A SPORTING CHARACTER. . 19 



than the usual number of crosses. The people of Nic- 

 aragua are said to be the worst in the republic. The 

 inhabitants of the other states always caution a stran- 

 ger against them, and they are proportionally devout. 

 Everywhere, in the cities and country, on the tops of 

 mountains, and by the side of rivers, these memorials 

 stared me in the face. I noticed one in a cleared place 

 by the roadside, painted black, with a black board sus- 

 pended to it, containing an inscription in faded white 

 letters ; it had been erected to the memory of a padre 

 who had been murdered and buried at its foot. I stop- 

 ped to copy the inscription, and while so engaged saw 

 a travelling party approaching, and knowing the jeal- 

 ousy of the people, shut my notebook and rode on. 

 The party consisted of two men, with their servants, 

 and a woman. The younger man accosted me, and 

 said that he had seen me at Grenada, and regretted 

 that he had not known of my proposed journey. From 

 the style of his dress and equipments I supposed him 

 to be a gentleman, and was sure of it from the circum- 

 stance of his carrying a gamecock under his arm. As 

 we rode on the conversation turned upon these interest- 

 ing birds, and I learned that my new acquaintance was 

 going to Leon to fight a match, of which he offered to 

 give me notice. The bird which he carried had won 

 three matches in Grenada ; its fame had reached Leon, 

 and drawn forth a challenge from that place. It was 

 rolled up as carefully as a fractured leg, with nothing 

 but the head and tail visible ; and suspended by a string, 

 was as easily carried as a basket. The young man 

 sighed over the miseries of the country, the distress and 

 ruin caused by the wars, and represented the pit at 

 Grenada as being in a deplorable condition ; but in 

 Leon he said it was very flourishing, on account of its 



