22 CASTILLO VIEJO. Book I. 
then the slender shafts of one of the tallest species of the 
palm tribe wafts its little crown of feathery leaves high 
over the gorgeous masses of the heavier foliage. 
Eight or ten miles higher up, the region of the " rau- 
dales" or rapids, begins. Here the river, locked in between 
wooded hills, presents a new character of scenery. The 
trees, covering the hill-sides with an almost impenetrable 
forest, exhibit an extraordinary variety of forms in striking 
contrast. The most interesting situation in this region is 
that of the Castillo Viejo. Here, where the river foams 
over a bed of rocks, stands the old Spanish castle of San 
Juan. Since 1780 it has remained a ruin, though Nicara- 
gua has always kept a few soldiers here, occupying a shed 
at the foot of the hill on which the remains of the fort are 
seen. In the civil wars of the last years this place has 
repeatedly been occupied and evacuated by the contending 
powers. In 1854 the Leonese party held it with a small force, 
when the Granadinos under Chamorro took it, and spared 
the lives of none of their adversaries who fell into their hands. 
Amongst the rapids, that of the Castillo Viejo is the 
only one which forms a real impediment in the navigation 
of the river. With the necessary caution canoes may 
descend, and I myself have passed over it on my way 
back to the coast in a bongo carrying forty passengers ; — 
upwards, however, all classes of boats must be towed, after 
having been unloaded, and the continuity of steam naviga- 
tion is interrupted here. The steamboats from the mouth 
of the river proceed as high up as the foot of this rapid, 
while those from the Lake come as far down as the end of 
the still water above it. Not long before the time of my 
arrival the two first steamboats destined to ply on the 
river and Lake had been sent from New York by the 
Canal Company ; one of them, however, lay at the Cas- 
