80 
DOTTING,S ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. V.—B. S. 
of the same name, destroyed some years ago by the over¬ 
flowing of the river Matagalpa, and consists of about 
thirty houses built on a hill, commanding a view of a 
rich plain, on which are grown large quantities of the 
brown beans, which in Nicaragua, as in Mexico, are 
deemed essential to every meal. We saw with sur¬ 
prise that the people were using wooden ploughs 
of a most primitive kind, but nevertheless an im¬ 
provement on most other parts of the country, where 
nobody thinks of ploughing or digging previous to 
planting corn or beans. The whole of this plain, 
extending over many leagues, but only an infinite¬ 
simal part of which is cultivated, is the property of the 
Indians, who, so the story runs, once upon a time pre¬ 
sented the King of Spain with six fanegas of tamarinds 
made of pure gold, in return for which his Majesty gave 
them a box to keep church ornaments in, a bell of large 
dimensions, and the Sebaco plain. The box is still 
preserved, and also the deed of gift, but the bell was 
found too heavy to be removed from the Pacific coast, 
and will remain there probably a century or two longer, 
until proper roads shall have been made. Of course, 
the Spaniards and their descendants have tried very 
hard to find out whence the gold sent to Spain was 
obtained, but as the Indians in possession of the 
secret have nearly all died out, and the few surviving 
ones do not seem disposed to make a clean breast of it, 
the spot which supplied the riches is not likely to be¬ 
come known except by accidental discovery or proper 
geological survey. 
