14 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



losing concern, particularly as, after the in- 

 digo is made, it has to be carried on mules'* 

 backs for sale to the same place that the 

 cattle are driven to, St. Miguel. At the 

 annual fair held at that town every year, 

 buyers come from all parts of the American 

 coast as far south as Valparaiso, to make 

 their purchases of cocoa, indigo, cochineal, 

 hides, &c, the cattle purchased at that fair 

 being mostly intended for the Guatamala 

 country. 



Thus the inhabitants of the towns about 

 Leon and Realejo, having no sure sale for 

 their herds and indigo, are generally very 

 poor, as regards the possession of money, or 

 even as to being able to obtain what in 

 Europe would be considered, not the com- 

 forts, but the necessities of life. They have 

 in general abundance of plain but very coarse 

 food; they are very well mannered, as all 

 Spaniards are; they are quiet, inoffensive, 

 and wish for nothing but ease and tran- 

 quillity ; and a stranger is puzzled to know 

 how the many revolutions, that prove such a 

 curse to the country, are brought about, when 

 these persons abstain from any thing like even 

 agitation. 



The fact is, that every revolution effected 



