4 The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
and the port of Greytown has in consequence silted up. All 
ships now have to lie off outside, and a shallow and, in heavy 
weather, dangerous bar has to be crossed. 
All we could see from the steamer was the sandy beach on 
which the white surf was breaking, a fringe of bushes with a 
few coco-nut palms holding up their feathery crowns, and in 
the distance a low background of dark foliage. Before we 
anchored a gun was fired, and in quick answer to the signal 
some canoes, paddled by negroes of the Mosquito coast, here 
called ‘‘ Caribs,’’ were seen crossing the bar, and in a few 
minutes were alongside. Getting into one of the canoes with 
my boxes, I was rapidly paddled towards the shore. When 
we reached the bar we were dexterously taken over it—the 
Caribs waited just outside until a higher wave than usual 
came rolling in, then paddling with all their might we were 
carried over on its crest, and found ourselves in the smooth 
water of the river. 
Many lives have been lost on this bar. In 1872 the com- 
mander of the United States surveying expedition and six of 
his men were drowned in trying to cross it in heavy weather. 
Only a few mangled remnants of their bodies were ever found; 
for what adds to the horror of an upset at this place, and 
perhaps has unnerved many a man at a critical moment, is 
that large sharks swarm about the entrance to the river. We 
saw the fin of one rising above the surface of the water as it 
swam lazily about, and the sailors of the mail steamers when 
lying off the port often amuse themselves by catching them 
with large hooks baited with pieces of meat. It is probable 
that it was at one of the mouths of the San Juan that 
Columbus, in his fourth voyage, lost a boat’s crew who had 
been sent for wood and fresh water, and when returning were 
swamped on the bar. Columbus had rounded Cape Gracias 
a Dios four days before, and had sailed down the coast with 
a fair wind and tide, so that he might easily have reached the 
San Juan. 3 
1[Greytown is still the headquarters of Nicaraguan trade with 
Europe and Eastern America though the attempts to improve the 
harbour by dredging and building jetties have had only partial success. 
Its great opportunity passed with the final abandonment, in favour of 
the Panama route, of the scheme for an-inter-oceanic canal by way of 
the lakes, with its eastern terminus a mile to the north of the town at 
a spot which was named ‘“‘ America.”’] 
