INVESTIGATIONS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 23 



of the native bee. This was the first time I observed this wax utilized in 

 Central America. 



From Leon I directed my journey to the district of Metagalpa, of the depart- 

 ment of Segovia, having already visited tlie other mineral district of this depart- 

 ment from Honduras. In the vicinity of the city of Metagalpa the path led me 

 alongside a hill, on the top of Avhich I was informed are the ruins of a former 

 fortification. I could not ascertain whether its origin was ancient or modern. 

 The aborigines in this district, who are devoted to agriculture and who use cattle 

 as beasts of burden, as in East India, have almost entirely lost their native tongue, 

 and only preserved its name, Popalnca. 



In the city of Metagalpa, head of the district, I met with nineteen families, 

 comprising about ninety persons, who had emigrated from the State ot Missouri, 

 to seek a better home in the woods of Nicaragua. 



Leaving Metagalpa I went to the adjoining province of Chontales. Arriving at 

 Acoyapa, the capital of the province, I received, in answer to my inquiry as to the 

 existence of any relics of the ancient people, the usual reply, " Nothing of the 

 kind is found in this place." In my first walk through the town, however, I found 

 a sculptured figure forming the corner stone of a house, and subsequently observed 

 the uneven surfaces of two pieces of rock buried in the middle of the square of 

 the toAvn, which proved to be sculptures in low relief, representing labyrinths. 

 One of them measured three feet by five feet six inches in its greatest width, and 

 the other three feet by five feet ; both were, however, irregularly shaped. Two 

 other stones, likewise irregularly shaped, were found buried in the street. The 

 sculptures on the visible, uneven surface represented what might be called ara- 

 besques in low relief. By inquiring I discovered other sculptures. One of them 

 represents the head and breast of an alligator ; another the upper part of the body 

 of what I took to be a woman, of life size. The hands of her bent arms crossing 

 over the breast touch the shoulders. In the bank of tlie brook, near the city, was 

 a piece of rock irregularly slniped, the upper portion of its surface being sculptured. 

 On account of being covered by moss and the growth of the trees around it, it was 

 impossible to make out the subject of the sculpture, with the exception of a tail 

 of a fish. There were also three monoliths which the owner has brought from his 

 hacienda, some leagues distant. Two of these represented the upper part of the 

 human figure, from the head to the waist, of colossal size ; tlie remainder of the 

 body being wanting in both instances. The head-dress of these two figures con- 

 sisted of a human head; this occurs very frequently in ancient sculptures. All of 

 them were somewhat injured, and did not show the high degree of art, either in 

 conception or execution, which I found in the sculptures of Copan, Quirigua, and 

 Santa Lucia. The drawings of the sculptures I made were unluckily lost, together 

 with the memorandum book in which they were drawn. 



Besides these sculptures were regularly hewn stones in difierent parts of the 

 city ; a testimony of former edifices and population. 



On inquiry I was informed that at the distance of some leagues many sculptures 

 were to be found. This is the usual way in which the question of a traveller is 

 responded to in those countries, either an absolute denial is given, or an exagger- 

 ated account, which latter mostly proves less worthy of credit than the former. 



