40 THE XATUEALIST IX NICARAGUA. [Ch. Ill, 



rush on shore and seize everything that the poor fugitives 

 may have left behind them ; hut in some cases they have- 

 not heen able to carry off their children, and these have 

 been brought clown in triumph to San Carlos. Their 

 excuse for carrying off the children is that they may be 

 baptized and made Christians ; and I am sorry to say that 

 this shameful treatment of the poor Indians is coun- 

 tenanced and connived at by the authorities. I was 

 told of one comniandante at San Carlos who had manned 

 some canoes and proceeded up the river as far as the 

 plantain grounds of the Indians, loaded his boats with 

 the plantains, and brought them down to San Carlos, 

 where the people appear to be too indolent to grow them 

 themselves. All who have ascended the river speak of 

 the great quantities of plantains that the Guatuses grow, 

 and this fruit, and the abundant fish of the river, form 

 their principal food. Their houses are large sheds open 

 at the sides, and thatched with the " suiti" palm. As is 

 often the case amongst the Indians, several families live 

 in one house. The floor is kept well cleaned. I was 

 amused with a lady in San Carlos who, in describing their 

 well-kept houses to Dr. Seeniann and myself, pointed 

 to her own unswept and littered earth floor and 

 said, " They keep their houses very, very clean as 

 clean as this." The lad and the woman who were 

 captured and brought down the Rio Frio both 

 ran away the one from San Carlos, the other from 

 Castillo; but neither w r as able to get back to their 

 country, on account of the swamps and rivers in their 

 way, and after wandering about the woods for some time 

 were recaptured. I saw the lad soon after he was taken 

 the second time. He had been a month in the woods, 



