52 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. IV.—B. S. 
the name of Hacienda de Pilon. This farm struck me as 
the most tidily kept in the whole of Nicaragua, the 
principal dwelling-house being extremely clean and 
comfortable. An evergreen fig-tree, with a crown of 
gigantic dimensions, was diffusing a delicious coolness 
and shade around the place. As soon as we entered 
the house, and had obtained permission to stop, a young 
girl set to work preparing lisle, a cooling draught com¬ 
posed of water, sugar, and roasted Indian corn-flour and 
chocolate, which is commonly used throughout Nica¬ 
ragua, and of which native travellers always carry a 
sufficient supply. At this farm we found a flock of 
sheep, one of the few I have seen in the country, and 
producing real wool, though some theorists would fain 
have us believe that this is impossible in the lowlands 
of the tropics. 
After leaving the Hacienda de Pilon, the aspect of 
the country gradually improved, there being few run¬ 
ning streams and several houses. We ascended con¬ 
siderably, and, striking once more the main road, 
met with trains of mules carrying cotton, hides, and 
cheese. Early in the afternoon we reached the vil¬ 
lage of Achuapa, said to be about eight leagues from 
the Hacienda de Pilon, and containing about thirty 
houses, some of them with tiled roofs. There is a 
small chapel, but no resident curate. In the popula¬ 
tion the Indian element predominates. We took up 
our quarters under a large open shed, where we slung 
our hammocks, and hardly had finished doing so, when 
we received a visit from the schoolmaster, and that 
compound of beadledom and mayor of every Spanish 
