LAKE NICARAGUA

73 of Chontales, with the faint outline of the mountains to the east of them, interesting to me because they are the mysterious mountains where all our rivers of the Mosquito Coast rise. Among them the first thunder of the year utters its warning growl, and from them come our dreadful floods of the rainy season. West of them are dry weather and grassy country; east forests.

of them, rainy weather and dense

At Rivas no one seemed to be in charge of me, and I soon made friends with the rough but frank Americans in the camp. I used to sit at their fires and tell them of my adventures among the Indians, and perhaps the information I gave them may have been useful, for shortly after I left there was a dreadful battle in which the Americans were defeated. They were shot wherever they were found, and the only ones that escaped were those who reached the Chontales Sierras and descended the rivers to the Mosquito Coast.

Before long General Walker returned and gave me a pass to get out of the river, and the agent of the company directed me to fill up the woodshed and come to Greytown before the Spaniards cut off my retreat.

CHAPTER V.

Our voyage up the coast to the Toongla River-The Pearl Keys-Sleeping at sea-The creek-Quamwatla-Mosquito Indians-Absence of men -Arrival of the absent-Feuds and sentiments-Names and lovesLove-songs-Death and dirge songs-Feast of the dead-Suicides -Drinking-Native doctors.

DURING the past three years we had been cutting and rafting mahogany on the Toongla River, and having spent a short holiday at Blewfields, it was necessary to return to that river and finish our work. So one evening, in the month of November, 1856, we loaded the little canoe, which had served us in many an expedition by sea and river, with our luggage and a few provisions, anchored it out in the lagoon to be safe from prowling dogs and pigs, and retired to our beds. At three in the morning our crew of two Indians, who had slept in the boatshed at the waterside, roused my brother-in-law and myself, and after partaking of a cup of hot coffee, we set out.

All was still and dark as we embarked; the trees hung their tops over the village and seemed to slumber with it. Cocks were crowing fast, and fish splashing in the still lagoon, as is their habit just before daylight. The moon had long set; the great morning star shed a path of silvery light across the water, driven into ripples by the fresh land-wind; the vast Milky Way brightened up the south-east sky as if daylight was coming from that quarter, and the stars kept watch over the sleeping earth.

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Just as we shoved off we remembered that we had no fresh water, so the Indians jumped out, groped their way to a stream which issued from the forest beside our house, filled the demi-john, and got back into the canoe, when we set sail. Then, lighting our pipes, we composed ourselves to wait for daylight. By degrees talking subsided, the pipes were laid down, vain efforts were made to keep awake, but one after another we leaned our heads on the luggage and yielded to the overcoming influence of 'before-day sleep,' except the man in the stern steering with his paddle.

We were wakened by the tossing of the canoe, and looking up, found we had passed out of the lagoon and were at sea. Streaks of pale reddish light showed that daylight was coming, but a dark bank of clouds on the eastern horizon and the high sea rolling in foretold a stormy day when the sea-breeze should come.

As there was a good stiff land-breeze blowing, we steered far out to sea, so as to have a good offing when the sea-breeze came. We washed the sleep out of our eyes with a drop of fresh water, then breakfasted on roast turtle-meat and boiled plantains served in a calabash, then lighted our pipes and waited patiently to see what the sea-breeze would do for us. Presently the sun rose with the splendour of the tropics, but was not welcomed by us, who had to endure his pitiless rays in a cramped canoe on the open sea. The fresh, cool landwind soon felt his influence, and retreated back to the forests where it lives; great masses of white cloud in the east, with mares' tails above them, showed a windy sky; an interval of calm and stifling heat passed over us, then the sea-breeze came down in gusts and showers. At first it was north-east, and we could scarcely make the canoe lie her course along the coast; but while we were debating as to the necessity of returning for shelter to Blewfields Lagoon, the wind shifted to the east, and then to the south-east, and came on to blow with a high sea running. We struggled on

with all sail, and got swamped once or twice, as the canoe was heavily loaded; but by constant baling and sitting on the weather gunwale during the gusts, we kept her from capsizing. We were continually drenched with the spray, and the wind blowing on our backs made us shiver with cold. We tried hard to procure the comfort of a pipe by sitting together with our backs to the spray, but we were afraid of wetting our tinder-horn, in which case we should have nothing to eat until we reached the next settlement; so we had to suck at the empty pipes as a relief from the salt spray.

In the afternoon the sky looked very black to windward, and presently down came a heavy squall and torrents of rain. The little craft could not stand it, so we took the sprit out of the sail and tied down the peak, and with this reduced sail we went flying and tearing over the water, yawing from side to side like a runaway horse. Sometimes her stern rose high on a wave, and her bow was buried with a wall of water standing up on each side of it; then again she rushed along, balanced on the crest of a wave, and sinking down into the rolling troughs. The spray and rain were so thick that we could not see fifty yards off, but steered our course by the direction of the waves.

Finding the weather too rough to keep at sea, we steered for a little cove called False Blewfields. The sea was breaking heavily at the entrance to the bay, but we got through the surf and found ourselves in a quiet little bay with a high bluff to windward, and, best of all, there was a small deserted hut at the foot of the bluff. We were delighted at the prospect of shelter from the cold wind and rain, as we were blue with cold, and shivering so as to be hardly able to speak. But we found this delightful-looking place swarming with sandflies, which put us into a fever of irritation as we stood on the beach. So we walked round the bay in search of firewood, and also gathered a number of green cocoanuts, and had a refreshing drink of the milk. Having lighted a great

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fire in the hut, we were relieved of the flies; we then cooked our dinner of salt pork and plantains, served up on a papta or fan-palm leaf, and finished up with a pipe. Then we wrung out our clothes and put them on again, and, crouching round the fire, went to sleep regardless of the storm of wind, rain and thunder that raged around.

We rose before daylight to find the land-wind gently blowing, but the sea still high. However, we embarked, got through the surf safely, and sailed along the coast. When the sun rose we steered close along the edge of the breakers thundering on the beach, and had one or two narrow escapes through careless steering, when a wave larger than usual came rolling in with its top showing a bottle-green colour, and, after heaving us violently over its back, broke with a roar just after leaving us. I amused myself watching the deer and agouti that every here and there issued from the bush. The latter gambolled on the sand, or galloped along with that odd throw of the hindquarters that distinguishes the gait of all rodents, and from time to time squatted on their haunches to nibble the seed held in their fore-feet. The deer stalked along cropping the wild convolvulus vines that grew over the sand, lifting their heads and gazing all round every minute; they never perceived us until we got to windward of them, when they sniffed us at once and bounded into the bush.

In places there are groves of cocoanut-trees miles in length. Sometimes the groves extend for some hundreds of feet in from the beach; at other places the trees are in single rows. As no one ever planted these trees, it is singular that they only grow in groves at very long intervals; and why the whole beach from end to end is not covered with cocoanuts is not evident. Another beach palm is the wow, or beach cabbage-palm. This has a stout stem and grows 60 or 80 feet high; but it requires good soil, while the cocoanut grows best on sand soaked with salt water.