mostly palm-thatched huts, with the bare earth floors seldom or
never swept. The people are of mixed origin, Indian, Spanish, and
Negro, the Indian element predominating. Two or three better built
stores, and the quarters of the military governor, redeem the place
from an appearance of utter squalor. Behind the town there are a
few small clearings in the forest, where maize is grown. Some
orange, banana, and plantain trees exhaust the list of the
productions of San Carlos, which is supported by being a calling
place for all vessels proceeding up and down the river, and by the
Ulleros or rubber-men who start from it for expeditions up the Rio
Frio and other rivers. We found there two men who had just been
brought down the Rio Frio by their companions, greatly injured, by
the lianas up which they had made their ladder to ascend one of the
rubber trees, having broken and precipitated them to the ground. I
learnt that this was a very unusual accident, the lianas generally
being very tough and strong, like great cables.

Most fabulous stories have been told about the Rio Frio and its
inhabitants; stories of great cities, golden ornaments, and
light-haired people, and it may be useful to relate what is known
about it.

The Rio Frio comes down from the interior of Costa Rica, and joins
the San Juan, near where the latter issues from the lake. The banks
of its upper waters are inhabited by a race of Indians who have
never been subjugated by the Spaniards, and about whom very little
is known. They are called Guatuses, and have been said to have red
or light-coloured hair and European features, to account for which
various ingenious theories have been advanced; but, unfortunately
for these speculations, some children, and even adults, have been