Chap. V. MANAGUA AND MATEARES. 67 
road leads through the woods close to the Lake, but with- 
out an opening to allow a view of it. Managua, the seat 
of the Nicaraguan legislature, is a town of twelve or 
thirteen thousand inhabitants, in a splendid situation, on 
an elevated portion of the shore. Between this place and 
Mateares a peninsula projects into the Lake. It is formed 
of steep and wooded hills. The road takes the straight 
line, by passing over .the neck by which the peninsula is 
joined to the mainland. This is a pass of considerable 
importance in a military point of view. On the south- 
eastern side of it the traveller, between magnificent trees 
on the edge of a precipice, looks down on the lake at his 
feet, while beyond it his eye is arrested by the high vol- 
canic cones in the vicinity of Leon, or by the more dis- 
tant chain of Matagalpa. The road descends gradually 
towards Mateares, passing through an open forest of scat- 
tered trees, with an undergrowth of pinuela and a variety 
of shrubs. Many of the trees and shrubs were in full 
blossom, entirely covered with yellow, pink, or violet 
flowers. 
At Mateares I found lodgings in the hut of a good- 
natured thick mulatto woman, where I passed the night 
in a hammock. Dona Juana was famous for preparing the 
best chocolate on the road, and I found she merited her 
reputation. She liked to have a talk with the travellers 
who entered her dwelling, and I was soon such a favourite 
with her that with her own lips she lit a cigar and put it 
in my mouth. After I had taken my meal, some of the 
more distinguished personages of the village assembled 
around me, and we were soon engaged in a lively conver- 
sation, during which I was asked whether I was a Christian, 
and whether the Jews were not very bad men. As long 
f 2 
