"Here they were joined by a party of men from the seventy-ninth regiment, from Black River. "On the 10th of March, the troops re-embarked, and took their departure from Cape Gratias a Dios; and anchored at several places on the Musquito shore, to take up our allies, the Indians, who were to furnish proper boats for the service of the river, and to proceed with them on the expedition: and, on the 24th of March, they arrived at the River San Juan. "San Juan river is the northern branch, or mouth of Lake Nicaragua; and is situated in north latitude twelve degrees, west longitude eighty-three degrees forty-five minutes. "The heat of the climate must necessarily be excessive; and this is augmented, in the course of the river, by high woods, without sufficient intervals, in many places, to admit of being refreshed by the winds. "The river has, in it's course, many noisome marshes on it's sides; and the trees are so thick, as to intercept the rays of the sun: consequently, the earth beneath their branches is covered with rotten leaves and putrid vegetables. Hence arise copious collections of foul vapours, which clog the atmosphere. These unite with large clouds, and precipitate in rains. The rains are no sooner over, than the sun breaks forth, and shines with scorching heat. The surface of the ground, in places not covered with trees, is scarcely dry, before the atmosphere is again loaded by another collection of clouds and exhalations, and the sun is again concealed. "In the rainy seasons of the year, months successively pass away in this sort of vicissitudes, without the least diminution of heat; excepting at nights, when the air is poisoned by noxious chilling dews. But, sometimes, during the periodical rains, which begin about the middle of April, and with uncertain intervals of dry weather end late in November, the torrents of water that fall, for weeks together, are prodigious, which give the river a tremendous aspect; and, from their suddenness and impetuosity, cannot be imagined, by a European, to portend any thing but a deluge. This bursting of the waters above, and the raging of the river below, with the blackness of the nights, accompanied with horrid tempests of lightning and thunder, constitute a magnificent scene of terror unknown but in the tropic world.