Golden Dreams and Leaden Realities

by George Payson

Yet the country is rich almost beyond compare. The forests abound in the most valuable timber, the soil is of inexhaustible fertility, and the year is a constant harvest. The sugar-cane, which in our Southern States requires to be renewed every three years, here continues to yield a sufficient return for ten, growing fifteen or twenty feet high, and as thick as a man's arm. Native labour can be obtained for a real a day. As far as our experience extends, the climate is extremely healthy. We were three weeks in the country, at the commencement of the rainy season, and especially liable to sickness from our long confinement, yet we lost only one man by disease, and he was attacked before we left the ship. Government holds out great inducement to actual settlers, and the finest land in the world can be obtained at a merely nominal value.

While we were at Leon, an offer was made to Ohio of so liberal a nature as almost induced him to stop short on his homeward journey, and forego the anticipated pleasure of seeing his wife and children for another year. He was to receive one hundred dollars a month, besides board and lodging; a shop and tools were promised at the expense of Government, and the privilege of working a third of the time on his own account was superadded.

Other artisans were also eagerly sought after. Thousands of muskets lay useless in the armories, because not a workman could be found who understood the mysteries of a lock—not the permutation, combination lock of Brahmah or Hobbs, but a simple gun-lock, the construction of which is known to every boy of twelve in the United States. But it is time to leave Leon and its helpless inhabitants. They reminded me constantly of the snail in the shell of a lobster, and of a little boy dressed in his father's clothes, and playing that he was a man.

We passed through Central America at the time of the civil war, and many of the streets of Leon were barricaded and guarded with mounted cannon. After leaving that city, we were told that we should enter the territory occupied by the hostile faction; and, to avoid all danger of ill-treatment, we were advised to keep as close together as possible. But nothing occurred to justify these apprehensions, or even to show that any war was raging. We met one day, in the thickest part of the wood, a dozen or twenty scarecrows, mounted on sorry horses, and armed with light lances and muskets; but, if these were a fair specimen of the Granadian chivalry, we should have had little to fear from their whole array. However, we were all of us desirous to avoid a collision, for it would certainly seem very ridiculous, after spending one or two years in earning perhaps as many thousands, to get killed just as we were ready to enjoy the fruits of our labour. This feeling, I have no doubt, moderated the ardour of more than one of our number who might otherwise have had no objection to the excitement of a skrimmage, or to take up arms in one or the other of the contending parties.

We left Leon about the 10th, a. m., and making only a short journey, stopped for the night at a little Indian village called Nigaroti—I am not responsible for the spelling—the population of which could not much have exceeded the number of our own caravan. It consisted of a small collection of houses or huts built of rude basket-work, daubed in some cases with clay, and covered with a shaggy thatch. Each house stood in an enclosure, formed by a hedge of most magnificent proportions. A species of cactus, planted in a single row, furnished a green marble wall of lofty columns, standing so close together that no animal larger than a squirrel could pass between. These walls were now in a dilapidated condition, reminding the spectator of the ruins of an ancient temple. Some of the columns were at least thirty feet in height, while others had been broken off at a few feet from the ground, and the fragments were still lying where they had fallen. They were all about eight inches in diameter from top to bottom, with small rings at regular intervals resembling the joints of the cane.

As there was no hotel, we quartered ourselves upon the inhabitants, who received us with the warmest demonstrations of friendship, and instantly set to work to prepare for us the best supper their limited means would allow. I here first witnessed the operation of making the tortilla, the favourite, and, as far as I could learn, the only form in which bread is eaten by the lower classes. At Acapulco and other cities we had seen them offered for sale in piles six inches high, and presenting a very tempting appearance. The natives ate them with great apparent relish, rolling them up into a cylinder, and plugging the opening with a small stopper of cheese. As we had hitherto, however, been able to obtain wheaten bread, I had only just tasted them out of curiosity, when I found they were far from being as good as they looked. But in this little village flour was, perhaps, never heard of, and in every house one or more occupants were now busy in preparing the hot and almost crispy tortilla. I watched the movements of our dusky maiden with great interest. She first crushed the corn, previously softened by boiling, into a uniform paste, by means of a common rolling-pin, then with great dexterity formed it into round balls or biscuits, one of which she placed on the bottom of a shallow earthen pan resting on a few embers. With the back of her clenched hand she spread it out over the dish, till it assumed the form of a buckwheat cake, though instead of the dimples that come and go on the surface of the latter, it was all over indented with the print of her knuckles. When one side was browned the cake was turned, and as the whole process required but a few minutes we soon had a high tower of tortillas smoking on our little table. There was the usual accompaniment of fried eggs and chicken. The tortillas served for plates as well as napkins, and the whole family stood ready to wait on us, and watching our every movement with the most ludicrous interest and delight.

There was the grandfather, still hale and vigorous; the young mother, with her infant in her arms, and half a dozen others scarce big enough to go alone. When we asked about her family, she laughed and blushed and pouted with true feminine coquetry, and quite vanquished the stout heart of our gallant Ohio. Perceiving that I had some difficulty in dissecting the joints of the chicken, she took up a fragment, and tearing it to pieces with her fingers, laid them before me, one after another, with an approving smile, and an exclamation of bueno at every mouthful. I had no doubt, from this proof of her hospitality, that she would have fed me with her fingers if I had desired. And, presently, another incident showed still more strongly her lofty disregard of what we, in our self-complacent wisdom, have styled the laws of decorum. As there was a want of plates, one of our party had cunningly appropriated to his own use that containing our scanty supply of eggs. Snatching the dish from his hands, the young señora, with the end of her forefinger, and with most amazing dexterity, divided the only remaining egg in the middle, and slid half of it on to Ohio's empty tortilla. "Bueno, bueno!" she exclaimed; and "Bueno!" faintly echoed Ohio, as he fell back on his seat, and surveyed with admiration the egg that had been so ruthlessly dissevered. The simple, unsophisticated beings around us mistook the nature of the mirth that followed this performance, and supposing it to arise from the satisfaction produced by so good a supper, joined in it with hearty good-will. But we had not yet learned all those uses of fingers which nature designed, but which civilization has discarded. A favourite beverage, with us as well as with the natives, was lemonade. To sweeten this delectable compound, they used the coarse black sugar of the country, which, to avoid the necessity of weighing, is commonly cast in small oblong cakes, as maple-sugar is often seen at home. Biting off a lump of the proper size, our hostess dropped it from her mouth into one of the little gourds that served for tumblers, and having stirred it with her finger, presented it to me with a simple grace that Hebe might have tried in vain to equal. After the scenes I had witnessed in the mines, and the far more disgusting exhibitions of life at sea, I must plead guilty of affectation in refusing anything from the hand of a woman. I courteously passed the gourd to my next neighbour, who, either not having witnessed the mode of preparation or proud of such an opportunity of displaying his gallantry, swallowed the whole at a single draught.

We rose from table in high good humour with ourselves and our entertainers, but our enthusiasm was not a little dampened by the eagerness they manifested to obtain immediate possession of our money. "Quatro reales," cried the grandfather, holding out his hand; "Quatro reales," simpered the young mother; "Quatro reales," screamed all the children in concert, and standing on tiptoe; while the sucking baby, on its mother's breast, almost threw itself into convulsions in trying to master the mysterious syllables.

As we intended to lodge and take breakfast with them, this impatience might seem to imply some doubt of our honesty. We attributed it, however, to a natural curiosity to feast their eyes on a larger sum of money than they had probably ever possessed. Though they had all their simple wants required, and might have been considered wealthy by their poorer neighbours, yet I have no doubt that fifty dollars would have been an ample equivalent for all their worldly possessions. A single glance showed us the inventory of all their household goods. Under a small open shed in one corner of the enclosure stood a rude forge—our entertainer was the village smith—with a few clumsy tools scattered around it. Their whole supply of crockery was displayed upon our little table. Gourds, of different sizes, served them for tea-cups, for coffee-pots, and for milk-pails. Their simple cookery was performed in a few vessels of earthenware. A few steps from the blacksmith's shop, stood the huge wicker basket containing their sleeping apartments. This consisted of two rooms, the first of which would undoubtedly have been the very smallest room in the world, if the second had not been still smaller. The larger one contained a rude bedstead, and a hammock was slung cornerwise across the other. There was no other furniture, and no window, but the open door and numerous cracks in the walls admitted sufficient light. As it was evident that, under ordinary circumstances, the greater part of the family would have to sleep out of doors, we had no hesitation in taking undivided possession.

We were roused by the old man two hours before day; and, going out into the yard, found the table set for breakfast, and the whole family eagerly awaiting our appearance. Secretly envying the hens and turkeys that were just settling themselves for their morning nap upon the branches of the high tree above, we sat down to breakfast by the light of the stars and an envious tallow candle. In addition to what we had for supper, they had, according to promise, provided each of us with a small gourd containing half a pint of milk—a luxury we seldom succeeded in obtaining except in the morning, either because, as Texas suggested, the heat of the day dried up the cows, or because the natives were too indolent to take the trouble.