256 THE NATURALIST IX NICARAGUA. [Ch. XIV. 



up. At the site of the old town the" church still stands, 

 but only a few poor negroes live there now. Two 

 branches of the river unite a little below the present 

 town, and following it down for about four days' journey 

 a place named Cocos is reached, which is the furthest 

 settlement of the Spaniards towards the Atlantic. To 

 this point large bungoes come up the river, and Don 

 Pedro had been very wishful to get it opened out above 

 for navigation, but had not succeeded. 



There were very few men to be hired at Ocotal, and 

 we determined to go on to Depilto, a small mining town 

 near the Honduranean boundary, where we were assured 

 there were plenty to be obtained. We had only engaged 

 the mules to come as far as Ocotal, and had great diffi- 

 culty in getting others to go on. I think the people at 

 first were afraid that we might cross the boundary into 

 Honduras, and never return. We afterwards learnt that 

 robberies of mules often take place ; some rogues making 

 a business of stealing mules out -of Honduras, bringing 

 them into Nicaragua, selling them, and stealing others to 

 return with. There were, however, several people in 

 Ocotal who had worked at the mines and knew us, and 

 when this information spread we had the offer of several 

 animals. If we had known the cause of the reluctance 

 of the people to let us have mules at first, we should 

 easily have got over the difficulty by leaving the value of 

 the animals in the hands of some responsible person, but 

 the owners had made all sorts of excuses for not lending 

 them, and we had not suspected the true cause. We had 

 been travelling continually for nine days, and looked more 

 like brigands than honest travellers, and the good easy- 

 going people of Ocotal had their suspicions about us. 



