The port of La Union, our point of departure, is in the little Republic
of San Salvador, which, in common with Nicaragua and Honduras, touches
on the Bay of Fonseca. It is built near the head of a subordinate bay,
of the same name with itself, at the foot of the volcano of Conchagua,
which rises between it and the sea, cutting it off from the
ocean-breezes, and rendering it, in consequence, comparatively hot and
unhealthy. It is a small town, with a population scarcely exceeding
fifteen hundred souls; but it is, nevertheless, the most important port
of San Salvador. Here, during the season of the great fairs of San
Miguel, may be seen vessels of nearly all the maritime nations,
--broad-hulled and sleepy-looking ships from the German
free-cities, taut American clippers, sturdy English brigs, and even
Peruvian and Genoese nondescripts, with crews in red nightcaps.
At this time La Union holds high holiday; its _Comandante_, content at
other times to lounge about in the luxury of a real undress uniform,
now puts on his broadcloth and sash, and sustains a sweltering dignity;
while all the brown girls of the place, arrayed in their gayest
apparel, wage no timorous war on the hearts and pockets of too
susceptible skippers. "Ah, me!" exclaimed our landlady, "is it not
terrible? Excepting the Señora D. and myself, there is not a married
woman in La Union!" "One wouldn't think so," soliloquized the
_Teniente_, as he gazed reflectively into the street, where a dozen
naked children, squatting in the sand, disputed the freedom of the
highway with a score of lean dogs and bow-backed pigs of voracious
appetites.
To me there was nothing specially new in La Union. The three years
which had elapsed since my previous visit had not been marked by any
great architectural achievement, and although the same effective
chain-gang of two convicts seemed still to be occupied with the mole,
the advance in that great public work was not perceptible to the eye.
My old host and hostess were also the same,--a shade older in
appearance, perhaps, but with hearts as warm and hospitalities as
lavish as before. Only "La Gringita" had changed from the doe-eyed
child of easy confidences into a quiet and somewhat distant girl, full
in figure, and with a glance which sometimes betrayed the glow of
latent, but as yet unconscious passion. In these sunny climes the bud
blossoms and the young fruit ripens in a single day.
With my companions, however, the case was different. The _Teniente_
could never cease being surprised that the commercial and naval
facilities of the splendid bay before us had been so long overlooked.
"What a place for a naval station, with its spacious and secure
anchorages, abundant water, and facilities for making repairs and
obtaining supplies! Why, all the fleets of the globe might assemble
here, and never foul spars or come across each other's hawsers! What a
site, just in that little bay, for a ship-yard! The bottom is pure
sand, and there are full ten fathoms of water within a hundred yards of
the shore! And then those high islands protecting the entrance! A fort
on that point and a battery over yonder would close in the whole bay,
with its five hundred square miles of area, against every invader, and
make it as safe as Cronstadt!" But what astonished the _Teniente_ more
than anything else was, not that the English had seized the bay in
1849, but that they had ever given it up afterwards. "Bull should
certainly abandon his filibustering habits, or else stick to his
plunder; the example was a bad one for his offspring!"
And as for H., our artist, he, too, was surprised at all times and
about everything. It surprised him "to hear mere children talk
Spanish!" To be able to help himself to oranges from the tree without
paying for them surprised him; so did the habit of sleeping in
hammocks, and the practice of dressing children in the cheap and airy
garb of a straw hat and cigar! He was surprised that he should come to
see "a real volcano, like that of San Miguel, with real smoke rolling
up from its mysterious depths; but what surprised him most was, that
they should give him pieces of soap by way of making change in the
market, and that he could buy a boat-load of oysters for a shilling!"
As for Don Henrique, who had resided twenty years in Nicaragua, he was
only surprised at the surprise of others. He had a quiet, imperturbable
contempt for the country and everything in it, was satisfied with a
cool corridor and cigar, and had no ambition beyond that of some day
returning to Paris. Above all, he was a foe to unnecessary exertion.
The ascent of Conchagua was the most important incident of our stay in
La Union, both in the excitements of the scramble and in the
satisfactory nature of our observations from its summit. We left the
port in the afternoon, with the view of passing the night in the
highest hut on the mountain-side, so as to reach the summit early in
the morning, and thus secure time for our observations. Doña Maria had
given us her own well-trained servant, Dolores, who afterwards became a
most important member of our little party; and he was now loaded down
with baskets and bottles, while the _Teniente_, H., and myself
undertook the responsible charge of the instruments.
Our path was one seldom travelled, and was exceedingly rough and
narrow. Here it would wind down into one of the deep ravines which seam
the mountain near its base, and, after following the little stream
which trickled at its bottom for a short distance, turn abruptly up the
opposite side, and run for a while along a crest or ridge of _scoriæ_
or disintegrated lava, only, however, to plunge into another ravine
beyond. And thus alternately scrambling up and down, yet gradually
ascending diagonally, we worked our way towards the hut where we were
to pass the night. The slopes of the mountain were already in shadow,
and the gloom of the dense forests and of the deep ravines was so
profound, that we might have persuaded ourselves that night had fallen,
had we not heard the cheerful notes of unseen birds that were nestling
among the tree-tops. After two hours of ascent, the slope of the
mountain became more abrupt and decided, the ravines shallower, and the
intervening ridges less elevated. The forest, too, became more open,
and the trees smaller and less encumbered with vines, and between them
we could catch occasional glimpses of the bay, with its waters golden
under the slant rays of the declining sun. Finally we came to a kind of
terrace or shelf of the mountain, with here and there little patches of
ground, newly cleared, and black from the recent burning of the
undergrowth,--the only preparation made by the Indian cultivator for
planting his annual maize-crop. He has never heard of a plough; a staff
shod with iron, with which he pries a hole in the earth for the
reception of the seed, is the only agricultural implement with which he
is acquainted. When the young blade appears, he may possibly lop away
the tree-sprouts and rank weeds with his _machete_: but all the rest he
leaves to Nature, and the care of those unseen protectors of the harvest
whom he propitiates in the little church of Conehagua by the offering of a
candle, and in the depth of the forest, in some secluded spot of
ancient sanctity, by libations of _chicha_, poured out, with strange
dances, at the feet of some rudely sculptured idol which his fathers
venerated before him, and which he inwardly believes will come out "all
right" in the end, notwithstanding its present disgrace and the Padre's
denunciations.
The mountain terrace which we had now reached is three thousand feet
above the sea, half a mile long, of varying width, and seems to be the
top of some great bed of _scoriæ_ which long ago slipped down on an
inclined plane of lava to its present level. Whatever its origin, it is
certainly a beautiful spot, thinly covered with trees, and carpeted
with grass, on which, at the time of our visit, a few cows were
grazing, while half a dozen goats gazed at us in motionless surprise
from the gray rocks to which they had retreated on our approach. We
found the hut in which we were to rest for the night perched on the
very edge of the terrace, where it overlooked the whole expanse of the
bay, with its high islands and purple shores. At this airy height, and
open to every breeze, its inhabitants enjoy a delicious temperature;
and I could well understand how it was that Doña Maria, notwithstanding
the difficulties of the ascent, often came up here to escape the
debilitating heats of the port, and enjoy the magnificent prospect. The
dwellers on this mountain-perch consisted of an old man with his two
sons and their wives, and a consequent round dozen of children, all of
whom gave Dolores the cordial welcome of an old friend, which was
reflected on his companions with equal warmth. Our mules were quickly
unsaddled and cared for, and our instruments carefully suspended
beneath a rough shed of poles covered with branches of trees, which
stood before the hut, and answered the purpose of a corridor in keeping
off the sun. Here also we chose to swing our hammocks; for the hut
itself was none of the largest, and, having but a single room, would
require packing more closely than suited our tastes, in order to afford
us the narrowest accommodation. It is true, the two Benedicts
volunteered to sleep outside with Dolores, and resign the interior to
the old man, the women, the children, and the strangers. But the
_Teniente_ thought there would be scant room, even if we had the whole
to ourselves; while H. was overcome by "the indelicacy of the
suggestion."
The sunset that evening was one of transcendent beauty, heightened by
the thousand-hued reflections from the masses of clouds which had been
piling up, all the afternoon, around the distant mountains of Honduras,
and which Dolores told us betokened the approach of the rainy season.
Bathed in crimson and gold, they shed a glowing haze over the
intervening country, and were reproduced in the broad mirror of the bay
below us, so that we seemed to be suspended and floating in an
Iris-like sea of light and beauty. But night falls rapidly under the
tropics; the sunsets are as brief as they are brilliant; and as soon as
the sun had sunk below the horizon, the gorgeous colors rapidly faded
away, leaving only leaden clouds on the horizon and a sullen body of
water at our feet.
A love of music seems to be universal among all classes in Central
America, especially among the _Ladinos_ or mixed population. And it is
scarcely possible to find a house, down to the meanest hut, that does
not possess a violin or guitar, or, in default of these, a mandolin, on
which one or more of its inmates are able to perform with considerable
skill, and often with taste and feeling. The violin, however, is
esteemed most highly, and its fortunate possessor cherishes it above
wife or children, he keeps it with his white buckskin shoes, red sash,
and only embroidered shirt, in the solitary trunk with cyclopean lock
and antediluvian key, which goes so far, in Central American economy,
to make up the scanty list of domestic furniture. The youngest of our
hosts was the owner of one of these instruments, of European
manufacture, which had cost him, I dare say, many a load of maize,
wearily carried on his naked back down to the port. As the evening
advanced, he produced it, with an air of satisfaction, from its secure
depository, and, leaning against a friendly tree, gave us a specimen of
his skill. It is true, we did not expect much from our swarthy friend,
whose only garment was his trousers of cotton cloth, tucked up above
his knees; and we were therefore all the more surprised, when, after
some preliminary tuning of the instrument, he pressed the bow on its
strings with a firm and practised hand, and led us, with masterly
touch, through some of the finest melodies of our best operas. Very few
amateurs of any country, with all their advantages of instruction,
could equal the skill of that poor dweller on the flank of the volcano
of Conchagua; none certainly could surpass him in the delicacy and
feeling of his execution. H., on whom, as an artist, and himself no
mean musician, we had already devolved the task of being enthusiastic
and demonstrative over matters of this kind, applauded vehemently, and
cried, "_Bravo!_" and "_Encore!_" and ended in convincing us of the
reality of his delight, by pressing his brandy-flask into the hands of
the performer, and urging him to "drink it all, every drop, and then
give us another!" Our mountain Paganini, I fear, interpreted the behest
too literally; or else H.'s enthusiasm never afterwards rose to so high
a pitch; at any rate, he was never known to manifest it in so expansive
a manner.
"And where did your friend learn his music?"
He had caught it up, he said, from time to time, as he had floated,
with his canoe-load of plantains, chickens, and yucas, around the
vessels-of-war that occasionally visit the port; neglecting his
traffic, no doubt, in eagerly listening to the music of the bands or
the individual performances of the officers. He had had no instructor,
except "_un pobre Italiano_," who came to La Union with an exhibition
of _fantoccini_, died there of fever, and was buried like a Christian
in the Campo Santo adjoining the church: and Paganini removed his hat
reverentially, and made the sign of the cross on his swarthy bosom. And
now, most incredulous of readers, are you answered?
During the night we were visited by the first storm of the season, and
it opened the flood-gates of the skies right grandly, with booming
thunders and blinding lightning, and a dash of rain that came through
our imperfect shelter as through a sieve. Driven inside the hut, where
we contested the few square feet of bare earthen floor with the pigs
and pups of the establishment, we passed a most miserable night, and
were glad to rise with the earliest dawn,--ourselves to continue our
ascent of the mountain, and our hosts to plant their mountain _milpas_,
while the ground was yet moist from the midnight rain. They told us
that the maize, if put into the earth immediately after the first rain
of the season, was always more vigorous and productive than that
planted afterwards; why they knew not; but "so it had been told them by
their fathers."
The air was deliciously fresh and cool, and the foliage of the trees
seemed almost pulsating with life and light under the morning sun, as
we bade our hosts "_Á Dios!_" and resumed our course up the mountain.
There was no longer any path, and we had to pick our way as we were
able, among blocks of blistered rocks, over fallen trunks of trees, and
among gnarled oaks, which soon began to replace the more luxuriant
vegetation of the lower slopes. H., dragged from his mule by a scraggy
limb, was shocked to find that the first inquiry of his companions was
not about the safety of his neck, but of the barometer. At the end of
an hour, the ascent becoming every moment more abrupt, we had passed
the belt of trees and bushes, and reached the smooth and scoriaceous
cone, which, during the rainy season, appears from the bay to be
covered with a velvety mantle of green. It was now black and
forbidding, from the recent burning of the dry grass or _sacate_, and
so steep as to render direct ascent impossible. I proposed to leave the
mules and proceed on foot, but the _Teniente_ entered a solemn protest
against anything of the sort:--"If the mules couldn't carry him up, he
couldn't go; his family was affected with hereditary palpitation of the
heart, and if any one of them suffered more from it than the others, he
was the unfortunate victim! Climbing elevations of any kind, and
mountains in particular, brought on severe attacks; and we might as
well understand, at once, that, if in 'Hunting a Pass' there was any
climbing to be done, some one else must do it!" And here I may mention
a curious fact, probably hitherto unknown to the faculty, which was
developed in our subsequent explorations, namely, that palpitation of
the heart is contagious. H. was attacked with it on our third day out,
and Don Henrique had formidable symptoms at sight of the merest
hillock.
Under the lead of Dolores, by judicious zig-zagging, and by glow and
painful advances, we finally reached the _vigía_,--the mules thoroughly
blown, but the _Teniente_ and the instruments safe. The latter were
speedily set up, and the observations, which were to exercise so
important an influence as a basis for our future operations,
satisfactorily made. We found the mountain to be 4860 feet above the
sea, barometrical admeasurement, and the flagstaff itself in latitude
13° 18' N. and longitude 87° 45' W. We obtained bearings on nearly all
the volcanic cones on the plain of Leon, as also on many of the
detached mountain-peaks of Honduras and San Salvador, as the
commencement of a system of triangulations which subsequently enabled
us to construct the first map of the country at all approximating to
accuracy. At noon on the day of our visit, the thermometer marked a
temperature of 16° of Fahrenheit below that of the port.
It is a singular circumstance, that Captain Sir Edward Belcher, who
surveyed the Bay of Fonseca in 1838, speaks of Conchagua as a mountain
exhibiting no evidences of volcanic origin. Apart from its form, which
is itself conclusive on that point, its lower slopes are ridged all
over with dikes of lava, some of which come down to the water's edge,
in rugged, black escarpments. The mountain had two summits: one
comparatively broad and rugged, with a huge crater, and a number of
smaller vents; and a second and higher one, nearest the bay,--the
_ash-heap_ of the volcano proper, on which the _vigía_ is erected, and
whence our observations were made. This is a sugar-loaf in form, with
steep sides, and at its summit scarcely affording standing-room for a
dozen horsemen. It is connected with the main part of the mountain by a
narrow ridge, barely broad enough for a mule-path, with treeless slopes
on either hand, so steep, that, on our return, the _Teniente_ preferred
risking an attack of "palpitation" to riding along its crest.
After loosening several large stones from the side of the cone, and
watching them bound down the steep declivity, dashing the _scoriæ_ like
spray before them, and bearing down the dwarf trees in their path like
grass beneath the mower's scythe, until they rumbled away with many a
crash in the depths of the forest at the base of the mountain, and
after making over to the grateful old man of the _vigía_ the remnants
of Doña Maria's profusion in the shape of sandwiches and cold chicken,
we commenced our descent, taking the shorter path by which I had
descended three years before. It conducted us past the great spring of
Yololtoca, to which the Indian girls of the _pueblo_ of Conchagua,
three miles distant, still come to get their water, and down the
ancient path and over the rocks worn smooth by the naked feet of their
mothers and their mothers' mothers, until, at six o'clock in the
afternoon, we defiled, tired and hungry, into the sweltering streets of
La Union. Oysters _ad libitum_, (which, being translated, means as fast
as three men could open them,) one of Doña Maria's best dinners, and a
bath in the bay at bedtime calmed our appetites and restored our
energies, and we went to sleep with the gratified consciousness that we
had successfully taken the first step in the prosecution of our great
enterprise.
I have alluded to the oysters of La Union; but I should prove
ungrateful indeed, after the manifold delicious repasts which they
afforded us, were I to deny them the tribute of a paragraph. It is
generally believed that the true oyster of our shores is found nowhere
else, or at least only in northern latitudes. But an exception must be
made in favor of the waters of the Bay of Fonseca. Here they are found
in vast beds, in all the subordinate bays where the streams deposit
their sediment, and where, with the rise and fall of the tide, they
obtain that alternation of salt and brackish water which seems to be
necessary to their perfection. They are the same rough-coated,
delicious mollusks as those of our own coasts, and by no means to be
degraded by a comparison with the muddy, long-bearded, and, to
Christian palates, coppery abominations of the British Islands, which
in their flattened shape and scalloped edges seem to betray an impure
ancestry,--in point of fact, to be a bad cross between the scallop and
the oyster.
At low tide some of the beds are nearly bare, and then the Indians take
them up readily with their hands. The ease with which they may be got
will appear from the circumstance, that for some time after our arrival
we paid but a real (twelve and a half cents) for each canoe-load, of
from five to six bushels. The people of La Union seldom use them, and
we were therefore able to establish the "ruling rates." They continued
at a real a load, until H., with reckless generosity, one day paid our
improvised oyster-man two reals for his cargo, who thereupon, appealing
to this bad precedent, refused to go out, unless previously assured of
receiving the advanced rate. This led to the immediate arrest of H., on
an indictment charging him with "wilfully and maliciously combining and
conniving with one Juan Sanchez, (colored,) to put up the price of the
necessaries of life in La Union, in respect of the indispensable
article vulgarly known as _ostrea Virginiana_, but in the language of
the law and of science designated as oysters." On this indictment he
was summarily tried, and, in consequence of aggravating his offence by
an attempt at exculpation, was condemned to suffer the full penalties
of the law, in such cases provided, namely, "to pay the entire cost of
all the oysters that might thenceforth be consumed by the prosecuting
parties and the court, and, at eleven o'clock, past meridian, to be
taken from his bed, thence to the extremity of the mole, and there
_inducted_." Which sentence was carried into rigorous execution. Nor
was he allowed to resume his former rank in the party, until, by a
masterly piece of diplomacy, he organized an opposition oyster-boat,
and a consequent competition, which soon brought Juan Sanchez to terms,
and oysters to their just market-value.
That the aboriginal dwellers around the Bay of Fonseca appreciated its
conchological treasures, we had afterwards ample evidence; for at many
places on its islands and shores we found vast heaps of oyster-shells,
which seemed to have been piled up as reverent reminiscences of the
satisfaction which their contents had afforded.
During my previous visit to La Union, in March, 1850, I had observed
that the north winds, which prevail during that month in the Bay of
Honduras, sometimes sweep entirely across the continent with such force
as to raise a considerable sea in the Bay of Fonseca. I thence inferred
that there must exist a pass or break in the great mountain-range of
the Cordilleras, through which the wind could have an uninterrupted or
but partially interrupted sweep. This was confirmed by the fact that
the current of air which reached the bay was narrow, affecting only a
width of about ten or twelve miles. This circumstance impressed me at
that time only as indicating a remarkable topographical feature of the
country; but afterwards, when the impracticability of a canal at
Nicaragua and the deficiencies in respect of ports for a railway at
Tehuantepec had become established, I was led to reflect upon it in
connection with a plan for inter-oceanic communication by railway
through Honduras; and, as explained in the introduction, we were now
here to test the accuracy of my previous conclusions. Our observations
at the top of Conchagua had signally confirmed them.
We could distinctly make out the existence of a great valley extending
due north, and our glasses revealed a marked depression in the
Cordilleras, which in all the maps were represented as maintaining here
the character of a high, unbroken range. Of course no such valley as
opened before us could exist without a considerable stream flowing
through it. But the maps showed neither valley nor river. This
circumstance did not, however, discourage us; for my former travels and
explorations in Nicaragua had shown me, that, notwithstanding the
country had occupied the attention of geographers for more than three
centuries, in connection with a project for a canal between the oceans,
its leading and most obvious physical features were still either
grossly misconceived or utterly unknown.
The leading fact of the existence of some kind of a pass having been
sufficiently established by our observations from Conchagua, we next
set to work to obtain such information from the natives as might assist
our further proceedings. This was a tedious task, and called for the
exercise of all our patience; for it is impossible to convey in
language an adequate idea of the abject ignorance of most of the
inhabitants of Central America concerning its geography and
topographical features. Those who would naturally be supposed to be
best informed, the priests, merchants, and lawyers, are really the most
ignorant, and it is only from the _arrieros_, or muleteers, and the
_correos_, or runners, that any knowledge of this kind can be obtained,
and then only in a very confused form, and with most preposterous and
contradictory estimates of distances and elevations.
We nevertheless made out that the mouth of a river or _estero_, laid
down in Sir Edward Belcher's chart, on the opposite side of the bay in
front of La Union, was really that of the river Goascoran, a
considerable stream having its rise at a point due north, and not far
from Comayagua, the capital of Honduras, which, we also ascertained,
was seated in the midst of a great plain, bearing the same name. A
large stream, it was said, flowed past that city,--but whether the
Goascoran or some other, or whether it flowed north or south, neither
_arriero_ nor _correo_ could tell.
The navigability of the Goascoran was also a doubtful question.
According to some, it could be forded everywhere; others declared it
impassable for many leagues above its mouth: a discrepancy which we
were able to reconcile by reference to its probable state at different
seasons of the year.
Fixing an early day for taking the field in earnest, and leaving H. and
Don Henrique to make the necessary preparations, I improved the
interval, in company with Lieutenant J., in making a boat exploration
of the Goascoran. Obtaining a ship's gig, with two oarsmen and a supply
of provisions, we left La Union at dawn on the 15th of April. We found
that the river enters the bay by a number of channels, through low
grounds covered with mangrove-trees. It was at half-tide, and we
experienced no difficulty in entering. Our course at first was
tortuous, and it seemed as if the river had lost itself in a labyrinth
of channels, and we were ourselves much confused with regard to our
true direction. Keeping, however, in the strongest current, at the end
of half an hour we penetrated beyond the little delta of the river, and
the belt of mangroves, to firm ground. Here the stream was confined to
a single channel two hundred yards broad, with banks of clay and loam
from six to ten feet high. The lands back appeared to be level, and,
although well covered with ordinary forest-trees, were apparently
subject to overflow. We observed cattle in several grassy openings, and
here and there a _vaquero's_ hut of branches; for it is a general
practice of the _hacienderos_ to drive down their herds to the low
grounds of the coasts and rivers, during the dry season, and as soon as
the grass on the hills or highlands begins to grow sere and yellow. We
observed also occasional heaps of oyster-shells on the banks, or half
washed away by the river; and on the sand-spits at the bends of the
stream, and in all the little shady nooks of the shore, we saw
thousands of water-fowl, ducks of almost every variety, including the
heavy muscovy and the lively teal; and there were flocks of white and
crimson ibises, and solitary, long-legged, contemplative cranes, and
gluttonous pelicans; while myriads of screaming curlews scampered along
the line of the receding tide to snap up imprudent snails and the
numerous minute _crustaceæ_ which drift about in these brackish waters.
The familiar kingfisher was also there, coming down with an occasional
arrowy dash on some unsuspecting minnow, and then flapping away
leisurely for a quiet meal in the shady recesses of a neighboring tree.
We fired on a flock of ducks, killing a number and wounding others, all
of which we secured except one which struggled away into an eddy under
the bank. We pushed in, and my hand was extended to pick him up, when a
slimy, corrugated head, with distended jaws and formidable teeth, rose
to the surface before me, paused an instant, then shot forward, and,
closing on the wounded bird, disappeared. The whole was done so quickly
as to escape the notice of my companions, who would hardly believe me
when I told them that we had been robbed by an alligator. We lost a
duck, but gained an admonition; and I scarcely need add that our
half-formed purpose of taking a bath in the next cool bend of the river
was abandoned.
When the tide had run out, we were able to form a better notion of the
river. We found, that, although near the end of the dry season, it was
still a fine stream, with a large body of water, but spread over so
wide a channel as to preclude anything like useful navigation, except
with artificial aids. In places it was so shallow that our little boat
found difficulty in advancing. But this did not disappoint us; for
nothing like a mixed transit with transhipments had ever entered into
my plan, which looked only to an unbroken connection by rail from one
sea to the other. At four o'clock, satisfied that no useful purpose
could be effected by going farther up the stream, we stopped at a
collection of huts called Las Sandías,--not inappropriately, for the
whole sloping bank of the river, which here appeared to be little
better than a barren sand-bed, was covered, for a quarter of a mile,
with a luxuriant crop of water- and musk-melons, now in their
perfection. We purchased as many as we could carry off for a _real_.
They were full, rich, and juicy, and proved to be a grateful
restorative, after our day's exposure to the direct rays of the sun,
and their scarcely less supportable reflection from the water. The
melon-patch of Las Sandías is overflowed daring the rainy season, and
probably the apparently bare, sandy surface hides rich deposits of soil
below.
We found the stream here alive with an active and apparently voracious
fish, varying in length from fourteen to twenty inches, reddish in
color, and closely resembling the Snapper of the Atlantic coast of
Central America. The male inhabitants of Las Sandías were occupied in
catching these fishes with hand-nets, in the rifts and currents; and
the women were busy in cleaning and drying them. Their offal had
accumulated around the huts in offensive heaps, and gave out an odor
which was almost insupportable, but of which the women appeared to take
no notice. We did not, therefore, trespass long on their hospitality,
but returned to our boat and started back to La Union. As night came
on, the trees along the river's bank were thronged with _chachalacas_,
which almost deafened us with their querulous screams. Two
well-directed shots gave us half a dozen,--for the young _chachalaca_
is not to be despised on the table,--and we added them to our stock of
water-fowls and melons as tempting trophies to our companions from the
new Canaan on which they were venturing.
[To be continued.]