30 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



I accompanied Mr. Foster to Realejo, which was only 

 half an hour's ride. The harbour, Huarros says, is 

 capable of containing a thousand ships ; but, being two 

 or three leagues distant, I was unable to visit it. The 

 town, consisting of two or three streets, with low strag- 

 gling houses, enclosed by a thick forest, was founded 

 by a few of the companions of Alvarado, who stopped 

 there on their expedition to Peru ; but, being so near 

 the sea, and exposed to the incursions of the bucaniers, 

 the inhabitants moved inland, and founded Leon. 



At dark we returned to the factory, and Don Fran- 

 cisco and I reached Chinandaga, where I was greeted 

 with intelligence that the proprietor of the boat had sent 

 word that he supposed I had a permission to embark 

 from the chief of the state, as, by a late order, no per- 

 son could embark without. He was most provokingly 

 out i^L his supposition. I had entered the state by a 

 frontier of wilderness, and had not once been asked for 

 a passport. The reader may remember how I was pre- 

 vented visiting the chief of the state ; and, besides, when 

 at Leon, I did not know whether I should continue by 

 land or cross the gulf, and supposed that at the port of 

 embarcation I could procure all that was necessary. I 

 was excessively disturbed ; but Don Francisco sent for 

 the commandant of the town, who said that the order had 

 not yet been sent to the port, but was in his hands, and 

 he would retain it. 



Early the next morning I sent on an ox wagon with 

 the luggage and a stock of corn and grass for the mules 

 during the voyage, and, after a pleasant ride of a league, 

 reached the Viejo, one of the most respectable-looking 

 towns in Nicaragua. The house of the owner of the 

 bungo was one of the largest in the place, and furnish- 

 ed with two mahogany sofas made by a Yankee cahi- 



