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