THE SHARPSHOOTER-SANDOVAL'S ESTATE.

67

assassinating his friends and countrymen, fell, pierced with avenging bullets. His funeral was solemnized with all the pomp of the church-the army attended "en masse," and the deepest sorrow pervaded the city. The death of this notorious villain brought matters to a climax; battle succeeded battle, until General Muñoz was shot at Masaya, with other brave fellows. Thep followed Chamorro's death, and a new regime.

Passing out of the plaza, upon the South, is a good road over a rolling and gradually ascending country; a mile's ride brings you to a gate. Dismount! A lane leads to a casa perched on a beautiful eminence, commanding a view of the Lake, Granada, and the country for many miles around. It is Sandoval's estate, an old indigo plantation. The vats are dry, but yet remain in good order. From the

mansion in front,

Upon the rear

are seen fields of luxuriant, wild indigo. is a deep ravine, leading to level ground which margins the Lake. We descend slowly. Here, stretch beautiful lemon groves; there, nod the grateful orange trees, filling the air with suffocating fragrance, while the arched mangoes, heavy with golden fruit, complete as sweet a picture as the heart of the most romantic could desire. Fields of corn are rustling beyond. The fodder, or sacate, is bundled up and taken on mules to the city, where a dime is charged for a small sheaf.

This fodder, under certain circumstances, is the best crop, as it commands a good price and ready sale.

Pine-apples and other fruits are abundant, the white and the yellow; I must not overlook the jocote, a species of apricot, without its sweetness. It is peculiar in flavor, and the taste is to be acquired; for I could not eat one at first, but after a time always had my pockets full. They are sold at five cents per small basket. The beautiful estate alluded to I could have purchased for about twelve hundred dollars. There were three hundred acres, well cultivated, with good barn and other buildings, indigo vats included. But there was one misfortune securing operatives to till it regularly, for natives are not always to be depended upon.

cents per day, and after they have

Their wages are only ten

received a dollar or two,

great difficulty is experienced in inducing them to remain. Remember, a piece of cheese, a lump of brown sugar, and a corn-cake compose the larder of these hombres; and what a pile a dollar would purchase! The vice of intemperance is not indigenous. It is an imported article; and a shame it is, that on such soil should have been sown the curses of wine-bibbing, with so many other unmanly vices, and that so few of the virtues. have as yet been introduced. I do not believe the race to be entirely lost, as some others profess to do. I have found much talent, and many virtues there-much good old-fashioned common sense, and have experienced many kindnesses from

CLOTHING, PHYSIC, AND LAW.

69

those strangers to me; and where a single good seed has taken root, I will not condemn a nation for private wrongs or private prejudices.

There can be found in Granada, almost every thing desired. Clothes are dearer than in the United States. Cloths at a very moderate figure, looser in the web than ours, having been manufactured expressly for this market, and are both cooler and more elastic. Socks, shirtings, &c., are plentiful, but far from cheap. Medicines are dear, fruits cheap. Lawyers are abundant, and must be well and frequently fee'd. This is a co-relative of other civilized nations; and those who go often to the Forum will learn, at least, many of the ways, if at all attentive and cute, by which living is made easy in a few lessons.

As a general thing, physic is not in much repute, save in slight cases of fever, cold, and other minor diseases. Travelers will eat and drink immoderately, or expose themselves at night or mid-day, either of which are equally injudicious; they then upbraid the climate, and neglect to call folly by its right name; but not to do that would be consistent, and inconsistency consists in being consistent so far as affects our desires or appetites. Then we can afford to grumble and revile a country, generous in its pleasures, and gentle in reproofs. Were foreigners to care for themselves and guard against changes and seasons as they do when at home, a resi

1

dence in Nicaragua would prove beneficial to many who are now feeding young apothecaries, and who are emptying box after box of some patent vegetable vermifuge, or new-fangled elixir, which robs us of the little stomach that fast living at home leaves many of us at thirty years of age.

CHAPTER VIII.

RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS-ST. JAMES' DAY-SAN IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA-TRANSIT OF THE VIRGIN-THE CORPUS-ST. PETER AND THE HOLY KEYS-IMAGES

SANTA THERESA-COCHINEAL PLANTATIONS-MODE OF CULTURE AND PREPA

RATION OF IT FOR MARKET-COFFEE-ITS CULTIVATION-SUGAR-INDIGOAMOUNT OF HARVEST-TOBACCO-AMOUNT RAISED-PROFITS-GUNPOWDER

AND OTHER GOVERNMENT MONOPOLIES-ARTICLES OF MANUFACTURE-ARTIFICERS IN GOLD AND SILVER-OPPOSITE

GRANADA-CATTLE

CATCHING CATTLE-THE PETA-HUIJA-FIGS AND OLIVES-A HINT.

ESTATES

It would be an almost hopeless task to properly describe the many religious festivals of the people of this country. I entered some of the "occasions," however, in my Diary, which were new to me, and may be of interest to the reader. St. Iago, or St. James, is the patron saint of the Americas, as also of Gallicia, in Spain; and on this day, July 26th, all the shops are closed. He drove out the Moors from Gallicia, tradition says, appearing on a white horse before the armies of the Christian. The celebration of the feast of San Igna