The Republican journal., 1896-11-12
The Republican Journal Thursday Morning. November 12 1885,

the oars are largely depended upon. Seats
are laid across the bottom of the boat and
the sides used as rest for the back. The
III" from 1lgre to the main. land is a glo-
rlous one-through an ever shifting piano.
rama OF mountain ridges. volcanic islands,
tall mangrove forests, and smooth, dark
waters, where every dip of the oars stirs
up phospherescent masses that glitter
like FURNISHED silver. As everything in
Spanish America is done on the manana
ITO morrow plan, it has been impossible
to start on this several hours trip until
the day is far spent; consequently you
have the privilege of watching the sun go
to bed in the western ocean amid blaze
OF glory, and the brief twilight of the
tropics, tiuted with the most gorgeous
tints and shades, reflected on mountains.
cloud and sea. Then night suddenly
descends, like curtain rolled down from
heaven, and unless Luna lends assistance.
you land in darkness. 1t matters little
by which port you have selected to enter
II onduras-you will wish you has chosen
the other one. San Lorenzo is a miser-
able collection of low straw matched
huts, with two great wicker side, tiled
roof warehouses, belonging to some sill
yer mining company of the interior. all
swarmiug with fieas, gnats and other
vermln. The wretched inhabitants.
Sh a kline will
swamps, are mostly engaged in the manu-
facture of salt. In the huts aforesaid.
dozens of people of both sexes and sew
eral generations, occupy one small room.
No chance in any of them for more
fastidious strangers; so you unstrap your
hammocks and sling them in the wicker
sided warehouses, to get what sleep the
gods and gnats allow. La Brea is a shade
better, having a hotel, or something
which bears that name. Midway between
the two villages the Rio Choluteca emp
ties into the sea, the same stream which
flows through Tegucigalpa and is known
near its headwaters as the Rio Grande.
If one could only sail to the Capital on
this long and winding river but unfor-
tunately it is navigable only short dis
lance from its mouth. The overland
journey to the interior is much the same
from this side of Honduras as from the
Atlantic coast, except that the western
! mountains are more easily scaled and
there are fewer stretches of sandy desert
pine forests alternating with grassy
meadows, where sleek cattle browse. The
mules are small and tough, about the
size of New Foundland dogs. You can
buy one for SO. while a good horse costs
only SO. A mounted mozo, or man
servant, goes ahead to spy out the trail
and keep watchful eye for possible
peril, while the arriero follows on foor,
driving the pack mules that bear your
luggage. The latter individual is rather
terrifying at first sight. He wears a huge
machate, "a sort of rude broad sword
tied around his waist, an enormous straw
hat, and incidentally pair of abbreviat-
ed cotton drawers You meet few ira
velers on the long, long road, but many
mule trains bound for the coast, to take
goods thence to the mines. Several villages
are passed EN- route-Pespire, Sabade
Grande San Antonio de Flores, Moramul :
co, La Venta- all much alike, with straw
matched huts grouped around the regula-
ton white domed, twin lowered church.
A single telegraph wire follows you all the
way from La Brea to Tegucgalpa, with
three intermediate stations These sta
tons serve also as post offices, the mail
being carried on foot, one man making
the entire distance from Fonseca bay 0
the Capital in Is hours.
FANNIE BRIGHAM WAnn