182 The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
three or four play all the evening, until the closing hour, 
at nine, and a dozen others sit round the walls on benches; 
a gambling room, licensed by the government, where only 
the smallest sums are staked; cock-fighting on Sundays; 
a feast day; and perhaps a bull- -fight once or twice a year; 
private gambling carried on to a considerable extent by the 
higher classes, and aguardiente-drinking by the lower, com- 
plete the list of Nicaraguan diversions. 
On entering the Matagalpa district, we had found the 
roads dry and dusty; and we now learnt that whilst at 
Santo Domingo the season had been unusually wet, near 
Matagalpa it had been so dry that the maize crops were 
suffering greatly from the drought. We had been travelling 
nearly north-west, and were getting gradually further and 
further away from the Atlantic, into a region where the 
north-east trade wind, having to travel over a greater stretch 
of land, gets drained of its moisture. 
Our mules and horses were completely tired out; and 
we expected to have been able, without difficulty, to hire 
fresh animals to take us on to Ocotal in Segovia; but we 
were disappointed. We lost the afternoon by depending 
upon a man who undertook to get us some. He went away, 
saying he was going after them. Hour after hour passed, 
and he did not return. We went to his house; and his wife 
told us that he was getting the mules for us. Night set in, 
and still he came not. At last, about nine o’clock, we found 
him at the billiard-room. He said he thought, when he did 
not return, we would take it for granted that he had not been 
able to find the mules. I believe he had never been further 
than the billiard-saloon looking for them. These people 
get through the days with such ennuz and difficulty, that 
they have no idea of people economising time. A story is 
told about them which, whether true or not, illustrates this. 
When the steamboats were first put on the Lake of Nicaragua, 
the natives complained that they were charged as much as 
they were in the bungoes, although they got sometimes a 
week’s sailing in the latter, and only one day in the steam- 
boat. We were ina dilemma about mules. I wished to push 
on, as I found the journey was a longer one than I expected 
when I set out; and it was important that I should get back 
to the mines by the end of the month. At last, our host 
