406 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



We rode for an hour along the shore, and so near 

 the water that we were wetted by the spray. The 

 bank was all wooded ; and in one place, on a little 

 clearing by the side of a stream, was a hut occupied by 

 a mulatto, the view from which princes might envy., 

 Farther on we passed some women washing, and at a 

 distance of a league and a half reached the River Las 

 Lahas, according to Mr. Bailey's survey the termina- 

 ting point on the lake. A flock of wild-fowl were sit- 

 ting on the water, and long-legged birds, with wings 

 outstretched, were walking on the shore. 



I had now examined, as well as circumstances would 

 permit, the canal route from the Pacific to the Lake of 

 Nicaragua. A direction had been given to my investi- 

 gations by getting on the track of Mr. Bailey's survey ; 

 but I should be able to communicate nothing if it were 

 not for Mr. Bailey himself, whom I afterward met at 

 Grenada. This gentleman is a half-pay officer in the 

 British navy. Two years before he was employed by 

 the government of Central America to make a survey 

 of this canal route, and he had completed all except the 

 survey of an unimportant part of the River San Juan 

 when the revolution broke out. The states declared 

 their independence of the general government, and dis- 

 claimed all liability for its debts. Mr. Bailey had giv- 

 en his time and labour, and when I saw him had sent 

 his son to make a last appeal to the shadow of the Fed- 

 eral Government ; but before he reached the capital this 

 government was utterly annihilated, and Mr. Bailey re- 

 mains with no reward for his arduous services but the 

 satisfaction of having been a pioneer in a noble work. 

 On my arrival at Grenada he laid before me all his maps 

 and drawings, with liberty to make what use of them I 

 pleased. I passed an entire day in taking notes and 



