92 -. ] j OMETEPE AND ISTHMUS OF RIVAS. Book I. 
CHAPTEE VII. 
A Visit to the Island of Ometepe and the Isthmus of Rivas — Indian Anti- 
pathies — Violent Attack of Fever — Muyogalpa — Cutaneous Diseases — 
The Two Peaks — .Meteorological Phenomena — Return to the Main Land 
— Gothic Blood — Rivas — Slope to the Pacific — Brito — A Jicaral — 
La Concordia — A Californian Vessel in search of an Imaginary Town — 
San Juan del Sur — Nagascolo — The Transit Road — Slow Combustion of 
Wood — Wasps and their Sense of Hearing — Virgin Bay — Rio de 
las Lajas — Political Characters : Laureano Pmeda and Fruto Chamorro. 
In the latter part of February I visited the Island of 
Ometepe and the Isthmus of Rivas, or Nicaragua Proper. 
The population of the island is almost exclusively Indian, 
and, as already stated, of the Aztec race. Few white men 
have ever lived amongst them, and the Indian blood seems 
to have remained unmixed in this locality. With the 
purity of the race and the greater isolation of the inhabi- 
tants, a more obstinate antipathy against Europeans and 
their descendants than is to be found with the other Indians 
of Nicaragua, has descended to the present age, and only 
a very short time has elapsed since the secret practice of 
idolatry was proved to exist on the island. A German, named 
Woeniger, had settled there and established a cotton plan- 
tation. One day, returning after a short absence, he found 
his family murdered and his house burned down. I met 
the man on the Isthmus of Eivas, where he was employed 
by the Canal Company as superintendent of the transit 
road. In this capacity he had several hundred Indians 
under his directions, whom he treated in such a haughty and 
repulsive manner that I was not at all astonished to hear, 
