Chapter Twenty-seventh.

PASSAGE DOWN THE SAN JUAN RIVER-CASTILIAN RAPIDS-THE DIRECTOR' -ARRIVAL AT SAN JUAN-BOARDED BY A POSSE OF NEGROES-BRITISH PROTECTORATE-PHILANTHROPY OF GREAT BRITAIN—HER MAGNANIMOUS AND DISINTERESTED CONDUCT TOWARDS THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH-NICARAGUA GRACIOUSLY REMEMBERED—A HUNT FOR A SOVEREIGN—A FULL-GROWN KING DISCOVERED-HIS DIPLOMACY-INVINCIBILITYAMUSEMENTS AND CORONATION HIS FIRST PAIR OF PANTALOONS-HAIL KING OF THE MUSQUITO COAST" !!!-ALL HAIL JAMACA I. !!!" HEAR! HEAR!!!"

We were soon on board, and passing around a point, were floating down the San Juan river at the rate of five knots. After a two hour's run our boatmen unshipped their oars, and commenced gambling; we were borne along by the current, at the rate of two miles an hour, until toward evening, when the oars were again manned. At nine in the evening, the roar of the water admonished us that we were approaching the Castilian rapids, and we came to anchor. The natives have a dread of this rapid, and in passing it feel that their lives are in imminent peril; in this case, however, a party of boatmen forgetting themselves in sleep, passed over, and in the morning found themselves entangled in the bushes, along the margin of the river. We descended the rapid, finding the steamboat “Director," in the act of ascending; she was making her first passage up, preparatory to taking her place on the lake for the transportation of passengers, in connection with Vanderbilt's Line of steamships. The passage up the rapid was very difficult, owing to the strong current, being about six knots; she however succeeded, and is now plying on the lake. We passed down, and at two the next morning came to anchor in the harbor of San Juan.

At an early hour in the morning we were boarded by a posse of negroes, whose mission it was to search our baggage for firearms; they succeeded in finding two rusty guns belonging to our padrone, which they carried off in triumph. It is well

known that this harbor is under the protectorate of Great Britain, and our worthy visitors were subjects of Her Majesty, as well as of His Majesty of the "Mosquito Coast." They seem in fear of an army from Grenada, hence this precaution.

The town consists of about fifty thatched houses, tenanted by French, English, German, Spanish, and Negroes. Things here are, in a measure, reverso; a negro is agent for Great Britain his boots are blacked by a white man. We found a British man-of-war in port, which is kept here to enforce their wholesome regulations.

The philanthropy of Great Britain has become proverbial. There is scarcely a port on the European continent that has not heard the music of her cannon, and been relieved of its surplus treasures. Three-fourths of a century ago, she succeeded in establishing, on the American continent, the government of the United States, and a few years thereafter voluntarily offered the use of a fleet and army at New Orleans, a part of which was used, the balance returned. Mexico has also been a recipient of her kind attentions. She has taken possession of the richest mines in Mexico, and worked them gratuitously, sending off millions under the protection of the "red cross of St. George." Her sappers and miners have found their way to Peru and Chili, as well as other divisions on the Pacific coast of South America, the mines of all of which have been taken possession of, and worked on the same accommodating terms as those of Mexico. She sent a fleet free of charge to the Argentine Republic, took possession of her ports, and forced the navigation of her rivers. Texas, after emerging from her glorious struggle for liberty, was offered the kind wing of protection; Great Britain even going so far as to offer her assistance in maintaining a separate republic, thinking annexation to the United States inexpedient. She visited China in the capacity of doctor, and most magnanimously forced her prescription down their unwilling throats. Her philanthropic eye next took a survey of Central America. Here she found governments of that odious form called republican, that of Nicaragua having an extent of sea coast, with accessible ports, and numerous rivers.

No one, up to this time, had interfered with the jurisdiction