CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES. 
89 
Chap. VI.—B. S.] 
the night; but before going to rest, they got np a 
little tertulia, or hall, to the great delight of the 
peons, who were besides treated with English songs, 
having ringing choruses. The effect must have been 
very striking, for one of them was heard to say, 
“When these English sing, it is like an earth¬ 
quake.” When the travellers lay down for the night 
on the stretched bullocks’-hides, which serve as 
beds in this country, they found themselves as much 
tormented as on the previous evening, and heartily 
wished they had stopped at Mayasan, by far the 
cleaner of the two haciendas. The following morning 
saw them early in the saddles. The country they passed 
through was more hilly than hitherto, and, as Mr. Paul 
observed, seemed to indicate mineral riches in no 
ordinary degree,—in fact, reminding him forcibly of 
California. A little before dusk they arrived at 
Acoyapa, the capital of the department, with a plaza 
and a church and some two thousand inhabitants. 
During the whole of the journey they constantly 
passed numbers of cattle, quietly grazing close to the 
track, and not the least wild. Acoyapa lies about 
halfway between the Chontales mines and Lake Nica¬ 
ragua, and is well situated as a resting-place midway. 
There are three tracks leading from it to the mines: 
one through Lovogo and Libertad, another directly 
across the country, and the third by way of Esquipula. 
They adopted the first, simply to examine the country, 
for it is by far the most roundabout route. At a little 
past eleven o’clock on the 27th they mounted, and, 
soon after passing Lovogo, began to ascend the ridge 
