COSTA RICA. 271 



Nicaragua, or Greytown ; and shortly after their arrival a small 

 vessel arrived, which conveyed the party to one of the West 

 India islands. 



" Upon one occasion Captain Trevi thick was called upon to act 

 in a novel capacity, that of a surgeon. An accident happened 

 to a native engaged in working an engine erected at a place 

 distant about two hundred miles from Lima, by which accident 

 both of his arms were crushed. There was no medical man 

 within the distance of two hundred miles, and Captain Trevithick, 

 believing that death would ensue if amputation was not imme- 

 diately performed, offered his services, which were accepted by 

 the patient. The operation, he informed me, was successful ; the 

 man rapidly recovered, and showed a pair of stumps which 

 could have hardly been distinguished from the result of an 

 operation by a regular surgeon. It is not improbable that in the 

 warfare in which he had been engaged Captain Trevithick had 

 been present and assisted at amputations of limbs of wounded 

 soldiers. He thus probably acquired sufficient confidence to 

 undertake and perform the operation himself. 



" From Costa Eica Captain Trevithick came to England, with 

 a design, among others, of forming a company to work a mine 

 which had been granted him (for a term of years) by the 

 Costa Kica Government. Mr. Gerard came to England with 

 a similar object in view. Both failed in their object. Mr. 

 Gerard was extremely unfortunate with regard to his mine, 

 for he spent a considerable fortune of his own in working his 

 mine to a loss. 



" The eminence of Captain Trevithick as an engineer is well 

 known. The public are indebted to him for the invention of the 

 high-pressure steam-engine and the first railway steam-carriage. 

 The latter being dependent on the former, Captain Trevithick 

 informed me that the idea of the high-pressure engine occurred 

 to him suddenly one day whilst at breakfast, and that before 

 dinner-time he had the drawing complete, on which the first 

 steam-carriage was constructed. Captain Trevithick informed 

 me that in 1830 the original steam railway-engine constructed 

 by him in 1808 1 at that time was still running in Wales." 



1 Probably referring to the Welsh locomotive of 1804. 



