h. III.] TREATMENT OF INDIANS. 39 



the guate (a kind of gnat) was in that country bad, 

 hence " guate malo," " bad guate," whereas every 

 student of Mexican history knows that the name was the 

 Spanish attempt to pronounce the old Aztec one of 

 Quauhtemallan, which meant the land of the Eagle. I 

 shall have other occasions, in the course of my narrative, 

 to show how careful a traveller in Central America must 

 be not to accept the explanations of the natives of the 

 names of places and things. 



The first people who ascended the Rio Frio were 

 attacked by the Indians, who killed several with their 

 arrows. Exaggerated opinions of their ferocity and 

 courage were in consequence a long time prevalent, and 

 the river remained unknown and unexplored, and pro- 

 bably would have done so to the present day, if it had 

 not been for the rubber-men. When the trade in indian 

 rubber became fully developed, the trees in the more 

 accessible parts of the forest were soon exhausted, and 

 the collectors were obliged to penetrate farther and 

 farther back into the untrodden wilds of the Atlantic 

 slope. Some more adventurous than others ascended 

 the Rio Frio, and being well provided with firearms, 

 which they mercilessly used, they were able to defy the 

 poor Indians, armed only with spears and bows and 

 arrows, and to drive them back into the woods. The 

 first Ulleros who ascended the river were so successful 

 in finding rubber, that various other parties were 

 organised, and now an ascent of the Rio Frio from San 

 Carlos is of common occurrence. The poor Indians are 

 now in such dread of firearms, that on the first appear- 

 ance of a boat coming up the river they desert their 

 houses and run into the woods for shelter. The Ulleros 



