DEPARTURE FOR G U A T I M A L A. 



375 



pantosa, or scary, and started. I had very little strength, 

 and was fairly run away with. If I had bought my 

 beasts for racing I should have had no reason to com- 

 plain ; but, unluckily, my saddle turned, and I came to 

 the ground, fortunately clearing the stirrups, and the 

 beast ran, scattering on the road pistols, holsters, sad- 

 dle-cloths, and saddle, and continued on bare-backed 

 toward the town. To my great relief, some muleteers 

 intercepted him, and saved my credit as a horseman ia 

 San Jose. We were more than an hour in recovering 

 scattered articles and repairing broken trappings. 



For three days my road was the same that I had 

 travelled in entering Costa Rica. The fourth morning 

 I rose without any recurrence of fever. Mr. Law- 

 rence had kindly borne me company from San Jose, and 

 was still with me ; he had relieved me from all trouble, 

 and had made my journey so easy and comfortable 

 that, instead of being wearied, I was recruited, and 

 abandoned all idea of returning by sea. 



At seven o'clock we started, and in half an hour 

 reached Esparza. From this place to Nicaragua, a 

 distance of three hundred miles, the road lay through a 

 wilderness ; except the frontier town of Costa Rica, 

 there were only a few straggling haciendas, twenty, 

 thirty, and forty miles apart. I replenished my stock 

 of provisions, and my last purchase was a yard and a 

 half of American cotton from a Massachusetts factory, 

 called by the imposing name of Manta del Norte. 



In half an hour we crossed the Barranca, a broad, 

 rapid, and beautiful river, but which lost in my eyes all 

 its beauty, for here Mr. Lawrence left me. Since the 

 day of my arrival at San Jose he had been almost con- 

 stantly with me, had accompanied me in every excur- 

 sion, and during my sickness had attended me constant^ 



