A Cripple b25 
wood. The natives say that alligators are plentiful in the 
river, but that they are harmless. I saw one small one, 
about five feet long, floating with his eyes, nostrils, and the 
serratures of his back only above water. Every one bathes 
in the river without fear, which would not be the case if 
there had been any one seized by them during the last fifty 
years; for no traditions are more persistent than tales of 
the attacks of wild beasts. Anxious parents pass on from 
generation to generation the stories they themselves were 
told when children. 
As I sat upon the rocks in the cool shade, enjoying the 
scene, there came hobbling along, with painful steps, on the 
other side of the river, a poor cripple, afflicted with that 
horrible disease, elephantiasis. He crossed the river with 
great difficulty, as his feet were swollen to six times their 
natural size, with great horny callosities. One of his hands 
was also disabled; and altogether he was a most pitiable 
object. Such a sight seemed a blot upon the fair face of 
nature; ‘but it is our sympathy for our kind that makes us 
think so. If the trees were sympathetic beings, not a poor 
crippled specimen of humanity would have their pity, but the 
gnarled and half-rotten giants of the forest, threatening to 
topple down with every breeze; whilst to our eyes the dying 
tree, covered with moss and ferns, and, maybe, clasped by 
climbing vines, is a picturesque and pleasing sight. So, the 
fishes would pity their comrades caught by the kingfisher, 
the birds those in the claws of the hawk—every creature 
considering the fate that overtook its fellows, and which 
might befall itselfi—the great blot in nature’s plan. 
The poor cripple told me he was going into Juigalpa. He 
had, doubtless, heard that a stranger had arrived in the town; 
for every time I had been there he had turned up. His best 
friends are the foreigners, who look with greater pity on his 
misfortune than his neighbours, who have grown accustomed 
to it. 
The blind, the lame, and the sick are the only beggars I 
ever saw in Nicaragua. The necessaries of life are easily 
procured. Very little clothing is required. Any one may 
plant maize or bananas; and there is plenty of work for all 
who are willing or obliged to labour; so the healthy and 
strong amongst the poorer classes lead an easy and pleasant 
