from Chontales had ever found its way into commerce, nor had any chemical analysis been made of the metal contained in its stone ; but at that time some specimens were brought that appeared so extra- ordinarily rich and productive that a regular gold fever broke out in Granada, and there was a rush to the district of all who could by any means manage to travel the twelve leagues, while new speculators arrived every day from the United States, and set about forming joint- stock companies. It was calculated that every hundredweight of ore would yield three ounces and a half of pure gold ; but when the matter came to be looked into in cooler blood, the result was found to be very diiferent. A government commission was sent to the district to make some more accurate investigations, and it then appeared that in Chontales, as elsewhere, all is not gold that glitters. In the vicinity of these gold mines some beds of anthracite coal were dis- covered a long time ago by Dr. Firmin Ferrer, the president of the first court of law in Granada. They are, by water, eight leagues from Granada, but only half a league from the lake, — a circumstance that may render them valuable. mNES. 129 should it appear that the quality of the coal is, on the whole, better than that of the first spe- cimens, which were mostly taken from the sur- face. The great hindrance, however, to the profitable working of the mines of Chontales, is the want of well-informed miners, as well as of good roads and sufficient capital. In the Departement Oriental and the province of Segovia there are several more or less pro- ductive lead and copper-mines, and amongst them one in Jalaquima (province of Segovia) which, according to the accounts of the natives, must consist almost of pure masses of native copper. This information was confirmed to me by educated residents, and amongst others by Don Liberato Abarca in Matagalpa, from which I conjecture that at Jalaquima, as well as at the Iron Mountain, and Pilot Knob in the Lake of Missouri, a part of the ore is found in the shape of boulders on the surface. In the environs of Teustepet, gold, silver, copper, and also precious stones, such as jasper and opal, have been found, but nothing whatever has been done towards a systematic working. The foreign trade of the country is carried on VOL. I. K 130 NICAKAGUA. by the ports of Realejo and San Juan del Sur on the Pacific side, and by San Juan del Norte, called by the English Grey town, on the Carib- bean Sea ; but we have not the means of giving any exact statement of the total amount of the imports and exports of Nicaragua. From such data as we have, it would seem that it did not, for the east and west coast together, exceed about 2800 tons, and a value of 250,000 dollars. The imports, in manufactured goods, wine, &c., are stated to amount to 350,000; and this state- ment, on account of the ad valorem duty, may be reckoned as at least one- fourth less than what it really is; but the entire foreign trade would not give a value of above a piastre and a half for every inhabitant. Costa Rica, from the judicious choice of its chief article of cultivation (coffee), carries on more trade with foreign countries than any other State of Central America ; and there the individual share amounts to ten piastres. The commerce of Nicaragua is distributed amongst the different nations of Europe in the following manner : — Great Britain sends calicoes and other manu- factured cottons, hardware, lead, gunpow- der, &c. FOREIGN TRADE. 131 France — Silks, printed cottons, wines, liqueurs, jewellery, and fancy goods. The United States — Soap, stearine candles, brandy (of inferior quality), and gunpowder. Spain — Paper, silks and ribbons, wine, oil, and spirits. Germany — Glass, wax, furniture, wines, and steel. Italy — Paper, oil, silk, and liqueurs. Columbia — Cacao and straw hats. The British goods make up two-thirds of the value above quoted, and only England and Ger- many send articles of general consumption. The French goods, which are chiefly luxuries, are used only in the largest towns. The port of Realejo is not visited in the whole year by above five-and-twenty ships, which come chiefly from Chili and Peru, and often do not unload more than the half of their cargoes. The arrivals at Greytown are still more inconsider- able, and the goods sent there are, for the most part, only those of great value and small bulk, which can bear the high freight of the steamer, or which, perhaps, cannot bear a long sea jour ney. The chief trade is carried on between San Juan del Norte and Granada, on Lake Nicaragua. K 2 132 NICAEAGUA. But, although Granada is the most important com- mercial town of the republic, the continued politi- cal disturbances have rendered it extremely flat. The exports are almost confined to hides, dye- woods, and bullion, in return for which hardware, silks, and manufactured cottons are received. During our stay in Granada, in the early part of the year 1854, one of the most important of the German mercantile houses was about to move to Costa Rica on account of the decline of business ; others were reducing their establish- ments ; and, as an additional proof of the decay of trade, of the various American hotels that existed here at the time Mr. Squier wrote, no single one is left ; and the small steamer which at that time kept up a regular communication with San Carlos (on the lake), twice a month, has now ceased to run regularly, and only makes an occasional visit. The port of Greytown is made use of by the United States and England for the transport of goods, for which there happens to be, in one or the other market, a great momentary demand, and for which the route by Cape Horn would take too much time. It is, however, a great error on the part of Baron Alex von Bulow to maintain, as he does IMPORT DUTIES. 133 in his work on Nicaragua (p. 276), that the coffee produced in Costa Rica, and the manufac- tured goods imported into that state, are likely for the future to go by San Juan del Norte; and then, on the basis of this entirely erroneous assumption, to calculate its commerce for the year 1848 as already amounting to 2,371,000 piastres. Costa Rica can open much more secure and advantageous channels of communication on its OAvn territory, and save the dangers and incon- veniences of the navigation of the Sarapiqui river, as well as the double shipment of an article so liable to be damaged by damp, or perhaps actual wetting, as coffee. Since San Juan del Norte has become in some measure an English port, and received, in honour of the governor of Jamaica, the name of Grey- town, the custom-house of Nicaragua has been removed to the fort of San Carlos on Lake Nica- ra2;ua. Accordino^ to a communication made to me on the subject by the Minister de la Rocha, it yields a revenue of from 46,000 to 60,000 dollars to the state *, which, with an ad valorem * According to Mr. Squier, it was 100,000 in 1848. K 3 1 34 NICARAGUA. duty of 28 per cent., gives a yearly traffic of about 200,000 dollars. The importance of the port of Greytown de- pends, however, far less on the merchandise than on the passengers that pass through it on their way to the Pacific and California. Twice a month come two North American steamers, one from New York, and the other from New Or- leans, as well as an English mail steamer, and these together bring 800 or 900 passengers, and generally take back 500 or 600 from the South Sea. The passenger traffic of Greytown, there- fore, amounts to above 40,000 a year. The passage of the Isthmus between Greytown on the Atlantic, and San Juan del Sur on the Pacific, occupies on an average twenty hours, and is generally preferred by Californian passen- gers to the Panama route. Should a shorter and more convenient passage between the tAvo oceans be opened by means of a railroad from Fort Caballo on the east of Honduras to the Gulf of Fonseca on the west, a distance of only 165 miles, which might easily be done in eight hours, Greytown would soon sink back into its former insignificance, as it has neither a salubrious position nor a good maritime one, and it is FUTURE PROSPECTS. 135 hardly likely that the natives of the country would overcome their unparalleled sloth so far as to make any exertion in its behalf. The only chance of arresting the progress to decay of either Greytown or the Nicaraguan trade, would be the predominant influence of some foreign nation, or the execution of the long talked of projects of connecting the two oceans by means of canals communicating with the Nicaragua Lake. The last condition, how- ever, probably depends upon the first, namely, the possession of Nicaragua by a Northern race. Without that, it is doubtful whether the project will ever be fulfilled. K 4 136 NICARAGUA. CHAP. VIII. Tipitapa. — Reports of Robbers. — San Benito. — A power- ful Argument. — Scarcity of Water. — Rio Assesse. — An Accident. — Noon-day Rest. — An unpleasant Ride. — A Night in a Forest Hut. — Poverty and Sickness. — The Poor of Central America and the European Pauper. — A travelling Saint. — Itinerant Images of Catholic Saints in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. — Medical Consultation. Awkward Journey through the dark Forest. — Arrival in Matagalpa. — The Prefect of the Town. — Singular Night Quarters. At an early hour on a spring morning I set out from Santiago de Managua, to travel in a north- easterly direction through Nicaragua, and after- wards traverse the state of Honduras. Early as it was the thermometer already showed 75° Fahren- heit ; a perfectly calm atmosphere made the heat still more oppressive, and the sky was as clear as if no such thing as a cloud existed. Even the sensitive people of Managua will not complain of the ^^ fresco " to-day, I thought, as I began to HIGH TEMPERATURE NOT INJURIOUS. 137 defend myself against the sun as well as I could by putting on a pair of blue glass spectacles, and opening a great white linen umbrella. As the day advanced the heat, of course, increased, and by the time we had reached the village of Tipi- tapa, at one o'clock, it stood at 93°. It has often surprised me that, with such a burning tempera- ture as tliis, cases of sun -stroke (siriasis) are much more rare under the tropics than in north- ern countries, the United States, England, or even in Germany ; and yet the poorer classes of natives as well as foreign settlers, move about freely at all hours of the day, often with not so much as a covering on the head to protect them from the fierce rays of the sun. Possibly it may be attri- butable to the greater difference of general tem- perature in the North rendering the nerves more susceptible. The natives never complain of anything more than a headache, or in the worst cases they have an attack of fever, when they have been bathing, according to their custom, in the lake in the hottest hours of the day. When they do suffer in this way they always lay the blame on the water. But during several years' residence in tropical countries, we never knew one instance 138 NICAKAGUA. of siriasis, nor ever heard it mentioned as at all a common occurrence. Tipitapa is an extremely poor negro village of about 300 barefoot inhabitants, lying eight leagues to the north of Managua ; but poor and small as it is, it is Avell known, even in the civil- ised world, on account of the river of the same name which flows past the village at a short distance from it, and, as it forms the natural connection between the two lakes Nicaragua and Managua, would, in case of the canalisation, be- come of great importance. There is indeed a general belief, among the educated classes in the country, that these two lakes formed at one time an inland sea which some recent convulsion has divided by piling up vast masses of rocks and earth between the two, leaving merely the Tipi- tapa river as a connecting link. At the part where this Tipitapa river (some times called the Panaloya) is crossed by a half-decayed wooden bridge, just at the entrance of the province of Segovia, it is about 150 feet broad, and from two to three feet deep ; and forms a fall of sixteen feet which has much resemblance to the Camerons Falls in Western Canada. REPORTS OF ROBBERS. 139 The bed of the river is full of boulder stones and masses of rock, and has a wild, foaming, agitated appearance, that even the luxuriant green vegetation, bursting out of the chasms of the rocks on its banks, can scarcely soften. At the foot of the western end of the bridge gushes forth a hot sulphur spring, that mingles its health-giving vapour with the fresh cool water of the stream.* While I was resting; durino^ the hottest hours of the day in the wretched rancho of a poor negro family, and having my animals strength- ened by a good feed of Indian corn for the fa- tiguing journey before them, the people, who always come crowding round a stranger, watch- ing with childish curiosity his smallest move- ments, informed me that, on the preceding night, twenty soldiers with an officer had passed their village in pursuit of some robbers, ^'■algunos la- drones^ supposed to haunt the neighbouring forest, and who made the road to Segovia ex- * According to Capt. Bailly's survey, the greatest length of the Tipitapa river, from where it leaves Lake Managua to its mouth in Lake Nicaragua, is sixteen English miles ; its fall seven feet per mile; and its depth, in the rainy sea- son, from six to twelve. 140 NICARAGUA. tremely insecure. The always pale visage of my servant turned to a still more ashy hue at this intelligence, and I had already been informed that it was quite common for servants in this country to leave travellers and their baggage to shift for themselves on the least appearance of danger. The news made less impression on me than it would otherwise have done, because I had found out by experience in the course of my travels in this part of the world that a very con- siderable deduction might always be made from the accounts of the natives ; who from love of exaggeration always like to put everything in the strongest possible light. I had heard, for instance, a great deal about the numerous tigers said to infest the lonely districts connecting the eastern part of Nicaragua with the north of New Segovia ; but though I had the greatest wish to take part in a tiger-hunt, it was never my luck to see anything more of that animal than his dried skin. Thieves and bandits were now the bugbear instead of tigers ; and though I had by no means the same desire to fall in with a specimen of the biped as of the quadruped monster of the woods, I could not help thinking BANDITTI OF EUROPE AND AMERICA. 14 L that, considering the feeble and cowardly charac- ter of the native races, an encounter with Nica- raguan robbers must be a very different adven- ture from an attack of banditti in the old world, — the Abruzzi or the Hungarian Bakony Wald, for instance. In the tropical primeval forest, with its soft, enervating atmosphere, its vast solitudes uninhabited except by a few scattered Indians, business must be uncommonly flat for a bandit, and there can be no possibility of getting up any grand exploits like those of a Passadore or our Rinaldo Rinaldini. I rode till a late hour in the evening over mea- sureless sandy wastes of barren soil, that looked still more barren and desolate than usual in the then dry season. Thorny mimosas, the crippled, leafless, but useful calabash-tree (Crescentia), the tree-like cactus and ananassa, or wild pine- apple (Bromelia pinguin), the leaves of which, being four or five feet long, are used for ropes and whips, and to plait into wallets or even swing- ing mats, — these were all the objects that pre- sented any variety to the eye. At length we reached San Benito, a lonely farm or hacienda at which, in the dearth of public houses of enter- tainment, travellers on foot or horseback stop to J 42 NICARAGUA, pass the niglit without much ceremony of asking leave. But however hospitable and patriarchal this custom appears at first, it loses something of its charm when you find that you are rather endured than welcomed, and that a corner of damp earth under a roof, or, if the hosts are ex- tremely amiable, a piece of a stiff cow-hide for a couch, is all the favour shown you. Food as well as cooking utensils you are expected to bring with you, and your animals can during the greater part of the year find plenty of food for themselves, so that the hospitality of the establishment is not very severely taxed either for man or beast. Should the traveller have occasion to make any further claim upon it, he expects to pay twice the worth of whatever is furnished to him. I found myself in a case of this kind in San Benito. The long drought had so withered up all the grass near the house that a very sorry prospect of refreshment was af- forded to my poor exhausted mules, and the danger of their being stolen was too great for me to allow them to be left to wander about. In the absence of the proprietor of the hacienda, I therefore begged the Mandador or steward of NEW MODE OF BARGAINING. 143 the farm to let me have a small quantity of the stock of maize which was laid up in wooden bins in the dark, dirty sitting-room ; and as I knew from former experience how little I could count upon a willingness to accommodate me, I offered at once exactly double the market price, namely six reals, or 2^. Thd., for a, medio (fifteen pounds) of maize. Advantageous as my offer was, however, it met with a decided refusal from the steward, who denied that they had any maize. I mentioned thaj;, by the accidental opening of one of the bins by a maid-servant, I happened to have seen that they had ; and then he alleged that he was not justified in disposing of it in the absence of the proprietor. As the discussion went on a long time without my seeing any prospect of its coming to a close, I thought I would try and work upon the patriotic feelings of my opponent, and produce the official docu- ment Avith which I had been furnished by the government of Managua, recommending me in the most earnest manner to all civil and military authorities as well as landed proprietors {todos los autoritades civiles^ militares y de haciendas). But neither the reading of the state document in 144 NICARAGUA. my most impressive manner, nor the exhibition of the President's own signature, nor even of the grand state seal, had the least effect upon this impenetrable steward. What was to be done ? Neither my hard cash nor my soft persuasions were of any avail, yet I was firmly resolved that my poor mules should not starve through the night if I could help it. I bethought myself therefore of another method. I suddenly drew from my girdle my American five-barrelled re- volver, and advancing to the bin, declared I would have the corn whether, he liked it or not. This was the right way of doing business with my pleasant friend : he immediately agreed to let me have the quantity I required, though at three times its fair price ; and the joyful neighing of my hungry mules as the beautiful yellow food was shaken down before them, sounded very much as if they were exulting in the defeat of their hard-hearted adversary. It is rather melancholy, though, to find that in Central America this little northern machine has more power than the most stringent com- mands of the government of the country. Soon after this incident, the Mandador, having apparently noticed the title of Dr. given to me A TALKATIVE OLD LADY. 145 in the government paper, came and begged me for some medicine for his sick wife ; and after I had made him give me as exact an account of her condition as possible, I gave him a box of pills for her. In this same hacienda I met with an elderly lady, the owner of an estate in Segovia, who had been to Granada with a large quantity of skins for sale, and was now returning with a heavy purse and twenty-one beasts light- ened of their burden. She had with her a young, very sickly-looking little daughter, and a great number of servants who, each armed with a sharp machete, kept watch among the animals as they wandered about at night to seek for food. Xeither her wretched couch upon a few hard boards in a dark closet, nor the many other inconveniences which a feminine traveller must have felt severely, could conquer the old lady's good humour, nor quell her desire to gossip ; and I had no sooner taken a stearine candle out of my saddle-bag, and begun, by this glimmer of civilisation, to note down some meteorological observations in my journal, than her curiosity burst forth at once into a tor- rent of questions. In the conversation that followed she made some observations that VOL. I. L 146 NICARAGUA. would not tend to give a very high idea of the intellectual culture of the ladies of Central America. When we talked, for instance, of the newh'-discovered gold and coal mines in the district of Chontales, that had made such a great sensation, she said she did not wonder at people trying to get the gold, but what in the world could they want with coal ? I endeavoured to ex- plain to her its great value as fuel, — as affording the means of light and warmth, and she exhibited the utmost astonishment ; she had had no no- tion, she said, that it could be burnt. " Well, one did live and learn ! " Her knowledge of geography was no less striking. When I spoke of the probability of a war between Nicaragua and Costa Rica for the possession of the province of Guanacaste, she said she " could not see how the government of Costa Rica could expect to have it, seeing it lay so near to Nicaragua ; " and, therewith, she seized, doubtless in absence of mind, my stearine candle, and walked oif with it to her room, leaving me to go to bed in the dark, or with such light as I could get from a moon half covered with clouds. The night was mild and pleasant; but as, at nine o'clock, the thermometer still stood at 84° SCARCITY OF WATER. 147 Fahr., I hung my swinging mat in the open air between the wooden pillars of the veranda, and the orentle rockino; of this canvas bed soon transported me to the romantic land of dreams. The next morninof our wav lav across sun- burnt, stony, sterile tracts of very scanty vege- tation. It seems strange to complain of drought in a country so abundantly supplied with water as Nicaragua ; but this part of it possesses few great rivers ; and when in the dry season the little brooks and mountain- streams dry up, the traveller may journey for ten or twelve hours without being able to refresh himself or his horse with a single draught. It is probably to this circumstance that we may ascribe the fact of the country having remained almost entirelv uninhabited, and, for the same reason, it does not seem likely that it will ever attract many settlers. In the afternoon we came to the Rio Assesse, and this was the first running water that we had met with during the whole day's journey. ^Ve found here a bivouac of men and cattle who were reposing under the cool shade of the trees along the river's bank ; for whatever may be the incon- L 2 ]48 -NICARAGUA. venience of travelling in the dry season (from December to May), it is the only one in which it is possible to cross this wilderness without danger from storms, or from the rivers overflowinor their banks, and the traveller finding his advance checked by a morass. This, therefore, was the time of year when we might expect to meet the most passengers ; yet we met but this one party all the way, though there were considerable numbers of cattle beinof driven to pasture in the province of Guanacaste. The ride across these stony, arid tracts, where the thorny mimosa and the leafless calabash-tree formed almost the sole representatives of the vegetable world, is in itself tedious enough ; and it was rendered still more uncomfortable to me from my having had the misfortune to fall from my mule (which was frightened by the sudden opening of my umbrella), and not only to strain my right hand, but to break my last thermome- ter — the last out of five that I had had at the commencement of my journey, but no one of which was now in a serviceable state. My ser- vant, too, had been so careless as to let my medicine chest fall upon the stony ground, and thus occasioned the loss of some valuable fluid LOSING OUR WAY. 149 medicines, though fortunately my aneroid baro- meter and some other instruments remained uninjured. I had not yet got over my vexation at these various disasters, when we reached a lonely hut. in the forest, denominated San Jose de Tama- rinda, where, at least, we found water enough to make some coffee, which, with biscuit, always formed my principal food during these journeys. The sun was still shining with a tremendous glare upon the white sandy ground ; but I had the mules saddled, and we set forward again in order to reach Chicoya, if possible, before night- fall. The road was said to be tolerably good, the distance not immoderate, the district and the people muy sano; so we rode on in good spirits once more into the dreary, sultry desert. Even- ing came on, however, — it grew quite dark, and still we saw no signs of the desired village ; and we soon perceived that, either through ignorance or design, the people had deceived us, and we should have to pass the night in the open air. We looked anxiously in all directions, and in a thicket at no great distance, on one side of our road, we could distinguish some small watch-fires that an- nounced the presence of men. We also observed L 3 150 NICARAGUA. that a light would sometimes pass for a consider- able distance from one to the other, from which we inferred a connection between these various posts of the nocturnal bivouac. We would gladly have sought these people in order to gain information concerning our distance from the village : they might be harmless and honest cattle drivers ; but, on the other hand, they might be dangerous villains ; so, all things con- sidered, we thought it most prudent to remain quiet, and not seek any nearer acquaintanceship with the doubtful group. Sometimes we passed through a bit of the primeval forest in which the moon, instead of serving us as a pilot, only threw an occasional broken gleam on the fantastic forms of the trees, that served but to confuse us the more. The honesty of my servant, also, I had had no means of ascertaining ; so I thought it most prudent to let him go on first, and ride slowly after him with my double- barrel laid ready across my saddle- bows. We went on thus till ten o'clock, when my attendant recollected that several years ago, when he had come this way, there used to be a solitary dwelling in the wood, where tra- vellers, benighted, or overtaken by a storm, so A FOREST HUT. 151 that they could not reach Chicoya, generally stopped and waited for morning. We turned aside, therefore, into a narrow, overgrown path, that led into the depth of the forest ; and after groping our way for a good while, found our- selves before the door of a large wooden building. All round was profound silence and gloom ; but we knocked at the gate, which was fast locked and barred. After a time a hoarse female voice asked what we wanted : my servant then men- tioned my name, — said whence we came, and that we had been overtaken by the darkness, and wished to find a shelter till morning dawn. At last the door was opened, and, a dried piece of pine-wood serving for a torch, I entered the room — a wretched-looking place with mud walls, and a wooden bench and a dirty, ragged swinging mat for its only furniture. The next room, which was the sleeping chamber of the whole family, looked less empty certainly, but not less wretched. These various possessions were suspended by strings from the ceiling ; a few old wooden troughs stood in a corner ; some pro- visions of the worst kind were put by in a niche, whence their smell betrayed their presence ; and on some rough boards that served for beds lay L 4 152 NICARAGUA. the various members of the household, male and female. An old withered, nearly naked woman, with a deeply furrowed face and snoAV- white hair, who appeared to be the head of the family, raised herself from her rough couch, and offered me a cigar. She then told me that the sick man, who lay moaning near her, was her son, who had been ill for several days of a vio- lent fever; and she asked what could be done for him. A sister of the patient, too, came Avith a sorrowful, sympathetic face, and begged me to give her brother some medicine. No sooner, however, had the bystanders, or rather by-lyers, perceived that I carried with me a well fitted up medicine chest, than every individual member of the family became afflicted with some complaint, for which they solicited medical assistance. The young daughter as well as the infirm old mother complained of the most various and extraordinary maladies ; the mother evidently thought that poverty and old age were diseases that might be successfully prescribed for, and the daughters were full of faith that a dose thus hastily ad- ministered by a passing traveller would put to flight, once and for ever, the consequences of the hardships and privations of their forest life CENTRAL AMERICAN PROLETARIES. 153 The Indian corn harvest had, in consequence of the locusts, entirely failed this year, and the poor inhabitants of this forest dwelling had been obliged to subsist exclusively on black beans and the milk which a very thin cow yielded once a day in very small quantities. They begged of me a little rice, as a delicacy of which they had long been deprived ; and when on the following morn- ing I gave my mules a few handfuls of the maize I had brouglit with me as a more nourishing diet than what they could get here, the poor people carefully picked up the few cobs left by the mules, in order to cook them for the sick man. They did not, however, appear at all con- scious of how much they were to be pitied ; for the poor of Central America have the immense advantage over the proletaries of the North, that they are ignorant of the comforts and luxuries they are compelled to dispense with. The know- ing their wants and being unable to satisfy them is the chief cause of suffering to the mass of the European poor. At the first dawn of day I wished to set out again, and endeavour to make up for the time I had lost ; but one of my mules was missing, and it was not till after a long search we found it going 154 NICARAGUA. quietly home. My servant, it seemed, had not fastened its forefeet together carefully enough ; and the mule, probably not at all admiring a country where fodder was so scarce, had resolved to trot back to the place it came from. Towards seven o'clock we got clear of the woodland habitation which bears the odd name of Calabassa, and proceeded towards the Mestizo- village of Chicoya, two leagues further. There were plenty of the tree-like cactus along the road ; but their short, clumsy forms were by no means so ornamental to the landscape as the lofty colunmar species seen in the Indian villages and haciendas of the west coast, and between Granada and Managua. A little further on we met a man with a mule which bore rather a curious load, namely, a carved and painted wooden figure of St. Sebas- tian packed up in a cow-hide, with which he travelled about from village to village, offering to the faithful the advantage of saying their prayers and bringing their requests before it. I asked my servant what kind of fee was demanded for the service of the saint by his owner ; and the answer was, he takes all you give him {el coje todo) : for a journey through such heat as this, ITINERANT SAINTS. 155 he will have fowls, eggs, meat, tortillas, cigars, candles, soap, and bananas offered to hini. At the time when churches and chapels were only to be found in the great towns, there arose a custom of taking the figure of a saint out of the parish church or the chapel of some speculative Christian, and carrying it from hamlet to hamlet to allow solitary settlers, who could not do with- out some representation of the divinity that they could lay hold of, and the consolation of kneeling and pouring out their hearts before it, — a very rude form of religion doubtless, but one that in certain states of culture, or non-culture, appears indispensable to the edification of the multitude. Now, however, when there is a church to be found in every village, and where the sound of the peaceful bells may be heard from one to the other, this carrying about an object of devotion in a box — as Savoyard boys do their monkeys — and showing it in the same way for money or money's worth, appears an odious abuse, painful and humiliating to all Christian feeling. It is kept up probably because it serves as an easy mode of gaining a livelihood for men who are not fond of work. They derive a very tolerable income from the offerings made to their strolling 156 NICARAGUA. saint ; for it is hardly necessary to say that all the eggs, hens, tortillas, cigars, bananas, and medios, offered at the shrine of the saint, find their way into the wallet of his owner. The government of Costa Rica has very properly for- bidden this practice, and ordered the saints back to their respective abodes ; but in retired vil- lages and at solitary houses it is not yet discon- tinued. We happened ourselves once to be witnesses of a religious festival connected with this practice, when we were staying at a lonely farm, on the road to the port of Punta- Arenas, on the 28th of December, 1853. A certain Don Pedro Aralla, who inhabited a hermit-like dwelling in the forest, had shortly before purchased a Saint Caralampius for five pesos in cash ; and on the saint's fete-day in- vited the settlers from the surrounding moun- tains to pay him a visit. In a little indigent- looking room a sort of canopy was contrived of red and white cloth, beneath which on a wooden box, also covered with white drapery, stood two wax figures, scarcely a foot high, which I believe to have been originally meant to represent the Saviour and the Wandering Jew. They were A nous FESTIVAL. 157 surrounded with flowers, and four wax lights stuck into the necks of as many broken bottles stood before them, whilst, for still greater splen- dour, three coloured pocket-handkerchiefs hung from the ceiling in the style of flags. Wooden benches were placed all round, and in a corner of the room hung some pieces of smoked beef and bacon, but there was no other furniture. When I entered, the room was already full of women and children, ranged as closely as they could sit on the benches, whilst the men stood about in groups, and some grown people and children were kneelinoj before the wax figures and repeating prayers. Two half-naked negroes, one playing a violin and the other a guitar, sung one of the Gregorian litanies to a lively waltz tune, and were accompanied by the women in a hoarse chorus. Then an old woman chanted a prayes-; and after that, came a merry dance without any religious libretto; while, as a further symptom of festivity, shots were repeatedly fired out into the darkness of the mountains. From time to time some pious Indian would approach Saint Caralampius, who, as my hostess informed me, was famous for his miracles, and deposit upon a plate, placed just before the 158 NICARAGUA. figure, cigars, candles, money, &c. ; and at rather longer intervals the hostess would go round with a bottle and glass, and refresh the company — men, women, and children — with a dram. After- wards came more dancing, and then, by way of winding-up, a supper of fowls and cakes. The guests, on such occasions, seldom " go home till morning ; " but I cannot undertake to say at what hour they retired this time, as I had gone to bed, being much fatigued with my journey. We never saw anj^thing of this kind during our stay in Honduras or San Salvador ; but in the republic of Guatemala, where bigotry and superstition have again gained a firm footing — along with the Jesuits — these painful exhibitions are not uncommon. Towards nine in the mornino: we reached Qhicoya, an extremely poor village, on a river of the same name, and with about 500 inhabi- tants, chiefly subsisting by agriculture, though the sandy soil does not seem very inviting for that occupation. The ground is stony, and all around on field and hill are blocks of porphyry and boulders, containing quartz crystals, — indications of the approach to a mineral region. We crossed, in the course of the da}^, the beds of several THE VILLAGE OF SEBAKO. 159 streams, but the water was so entirely dried up in them that they looked more like flinty roads than water-courses. Sebako, where we stopped to rest at noon, is just as deplorable-looking a place as the preceding. Some banana plantations in the neighbourhood looked very poor and scanty, and, I believe, not so much from the want of heat and the now considerable elevation as from the barren, stony nature of the ground. It is strange that in a country where millions of acres of the most fruitful soil are still lying waiting only the hand of the cultivator to reward his industry with a threefold harvest, such sterile tracts should find settlers to expend their labour to so little purpose ; and at the time we passed through it, when the locusts had devoured most of what it did produce, the dis- tress was doubly severe. Even in the larger vil- lages we could procure neither tortillas nor eggs,^ milk nor meat ; and the inhabitants were living entirely on beans, sugar-cane, roasted bananas, and other fruits and roots, either cooked or raw. Whilst I was resting for a little while under the shade of a giant mango-tree, waiting for some coffee, an old blind man came tottering towards me, led by a little half-naked Indian 160 NICARAGUA. oil'], and beo-o-ed for some medicine. The news of the arrival of a stranger (a most uncommon occurrence in these solitudes) had run like wild- fire from hut to hut ; and as he had repeatedly heard me called Dr. by my servant, he came to solicit the favour of a " little powder '' to cure his blindness of twenty years' standing, — so boundless is the fixith of these people in the power of physic ! We had now to climb the side of a great mountain, and the vesretation besfan to assume a more northern character. The blocks of por- phyry also became more numerous, and large tracts of the ground had an ochre-like tinge. Here we were again overtaken by the darkness before we could get to any place of shelter ; and, moreover, our little caravan was drenched by a torrent of rain as we rode through a tract of dark, dense forest, in which we could not see any one we met, till they were close upon us, and were very often obliged to dismount and grope our wa^', drawing the mules after us. Towards nine we reached Matagalpa, tho- roughly tired out ; but, as I had a letter of re- commendation to the prefect, I thought it best to proceed at once to his abode. Most of the THE CABILDO OF MATAGALPA. 161 houses we passed were already dark, and the doors closed ; the Prefect, too, was gone to bed, and we had to stay knocking and making what- ever noise we could, for a considerable time, at the door of his small shabby house, before we could get any answer. At last, the door was opened, and a little thin man, of very dark com- plexion and curly hair, in the lightest possible night toilette, advanced towards us with a mix- ture of Indian pride and negro vanity in his bearing, and taking the letter from me, disap- peared again without in the least concerning himself about our drenched condition, or making any attempt to direct us to some more com- fortable place of sojourn. The wretched habita- tion occupied by the Prefect, who was apparently a bachelor, offered indeed small prospect of ac- commodation, so I could only beg him earnestly to let us know, as soon as possible, where we were to go to. Thereupon, he threw a scarlet mantle over his nearly naked brown shoulders, and said he would show us to the Cabildo, and have the " Sala de la Mimicipalidad " opened for our accommodation. The Cabildo is in New Spain the town hall, or law court of a village, in which all official busi- VOL. I. M 162 NICARAGUA. ness is transacted, and which also serves for a guard-house and a prison. From the want of regular inns, the half-covered corridor before it is generally chosen as the resting-place for all kinds of wanderers, who pass the night there on straw mats that they bring with them, and have their several packages disposed about them. The opening of a closed apartment of the Cabildo, however, is a favour shown only to mounted travellers who come with recommendations. When the Prefect mentioned the "hall of the mu- nicipality " as the place destined for my quarters, I rejoiced privately at the prospect; not that I was novice enough to expect anything like Euro- pean comfort, but I thought I should find at least a clean, decent, well-closed lodging. I was there- fore somewhat disagreeably surprised when the door of the " sala " in question was opened, — in- deed it was already half open, for it was nearly off the hinges, — and I entered a large but dirty, mouldy room, with the plaster falling from the walls all round, and where there was nothing to remind you of its official character but a raised place in the middle, with a wooden railing to separate the spectators from the magistrates. At the lower end of the hall was a long table and VARIOUS FELLOW LODGERS. 163 a wooden bench on which a man lay stretched out asleep. When we entered with a light, he started up as if frightened, and then, wrapping his blanket round him, he remained sitting in an upright position staring at us. I learned subse- quently that he was a prisoner not yet brought to trial, who, on account of the bad construc- tion of the prison, had been lodged in the build- ing which the hospitality of Matagalpa assigned for the reception of the " stranger from the Danube." Some barefooted soldiers afterwards, by order of the Prefect, brought in an empty bedstead, upon which I constructed, with my blankets and carpet-bags, as luxurious a bed as circumstances would permit ; and the official persons who in- stalled me in these quarters had no sooner re- tired, than I began to enjoy the repose of which, after my fourteen hours' ride, I had much need. My servant stretched himself on the brick floor and slept soundly, as did the before-mentioned prisoner. But the rats did not seem to be in the same need of rest as the other occupants of the " sala," and continued the whole night very active in the pursuit of business, or pleasure, among the decaying beams and rafters of the M 2 164 NICAEAGUA. roof. The door, it appeared, could not be fast- ened from within ; and to prevent its swinging open with every gust of wind, it had to be barred on the outside, so that I myself might be con- sidered a prisoner as well as my fellow lodger. 1G5 CHAP. IX. THE INDIAN TQWX OF MATaGALPA AND ITS ENTIEONS. Phvsiognomr of the Town. — Population. — Climate. — Cul- tivation. — Prices of the Xecessaries of Life. — Excursion to the Gold and Silver Mines of the Environs. — Don Liberate Abarca. — San Ramon la Leonesa. — A North American Doctor. — El Ocote. — La Luna. — Monte Grande. — Ucalca. — San Pablo. — The cultivated Lands of Matagalpa and Northern Emigration. — Generous In- tentions of my New-Spanish Companion Don Liberato. — Medical Visit to the Prisoners in the Cabildo. — A dving Murderer. — Medical Experiment on an Lidian Convert under Sentence of Death. — The Result and the Fee. — Some of the most remarkable Diseases. — Aversion of the Lidians to Inoculation. — Terrible Ravages of Malignant Small Pox among the Natives. — A humane Hint for clois- tered Nuns. — Cutaneous Diseases and Hooping Cough. — Travelling Doctors. — Practice first and Studj afterwards. That Matagalpa was one of the earliest settle- ments in Nicaragua, is all the information the natives can afford the inquisitive traveller con- cerning this interesting Indian vUlage. Neither from any public document nor fi'om the most M 3 166 NICAEAGUA. aged inhabitants could I obtain even the date of its foundation. It has had to strug-crle throuo^h three revolutions ; all of them beariog less of a political character than the more odious one of a war of caste, and it is still bleeding from the wounds it received in the last Indian insurrection of 1 846 and 1847. Many houses that were then set on fire, are lying as heaps of ruins; and others, that the occupants were compelled to abandon, exhibit, thoucrh still standincr, a vet more mourn- ful image of decay and desolation. "With such memorials as these the town of course has no very cheerful aspect, and the church is a clumsy, ugly, mean-looking building, without a clock, so that when the sun does not shine the sexton is often much puzzled when to ricg the Ave Maria bell. It is astonishing, indeed, how few clocks are to be found in Central America ! While with us the poorest peasant's hut in the Black Forest is not without such a convenience, the most opu- lent of the inhabitants of the Isthmus often do not possess one, or even so much as a silver watch. The population of this place, in spite of all drawbacks, amounts to above 24,000, mostly pure Indians, with a few trading families, who fled to these mountains on the first breaking out of the civil war in Leon. The disposition of the MATAGALPA. 167 Indians has latterly become very pacific, and if the white population ever have any cause to fear them it is their own fault. The native races are too degenerate and enfeebled by long oppression for the smallest probability of a general rising ; and it appeared to me a very significant fact that among the thousands of Indians here, I could not find one who had any knowledge of his mother tongue. All spoke Spanish ; and though at first, when Indians even of more than seventy years of age professed their inability to translate a few words into their native dialect, I thought they were dissimulating, I was afterwards con- vinced it was not so. I myself offered them a considerable sum as a reward for this service, and the Prefect promised a full-blood Indian prisoner the remission of his punishment ; but to no purpose. The Indians living on the northern coast, however, still speak the language of their forefathers, the Caribbee. The generally unfavourable impression made by the town of ]\Iatagalpa is strikingly con- trasted by the beauty of the country round. Situated in the midst of a magnificent fertile hill country, about 3000 feet above the level of the sea, with a fine climate Avhich will admit M 4 168 NlCARAGtJA. of the favourable cultivation as well of the northern cerealia as of the fruits and other plants of the tropics, its mountains are covered to their summits with Indian and other corn, its lowlands with sugar-cane, coiFee, and tobacco, while its natural savannahs afford, the whole year through, the richest pastures for cattle. Of the temperature I could not, unfortunately, make any accurate observations, on account of the accident to my thermometer ; and it has never occurred to the most intelhgent of the inhabit- ants of Matagalpa to make any observations of the kind. To judge by the very deceptive test of personal feelings, I should say that the climate has much resemblance to that of San Jose in Costa Rica, where the average for the year is 67° Fahrenheit. There are three harvests of Indian corn, — of other kinds only two, — namely, in September and February, the respective seed times being in May and October; there is no perceptible difference in the quality of the corn in the two harvests, and the yield is in general twenty-fold. In ordinary seasons the cajuela of corn, a measure of twenty-five pounds weight, is sold for five reals (rather more than two shillings English), but in seasons of distress like that of GOLD AND SILVER MINES. 1G9 1854, it may probably rise to ten. Of the quan- tity of corn land at present under cultivation we could not obtain even an approximate statement, nor were any more exact data to be had concern- ing the breeding of cattle, also an important branch of industry here ; but of the cheapness of livino; in this mountain district some idea may be formed from a milch cow costing only from ten to fourteen dollars, and beef behig sold at less than threepence a pound. The working of the gold and silver mines is not now carried on on such a large scale as for- merly, nor are the mines so productive ; yet mining still forms an important occupation for the people of this country. The mines of Mata- galpa were discovered in 1808, but did not attract the attention of large capitalists till 1814. At that time more than two hundred men were employed in the mines, and the yearly produce was calculated at 80,000 piastres. The produce is now not more than one-fourth of that amount, and there are not more than sixty workmen ; a stoppage of many of the works and dismissal of the men havino; followed the sudden death of the well-informed and enter- prising Englishman, ]\Ir. Richard Painter, whose 170 NICARAGUA. exertions here had been attended with so much success, and of whom many of the inhabitants retain the warmest recollection. I visited the most important mines of Mata- galpa, in company with Don Liberato Abarca, formerly chief of the department, but now living in the most complete retirement among the mountains. He is an intelligent and warm- hearted patriot, whose acquaintance was ex- tremely valuable to me. We rode over fine, rich, cultivated land, and then across some savannahs, stretching out in their wild luxuriance further than the eye could reach, and came upon the first mines about two leagues south-east of Matagalpa, where the rich- ness and abundance of the vegetation evidently declines. The greatest mining works begin at San Ramon ; and the utmost that has ever been obtained from them amounted to thirty-three pounds of gold, equal to a value of 5000 dollars. To obtain this much, 12,000 hundredweight of quartz had to be got from the interior of the mountain, and crushed. The tools and mining apparatus are perhaps the most primitive now employed in any quarter of the world, — consist- ing merely of a crowbar and an iron hammer, LA LEO^^:sA. 171 with a wooden crushing machine, made in the country ; and the whole process is quite indepen- dent of the discoveries of modern technical chemistry. A workman's wages at these mines are little more than from ten to fifteen pence a day with his food ; and an ounce of gold costs — or did cost — fifteen dollars. Almost the whole produce of the mines has to be carried on mules to Granada, and is there exchanged for pro- visions and various articles of commerce. The second mine that we visited was that of La Leonesa, the property of the very well-known American, Dr. Sigo, who, after a career of the most extraordinary \acissitude, has at last settled in Granada. In this mine a perpendicular depth of 270 feet has been reached, and three galleries opened, one below the other, though with seventeen or eighteen feet of solid earth between them. These works also, however, were stopped for want of capital ; but as the American Doctor aforesaid has now succeeded in making good a claim for 20,000 dollars, as compensation from the government of Managua for nine months' imprisonment, — a claim in which he has been powerfully supported by Major Boreland, the Minister for the United States in Central 172 NICARAGUA. America, — there is a prosjDect that the raining works of Leonesa will shortly be resumed with energy and with all the advantages that modern science can afford. I heard, too, during my stay in Matagalpa, that several Xorth- American capi- talists propose to undertake the working of the gold mines. In all these mines the descent is made, not with ladders, but by means of thick trunks of trees with notches cut in them for the feet; and in this manner I descended several hundred feet into that of Ocote, at present worked by my friendly companion Don Liberato. The mineral veins usually run from north-east to south-south- east, and, according to my barometrical observa- tions, most of the mines lie on the same level as the town of Matagalpa. At a distance of about a league from San Ramon lie the gold mines of La Luna, and fur- ther on those of Monte Grande, Ucalca, and San Pablo, none of which appear to me productive enough to justify the expending any great amount of capital upon tliem. The same sums laid out upon the land would yield incomparably richer and more valuable returns. As we rode back to Matagalpa, across au im- A NICARAGUAN PATRIOT. 173 measurable extent of fertile but uncultivated ground, the conversation naturally turned on the advantages that would accrue to the country and the people from an immigration en masse. It would rejoice one's very heart to see these glo- rious fields peopled with thriving farmers, and a church and a school-house rising in every village. Don Liberato also was impressed by the great material and spiritual benefit that an immigra- tion of northern races might afford to his coun- try's future prospects ; but he appeared to have a sort of intuitive dread of the Yankees, and was greatly inclined to prefer European settlers. " I am determined, if this gold mine turns out well," he said, " to send to Europe four of the cleverest young men I can find, and have them educated at my own expense in all the most useful branches of practical science. What a happy thing it would be for my dear native country to have some really well-informed agriculturists, chemists, and engineers among her people ! Ah ! only let my gold mine bring me some profit, then we shall see ! " This expression of patriotic enthusiasm delighted me, and, at the same time, I must own, put me to shame, for I should never have expected it from a Nicaraguan. But Don 17-4 NICARAGUA. Liberate was born and brought up in Leon ; and whatever we may say of the unquiet, revolu- tionary spirit of that old town, it is certain that its inhabitants are distinguished above the rest of their countrymen by intellectual activity and liberal tendencies. It was late in the evenino^ when we o-ot back to Matagalpa ; but late as it was, I found there were some patients waiting for me. Several prisoners, accused of robbery and murder, were awaiting their sentence in that very Cabildo where I was lodged, and separated from my " Municipal Hall" only by a passage. They had been for some time suffering from illness; and hearing of the accidental presence of an ^'' inteUigente,^^ de- sired the benefit of his advice. I had the prison opened ; for who could tell whether it might not be advantageous to myself to make some acquaintances among gentlemen of this profes- sion, considering how often I rambled about alone in the woods ! and I found, in a perfectly dark, gloomy dungeon, without any means of ven- tilation, about fifteen men, some of them lying wrapped in a few coarse rags on the bare stones, and some dragging themselves painfully about with fetters on their hands and feet. Most of INTERESTING PATIENTS. 175 them were rude, strong-looking fellows, on whose features their bloody trade was pretty legibly written, in addition to the suffering occasioned by their dreary confinement, and the privation of the fresh air and free movement of their forest life. Some were affected with inflammation of the eyes, others with various diseases of the stomach and intestinal canal. In one corner, stretched upon a stone bench, with a dirty blan- ket thrown over it, was something that I took for a dead body ; but I was told it was a con- demned murderer, who was ill of a fever. I threw back the blanket, and saw an old Indian, ■with perfectly white hair, writhing and moaning in a paroxysm of his malady. Unfortunately, un- like most of his race, he could speak scarcely any Spanish, so that we could have but little com- munication ; but it was evident that confinement and neglect would be likely soon to complete what old age, fever, and seemingly mental suf- fering had begun. Truly, one knows not what punishment may await such a sinner in the future, but he had certainly had no trifling foretaste of it in this dark, damp dungeon of the Cabildo of Ma- tagalpa. When I left the prison, however, pro- mising to send some medicines that I thought 176 NIC AB AGFA. likely to be t^eneficial. I could not help feeling some doubt whether I was not myself culpable in thus endeavouring to prolong by medical assistance, perhaps for years, lives that disease might otherwise have speedily cut short, and thus, it might be, becoming a kind of accomphce in their future misdeeds. I sent my pills and powders, nevertheless ; but I must own, if I could have got at some medicinal plants of the countrv, the effects of which I wished to ascer- tain, I should not have had many scruples of conscience in administering them experimentally to these patients. In the course of the next day the gaoler came to inform me that my remedies had had the best effect, and that his company were all very lively, muy allegre; and he also inquired, in the name of the prisoners, the j>r\ce of the medicines I had sent. I replied that the only acknowledgment I required for my serdces was, that if they should ever happen to meet me in a lonely part of a forest, under circumstances favourable to the exercise of their peculiar profession, they would have the kindness to let me go on my way un- stabbed. PREVALENT MALADIES. 177 The news of my successful treatment of the guests of the Cabildo soon spread over the town ; and since there was not a single physician resi- dent at Matagalpa, I was soon overwhelmed with patients desirous of consulting me ; and though these visits took a great deal of time, and were certainly rather troublesome, they gave me an opportunity I might not otherwise have had, of informing myself concerning the special diseases of the country. One of the most interesting in a medical point of view, though one of the most disgusting, is the leprosy, which is frequently met with among the Indians, and may in most cases be attributed to uncleanliness, bad food, and a dissolute way of life. I heard of several cases, during my stay in Matagalpa, in which it had made terrible ravages, and occasioned some not altogether groundless fears of its infecting the whole neighbourhood. Those who were suffering from it were greatly emaciated, and covered with eruptions and tu- mours that caused acute pain on the slightest movement; and the unfortunate creatures thus afflicted were lying, as they had been for many months, upon hard boards, without the smallest medical assistance. In the worst cases I tried, VOL. I. N 178 NICARAGUA. with the necessary caution, a solution of arsenic, and washing with diluted creosote, as well as some preparations of mercury ; and at the same time I made a most determined attack on the Prefect, urging him by every humane and sanitary consideration to let the patients be better attended to, and to have some bathing-tubs procured at the public cost, so that they might have the benefit of a daily lukewarm bath. On the following mor- ning I had the pleasure of learning that some hu- mane citizens of Matagalpa were about to carry out my proposal ; and, whatever may have been the ultimate result of cases so very doubtful, it is certain the baths must have had a beneficial effect and have tended to alleviate pain. Another disease, fearfully destructive among the Indians, is the small-pox (la viruela), and chiefly from the cause that very few of the na- tive inhabitants are inoculated, and even those who do resort to this means of prevention will not adopt vaccination unless compelled. I saw two Indians, who had come to Matagalpa from a neighbouring hainlet, bringing with them malig- nant small-pox ; and by the time they had been a few days in the town, the disease had developed itself ill its most horrible form. One of these A SUGGESTION FOR THE CLOISTER. 179 Indians, who was a porter in the house of a tradesman, I found stretched out on a bare wooden bench, with just a piece of cloth thrown over his sore, bleeding, half-naked body. It was a most painful sight ; and moreover the little naked chil- dren of the master of the house, and their com- panions, were running continuall}^, at their play, in and out of the room, which was very damp though full of draughts. It may easily be sup- posed that under such circumstances a single case may occasion the infection of a whole town ; and one cannot but be mindful, in witnessing these things, of the blessings of civilisation, which open to the unfortunate the doors of the hospital, and afford them the benefit of medical advice and attendance in clean, well-aired rooms. Oh, you pious nuns of my own country, if you would, when you wish to renounce the world, but come to these quiet mountains, instead of shutting your- selves up within the cold, dreary walls of your convents, what blessings might your lives become to the poor sick Indians, instead of wasting away, as they do now, in mournful and unprofit- able seclusion ! The leprosy has been mostly confined, hitherto, to the Indians ; but other forms of cutaneous dis- N 2 180 NICARAGUA. ease are common among the Ladinos, and are also, in a great measure, attributable to immo- rality, uncleanliness, and neglect. I have met people who had been languishing for seven years under malignant eruptions of the skin, who had never subjected themselves to any systematic medical treatment. Among the children I found hooping-cough prevailing like a pestilence over the whole province, and I have been assured that an enormous number of infants fall victims to this epidemic from the sheer ignorance of their parents.* Such a melancholy condition of public health in a country with so salubrious a climate forces on the observer the question of how these things might be remedied, where, for the greater part of the population, the benefit of sound medical ad- vice, as well as of a good druggist, is still unat- tainable, and where suffering humanity has to help itself as well as it can with old women's de- * The mode of procedure at births is no less stupid and barbarous, and costs the lives of many infants ; but as the details on the subject are not well adapted to general readers, we reserve them for some future occasion, when we may have to speak of the hygienic condition of Central America. BOLD MEDICAL PRACTICE. 181 coctions, or the yet more dubious mixtures of the travelling quack. To show what curious attempts at doctoring themselves, the settlers on these mountains sometimes make, I may cite the following anecdote: — A German immigrant, who had settled in a village in Nicaragua, brought me, one morning, a plant, called by the natives Contrayerva (on subsequent examination it proved to be an Aristolochia), and boasted to me of its wonderful healing properties. " You see," said he, " I was taking a walk in the forest one day, and I saw this plant, and I thought, perhaps, it might be good for the stomach, so I pulled it up and ate the root. Two days afterwards I felt very ill, and vomited for hours together, and was violently purged ; but after it was over, I felt all the better." The natives of Costa Rica and Honduras do, indeed, use this root of the contrayerva as an aperient ; it does not usually take effect for two days, but they say its operation is accelerated if tliey take some brandy with it. To put an end to these bold attempts of every man becoming his own physician, as well as to restrain, as far as possible, the destructive doings of the itinerant quacks, I should propose that in X 3 182 NICARAGUA. every place where efficient medical help was not to be procured, medicine chests, containing an assortment of the most generally useful medicines, should be fitted up at the public expense, and given into the hands of the clergyman or school- master, for gratuitous distribution to the poor ; whilst the former should be at the same time furnished with some popular medical hand- books, that might serve them as a guide where no better was to be had. The maladies of most frequent occurrence in tropical countries are by no means of a complicated kind, and may easily be reduced under three or four principal heads ; and a man of any intelligence, especially if he had some little taste for medical study, might easily make him- self master of the general modes of treatment for the diseases he would be most likely to meet with. For this reason, indeed, many a man, who, in Europe, would hardly have been thought fit to be a dresser at a hospital, has here gained considerable reputation and a lucra- tive practice. In the state of Costa Rica, I was acquainted with an American Avho, with an extremely superficial smattering of medical knowledge, PARISH MEDICINE CHESTS. 183 though with much boldness and versatility, had practised as a physician for nine months with brilliant success, and then gone back to Phila- delphia to study, or, as he said, to look about him a little, at the Clinical Lectures. I myself saw a fee of 300 piastres paid to this man for a visit to a fever-patient, the daughter of a rich landowner, about a day's journey from his resi- dence. This, I must own, however, was rather an exceptional case. By the plan I have recommended of entrusting the parish priest with the parish medicine chest, his influence would be increased in the most honourable manner ; he would become the guar- dian of the bodies as well as the souls of his parishioners ; his previous habits of study would afford him great advantages for this new voca- tion ; and were he an active and intelligent man, it might often happen that he could render important service to medical science by the dis- covery of plants yet unknown to the phar- macopoeia. N 4 184 NICARAGUA. CHAP. X. JOURNEY TO TOTOCALPA. Northern Vegetation. — Inodega. — Cheerful Aspect of the Place. — Another Quack. — The Priest asks Medical Ad- vice. — A Benediction for a Fee. — Beauty of the Environs of Inodega. — A pecuhar Kind of Hunting. — A musical Band of Robbers. — Arrival at San Rafael. — A Murder and its Consequences. — Old Don Miguel Lansas. — Historical Details concerning San Rafael. — How a Vil- lage arises in Central America. — Delay of our Journey. ' — Political Conversation with Don Miguel. — His Views upon Louis Napoleon. — A Catholic Mode of finding a Mule. — A good Catholic, but a bad Servant. — The Mule really appears again. — Dangerous Consequences. — Farewell to Don Miguel. — An Adventure. — The Valley of Jales. — The Hacienda of Broraadero. — A Scale of Vegetation. — Palacaquina An importunate Family. — Totocalpa. — Central American Indians and German Peasants. A KiDE of two hours from Matagalpa, mostly on an ascent, brought us to the lower limit of the fir region, which, in Nicaragua, is at the height of 2500 feet. Tlie thermometer showed (at eight in the morning on the 10th of March) only 62° Fah- BEAUTIFUL VILLAGE. 185 renheit ; and magnificent pines stretched their green shady arms out over us, alternating with oaks which were draperied in a wonderful manner with Tillandsias, but appeared to suffer from the exuberant growth of these parasites. The high- est point we reached that day was 4000 feet ; but there, as it was then one o'clock in the after- noon, the thermometer stood at 75° Fahrenheit. Towards three we reached Inodega, one of the prettiest, pleasantest villages I have ever seen in Nicaragua, with neat white cottages, roofed with tiles, and indicating a certain amount of opu- lence in the inhabitants, who are about 3000 in number, and mostly engaged in agriculture. The valley in which the village is situated offers in its rich and smiling vegetation a striking contrast to the mountains around, and firs, pines, ^ and oaks, all children of a northern clime, flourish ^ in happy proximity to the golden-fruited orange- trees, the bananas, and tall sugar-canes that display their superb foliage in the village gar- dens. I alighted at a kind of little inn, where, in one of the rooms, I saw a billiard table, and the parish priest, a robust-looking man, in his shirt-sleeves, with a cigar in his mouth, playing a game of skittles with an old parishioner, whilst 186 NICARAGUA. a number of neighbours, seated on wooden bencbes around, looked on at the game with great in- terest. My entrance caused a momentary interruption, but I had no sooner taken a seat near the Alcalde to whom I had brought a letter from the govern- ment, than it went on again as briskly as before. Shortly afterwards there came up to me an elderly man in a dazzling white jacket and trousers, and a black glazed hat, worn somewhat in nautical fashion, who, sitting down on the bench beside me, asked me, in rather broken Spanish, whether I was an '•'' estrangeroy I replied in the affirmative, and now learned from him that he was a New-Brunswicker, born of English parents, and, though formerly a sea- man, had been for some years turning to good account a few medical notions that he had picked up, and practising as a curandero^ the name given to a number of quacks scattered about the country to distinguish them from the more regular disciples of Esculapius. They pro- ceed, of course, in a tolerably hap-hazard fashion with their patients, but enjoy, nevertheless, an amount of confidence not always accorded to more educated practitioners. AN ACCOMMODATING PRACTITIONER. 187 Don Jorge, as my new acquaintance was called here, had j;ist now a few very serious cases on his hands, and begged me earnestly to come and visit them ; though not, it seemed, so much with a view of asking my opinion concern- ing the method of treatment he had adopted, as to increase his influence with his patients, by showing them that his plans were approved by a traveller of respectability. Don Jorge had not exactly adopted the con- venient and pleasing method of the ingenious Frenchman who used to carry about with him a bunch of prescriptions, and let his patients choose among them and please themselves ; but his system, too, was beautifully simple. Aloes and calomel, opium and bark, constituted nearly his whole pharmacopoeia ; and those patients who did not die, and yet were so obstinate as not to get better upon these remedies, had to submit to be rubbed all over with cayenne pepper, and swallow a biter decoction of some native herbs, to which the doctor ascribed a special healing power. I had but just returned from my walk through the village with Don Jorge, when the priest, still in liis shirt-sleeves, and with the billiard cue in 188 MCAEAGUA. his hand, came to me, saying he wished to speak with me alone. AVe entered a little, dark ad- joining room, and the padre began a very candid confession and minute detail of his corporal suf- ferings and infirmities, adding, as he leaned on his billiard cue, that there was, unfortunately, no regular physician in the village, and that " one did not like exactly to trust to the discre- tion of a mere village barber. People did talk so, and the world was so corrupt and censorious." " Ah, Padre Cura," said I, as I went to get from my medicine chest what I thought would meet his case, " it is a wicked world indeed ; nobody knows that better than you. You often find, I dare say, that your spiritual medicines do not take much effect upon it."' I obtained, in return for my box of pills, the benefit of his reverence's paternal benediction ; and I thought, perhaps, I might have need of it, for I had now six leagues to travel over a lonely unpeopled tract, and through dark forests that bore by no means a good character. Soon after we had left Inodeofa, the vallev, before somewhat narrow, opened into a wide prairie of the most beautiful emerald green, stretching as far as the eye can reach, and the NEW MODE OF HUNTING. 189 whole country became indescribably lovely. I rode over the soft carpet with a feeling of the most exquisite enjoyment, wishing that, like Joshua, I could make the sun stand still, that I miglit continue to feast ray eyes upon the colour of the grass. The sun, however, did not pay the least attention to my wishes, but, on the con- trary, left me quite suddenly in complete dark- ness ; the change, always rapid in tropical coun- tries, being rendered more abrupt and striking from our havino^ entered a lono* tract of dark oak-woods, in which we could not distinguish the path without the utmost difficulty. As we could not see ten paces before us, too, Ave were obliged to be on our guard against a sudden attack from banditti, the danger of which was of course increased by the darkness. The moon rose soon, however, and afforded us a faint glim- mer of light ; and in spite of the many robber stories we had heard, we met no one but a naked Indian hunter, who was driving before him a black ox tied to a long cord, in whose broad shadow he could conceal himself, the better to surprise the game. I do not remember that I ever saw this peculiar mode of hunting pursued elsewhere. 190 NICARAGUA. As we approached the little Mestizo village of San Rafael, and were riding over a piece of open meadow-ground faintly lighted by the moon, we all at once became aware of the presence of seven or eight men, who drew up near a little patch of bushes, and silently let us pass. A boy among them was mounted, but the others were all on foot ; and one had a violin, another a flute, and another a bass viol hanging over his back, so that they appeared to be itinerant musicians returning from some village ; but as there was, with the exception of San Rafael, no village for many miles round, nor even the smallest farm, I could not help wondering what they could be doing so quietly in that lonely place. Towards ten o'clock my servant knocked at the door of old Don Miguel Lansas, the only white settler in the place ; and although my guide, who was an attendant of the law court at Matagalpa, was personally well known, the door was not opened without the greatest caution, nor till after we had pushed in, through the small aperture afforded us, several very earnest letters of recommendation. The dread of robbers ap- peared to be very great at this place ; and this was not surprising, as only a few weeks before a A HOSPITABLE FAMILY. 191 band of them had broken into the house of one of the oldest and most opulent of the inhabitants, who was lying sick in bed — murdered him, and fled with the plunder of the house into the neighbouring forest. The villains, it was dis- covered, were inhabitants of the village ; and the impression made by this discovery was so great, that many families left the place altogether. When the murderers fell afterwards into the hands of justice, I found that among them were some of those very fellows whom I had exerted my medical skill to cure in the Cabildo of Mata- galpa, and I was now enjoying the hospitality of a relative of the victim of the very villains whom I had restored to health ! Late as the hour was, and though, when we arrived, the little family had been all asleep, they were soon busy boiling and roasting as if it had been noonday, and in half an hour I found myself sitting down before a number of smoking savoury dishes. Even Don Miguel himself, who had been born under the Spanish rule, and was eighty years of age, left his bed and came to sit with me. He seemed, indeed, so delighted to see, after so many years of solitude, a stranger once more under his roof, with whom he could 192 XICARAGVA. gossip to his heart's content, and pour (Hit his store of reminiscences, that he quite forgot the lateness of the hour and my weariness ; and, with the rndifierenoe to sleep common at his age, I believe he wonld have talked on without stop- ping till the next morning, if my involnntarilj closing eyelids and oonfosed answers had not reminded him of the necesdty of adjourning oor debate. San Kafael lies about 5000 feet above the level of the sea, and contains 300 ^unifies. I: ~::.s founded about thirty years ago by a padre, who settled here with a view of forming a parish ; for, with the spiritual office of the priest in Central America, a worldly speculati