OCEAN TO OCEAN

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

LAND of purple hills and fertile valleys clad in a garment of perennial green,

where cold and hunger are alike unknown, and fever flies before the purifying northeast trades, what wonder that an ancient chronicler, marvelling at the lavishness of nature's gifts, called Nicaragua "Mahomet's Paradise"? Everything essential to the material wants of man is ready to his hand, and the earth needs scant encouragement to bring forth its abundance. Luscious fruits of the tropics mingle with products of the temperate zone; oranges, mangoes, guavas, plantains, spring spontaneously from the soil. The feathery heads of cocoanut palms nod against an azure sky, while the blackened stumps in scattered clearings are lost in billowy fields of corn. Deer bound across the forest glades, herds of peccaries thread the matted jungle, and succu

lent wild turkeys are ever-present neighbors. From the tangled virgin forests of the eastern coast, bathed in warm showers from the restless sea, to the comparatively cultivated Pacific slope, basking each year in six long months of sunshine, the land is one of wondrous beauty and richness. A salubrious climate, an equable temperature, and a marked absence of the more noxious forms of animal life combine to make "Mahomet's Paradise" deserving of its

name.

Amidst these fair surroundings four hundred thousand people are dreaming the years away. No traditions of the past, no ambitions for the future, disturb the even tenor of their lives. A hammock in the shade during the sunny summer days, a thatched roof when it rains, plantains plucked from a near-by tree, and corn and beans from some half-cultivated garden supply their every need. In such a climate clothing is merely a concession to the claims of decency, and Nicaraguans are not a nation of prudes. The wonders of the forest, questions of national import, even the frequently recurring revolutions forced by interested party leaders, awaken only a languid and transitory interest in minds habitually steeped in indolence. In a few brief years they shall return to Mother Earth; why, then, vex themselves with disturbing problems which perhaps only time can

solve? Here, one may at least be comfortable: beyond, quien sabe?

The

Situated between 10°40′ and 15° north latitude and 83°11′ and 87°40′ west longitude, Nicaragua has an area of 58,500 square miles, or about seven times that of Massachusetts. Its eastern boundary is the Caribbean Sea, which extends from Cape Gracias á Dios on the north to the Colorado mouth of the Rio San Juan on the south, a distance of about 280 miles. coast is low and swampy for a distance of from twenty to fifty miles from the sea, and numerous shallow lagoons afford shelter to craft of light draught. A multitude of small islands, the chief of which are Great and Little Corn, Old Providence, and St. Andrew's, lie off shore; picturesque bits of scenery little appreciated by navigators. The only harbors worthy of note which are available for present use are Pearl Cay and Blewfields lagoons, both deficient in depth but otherwise good. Greytown harbor, which fifty years ago afforded safe and ample anchorage for sea-going craft, has been cut off from the sea by bars of sand, and can only be entered by small tugs and lighters through the mouth of the Rio San Juan. It was opened in 1890 by the Nicaragua Canal Construction Company, but since the abandonment of work on the canal it has again closed.

The southern boundary of Nicaragua follows

the right bank of the Rio San Juan from Harbor Head to within three miles of Castillo, where it leaves the river to the northward but runs. parallel to it and to the southern shore of the lake, at a distance of three miles, to a point near the Rio Sapoa, whence it takes a southerly direction for a few miles to its terminus at Salinas Bay. The Pacific coast is almost a continuation of the southern boundary, although it trends slightly more to the northward, and the two together form the base of an isosceles triangle, of which Cape Gracias á Dios is the apex, and the Caribbean seacoast and northern boundary the other two sides. The Pacific coast, 200 miles in length, is bold and rocky, with two excellent harbors, Corinto (Realejo) and San Juan del Sur, both of which are visited regularly by ships of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Brito, often referred to as a harbor, is merely a slight indentation of the coast-line formed by a projecting rocky headland, and is only used by occasional bands of insurgents or smugglers because of its isolated position. The northern boundary, from the Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific Ocean to Cape Gracias a Dios on the Caribbean Sea, passes through a comparatively unknown country.

As has been said, the eastern coast is bordered by a low and swampy belt from 20 to 50 miles wide, from the western side of