The Republican journal., 1897-01-14

ward climb, each bending beneath the
burden on her back, they were silent and
breathless, perspiration streaming from
their faces. About five years ago some
| foreigners conceived the idea of supply
ing Masaya with modern water-works.
| The estimated cost of the plant was $780,
900. The government favored the enter
prise and a large portion of the stock was
| taken by Nicaraguans. Since 1898 the
works have been operated, in limited
way,-but nowhere in the world is it
i more difficult to introduce s'new- tangled
notions" than among the Indians who
comprise the bulk of Masayas popula-
ton; and to this day most of them pre-
fer the old, laborious method of their
aforesaid is derived from the pic
turesque falls of Tincuantepe, about
Is miles from the city and 200 feet above
it. At Nindiri, a small Indian village 2
miles from Masaya, the company has
| built an enormous reservoir, capable of
holding 600, 600 gallons. The piping was
all purchased in the United States. A
four-inch iron main is laid along Gale Mo
nibo the principal street in the city, and
there are two OF three smaller mains on
side streets. There is another system of
water works at Masatepe, a town or
miles southwest of Masaya Since
time out OF mind, its people have also
climbed down the PERCEPTIONS cliffs, 300
| feet, and brought up water from the lake
on their backs but now a. days it is pump
ed up by machinery.
About the only other notable improve
ment which Masaya has INDUCED in since
its foundation, three centuries and a half
ago, is the recent building of fine new
market house; and for that it is indebted
| to an organization of English capitalists,
who have varied interests in the Republic,
with head quarters in London. The edi-
flee cost s106, 600 in gold. 1t is built of
volcanic stone taken from a near by
quarry; and as the stone is very black,
and the whole structure surrounded with
a parapet, it looks a good deal more like
medieval castle than modern mar ket-
house 1t is built in the form of hol-
low square, one storied, with flat roof of
corrugated iron, and covers two acres.
A lofty arched corridor, supported by
many iron columns with fancy capitals,
runs around the spacious inner court.
The floors are laid in Portland cement,
and at each of the four entrances are
stately gates of wrought iron, painted
blue and gold, and handsome bracket
lamps.
10 visit Massaya mountain you go
via Nindiri village, across the dreary val
ley covered with coarse black lava, which
surges up into many little hills and ridges,
as if the boiling mass had suddenly cool
| ed. The rough, uneven sides of the vol
cano are streaked with hardened streams
! of lava, yet grass grows luxuriantly
along its base and up to a considerable
height. and long horned cattle and half
wild horses Craze upon it. The volcano
was one of the earliest recorded wonders
of America; and the discoveries, who
never stopped halfway in matters that
| touched the imagination, named it THE
! Hell of Masaya." An ancient historian
said: ''There are burning mountains in
4 this province, the chief of which is
| Masaya, wherein, at different times the
natives have offered up maidens, throw
| ing them into ii alive, thinking thus by
the sacrifice of their lives to appease the
fire, that it might not destroy the country,
and they went to it very cheerful,
i Whether the victims were cheerful, or
those who offered them up, the historian
does not specify, but being on the spot, it
requires no great stretch of magma
ton to conceive the terror and despair of
the maidens who were forced up the
desolate height to fearful death. An
other chronicler gravely relates the follow
ing story as matter of history. l trans
scribe it entire, with the authors own
pCSuilui lc NHu VI ldlS
Three Leagues from the City of Massaya,
is Small Hill, flat and round, called
Massaya being a Burning Mountain, the
Mouth of it being half league in Com
pass and the Depth within being $50
Fathoms. There are no Trees nor Grass,
but Birds build, without any disturbance
from the Fire. There is another Mouth,
like that of Well, about Bow shot
over the distance of which from the Fire
is $50 Fathoms, always boiling up; and
that mass of Fire often rises and gives
great Light, so that it can be seen a
considerable Distance. 1t moves from
one side to the other, and sometimes
roars so loud that it is Dreadful, yet
never casts up anything but smoke ano
Flame. The Liquor never ceasing at the
Bottom nor it's Boiling, imagining the
same to be Gold, Frian Blase de Yniesta,
of the Order of Saint Domenick, with
two other Spaniards, were let down into
the first Mouth in two Baskets with
Bucket made of one piece of iron, and
| baip TO IroU of bo Eo,