THE RIVER SAN JUAN. 
85 
Chap. VI.— B. S.] 
spared the ascent of the river San Juan in an open 
canoe, as one of the river steamers of the Central 
American Transit Company would leave on the 18th, 
and take them as far as Lake Nicaragua. At twelve 
o’clock on December 18 they embarked on hoard the 
‘ City of Granada.’ This steamer, built at Grey Town 
at a cost of about 20,000 dollars, is flat-bottomed, 
driven by a huge wheel at stern, by which a speed of 
ten knots can be obtained; it draws 18 inches when 
deeply loaded, and will carry 500 passengers, besides 
about 100 tons of freight. About four o’clock on the 
morning of the 19th they reached the Machuca ra¬ 
pids, which fortunately had sufficient water to enable 
them to pass over them in safety. It required two 
and a half hours to pass the Balas and Mico rapids, a 
distance, altogether, between Machuca and Castillo, 
of about eleven miles of rapids; here they had to 
disembark, and convey themselves and luggage to the 
other side. The Fort or Castillo is the place captured 
by Nelson in 1780, and it was in storming one of its 
outworks, situated on an island called Bartolo, that 
Nelson was wounded while, as he himself said, board¬ 
ing it. The grandmother of General Martinez was 
in the fort at the time, and when her husband, who 
was one of the officers, counselled surrender, the lady, 
although only sixteen, made the defenders hold out, 
and herself fired the cannon which caused Nelson’s 
wound. For this act of heroism the King of Spain 
made the young lady a colonel, besides conferring 
certain decorations, and a medal of honour, at present 
in possession of her descendants. 
