the reader has a picture of
a Central American lady of pure stock. A large number of the women have,
however, an infusion of other families and races, from the Saracen to
the Indian and the Negro, in every degree of intermixture. And as tastes
differ, so may opinions as to whether the tinge of brown, through which
the blood glows with a peach-like bloom, in the complexion of the girl
who may trace her lineage to the Caziques upon one side, and the haughty
grandees of Andalusia and Seville on the other, superadded, as it
usually is, to a greater lightness of figure and animation of
face,--whether this is not a more real beauty than that of the fair and
more languid Senora, whose white and almost transparent skin bespeaks a
purer ancestry. Nor is the Indian girl, with her full, lithe figure,
long, glossy hair, quick and mischievous eyes, who walks erect as a
grenadier beneath her heavy water-jar, and salutes you in a musical,
impudent voice, as you pass--nor is the Indian girl to be overlooked in
the novel contrasts which the "bello sexo" affords in this glorious land
of the sun."

Some of the pleasantest incidents related in the book are those which
befell the author in his dealings with the Indians, in prosecuting his
archaeological investigations. These Indians are all passionate admirers
of the United States, and of the "hijos de Washington"--the sons of
Washington. Mr. Squier was waited upon officially by the authorities of
several of the Indian pueblos or towns, and among them by the
municipality of the Indian pueblo of Subtiaba, headed by a great friend
of our author, Don Simon Roque, first alcalde, who presented him with an
address in the aboriginal language, of which the following is a literal
translation:

"SIR: The municipality of the Pueblo of Subtiaba, of which
we are members, entertain the highest enthusiasm in view of
the relations which your arrival induces us to believe will
speedily be established between Nicaragua and the United
States, the greatest and most glorious republic beneath the
sun. We rejoice in the depths of our hearts that a man like
yourself has been chosen to convey to us the assurances of
future prosperity, in the name of the sons of Washington;
and we trust in the Almighty, that the flag of the United
States may soon become the shield of Nicaragua on land and
sea. Convey our sincerest thanks for their sympathy to the
great p