echoes, faint and fainter, till they ceased.

I should judge its width to be from twelve to fifteen feet, and probably one hundred yards or more in length.

One eve, while lying in my hammock, and about sinking into a pleasant slumber, I felt myself bumping against my neighbor, and turned, thinking he desired to attract my attention. Again, while talking, the motion was repeated. Mutually we sprang for the candle. Hearing a bustle in the street, we opened the door, to find the inhabitants abroad, and expecting a grand crash. Here was a dilemma. Señoritas in distress, with dishevelled hair and terrified appearance, appealing for aid, and yet none could be rendered. The shocks, however, soon ceased, and we gladly returned to our hammocks.

About the same distance from the city, a road winds through a forest of trees of most beautiful symmetry, and arched groves of mango, to an eminence visible through a cluster of palms, whence the path leads to an indefinite conclusion. The eye cannot pierce the heavy shroud of dense foliage ahead or on either hand. Carefully our horses tread this shelving inclination, reminding one of "Old Putnam's" riding scene in the melo-drama. The loose stones, becoming detached under the horse's feet, rattle down the precipice to the right. We hear a splash; another moment, and the gorgeous Lake Poyo bursts upon us, fully equaling those of the fairy tales in appearance.

THE BEAUTIFUL LAKE POYO.

83

This sheet of water is oblong, about three miles in length by two in width, the banks inclining around it. The air is heavy with the incense of countless flowers, mingled with the orange and lemon, while playing over our heads are gay-winged parrots, paroquets, and the really magnificent macaw. The water is very clear, and impregnated with sulphur. Not a hut is to be seen. It has an exit in a small stream on the left border, and is an inviting solitude for a bath.

The lake is full of gold fish, which we can see distinctly finning along, their gleaming scales relieved by the white sandy bottom. Oh, what a paradise is here before us! As fair a picture as e'er was tinted on an easel. There, rise soft hills, voluptuously falling to the water's edge, and in the ascent flowing to a graceful height, margining a sheet of wondrous. beauty. The whispering leaves breathe happiness; the birds skimming the rippling-basin seem ignorant of the world beyond, and wing close to us, as though they feel we are strangers, and come to welcome us to their sweet retreat. Such is Lake Poyo, calm, clear, truly beautiful-the embodiment, the realization of Bulwer's "Lake of Como," where every floating cloudlet hath its mirror, and every wind hies to kiss its surface. I gaze back as I mount into the saddle, reluctant to quit it; and now, seen through an interval of time, I still deem it one of the loveliest of my foreign memories.

We breast the hill and gain the plain, turn through another path to a glade of brown-leaved trees, and reach a rancho embowered in a quiet, cosy niche, removed from the glare of the angry sun. Here, on either side, are pine-apples in abundance. The bush whereon they grow is only about four feet high, guarded by sharp leaves, which punish a hasty intrusion. A cup of tiste is prepared for us, and we wander back to the house. Tiste is composed of roasted or parched corn, ground sugar, and cacao, and is rolled in long sticks like pomatum. This is carried about by the marineros and travelers; for by putting it into a tin cup, adding water, and stirring with a spoon, a delicious and cool beverage is instantly at hand. In cases of dysentery it is very beneficial; and this, with the milk of the young cocoa-nut, is generally used, and found highly beneficial.

We may now notice more particularly some of the productions of Nicaragua. Coffee has been but little cultivated, though in Costa Rica it forms a prominent source of wealth, and the return has been as high as one million dollars per annum; the necessary expenses for labor being but nominalfrom a dime to two dimes per day. Indigo has also been neglected lately. The plant is said to be indigenous, though there is a cultivated species, and the quality is unsurpassed.

Tobacco is cultivated; and that which is raised upon Ometepec, in Lake Nicaragua, is said to rival fully the

SUGAR-CANE AND AGUARDIENTE.

85

Havana, though I was not very favorably impressed upon my arrival, with either the make or flavor of their cigars. I found them loosely rolled, and the tobacco very imperfectly. cured; but "homeward-bound" Californians have taught the natives how a better article can be manufactured. Prime cigarros can now be purchased, though at advanced rates. Maize flourishes very abundantly.

The native species of sugar-cane is very different from that cultivated elsewhere. It contains more saccharine matter. Two crops are grown annually, and it requires replanting only once in fourteen years. From this is manufactured the great drink of the country, "aguardiente," which is strong as Hercules, and like lightning in its effect. If you desire to have a friendly tipple upon it, there is no mistaking your position for the morrow. You are certain to be "tight" enough, and equally certain that your friend will be as "oblivious" as yourself.

Cotton is raised to a considerable extent, but is generally manufactured for home consumption. Some years past it formed an article of export. Rice is also cultivated, but not exported. Wheat is grown in the Segovia district, where the climate resembles that of the Middle States of America. These are the principal articles of value, though it possesses an enormous wealth of cabinet and dye-woods, mines of precious metals, rivers of considerable extent, whose banks

require only willing arms to reclaim them from entire neglect; and I cannot believe that the far-secing, thrifty American who has partially scanned this hitherto sealed book, will not refer to some of its bright pages when he shall have returned to his home, and ere many years shall have circled, I predict that many listeners to his strange truths will emigrate to this rude Eden, prepared for labor. Its minerals are gold, silver, copper, and iron; lead, nearly virginal, has been found, fully ninety per cent., and the residue silver. The district of Segovia is famed for its mineral wealth. Rich washings have been worked by the Indians at Matagalpa, as also copper mines, which latter yield from thirty-three to forty per cent. of metal.

In the district of Nicoya, many evidences of wealth exist, and gold has been brought to Granada and other cities from there, by the Indians and traders. The silver mines are numerous, the veins broad but irregular, and yield from twenty-five to ninety per cent. Those of Depilta, in the north, have been worked to advantage, though the ores average not more than two per cent., and yet the returns in one year, and that, too, under all the disadvantages of opening the mines, sinking shafts, &c., were about six thousand pounds of silver. The gold is of fine quality; the washings are more than fair, on an average, even to a Californian, who has been led to expect heavy results, and I accept his testi