Evidently he referred, however, to a condition of shrinking in the population, a circumstance which he did not care to discuss.
After the first few miles the bay narrowed sharply, and at its end came to a point where a stream of no great breadth fell into it.

On either side of this stream that was roughly bridged in many places stood the town of Rica.

It consisted of a great number of large huts roofed with palm leaves and constructed apparently of whitewashed clay, or rather, as we discovered afterwards, of lake mud mixed with chopped straw or grass.
Reaching a kind of wharf which was protected from erosion by piles formed of small trees driven into the mud, to which were tied a fleet of canoes, we landed just as the sun was beginning to sink.

Our approach had doubtless been observed, for as we drew near the wharf a horn was blown by someone on the shore, whereon a considerable number of men appeared.

I suppose out of the huts, and assisted to make the canoe fast.