368 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. XXII.-B. P. 
first public meeting ever field by other than white 
men in that country. I afterwards (August, 1867) 
went into the matter most earnestly with the ex- 
President of Nicaragua, General Martinez, then on a 
special mission to this country, and gave him such an 
opportunity as seldom occurs to conclude the busi¬ 
ness ; but here again I was disappointed, as the con¬ 
dition upon which General Martinez, or rather his 
secretary, insisted was the cultivation by the occupiers 
of the land offered (2,000,000 acres) in five years,— 
a proposition inadmissible on my part, and a physical 
impossibility besides, even if every man, woman, and 
child in Nicaragua (about 100,000) engaged in the 
work with Anglo-Saxon vigour. There the matter 
rests at present, but I still cling to the hope of see¬ 
ing this highly-favoured land ultimately reclaimed 
and taking its proper position amongst nations. 
In the following chapters, I propose to give an ac¬ 
count of my journey up the Blewfields, the principal 
river in the Mosquito reservation, which in its chief 
features bears so strong a resemblance to the Rama 
and the Rio Grande that I feel absolved from any 
necessity of giving a detailed account of them. I have 
selected my Blewfields journey because it is the one 
' most likely to convey useful information, pointing out, 
as it does, the easiest mode of reaching the mining 
district of Chontales, which is destined one of these 
days to rival that of the Brazils. 
