CHAPTER XIII 
Matagalpa—Aguardiente—Fermented liquors of the Indians—The 
wine-palm—Idleness of the Nicaraguans—Pine and oak forests— 
Mountain gorge—Jinotega—Native plough—Descendants of the 
buccaneers—San Rafael—A mountain hut. 
AT noon we arrived at Matagalpa, the capital of the province 
of the same name. The town contains about three thousand 
inhabitants; the province, or department, about thirty 
thousand. Matagalpa is built close to the river, on a rocky 
surface, with stony knolls rising up in some parts amongst 
the houses. It contains three churches, and the usual large 
square or plaza. Around, the country appeared very dry 
and barren, and there is scarcely any cultivation in the 
immediate neighbourhood. We put up at one of the best 
houses in the town. The family consisted of a stout lady 
about fifty and her husband, their daughter and her husband, 
and an unmarried son. The two younger men appeared to 
do nothing; the elder one had a contract with the govern- 
ment to manufacture aguardiente for three towns, and spent 
nearly all his time at a small hacienda, a league distant, where 
he grew sugar-cane and maize, and distilled the spirit. 
There is a great deal of aguardiente, an inferior kind of 
rum, sold throughout Nicaragua, and most of the Indians 
make it a point to get drunk on their feast-days, but at other 
times are a sober race. They do not owe the introduction 
of intemperance to the Spaniards, though they can now obtain 
stronger liquor than in the old times, as the ancient Indians 
do not appear to have known how to distil, but they made 
several kinds of fermented liquors. In Mexico the chief 
drink was “ pulque,”’ the fermented juice of the agave or 
maguey plant. In Nicaragua “ chicha,” a kind of light beer, 
made from maize, is still the favourite Indian beverage. On 
the warmer plains, the wine-palm (Cocos butyracea) is grown. 
I saw many of them near San Ubaldo. The wine is very 
simply prepared. The tree is felled, and an oblong hole cut 
into it, just below the crown of leaves. This hole is eight 
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