agua, but also exist in
Guatemala. They have very sharp incisors and bite cattle and horses on
the back or withers, men on the toes if exposed, and roosters on the
comb. They live in caves, and not as the large fruit bats of India,
which repose head downwards, hanging from trees in great colonies.
Vampires live on blood, having no teeth suitable for mastication.

It is a strange fact that Germans, who now have the great bulk of the
trade throughout Central America, are very unpopular. Nor are the
Americans popular. "Los Americanos son Bestias," "Esos Hombres son
Demonios" express the feeling.

I was told that in Guatemala there exists a tribe of Indians which does
not permit the use of alcoholic drink and actually pays the State
compensation instead.

Among other places we called at were Esquintla, Acajutla, and La
Libertad, from which point we got a magnificent view of the Atatlan
volcano in full activity; also at San Juan del Sur. From Leon, in
Nicaragua, some fourteen active volcanoes can be seen. In Salvador only
two of the eleven great volcanoes of the State are now "_vivo_," viz.,
San Miguel and Izalco. The latter is called the Lighthouse of Salvador,
because it explodes regularly every twenty minutes. The lesser living
vents are called infernillos--little hells. Altogether it looks like
Central America, as a whole, with its revolutions and its physical and
political instability, must be a very big hell.

Salvador, though the smallest of the Central American States, is the
most prosperous, enterprising and densely-populated. She was the first
to become independent and the first to defy the Church of Rome.

It had been my intention to sail through Lake Nicaragua and down the
river San Juan to San Juan del Norte. But accommodation at that port and
steamer communication with Colon was so bad and irregular that the trip
was regretfully abandoned, and I went on to Panama with my friend. This
gentleman possessed a personal letter from President Roosevelt
addressed to the canal officials, ordering (not begging) them to permit
a full inspection of the works, and to tell the "truth and the whole
truth." Consequently we saw the works under unusual and most favourable
conditions. The Americans have made remarkable progress, assisted by
their wonderful labour-saving appliances, chief among which are the
100-ton shovels, the Lidgerwood car-unloaders, and the track-shifters.
But chiefly, of course, by their sanitary method