San Francisco, who recounts a little romance of
adventures he met with among this people. Though the story was not told
to me by the man himself, still, as it was repeated by a trustworthy
friend who had derived it from the original source, I may be allowed to
introduce it here.

The young man was on his way to California. When at San Carlos he had
some difference or quarrel with his travelling companions, and, being
afraid of a pistol-ball or a bowie-knife, took the desperate resolution
of swimming to the opposite side of the river, where he soon fell into
the hands of a body of these Indians. He was tied to a tree, and they
then held a council as to the manner--so at least he believed--of
putting him to death. Suddenly, however, as it has happened before in
similar cases, a young girl, the daughter of the chief, hurried forth,
clasped her arms round the neck of my blue-eyed countryman, and gave a
favorable turn to his fate.

Of course, he married the girl, and, as the consort of this Indian
princess, he spent a few months in the forest, till he was ungrateful
enough to forsake his generous bride, and avail himself of an
opportunity to swim back to San Carlos, continuing, after this romantic
episode, his journey to California.

According to his statements, he would have remained with the Indians had
he been able to endure the life in the wilderness, which he found rather
too ill-provided with accommodations for enjoying his honeymoon. During
the rainy season the tribe lived almost exclusively on the trees, and he
speaks in very high terms of the dexterity with which they would leap
from branch to branch, a mode of travelling in which he often found it
too difficult to follow his nimble spouse. At the time of each full moon
the whole tribe met in council, for which the place was designated from
one meeting to the next by the chief, and whatever was done by common
agreement was regulated according to the phases of the moon.

Some years before the period of my first arrival in Nicaragua, the
officer then in command of the fort of San Carlos fitted out an
expedition for the purpose of exploring the country on the Rio Frio,
which is known to be rich in gold. This little corps, having hit upon a
deserted village of the Indians on the bank of the river, and resting in
the shade of some trees in the outskirts of the forest, was suddenly
assailed by a shower of arrows, and, with the exception of the
commanding officer, who