CHAPTER IV 
The lake of Nicaragua—Ometépec—Becalmed on the lake—White 
egrets—Reach San Ubaldo—Ride across the plains—Vegetation 
of the plains—Armadillo—Savannahs— Jicara trees—Jicara bowls 
—Origin of gourd-shaped pottery—Coyotes—Mule-breeding— 
Reach Acoyapo—Festa—Cross High Range—Esquipula—The Rio 
Mico—Supposed statues on its banks—Pital—Cultivation of maize 
—Its use from the earliest times in America—Separation of the 
maize-eating from the mandioca-eating indigenes of America— 
Tortillas—Sugar-making—Enter the forest of the Atlantic Slope 
—Vegetation of the forest—Muddy roads—Arrive at Santo 
Domingo. 
As daylight broke next morning, I was up, anxious to see 
the great lake about which I had heard so much. To the 
north-west a great sheet of quiet water extended as far as 
the eye could reach, with islands here and there, and—the 
central figure in every view of the lake—the great conical 
peak of Ometépec towered up, 5050 feet above the sea, and 
4922 feet above the surface of the lake. To the left, in the 
dim distance, were the cloud-capped mountains of Costa 
Rica; to the right, nearer at hand, low hills and ranges 
covered with dark forests. The lake is too large to be called 
beautiful, and its vast extent and the mere glimpses of its 
limits and cloud-capped peaks appeal to the imagination 
rather than to the eye. At this end of the lake the water is 
shallow, probably filled up by the mud brought down by the 
Rio Frio. 
We had still a voyage of sixty miles before us up the lake, 
and this was to be accomplished not by paddling, but by 
sailing; so we now rigged two light masts, and soon after 
seven o’clock sailed slowly away from San Carlos before 
a light breeze, which in an hour’s time freshened and carried 
us along at the rate of about six miles an hour. The sun 
rose higher and higher; the day waxed hotter and hotter. | 
About noon the wind failed us again, and the sun right over- 
head, in a clear pitiless sky, scorched us with its rays, while 
our boat lay like a log upon the water, the pitch melting in 
the seams with the heat. The surface of the lake was motion- 
Sf 
