52 THE NATURALIST IX NICARAGUA. [Ch. IV. 



inhabited mostly by half-breeds, at about eight o'clock, 

 and securing our hammocks for the night in a small 

 thatched house belonging to the mining company, who 

 kept many of their draught bullocks at this place on 

 account of the excellent pasture around. The village of 

 Esquipula is built near the river Mico, which, rising in 

 the forest- clad ranges to the eastward, runs for several 

 miles through the savannahs, then again enters the 

 forest and flows into the Atlantic at Blewfields, a broad 

 and deep river. This river must have had at one time 

 a large Indian population, dwelling in settled towais 

 near its banks. Their burial-places, marked with great 

 heaps of stones, are frequent, and pieces of pottery, 

 broken stone statues and pedestals are often met with. 

 ISTear Esquipula there are some artificial-looking 

 mounds, with great stones set round them ; in fact, 

 this and another village, a few miles to the south, called 

 San Tomas, are, I believe, both built on the sites of old 

 Indian towns. The Indians of the Rio Mico gave the 

 Spaniards some trouble on their first settlement of the 

 country. About two leagues from Acoyapo, the site of 

 a small town was pointed out to me, now covered with 

 low trees and brushwood. Here the Spaniards were 

 attacked in the night-time by the Rio Mico Indians, and 

 all of them killed, excepting the young women, who 

 were carried off into captivity, and the place has ever 

 since lain desolate. 



Many extravagant stories have been told of the 

 great statues that are said to have been seen on the 

 banks of the Mico, much lower down the river than 

 where we crossed it ; but M. Etienne, of Libcrtad, w r ho 

 descended it to Blewfields, and some Ulleros of San 



