The Naturalist in Nicaragua Part 3

CHAPTER 19.

Iguanas and lizards.--Granada.--Politics.--Revolutions.--Cacao cultivation.--Masaya.--The lake of Masaya.--The volcano of Masaya.

--Origin of the lake basin.

CHAPTER 20.

Indian population of the country lying between the great lakes of Nicaragua and the Pacific.--Discovery and conquest of Nicaragua by the Spaniards.--Cruelties of the Spaniards.--The Indians of Western Central America all belonged to one stock.--Decadence of Mexican civilisation before the arrival of the Spaniards.--The designation "Nahuatls" proposed to include all the Mexican, Western Central American, and Peruvian races that had descended from the same ancient stock.--The Nahuatls distinct from the Caribs on one side and the Red Indians on the other.--Discussion of the question of the peopling of America.

CHAPTER 21.

Return to Santo Domingo.--The birds of Chontales.--The insects of Chontales.--Mimetic forms.--Departure from the mines.--Nicaragua as a field for emigration.--Journey to Greytown.--Return to England.

INDEX.

LIST OF ILl.u.s.tRATIONS.

PLATE 1. SKETCH MAP OF NICARAGUA.

PLATE 2. ALLIGATORS.

PLATE 3. HEADS OF MOT-MOTS.

PLATE 4. COMMISSIONER'S HOUSE AT SANTO DOMINGO.

PLATE 5. NEST OF LEAF-CUTTING ANT.

PLATE 6. MACHINERY OF CHONTALES GOLD-MINING COMPANY.

PLATE 7. SECTION OF MINE SHOWING METHOD OF EXTRACTING THE ORE.

PLATE 8. SECTION OF SAN ANTONIO LODE.

PLATE 9. HUMMING-BIRDS (Florisuga mellivora, LINN.).

PLATE 10. TONGUES OF HUMMING-BIRD AND WOODp.e.c.k.e.r.

PLATE 11. PITCHER-FLOWER (Marcgravia nepenthoides).

PLATE 12. FLOWER OF THE "PALOSABRE."

PLATE 13. ADVENTURE WITH A JAGUAR.

PLATE 14. PENA BLANCA.

PLATE 15. INDIAN STATUES.

PLATE 16. PATH UP STEEP HILL.

PLATE 17. QUISCALUS.

PLATE 18. BULL'S-HORN THORN.

PLATE 19. LEAF OF MELASTOMA.

PLATE 20. NATIVE STILL.

PLATE 21. NATIVE PLOUGH.

PLATE 22. GEOLOGICAL SECTION NEAR OCOTAL.

PLATE 23. HORNET AND MIMETIC BUG.

PLATE 24. GEOLOGICAL SECTION AT MASAYA.

PLATE 25. LONGICORN BEETLES OF CHONTALES.

PLATE 26. LEAF INSECT.

PLATE 27. MOSS INSECT.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

The following pages have been written in the intervals between arduous professional engagements. Begun on the Atlantic during my voyage home from Central America, the first half relieved the tedium of a long and slow recovery from the effects of an accident occurring on board s.h.i.+p. The middle of the ma.n.u.script found me traversing the high pa.s.ses of the snow-clad Caucasus, where I made acquaintance with the Abka.s.sians, in whose language Mr. Hyde Clark finds a.n.a.logies with those of my old friends the Brazilian Indians.

I now write this brief preface and the last chapter of my book (with Bradshaw's "Continental Guide" as my only book of reference), on my way across the continent to the Urals, and beyond, to the country of the nomad Kirghizes and the far Altai mountains on the borders of Tibet; and when readers receive my work I shall probably have turned my face homewards again, and for weeks be speeding across the frozen Siberian steppes, wrapped in furs, listening to the sleigh bells, and wondering how my book has sped. It is full of theories--I trust not unsupported by facts: some thought out on the plains of Southern Australia; some during many a solitary sleigh drive over frozen lakes in North America; some in the great forests of Central and South America; some on the wide ocean, with the firmament above and below blending together on the horizon; and some, again, in the bowels of the earth when seeking for her hidden riches. The thoughts are those of a lifetime compressed into a little book; and, like the genie of the Arabian tale, imprisoned in an urn, they may, when it is opened, grow and magnify, or, on the contrary, be kicked back into the sea of oblivion.

This much is necessary; not to disarm criticism, but to excuse myself to those authors whose labours on some of the subjects I have treated of I may not have mentioned. I have, during my sojourns in England, worked hard to read up the literature of the various questions discussed, but I know there must be many oversights and omissions in referring to what others have done; especially with regard to continental writers, for I know no language but my mother-tongue; and their works, excepting where I have had access to translations, have been sealed books to me.

I am indebted to Mr. H.W. Bates for much a.s.sistance, and especially for undertaking the superintendence of these sheets in their pa.s.sage through the press; to Mr. W.C. Hewitson, of Oatlands Park, I am under many obligations, for taking charge of my entomological collections, for naming many of my b.u.t.terflies, and for access to his magnificent collection of Diurnal Lepidoptera. Mr. Osbert Salvin and Dr. P.L. Sclater have named for me my collection of birds; and for much entomological information I am indebted to Professor Westwood, Mr. F. Smith, and Dr. D. Sharp; whilst, in botany, Professor D. Oliver, of Kew, has kindly named for me some of the plants. Through the a.s.sistance of these eminent authorities, I trust that the scientific names scattered throughout the book may be depended upon as correct.

Nijni Novgorod,

October 9th, 1873.

THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.

CHAPTER 1.

Arrival at Greytown.

The river San Juan.