178 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. X. 



querors come, throughout the length and breadth of the 

 land. "With perennial summer and a fertile soil they 

 might drink the waters of abundance ; but the silken 

 bands of indolence have wound round them generation 

 after generation, and now they are so bound up in the 

 drowsy folds of slothfulness that they cannot break their 

 silken fetters. Not a green vegetable, not a fruit, can 

 you buy at Juigalpa. Beef, or a fowl brown beans, 

 rice, and tortillas form the only fare. When Mexico 

 becomes one of the United States, all Central America 

 will soon follow. Railways will be pushed from the 

 north into the tropics, and a constant stream of immigra- 

 tion will change the face of the country, and fill it with 

 farms and gardens, orange groves, and coffee, sugar, cacao, 

 and indigo plantations ; but no progress need be expected 

 from the present inhabitants. 



Having finished our business in Juigalpa, we arranged 

 to start on our return early the next morning, Velas- 

 quez going round by Acoyapo whilst Eito accom- 

 panied me to the mines. I had a fowl cooked overnight 

 to take with us, and set off at six o'clock. I shall make 

 some remarks on the road on points not touched on in 

 my account of the journey out. After leaving Juigalpa, 

 we descended to the river by a rocky and steep path, 

 crossed it, and then passed over alluvial-like plains, 

 intersected by a few nearly dry river beds to the foot 

 of the south-western side of the Amerrique hills, then 

 gradually ascended the range that separates the Juigalpa 

 district from that of Libertad. The ground was gravelly 

 and dry, with stony hillocks covered with low trees and 

 busbes. After ascending about a thousand feet, the 

 ground became much moister, and we reached an Indian 



