53 
Chap. IV.—B. S.] THE SCHOOLMASTER ABROAD. 
place, large cane, with silver knob, in hand, the alcalde, 
both of whom offered to assist us any way in their 
power. We gratified their curiosity by telling them 
that we had come on purpose, all the way from Eng¬ 
land, to inspect the silver mines of New Segovia, and 
to inquire especially into the merits of that of Limon. 
They assured us that there was no country so rich 
in silver mines as theirs, and that the Limon was one 
of fabulous wealth. Some of the questions which 
the schoolmaster put rather amused us. We had 
some difficulty to make him understand that the 
United States formed part of a continent which he 
himself inhabited, and to which he might travel on 
foot if he felt so inclined, and had sufficient strength 
of limb to do it. He was much startled by the in¬ 
formation that England was not part and parcel of the 
United States, though speaking the same language, 
and that a large pond, which it took several weeks 
to cross, separated the two. Somehow the man re¬ 
minded me of a colleague of his whom I met in the 
South Sea Islands, and who, when he saw an adver¬ 
tisement of a book entitled ‘The Schoolmaster Abroad,’ 
told me that he should certainly send for it, as it 
might in some way relate to him, to which I replied 
that I was perfectly persuaded it did,—he of course not 
seeing the joke. The Achuapa pedagogue did not 
rest till we had inspected the schoolhouse, of which 
both he and the alcalde were evidently not a little 
proud. It was a rough building about forty feet long 
and twenty wide, with one window and rough benches. 
So far there was nothing extraordinary. Eut the 
