Ch. XVII.] TOILSOME JOURNEY. 325 



sent on, I parted with him, and pushed on alone. Soon 

 after I crossed rather a deep river, and in a short time 

 my mule, which had shown symptoms of distress, became 

 almost unable to proceed, so that it was only with the 

 greatest difficulty I could get along at all. After 

 leading almost dragging it slowly for about a mile I 

 reached a small hut. where thev told me that it was 



/ 



three leagues to La Puerta, and only one to Juigalpa. 

 The road to Puerta was all up hill, and it was clearly 

 impossible for me to reach it that night, so I turned off 

 across the savannahs, in the direction of Juigalpa, wish- 

 ing I had not separated from Yelasquez. My poor beast 

 was dragged along with much labour, and I was getting 

 thoroughly knocked up myself. Several small temporary 

 huts were passed, in which lived families that had come 

 down from the mountains, bringing with them their 

 cows to feed on the plains during the wet season. I was 

 tempted to put up at one of these, but all were full of 

 people, and I persevered on until it got quite dark. 

 Just then I arrived at a hacienda near the river, and en- 

 gaged a young fellow to get his horse and ride with me 

 to the town. When my mule had a companion it went 

 better, and being very tired I got on its back again. 

 It was extremely dark, and I should not have found the 

 road without a guide. We passed over the small plain, 

 where the broken statues lie, but my guide, who had 

 lived all his life within a mile of them, had never heard 

 of them. My mule fell heavily with me in a rocky pass, 

 but I escaped with a slight bruise. We had great trouble 

 to get it on its legs again, but ultimately reached 

 Juigalpa about nine o'clock. 



Next morning I awoke with a dreadful headache and 



