136 D0TTINGS ON THE EOADSIDE. [Chap. IX.—B. S. 
great fright, shut himself up in the only house which 
had solid walls, and vehemently demanded that at 
once soldiers should be sent for to put down the na¬ 
tives and protect the lives of the Protestants. How¬ 
ever, all passed off without any bloodshed, the object 
of the natives having merely been to frighten the 
Methodists, so as to make them abstain from further 
singing of hymns. Thit attained, all was quiet again. 
On the following Sunday, when the soldiers had 
arrived, the objectionable service was again proceeded 
with, the shoeless warriors being posted with their 
guns, bayonet mounted, around the shed in which the 
service was held, and no breach of the peace took 
place. The company, however, had every reason to 
rue the steps taken to preserve order at this price. 
The soldiers quartered themselves upon the already 
overcrowded premises, and had to be fed and paid 
by the shareholders at home, until my friend the late 
Captain Hill, when Commissioner of the Company, 
finally ejected them, and thereby incurred a great deal 
of abuse from the sons of Mars. 
Leaving St. Domingo on the 23rd of May,—the 
first shower of rain fell on that day,—I stopped a 
few days at Libertad, in order to examine, together 
with Captain Holman, the San Juan and San Miguel 
mines. At the inn, kept by an American lady, I met 
Captain Watson, B.N., who had been sent out by the 
Mineral Eights Association, together with an engineer, 
to purchase mining properties in Nicaragua. The 
natives thought that here was a fine chance of raising 
the price of their mines ' f but I soon came to an under- 
