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Machuca, who about 1539 built a vessel near Granada, explored the lake, discovered the San Juan, and followed it to the Atlantic Ocean. The rapids are impassable for steamers, so we left the Irma at the foot of them. They are between two and three miles long, and along the northern bank of the river is a road, which in the days of the transit company, was cut for transferring passengers and fast freight. Some of our party walked up by this road, but the majority went up in lighters pulled by natives.

Above the rapids we took a smaller steamer, the Adele, which carried us to Castillo early the same afternoon. Here again high hills with declivitous sides overtop the banks of the river. Here also the river makes a sharp descent, more like a fall than a rapid. Upon the crown of a lofty hill on the southern bank stands the old Spanish fort San Juan, built in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Subsequent generations called it Castillo Viejo, "old castle," but now it is contracted to Castillo and gives its name to the little village beneath it. It is an angular structure of stone, of considerable dimensions, and surmounted at one of the

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angles by a beehive-like tower of observation. At the time of Squier's visit, in 1849, both the hill and fort were overgrown with trees, but now the walls are whitewashed and the sides of the hill are covered with sward. The opposite hills are also cleared of timber, and appear to be used for pasture. A small garrison is maintained in the fort, which is also a place of confinement for political prisoners and criminals. A salute was fired from the fort at our approach. The English, under the great Nelson, captured this fort, after a stubborn resistance, in 1780. He reduced it by taking possession of a commanding hill in the rear.

The village is built upon a narrow shelf between the foot of the hill and the river. It is a collection of wretched wooden shanties, the only decent buildings being the storehouses and offices of the steamboat company. There is only one street, running through which is a tramway, used for transferring freight above the rapids. The custom house of Nicaragua for the San Juan River is located here, and the officials showed a very evident disposition to collect duty on our supplies, but by an exces

sive expenditure of Spanish were persuaded to desist. At the upper end of the village we found a little steamer, the Norma, to take us up the Toro Rapids, which are about fifteen miles long. It was so small that it could not carry more than half of the party, so some of us had to remain over night at Castillo. We found very good accommodations, however, in the company's buildings.

At Castillo the village priest, a fat, unctuous, and, as we soon discovered, exceedingly greedy mulatto, made himself, uninvited, a member of our party. The village fop attempted to do likewise, but was prevented by the officer in charge of the steamer, whereat he assumed the air of an injured grandee. The Toro Rapids extend from Castillo to the mouth of the Savallo River, about fifteen miles. The channel is very tortuous and the current in places so strong that the little Norma could scarcely make way against it. In these rapids we saw thousands of tarpon, the savalo-real of the natives. This fish has a way of rising to the surface and showing its dorsal fin after the manner of the porpoise. They are so abundant

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