CHAPTEE XIII. 



Matagalpa Aguardiente Fermented liquors of the Indians The 

 wine-palm Idleness of the Mcaraguans Pine and oak forests 

 Mountain gorge Jinotega Native plough Descendants of 

 the buccaneers San Rafael A mountain hut. 



AT noon we arrived at Matagalpa, the capital of the 

 province of the same name. The town contains about 

 three thousand inhabitants ; the province, or department, 

 about thirty thousand. Matagalpa is built close to the 

 river, on a rocky surface, with stony knolls rising up in 

 some parts amongst the houses. It contains three churches, 

 and the usual large square or plaza. Around, the 

 country appeared very dry and barren, and there is 

 scarcely any cultivation in the immediate neighbourhood. 

 We put up at one of the best houses in the town. The 

 family consisted of a stout lady, about fifty, and her 

 husband, their daughter and her husband, and an un- 

 married son. The two younger men appeared to do 

 nothing ; the elder one had a contract with the govern- 

 ment to manufacture aguardiente for three towns, and 

 spent nearly all his time at a small hacienda, a league 

 distant, where he grew sugar-cane and maize, and 

 distilled the spirit. 



There is a great deal of aguardiente, an inferior kind of 

 rum, sold throughout Nicaragua, and most of the Indians 

 make it a point in their religion to get drunk on their 



