CHAr. IX.—B. S.] RELIGIOUS SERVICE DISTURBED. 135 
glance that here, at last, was the property we had 
been searching for so long. On arriving, I found him to 
be in a great state of excitement; he had heard that 
there were several parties prepared to buy the Javali, 
and he was afraid it might slip through our fingers 
before my arrival. After we had examined it together, 
I determined to purchase it; and at once sent a trust¬ 
worthy agent to the vendor, whilst Captain Holman and 
myself remained in Chontales to go over the surround¬ 
ing mines, some of which we found to be very rich, 
though none of them enjoyed the combined advantages 
of the Javali. 
The day after my arrival at St. Domingo was a 
Sunday; and on the morning of that day a number of 
soldiers arrived, commanded by an officer, to prevent 
a breach of the peace. It appears that one of the 
Directors of the Chontales Company, having a rather 
strong religious leaning, had sent out a number of 
prayer and hymn books,, and encouraged one of the 
officers to preach to the men. Amongst the small com¬ 
munity at the mines, there were men of all religious de¬ 
nominations, and some of them did not like a Methodist 
—especially a layman—to preach to them, or to listen 
to Methodist hymns. Some of the Catholics therefore 
hit upon the expedient of rousing the bigotry of the 
natives,—all Roman Catholics to the backbone,—and 
the consequence was that when the service commenced, 
the natives began to shout loudly, swinging their 
machetes, and vow that they would kill every heretic 
who dared to set up a false religion among them. As 
soon as the row commenced the preacher ran away in 
