SAN JUAN DEL NORTE. 143 



it had a far greater importance than could be attributed to it 

 from what I saw of the town. 



Since 1848, it had been occupied by an English agent, 

 acting and governing the country in the name of the King of 

 the Mosquito Indians. Two English warships remained 

 permanently here. 



The town consisted of about two hundred houses and 

 huts inhabited by several hundred people of all colours, blacks 

 and mulattoes being the most conspicuous. Several hotels 

 had been recently built and shops opened, all of them kept 

 bv foreigners, chiefly English, American, and Italians. The 

 principal governmental appointments were occupied by blacks, 

 or mulattoes from Jamaica. 



Duties are paid on all goods landed here. When I 

 arrived, the steamer for New York had just gone, so I was 

 obliged to remain two weeks in San Juan. 



During that time, I made several excursions in the neigh- 

 bourhood ; but I collected very little, because the country is 

 flat, damp, and devoid of trees. The best species of birds 

 which I secured was a beautiful crimson and dark red tanager, 

 Ramphocaelus dimidiatus, which was plentiful. 



At night, the moisture w T as so great, that in the morning 

 the soil was soaked as if it had rained hard, and it was dangerous 

 to start for hunting excursions before nine a.m. Showers 

 were frequent, and in the intervals it was very hot. When 

 fine, a sort of northern breeze began to blow about 4 p.m., and 

 lasted part of the night. It was rather enjoyable. 



The connection of the Lake of Nicaragua, with the 

 Atlantic by the River San Juan, was discovered in 1529, and 

 during the last quarter of the Sixteenth Century a consider- 

 able commerce w r as carried on, by this route between Granada 

 and the Lake Nicaragua, and the cities of Nombre de Dios, 

 Carthagena, Havana, and Cadiz. It is probable that the 

 establishment of that port, and the construction of the forts 

 along the River San Juan were made at that time. In 1665, 

 after an invasion of that country by the English, the port of 

 San Juan w T as fortified. 



At the end of May, the passengers from San Francisco 

 began to arrive and also those from New York, so that the 

 place was crowded to excess for a day or two, and on the 3rd 

 of June, I embarked on the fine steamer, PROMETHEUS for 

 New York, where I arrived on the 15th of June, after a very 

 fine passage. On board, I met an American whom I had 

 known in San Francisco as a greengrocer. In four years he 



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