8 CENTRAL AMERICA. 



ten pounds, hard condition, to ninety-seven 

 pounds weight Spanish, or seven stone and a 

 half. However, directly the disease leaves 

 a person, strength and health are rapidly 

 regained. 



There was a cool shaded stream of deli- 

 cious water hardly fifty yards from the " ran- 

 chos," as these huts are called, plenty of food 

 for the horses and mules, and the distance 

 was about one hundred and twenty miles 

 from Leon, and upwards of two hundred 

 from Realejo. My friend then returned to 

 Leon, we having agreed to keep up a com- 

 munication by means of mounted Indians, 

 and I was left alone in the wilderness with a 

 few servants, followers, and miners in em- 

 bryo. My servants had been strongly re- 

 commended to me for honesty and fidelity, 

 and one at least for courage and coolness, 

 and he fully bore out the character given 

 with him, as indeed they all did : he was a 

 constant and faithful companion to me in 

 many an adventure, and we were mutually 

 sorry to part. This is very far from the ge- 

 neral character of the lower orders of Central 

 Americans, and I have therefore the greater 

 pleasure in recording the exception afforded 

 by my personal experience. 



