Chap. II. JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR. 19' 
might be, the chances of my recovery being by far better 
there than on the sea-coast. In this he was right, for, during 
the twelve days of my passage to Granada, while I slept 
every night in the open air on board a canoe, several times 
even exposed without any shelter to the heavy dew, or 
lying under an india-rubber blanket in a torrent of rain, I 
recovered, though the consequences of the attack, mani- 
festing themselves in a general want of muscular power 
and in a high degree of nervous irritability, did not leave 
me for many months. 
At that time steamboats were not yet plying on the San 
Juan river and the Lake of Nicaragua, and I had to con- 
tent myself with the accommodations of one of the large 
canoes of the natives called "bongos" which were then the 
principal means of transport between, the coast and the 
interior, for passengers as well as for merchandise. In 
company with two Americans, who, like myself, were 
anxious to proceed to Granada, I hired one of the largest 
of these clumsy little crafts, manned with ten boatmen or 
" mariner vs" together with their captain or "patron" all 
of them coloured people from the interior. We laid in 
provisions for a fortnight, such being the full time of a 
passage which is now performed by steamers in two days. 
We left San Juan on the 23rd of November, and arrived 
at Granada on the 5th of the following month. In refer- 
ence to the beauties of nature, the trip is one of the most 
interesting that can be made, though the state of my 
health prevented me from enjoying it then, as I did after- 
wards on two different occasions. At the present time the 
forest is cleared at several places on the river, where the 
wood has been cut to provide the river steamers with fuel, 
and a few plantations have been established. In 1850 an 
open shed, furnished with a hammock and surrounded by 
c 2 
