we told him we were getting more bald than he was and that he would make a fine appearance in the Row at his present weight。 He had not heard of Trilby！！
We struck a beautiful place today called Livingston where we went ashore and photographed the army in which there was no boy older than eighteen and most of them under ten。 It was quite like Africa； the homes were all thatched and the children all naked and the women mostly so。 We took lots of photographs and got on most excellently with the natives who thought we were as funny as we thought them。 Almost every place we go word has been sent ahead and agents and consuls and custom house chaps come out to meet me and ask what they can do。 This is very good and keeps Griscom and Somerset in a proper frame of awe。 But seriously I could not ask for better companions； they are both enormously well informed and polite and full of fun。 The night the Governor asked Somers to dinner and did not ask us we waited up for him and then hung him out over the side of the boat above the sharks until he swore he would never go away from us again。 Griscom is more aggravatingly leisurely but he has a most audacious humor and talks to the natives in a way that fills them with pleasure but which nearly makes Somers and I expose the whole party by laughing。 Today we lie here taking in banannas and tomorrow I will see Conrad； Conrad； Conrad！！ Send this to the Consul。 Lots of love。 DICK。
SAN PEDROSULAFebruary； 1895。 MY DEAR FAMILY：
The afternoon of the day we were in Puerto Cortez the man of war Atlanta steamed into the little harbor and we all cheered and the lottery people ran up the American flag。 Then I and the others went out to her as fast as we could be rowed and I went over the side and the surprise of the officers was very great。 They called Somers and Griscom to come up and we spent the day there。 They were a much younger and more amusing lot of fellows than those on the Minneapolis and treated us most kindly。 It was a beautiful boat and each of us confessed to feeling quite tempted to go back again to civilization after one day on her。 Their boat had touched at Tangier and so they claimed that she was the one meant in the Exiles。 They told me that the guide Isaac Cohen whom I mentioned in Harper's Weekly carries it around as an advertisement and wanted to ship with them as cabin boy。 We left the next day on the railroad and the boys finding that two negroes sat on the cowcatcher to throw sand on the rails in slippery places bribed them for their places and I sat on the sand box。 I never took a more beautiful drive。 We did not go faster than an ordinary horse car but still it was exciting and the views and vistas wonderful。 Sometimes we went for a half mile under arches of cocoanut palms and a straight broad leafed palm called the manaca that rises in separate leaves sixty feet from the ground。 Imagine a palm such as we put in pots at weddings and teas as high as Holy Trinity Church and hundreds and hundreds of them。 The country is very like Cuba but more luxuriant in every way。 There are some trees with marble like trunks and great branches covered with oriole nests and a hundred orioles flying in and out of them or else plastered with orchids。 If Billy Furness were to see in what abundance they grew he would be quite mad。 It is a great pity he did not come with us。 This little town is the terminus of the railroad and we have been here four days while Jeffs the American Colonel in the Hondurean Army is getting our outfit。 It has been very pleasant and we are in no hurry which is a good thing for us。 It is a most exciting country and as despotic as all uncivilized and unstable governments must be。 But we have called on the Governor of the district with Jeffs and he gave us a very fine letter to all civil and unmilitary authorities in the district calling on them to aid and protect us in every way。 I am getting awfully good material for my novel and for half a dozen stories to boot only I am surprised to find how true my novel was to what really exists here。 About ten years ago disappeared； having as I thought drunk himself to death。 He came up to me here on my arrival with a lot of waybills in his hand and I learned that he had been employed in this hole in the ground by a railroad for two years。 I remembered meeting him at Newport when I was still at Lehigh； and last night he asked me to dinner and told me what he had been doing which included everything from acting in South America to blacking boots in Australia。 His boss was a Pittsburgh engineer who is apparently licking him into shape and who told me to tell his father that he had stopped drinking absolutely。 His colored 〃missus〃 sat with us at the table and played with a beetle during the three hours I stayed there during which time he asked me about who he said had ruined him。 He told me of how had done and said this； and the contrast to the thatched roof and the mud floor and the Scotch American engineer and the mulatto girl was rather striking。 I never had more luck in any trip than I have had on this one and the luck of R。 H。 D。 of which I was fond of boasting seems to hold good。 That man of war； for instance； was the only American one that had touched at Puerto Cortez in TEN years and it came the day we did and left the day we did。 We saw a big lithograph of Eddie Sothern in a palm hut here so we went before a notary and swore to it and had three seals put on the paper and sent it him as a joke。 We start tomorrow the 22nd so you see we are behind our schedule and I suppose you people are all worried to death about us。 We will be much longer than six days on our way to Tegucigalpa as we are going shooting and also to pay our respects to Bogran the ex…president and the man who is getting up the next revolution。 But we take care to tell everyone we are travelling for pleasure and are great admirers of Bonilla the present president。 Somers and I are getting on famously。 He is a very fine boy with a great sense of humor and apparently very fond of me。 We had five men counting Jeffs who we call our military attache and Charwood and four drivers and eleven mules so it is quite an outfit。 In Ecuador with one more man it would constitute a revolution。
DICK。
DEAR FAM： SANTA BARBARAJanuary 25； 1895。
We are not at Tegucigalpa as you observe but travelling in this country。 〃As you see it on Broadway 〃 and as you see it here are two different things。 We have had five days of it so far and rested here today in order to pay our respects to General Bogran the ex…president of the Republic。 It is still six days to Tegucigalpa。 The trip across Central America will certainly be one of the most interesting experiences of my life。 It is the most beautiful country I have seen and the most barbarous。 It is also the hottest and the most insect…ious and the dirtiest。 This latter seems a little view to take of it but it means a great deal as the insects prevent your doing anything in a natural way； as for instance sitting on the grass or sleeping on the ground or hunting through the bushes。 It is pretty much as you imagine it is from what you have read； that covers it； and I have discovered nothing new by coming to see it。 I only verify what others have seen。 The people are most uninteresting chiefly because they are surly to Americans and do not make you feel welcome。 I do not mean that I did not do well to come for I am more glad that I did than I can say only I have not； as I have been able to do before； found something that others have not seen。 I never expect to see such a country again unless in Africa。 If you leave the path for ten yards you would never get back to it except by accident and you could not get that far away unless you cut yourself a trail。 In some places the mail route which we follow and over which the mail is carried on the backs of runners is cut in the rock and we go down steps as even as those of the City Hall and for hours we travel over rough rocks and stones and a path so narrow that your knees catch in the vines at the side。 The mules are wonderfully sure footed and never slip although they are very little； and I am pretty heavy。 The heat is something awful。 It bakes you and will dry your pith helmet in ten minutes after you have soaked it in water。 But the scenery is magnificent； sometimes we ride above the clouds and look down into valleys stretching fifty miles away and see the buzzards half a mile below us。 Then we go through forests of manaca palms that spread out on a single stem sideways and form arches over our heads with the leaves hanging in front of us like portiers or we cross great plains of grass and cactus and rock。 The best fun is the baths we take in the mountain streams。 They are almost as cool as one could wish and we shoot the rapids and lie under the waterfalls and come out with all the soreness rubbed out of us as though we had been massaged。 We went shooting for two days but as they had no dogs we did not do much。 I got the best shot of the trip and missed it。 It was a large wild cat and he turned his side full on but I fired over him。 Somers and I spent most of the time firing chance shots at alligators； but they never gave us a good chance as the birds warn them when they are in danger。 One old fellow fifteen feet long beat us for some time and then Somers and I started across the river to catch him asleep。 It was like the taking of Lungtepen。 We had our money belts around our necks and our shoes in one hand and rifles in the other。 The rapids ran very fast and the last I saw of Somerset he was sitting on the bank he had started from counting out wet bank notes and blowing the water out of his gun barrel。 I got across all right by sticking my feet between rocks and put on my shoes and crawled up on the old Johnnie。 He smelt of musk so strong that you could have found him in the dark。 I had； a beautiful shot at him at fifty yards but I was too greedy and ran around some rocks to get nearer and he heard me and dived。 I shot a macaw； one of those overgrown parrots with tail feathers three feet from tip to tip。 I got him with a rifle and as Griscom had got his with a shotgun I came out all right as a marksman a