It seemed good to hear the clanging of the bell and the tooting of the whistle of an American locomotive early the next morning. By the noise it made one would think that it was the overland limited impatient to be off. When all was ready we started out and at no time did the train move faster than eight miles an hour. No one of the passengers, however, after looking at the track and rails, where there were scarcely two ties to each rail that would hold a spike in many places, urged the engineer to greater speed. The necessary water for the engine was supplied on several occasions by water carried from a stream to the tender by a bucket-brigade which passed the bucket from hand to hand along to its destination. El Rancho is just within the border of the _tierra caliente_, and the graceful cocoanut palm is to be seen there as well as the tree cacti, which increase in size and number according to elevation. The presence of the cacti is a sure indication of a dry season which prevails for several months each year. The green cocoanut furnishes one of the most refreshing and delightful drinks of the tropics. The natives take the cocoanut, chop off the end with a _machete_, and drink the fluid that it contains directly from the shell. This native weapon shaped somewhat like an old-fashioned corn cutter is a very useful instrument with these people. It answers for a shovel, knife, axe, pump-handle, fishing rod, and weapon of defence as well as offence. Gualan, fifty-five miles from the starting point, marked the end of the first day’s journey. It is a small town made up of a few adobe buildings and many thatch cottages of natives. It is a picturesque place on the high banks above the Montagua River, which at this point is a very swift stream. A picturesque ferryman attracted my attention and I waited almost an hour to get a good picture of him and his dugout canoe. When he was in position the sun would not shine and when the sun was visible the boatman was missing from the picture, and it was necessary to use the very quickest exposure because of the swiftness of the stream. A loud-voiced American with a big revolver in his holster, looking like a cheap imitation of the Western desperado, had attracted my attention on the train, and he proved to be the landlord of the half-caste hotel in this town. As it was the only stopping-place in Gualan there was no choice for the traveller. As the evening hours wore away and his stock of liquors was reduced by his own patronage of the bar, the landlord became more noisy and quarrelsome until one man took offence and said a few sharp words which stopped his _braggadocia_ manner. It looked for a while as though the quarrel would end in a shooting, and would have done so, if the landlord had not calmed down and retracted some of his statements.