394 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



their full speed. We continued our route, from time to 

 time catching glimpses of the Pacific, till we reached 

 a clear, open place, completely protected from the wind, 

 and called the Boca of the Mountain of Nicaragua. A 

 large caravan had already encamped, and among the 

 muleteers Nicolas found acquaintances from San Jose. 

 Their cargoes consisted of potatoes, sweet bread, and 

 dolces for Nicaragua. 



Toward evening I climbed to the top of one of the 

 hills, and had a magnificent sunset view. On the top 

 the wind blew so fiercely that I was obliged to shelter 

 myself under the lee. Behind me was the great range 

 of Cordilleras, along which we had ridden all day, with 

 their volcanoes ; on the left the headlands of the bays 

 of Tortugas and Salina, and in front the great body 

 of the Pacific Ocean ; and what was quite as agreeable 

 a spectacle to a traveller, my mules were up to their 

 knees in grass. I returned to the encampment, and 

 found that my guide had made me a casita, or small 

 house to sleep in. It was formed by cutting two sticks 

 about four feet high, and as thick as a man's arm, and 

 driving them into the ground, with a crotch in the top. 

 Another stick was laid in the crotches, and against this 

 other sticks were laid slanting, with leaves and branch- 

 es wound in between them, so as to protect me from 

 the dew, and tolerably well from the wind. 



I never had a servant in Central America who was 

 not a brute with mules. I was obliged to look out my- 

 self for their food, and also to examine that their backs 

 were not hurt by the saddles. My macho I always sad- 

 dled myself. Nicolas had saddled the cargo-mule so bad- 

 ly the day before, that when he took off the apparecho 

 (a huge saddle covering half the beast) the shoulder was 

 raw, and in the morning even pointing at it made her 



