158 The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
steep sides, excepting where white cliffs gave no foothold for 
the trees. We passed several grass-thatched huts inhabited 
by half-clad Indians or Mestizos, who generally possess a 
few cows, and, away on the edge of the forest, small clearings 
of maize. These people, with unlimited fertile land at their 
disposal, were all sunk in what looked like squalid poverty; 
but they had a roof over their heads, and sufficient, though 
coarse, food, and they cared for nothing more. Our road lay 
a couple of miles to the north of the village of Huaco, where 
much of the maize of the province is grown; the road then 
led over many swampy valleys, and our beasts had hard work 
plunging through the mud. We passed through La Puerta, 
a scattered collection of Indian huts; then over a river called 
the Aguasco, running to the east, and probably emptying into 
the Rio Grande. ‘There were a few orange trees about some 
of the huts, but most of the people were Mestizes, or half- 
breeds, and nothing but weeds grew around their habitations. 
Their plantations of maize were always some miles distant, 
and they never seem to think of moving their houses nearer 
to their clearings on the edge of the forest. Nearly always 
when I asked the question, I found that the grown-up people 
had been born on the spot where they lived, and they are 
evidently greatly attached to the localities where they have 
been brought up. Probably when the settlements were first 
made, forest land lay near, in which they made their clearings 
and raised their crops of corn. Since then the edge of the 
forest has been beaten back some miles to the north-east; 
but the people cling to the old spots, where, generation after 
generation, their ancestors have lived and died. A new 
house could be built in a few days, closer to the forest; but 
they prefer travelling several miles every day to and from 
their clearings, rather than desert their old homes. 
Beyond the Aguasco, we had to travel over a swampy 
plain for about a mile, our animals plunging all the time 
through about three feet of mud. This plain was covered 
with thousands of guayava trees, laden with sufficient fruit 
to make guava jelly for all the world. After floundering 
through the swamp, we reached more savannahs, and then 
entered a beautiful valley, well grassed, and with herds of 
fine cattle, horses, and mules grazing on it. The grass was 
well cropped, and looked like pasture-land at home. The 
