134 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. IX.—B. S. 
that the poor mules frequently stuck'fast. For a long 
time she could not believe that she was actually tra¬ 
velling on the “ Eoyal roads” of the country, as they 
were most improperly called, but fancied that the 
muleteers must necessarily have lost their way, and 
were trying to find it again by riding across country 
with her. Eoads were one of the first things to be 
made in a country. It was quite ridiculous for Nica¬ 
ragua having a congress, an army, ministers of state, 
diplomatic representation, and other nonsense of that 
kind, when there was not half a mile of good road 
in the whole country. Why couldn’t those lazy soldiers 
she had seen about not be made to construct roads ? 
Why not punish crime, which she heard was so rife in 
this part of the world, by compelling every culprit to 
finish at least a mile of road before he again obtained 
a liberty which he was never able to enjoy as long as 
these muddy tracts, miscalled roads, existed ? 
Captain Holman, who, it will be recollected, came 
on by himself to Chontales, when I was taken ill at 
Leon, had made good use of his stay in these moun¬ 
tains, by inspecting all the mines which were offered 
for sale, a list of which was supplied him by Mr. Sy- 
monds, the Surveyor of the Chontales Company. The 
very first mine on this list was the Javali, owned by 
Don L. Quiroz, who had grown an old and rich man 
since working it, and was desirous of retiring from a 
business for which his advancing years disqualified 
him. All the European, as well as the native, miners 
of the district agreed that the Javali was the gem of 
Chontales, and Captain Holman had also seen at a 
