Journey from Juigalpa 25t 
dantly; the rich, fat land might, indeed, with a little labour, 
be turned into a Garden of Eden. 
In the autumn of 1871, it became necessary for me to 
proceed to Granada to empower a lawyer there to act for 
us in a lawsuit in which we were engaged. Taking Velasquez 
and a servant with me, I rode over to Juigalpa on the rst of 
November. We had intended to go by land to Granada, 
but we learnt that, through continued wet weather, much 
of the low land of the delta of the Malacatoya was impassable, 
so we determined to make for the lake, and try to get a boat 
to take us to Los Cocos, from which place there was a good 
road to Granada. We found at Juigalpa a Libertad store- 
keeper, named Sefor Trinidad Ocon. He had already 
engaged a boat, and courteously offered, if we could not 
find one when we got to the lake, to give us a passage in his. 
We started from Juigalpa the next morning; and for 
the first few miles our road lay down by the river, a deep 
branch of which we crossed. The alluvial plains bordering 
the river were covered with fine, though short, grass, amongst 
which were some beautiful flowers. The orange and black 
““sisitoté ” (Icterus pectoralis, Wagl.) flew in small flocks 
amongst the bushes; and the “ sanaté” (Quiscalus) was 
busy amongst the cattle. Their usual plan of operations 
is for a pair of them to accompany one of the cattle, one on 
each side, watching for grasshoppers and other insects that 
are frightened up by the browsing animal. They keep near 
the head, and fly after the insects that break cover, but 
neither encroaches on the hunting ground of the other. 
We stopped at a little hacienda perched at the top of a 
small hill. It was called ‘‘ E] Candelera,” and was a small 
cattle station, surrounded by plains. We then crossed the 
valley, and made for a range of hills between us and the lake. 
The ascent was steep and rocky; and it took us two hours 
to get to the top. We then saw the great lake, like a sea, 
lying spread out before us, but still at a considerable distance. 
The descent was very steep, and we had to.make long detours 
to avoid precipitious ravines. At last we reached level 
ground; but it was even worse than the mountain roads to 
travel, being in many parts wet and swampy. After missing 
our way, and having to retrace our steps for more than a 
mile, we reached Santa Claro, a cattle hacienda, at dusk. 
