Chap. I. SAN JUAN DEL NORTE. 13 
profit by the neighbourhood, without having their dwellings 
exposed to the looks of the passing " Americanos." 
Heavy showers of rain, which poured down in torrents 
every day, prevented me from moving more freely about in 
the environs, and made the time tedious and unproductive 
of observation. On the 14th of November, Captain B. 
having settled his business transactions, our anchor was 
raised, and our brig towed out into the sea. 
It took us four days to reach San Juan del Norte. Where 
first seen by us the coast near that place appeared as a long 
belt of forest, here and there interrupted by a savana, and 
extending in a flat country to the foot of a range of hills 
in the interior. Farther in that direction rose some isolated 
peaks, indicating, by their pure conical form, the volcanic 
nature of the region. These, as I learned soon after, were 
the two cones of the island of Ometepe, in the lake of 
Nicaragua, and some of the nearer peaks of Costarica. 
At that time San Juan was a little town of about fifty 
or sixty houses. The place is known by three different 
names. To designate it in a more general manner, it is 
called San Juan de Nicaragua — to distinguish it from 
another San Juan, which is situated on the Pacific coast of 
Nicaragua, it is called San Juan del Norte : " mar del 
norte " and " mar del sur " being old Spanish denomina- 
tions for the Atlantic and the Pacific ocean, — and to ex- 
tinguish the memory of the Spanish origin and the former 
allegiance to Spain as well as to Nicaragua, the English, 
when they took forcible possession of it in the name of 
their tutelary kingdom of Mosquitia, in 1848, substituted 
the name of Grey town for the two older appellations. 
In spite of the novelty of the latter name, San Juan del 
Norte is an old Spanish settlement. It is a well known 
fact that a Spanish garrison was kept here at the begin- 
