TABLE OF EXPORTS.

1883. 1884.
Cwt. Price Value Cwt. Price Value
Indigo 135.02 $1.25 $16.881.25 62.67 $1.25 $7,833.75
Sugar and muscovado 44,927.27 .05 223,136.35 37,956.95 .04 151,827.80
Bananas (bunches) 29,699.00 .40 11,876.60 54,633.00 .55 30,048.15
Ores 160.80 .20 3,216.00 26.60 .20 532.00
Cacao 97.66 .40 3.905.40 14.92 .40 596.80
Coffee 404,069.39 .12 4,848,832.68 371,306.44 .12 4,455,677.28
Cochineal 184.01 .50 9,200.50 8.12 .50 406.00
Ox-hides 7,577.41 .20 151,548.20 7,888.79 .20 157,775.80
Deer-skins 230.83 .40 9,233.20 248.12 .40 9,924.80
White wax 22.34 .50 1,117.00
India-rubber 3,454.14 .65 224.519.10 1,485.80 .35 52,003.00
Timber (feet) 253,504.00 .04 10,140.16 352,006.00 .04 14,082.64
Heifers 230.00 25.00 5,750.00
Cows 89.00 15.00 1,355.00
Woollen cloth 211.54 1.50 31,731.00 61.69 1.50 9,253.60
Sarsaparilla 332.12 .10 3,321.20 632.30 .10 6,323.00
Suelos 96.06 .40 3,682.40 63.31 .40 2,532.40
Various articles 13,375.43 6,272.21
Current money 145,515.60 32,852.00
Totals 744,720.59 $5,718,341.07 826,666.26 $4,937,941.13

The business is divided between the three principal ports in the following proportion:—

San José.Champerico.Livingston.
cwt.cwt.cwt.
Imports308,596.2762,789.6251,698.59
Exports170,615.90224,739.4931,134.12

I have elsewhere written of the products that Guatemala might export, and I willingly turn from the commercial features of the country to those that affect the comfort and happiness of the inhabitants. A sufficient government is the first necessity. To sustain this the people must be educated; and to develop it the country must possess natural riches and the opportunity of marketing them. But all these elements work, not in a line, but in a circle, as it were. Without revenue, government cannot provide for free education; without education, a people will not establish a wise form of government; without a wise government, the resources of the country cannot be developed to yield a proper income. All these things are interdependent. The government must foster education and protect property; it must encourage those occupations which increase the material wealth of the people. Increased wealth means larger revenue, and permits greater expenditures for public works; so government and people grow together.

Possessed of a remarkably fine climate, a favorable geographical situation, and great variety in its fertile soil, Guatemala has a population poor and unable to undertake important works which require capital. Money must therefore be sought abroad to develop the riches of the land, which are in agricultural products rather than in mines; and the Government offers to any industrious, respectable colonists suitable tracts of public land (terrenos baldíos), together with exemption from duties and taxes for ten years. That this offer may not seem too attractive, it must be added that the best public lands remaining undisposed of are remote from ports, with no adequate means of communication. They are also covered for the most part with dense forests, to be cleared away only at great expense. Besides, it is well known that whenever virgin soil is broken up, mysterious fevers and malarial emanations are liberated from the soil; and although these are not dangerous to men of good constitution, they certainly are not pleasant. Not only enterprise and perseverance are needful for the planter, but a respectable capital as well; for the colonist has to build his own houses, wharves, and bridges, make his own roads, and own his tools, animals, boats, and carts.

Labor is both by the day and by the task, and wages are very low. A day’s labor—from six o’clock in the morning to six at night, with an hour from ten o’clock to eleven for breakfast (almuerzo), and another from one o’clock to two for rest—is paid from twenty-five to fifty cents. Laborers are also hired by the month, with allowance for rations. On the Atlantic coast the Carib is a good, strong workman when properly managed, while in the interior the Indios and ladinos supply fully the present demand.

Articles of food are cheap, and some of the prices, as given by the Minister of the Interior, are as follows: beef, pork, and mutton, eight cents per pound; fowls of good size, thirty-seven and a half to sixty-two cents; rice, a dollar and a half to two dollars per arroba (twenty-five pounds); flour, eight to nine dollars per quintal (one hundred pounds); maiz, a dollar and a half to three dollars a fanega (four hundred ears); beans, white, black, or red, four to six dollars a quintal; eggs, a dollar and a half a hundred; milk, six cents a bottle; cheese, twelve to twenty-five cents a pound; butter, sixty-two cents per pound. Guatemaltecan cookery, although simplicity itself in its instalment, is excellent and wholesome,—none of the vile saleratus-bread, tough doughnuts, and clammy pies (I have great respect for a good tart) which are the curse of the country cooking of New England. But let the comida consist of only tortillas, frijoles, and huevos; these staples are always well cooked.

Of the industrial and mechanical arts Guatemala has very little to show, apart from the woven fabrics and pottery already alluded to. Tailors and shoemakers abound,—and this in a climate where the former might almost be dispensed with, and where the latter work for not a moiety of the population. On the other hand, there are few cabinet-makers, although the native woods offer the choicest material for the skilled workman. There are no foundries or forges worthy the name, and all machinery is imported, and repairs must be made in San Francisco or New Orleans. Glass, porcelain, and stoneware is all imported, although the materials, of the best quality, are found here in abundance. Fibre-plants and rags are plentiful, and the consumption of paper is large; but every sheet is imported,—that used for stamps being made in France. While coconuts, sesame, cohune, castor-bean, and croton grow abundantly, there is no commercial manufacture of the vegetable oils; and we have seen that more than fourteen thousand dollars’ worth were imported in 1884.

While the general climate of Guatemala is remarkably healthy, the people are exceedingly careless of all sanitary precautions, especially in the matter of drainage and the waste products of the human body, trusting to the intervention of vultures and dogs to remove health-endangering filth. Yellow fever was common through the hot lowlands of the Pacific coast in 1883, and whooping-cough, measles, and small-pox prevailed in many parts of the country. The consumption of patent medicines and empirical preparations, obtained from the apothecary rather than the physician, is enormous in proportion to the population. Vital statistics are not obtained with the greatest accuracy, and only the constant care of the superior officer enables any result worthy of attention to be obtained. The following table is tolerably accurate. The population is, as estimated on December 31:—

Year. Population. Births. Deaths. Increase. Marriages.
Males. Females. Total. Males. Females. Total.
1881 1,252,497 28,146 25,708 53,854 14,019 11,940 25,959 27,895 4,611
1882 1,276,961 29,362 26,697 56,059 16,728 14,867 31,595 24,464 4,864
1883 1,278,311 28,488 25,934 54,422 28,431 24,641 53,072 1,350 4,287
1884
1885

Of the children born in 1883, 41,260 were legitimate, and 13,162 natural; 16,991 were ladinos, and 37,431 Indios. The legitimate children were in the proportion of one to every one hundred and twenty-eight of the ladino population, and one to every forty-one of the Indios. The natural births stand one to each one hundred and eighty-three ladinos, and one to each two hundred and seven Indios,—proportions which speak volumes for the superior morality of the indigenous population.

No less than nine hospitals were supported by the Government in 1883,—one each in Antigua, Amatitlan, Escuintla, Quezaltenango, Retalhuleu, and Chiquimula, and three in Guatemala City. In these 11,998 patients were treated during the year, with the result of one death to every thirteen treated. Of the diseases from which patients died, the following is a list of all numbering over ten victims:—

Consumption75
Fever (perniciosa)74
Dysentery68
Entero-colitis63
Yellow fever52
Enteritis42
Pneumonia33
Alcoholism24
Small-pox18
Cachexia paludica18
Typhoid fever11

Of the consumptive patients, probably the majority were foreigners seeking safety in the mild climate of Guatemala; and in the others the disease was not of throat origin, but sprang from that unclean state that wise physicians are beginning to recognize as phthisical in its tendency.

I wish I could say more of the remedies of the Indios. In a land abounding in healing plants, it would be supposed that the inhabitants would be expert in their qualities; and so the Indios are, if report may be trusted (they are said to cure even hernia, by applying astringent herbs to the tumor). But they are shy, and unwilling to display their knowledge before strangers; and my stay among them was too short to invite their confidence. The Caribs do not seem to possess much knowledge of the healing art.

From the bodily ills of a people one turns naturally to the moral diseases; and it is interesting to note what are the crimes and misdemeanors to which punishments are most frequently allotted. Of 9,303 persons tried during the course of 1883, 6,125 were accused of misdemeanors (faltas), and 3,178 of crimes (delitos). Of the former class 764 were acquitted, while of those tried for crimes 1,515 were judged not guilty,—leaving only 1,663 criminals out of a population of a million and a quarter. The carefully prepared tables published each year by the Government show that there is hardly one delinquent for each thousand inhabitants; that notwithstanding the greatly inferior numbers of the ladinos, this class claims many more convicts; and that eighty per cent of the criminals have no education.

Crimes or Delitos.Males.Females.Ladinos.Indios.Read.Write.Uneducated.Single.Married.Total.
Against authority133611128848835683139
Assaults565511061837372461
Wounding396212981191982315215201417
Homicide188151178644615310796203
Bodily injuries312352021451240295174173347
Adultery55556941724792585110
Seduction382414192831738
Rape424114201833942
Lewdness68501871843491968
Injurias8050106241429876268130
Cattle-stealing7440341460264874
Tricks391044542223341549
Robbery3253342122331637
Larceny30349264881380259208144352
Against liquor laws2763163132792360509175417592
Smuggling tobacco251225121828112637
Defrauding9575719941615061109170
Desertion494811741282149
All other delitos22736188751884161126137236
Totals2488690209510831486392392148916883178

A COURT SCENE AT LIVINGSTON.

Included in the “other delitos” are several crimes much more common in New England and elsewhere,—perjury, nine; libel, fifteen; arson, thirteen; poisoning, three; infanticide, four; bribery, two; abandonment of infants, four. In Livingston the “Court” kindly consented to sit for its portrait; and although this abode of the blind goddess was very dark, I got a satisfactory picture. I also photographed a man sitting in the stocks and undergoing a whipping; but this the principal citizens prayed me to suppress.

Misdemeanors or faltas.Males.Females.Ladinos.Indios.Read.Write.Uneducated.Single.Married.
Against public order3,6807401,6792,5201704963,4661,8612,276
” municipal law1461311138829876955
” persons93339383238734157879620453
” property152311414232014410741
” military discipline37211655271324
4,9481,1772,7843,0032207074,6032,6742,849

A notable fact in regard to punishments in Guatemala is their publicity. In New England every effort is made to conceal criminals from public gaze; the punishment which is intended to deter others from a similar act is, foolishly enough, merely a matter of hearsay to the bulk of the population. A silly sentimentality hides the convicts in prisons better and more commodious than the homes of a majority of the people, feeds them with sufficient and wholesome food, and in general wastes more pity on them than it vouchsafes to the honest poor,—and all this at the expense of innocent citizens! In Guatemala I examined many prisons, finding them all open to inspection. The passer-by can see through the grated door of the carcél all the prisoners within. When finally sentenced, the criminals are put upon the public roads and set to work under guard and chained, so that every one may be reminded that the “way of transgressors is hard.” In the prisons they sleep on mats, and receive from the Government a real (twelve and a half cents) a day, with which to buy food. In the new prisons all the modern improvements are introduced, and hard labor is provided in great variety. I believe also that as large a proportion of crimes is detected and punished as in any other country. I have been enabled to follow several cases through the courts, and found the decisions in strict accordance with the law, both in criminal and civil actions.

It would be unfair to pass in complete silence the darker scenes in the life of the Guatemaltecan republic; but I confess to an ignorance as to the exact truth of the stories that have been whispered about,—whispers indeed that I heard myself while in the City of Guatemala. Distinguished members of the old conservative party assured me that they lived in daily dread of the Government. Spies and informers were ready at all times to entrap them if in an unguarded moment they should utter their opinion of the political situation, or condemn official corruption. Trial by court-martial—that most odious form of injustice—might result in their banishment or death; and I was told that the laws, however generally wise, really depended on the caprice of the President, who could suspend or annul them whenever he saw occasion. I am sure that these persons believed what they told me with bated breath; but I also know to what extreme opinions political dislikes will lead in these Southern republics. On the death of Barrios and the accession of Barillas, it is said that eight hundred political prisoners were released from the prisons where they had been immured by the late President, often without even the form of a trial. The universal rule of favoritism is too evident to be concealed, and the amigo del Presidente has certainly undue power. To our Northern haste the tedious delay of all official work is a marked contrast, for the officials have not the skill, wisdom, or cunning of the members of our Northern legislatures, who remain in session an unconscionable time, apparently overwhelmed with work, although when they at last adjourn, the records show scant results. The Government of Guatemala is republican in name only, the President having actually as much irresponsible power as the Czar; but so far as actually proved, this power is used with moderation, and is perhaps a political necessity of the country and race, however repugnant to Anglo-Saxon ideas. As in all small governments, there is much form and red-tape, and the individual or company who has business with the authorities must have an accredited agent at the seat of Government to present petitions, press suit, or patiently await the result; no person at a distance has any prospect of prompt attention. With the exception of some of the higher officials, there are but few Guatemaltecans who really welcome foreigners, and among the Indios there is little attempt to conceal the feelings of jealousy or distrust with which outsiders are regarded. While the future growth of the country depends on the introduction of foreign capital, there are not many, now that Barrios is no more, who will dare to offend popular prejudices by openly taking the part of foreigners who either have invested capital here, or intend to do so. The popular idea of the day is a renewed confederation of the five republics, with Guatemala at the head; this means no extension of foreign relations, but the impotent self-sufficiency that has always distinguished Central America and retarded her advance.

Many indications point to an attempt in the near future to renew the confederation of the five republics, and it is not improbable that Mexico may be included in the Central American Estados Unidos. It was the ambition of General Barrios to become emperor or president (the name matters little) of all Central America; and he lost his life in the attempt. His death will not deter the politicians of the several States from attempting a revolution which may aggrandize their private fortunes in the general disturbance. If Mexico—a very inferior nation both in the character of her population and in natural resources—could be left out, it would seem very possible to unite again the fortunes of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica; but such a confederacy would not attract foreign capital as readily as a treaty alliance between quite independent republics, owing to a widespread distrust of the permanency of any confederacy. If the laws of the United States stretched to the Isthmus of Darien, doubtless capital would eagerly enter this rich field; but at present it is as safe under the laws of Guatemala as under those of any Central American country.

As England and Germany always protect the interests of their subjects wherever invested, and as the United States Government has neither the will nor the power to guard the interests of her people in foreign lands, it is not strange that Englishmen and Germans embark in profitable enterprises in the Central-American Republics while Americans hesitate. At present we have to trust for our commercial rights to the general laws of nations and the favorable inclinations of the existing Government.

CHAPTER XI.
VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL PRODUCTIONS.

Tropical vegetation cannot well be described; but the fact that even when seen it is hard to understand, need not prevent an attempt to sketch the general features. The real trouble that meets the novice on the threshold of the tropics is the utter inadequacy of the English language to express the variety and luxuriance he sees in the vegetable world. Even in color his vocabulary fails him, and he must include in the name “green” so many distinct tints that at last he relinquishes the difficult task and falls back upon the commonplace epithets, or leaves his tale untold. In the abundance, in the confusion, of plant-life the observer sees that as he goes from shore to mountain the trees and plants are not the same, and he will readily divide the vegetation into four tolerably distinct regions; these are the Shore, the River-bottoms, the Upland, and the Arid plain.

On all the low Cayos that are almost awash with every wave, and on the low margin of the mainland, extending up the wide rivers for miles, are the mangroves (Rhizophora mangle), giving the landscape a dull look not at all attractive. They make indeed a hedge of interlaced branches and tangled roots inhospitably forbidding landing on the shores. In their branches are orchids, bromeliads, and other showy plants, while above all this comparatively low bush rises the graceful coco or the confra (Manicaria Plukenetii). The presence of mangroves is usually considered an indication of the haunt of malaria, but on insufficient grounds; for when these trees are cleared away, the shore is admirably suited for coconuts, which with equal unreason are popularly regarded as token of a salubrious climate.

IN THE CHOCON FOREST.

As we follow up the rivers from the shore, we see the mangroves breaking their dense wall, while reeds and bambus fill the gaps; until at last mangroves have disappeared, as the rich valleys are reached. And now no one, or two, or six species can claim supremacy. Two trees are, however, prominent, where man has not interfered,—the cohune and the mahogany; both trees of attractive form and size, and both by their presence indicating the richest soil. The unspoiled forest of the river region presents a wonderful variety above the ground; but among its roots the exceptionally rich soil is almost bare, dwarf palms, wild bananas, gingers, and ferns scantily covering its surface. From the trees hang long vines (vejucos), some of them of value for cordage, others, as the paullinia (P. sorbilis) and zarza (Smilax sp.), possessed of medicinal properties, while others are full of grateful sap. Endless variety reigns, and on every side the puzzled observer sees different trees. Often the stems are so covered with orchids, aroids, and other parasitic and climbing plants that they can hardly be recognized, and their leaves and flowers are but a part of the fresh canopy some sixty feet or more above the ground. From a mountain ridge this forest looks like a level plain, even as the top of a well-trimmed hedge; its surface is here and there broken by the giant mahogany, or seamed by the river and its affluents. Rosewood, cedar, palo de mulatto, cacao, figs,[48] are all here, and the palms, from the noble cohune to the insignificant chamaedoras, are plentifully scattered among the other trees. During the season of flowers the brilliant yellow of the wild tamarind (Schizolobium), the equally bright magenta of the Palo de Cortez, and the white of the plumosa, appear to the observer from above like a rich mosaic, while all this color is invisible to one who is beneath these trees. All vegetation here is not merely luxuriant, it is composite. There are no solitary trees, no hermits, in the vegetable world. Every trunk is but a trellis for vines, some of them, like the matapalo, strangling the fostering tree, or a nest for plants that do not seem able to get up in the forest on their own stems. If I find a branch in blossom, I must make sure that it is of the tree itself, and not part of some mistletoe-like hanger-on. I have seen single trees bearing on their trunk and branches enough orchids and other choice plants to stock a hothouse. The matapalo deserves more than a passing word, for it is the type of a numerous group of plants in the tropics. This vine may start from the ground, but quite as often it germinates in the hollow of a branch, or among the other parasites of the higher branches; in either case it is at first a slender, innocent-looking vine, clinging timidly to the tree for support and protection. Soon the vine grows until its proportions resemble those of a huge serpent, and it has reached the topmost branches and mingled its own foliage and flowers with those of its trellis. The standard tree is from that moment doomed, and wastes away in the murderous grasp of the vegetable anaconda. The matapalo may fall in the ruin of its decaying foster-parent, but not infrequently it has prepared for the emergency by sending out many a guy and splitting the main stem into numerous buttresses, so that it can stand alone—a very remarkable tree, and one often used as a boundary-mark.

Matapalo Tree.

In this region of the river-bottoms we could linger long; but it must be left, for a scientific description of its treasures would fill many volumes of the size of this, and the explorer has not yet collected[49] the material needed. Any botanist who would devote three months to the thorough exploration of the valley forests of Guatemala ought to add not less than a hundred new species to the flora of the region, and also determine the species of most of the beautiful cabinet woods now known only by their native names.[50]

Climbing the hills brings one to a very distinct vegetation, and here in the uplands are trees in masses; that is, there are whole forests of one or two species, and the representatives of the kinds most common in the cooler regions are found here. There are pine-trees as much as eight feet in diameter, and spruces of little less size. Oaks also of several species are abundant; but the palm family almost disappears in the dryer soil, only the cabbage-palm climbing out of the rich lowlands,—and that is not abundant enough to give character to the vegetation. While in the lowlands the ground is devoid of sod, here the grass carpets the soil, extending to the very tree-trunks, and is kept in fine order by the numerous sheep. Agaves are found on the hillsides, creepers like the clematis take the place of the vejucos, and stevias, bouvardias, and dahlias that of gingers and marantas.

The fourth region is quite as distinct as either of the others. It comprises the dry lava plains where the changes of diurnal temperature are considerable, and where the soil, though rich, is scant and insufficiently watered. Here are found the calabash-tree (Crescentia cujete), espina blanca, or gum arabic, and the cockspur (Acacia spadicifera); while a coarse grass covers the ground between the lava blocks.

In Guatemala there are two families of plants,—Palm and Orchid,—presenting numerous species and of attractive and beautiful appearance, at the same time by no means devoid of commercial importance.

Attalea Cohune.

Chief among palms stands the cohune (Attalea cohune), known also as manàca and corozo. When young, the palm has no stem, its enormous leaves rising from the ground more than thirty feet. The rhachis, or midrib, of the pinnate fronds is of a rich red color, and larger round than a man’s wrist, the distinct, conduplicate divisions being long and broad. Mr. Morris estimates a leaf he saw in British Honduras at sixty feet in length and eight feet in breadth. I have never seen one more than forty feet long and five wide; but this is not an uncommon size of the manàca as it is cut for thatching, one leaf extending across the roof. After remaining some years in the manàca state, the stem begins to elongate, and as it rises, the leaves become smaller, as is the case with the coconut and other palms so far as known. The leaf-stems are persistent, giving the tree a rough, untidy look, but doubtless having a purpose to fulfil in the economy of Nature. This palm is now known as corozo, and begins to fruit. The male inflorescence is an immense mass of more than thirty thousand staminate flowers in a compound raceme between four and five feet long; these have a heavy, not disagreeable odor, and attract a great many bees and wasps, so that on one occasion the mozo who climbed the stem and cut for me a fine specimen was badly stung. These insects were so persistent after a great deal of shaking that the camera was used as quickly as possible, specimens were saved, and the spadix was, with the too-attractive flowers, thrown into the river. The pollen, which under the microscope shows a form exactly like a baker’s roll, is in such abundance from the four hundred and fifty thousand stamens that it would fill a pint measure. The spathe, or cover of the inflorescence, looks like leather, is deeply furrowed on the outside, and would make a commodious bath-tub for a child. The fertile spadix has shorter branches, with the rather large flowers succeeded by from five to ten nuts, the whole bunch, which is about five feet long and weighs more than a hundred pounds, bearing from eight hundred to a thousand nuts. These nuts are two and a half inches long, and covered with a fibrous husk and so thick a shell that the valuable kernel cannot be extracted in quantity without powerful and expensive machinery. Like the coconut, the fruit is normally three-celled. But as in that palm two of the cells give up the struggle for existence in early life, so in the cohune; and I have never, in the scores of nuts opened, found more than one cell. Professor Watson has noticed two cells in several specimens, but never three. In the illustration of this palm the bunch of nearly ripe nuts is clearly shown, and in the diagram of flowers and fruit the fibrous husks and the abortive cells may be seen. The natives crush the ripe nuts between stones, and after pounding the rather small kernel in a mahogany mortar, boil the resulting cake until the oil floats; this is skimmed off and boiled again, to drive out the water. The average yield is a quart of oil from a hundred nuts. The oil is said to be superior to coconut-oil, a pint of it giving as much light, or rather burning as long, as a quart of the latter.[51] It is not probable that the manufacture will pay in the presence of the more tractable coconut. As the cohune grows older, the hitherto persistent leaf-stems drop, the scars disappear, and the smooth stem rises thirty to fifty feet clear to the crown of leaves at the summit.

CHOCUN PALMS.

The pimento-palm has a small cinnamon-colored stem much used for house building, as is also the poknoboy (Bactris balanoidea). The warree cohune (Bactris cohune), armed with spines, bears an edible nut much easier to crack than the larger fruit of the attalea. The cabbage-palm (Oreodoxa oleracea) is common in the upper valleys, and the base of the leaf is a very poor cabbage, nor is it eaten to any extent. In the forests the pacaya (Euterpe edulis) is a slender tree, the unexpanded flower-buds being the edible part; and these are on sale in the market-places tied in neat and attractive bundles. In taste it is rather insipid. On the ridges the Acrocomia sclerocarpa flourishes; its stem is, like the warree cohune, armed with formidable spines, which serve as pins, needles, and awls. The Acrocomia vinifera also is common in the valley of the Motagua. Along the river-banks the Desmoncus, a climbing palm, is very common and very troublesome to the explorer; but it shows such a curious adaptation of parts to special ends that its bad qualities may be overlooked by the naturalist. It is generally understood that in the foliage of palms the palmate form is the earlier, and that the growth or development of the midrib results in a pinnate or feather form. This is seen to be the case in the coco-palm, where the first leaves are palmate or fan-shaped; but when the palm is a few months old it puts off these childish garments and dons the toga virilis in the pinnate form. In the desmoncus the development does not stop with the mere lengthening of the midrib, but transforms the leaflets at the end into claws to aid the limp stem to climb into sunlight. Here is a leaf-tip to show how this is done; the ribs of the leaflets, instead of expanding into thin blades, have thickened and bent backward to serve as the barbs of an arrow and allow motion in one direction only. The leaf can push the stiffly bent fingers through the thick foliage, where they stick fast and hold up the stem. The rattan-palm (Calamus rotang) of the East Indies climbs over the trees in a similar way. The Guatemalan climber bears a small cluster of spiny but edible nuts. The graceful little Chamaedoreas may be found in flower or fruit at almost any season of the year, and their slender stems make good walking-sticks. The confra (Manicaria Plukenetii), so useful for thatching, grows only near the sea, usually in clumps of five or more. The nut is globular when one-celled, and about two inches in diameter. The coco (Cocos nucifera) is too well known to need description, though we shall consider the commercial importance of the nuts presently. Of the other fifty or more species of palms few have been identified, and their local names have no meaning for us.

Leaf-tip of Climbing Palm.

To the family of orchids the collector is sure to turn with eagerness; but I must confess that the brilliant colors and bizarre forms of these flowers are not attractive to me. They are parasites; and although possessing a commercial value far above many more beautiful and honest flowers, only the vanilla has any useful qualities, so far as known. The vanilla moreover is an article of luxury, not necessity; for doubtless the chemist will discover, if he has not already done so, a substitute in some of the thousand and one products of the decomposition of coal-tar.

All along the coast the Epidendrum bicornutum and the Schomburgkia tibicina are very common, affecting mangroves especially. On orange-trees in the Motagua valley grows a bright little yellow Oncidium, the flower being the largest part of the plant. In the mountains is an orchid which bears several long spikes of rich purple flowers, which with the pure white clusters of a ground orchid care much used in church decoration. So little is popularly known of the vanilla (V. planifolia) that I may be pardoned for quoting from Mr. Morris the directions lately issued from his Botanical Department of Jamaica, which are entirely applicable to the plant in Guatemala. In the Chocon forests it grows abundantly and fruits naturally, the insect needed to fertilize the flowers being present; and the pods are of excellent quality.

Vanilla.—“This is a vigorous, soft-stemmed vine, the cured fruits of which are the valuable vanilla-beans of commerce. If cuttings are taken, their upper ends, or portion to appear above ground, may readily be determined by examination of the base of the attached leaf, in the axil or upper face of which is a small growth-bud. Cut the stem with say three or four joints at one fourth of an inch below the basal node or joint, then place the base of each cutting shallowly in prepared soil against the bole or trunk of a rough-barked, low-branching tree, as, for instance, calabash, or on a low-trellised frame three or four feet high, the supports of which should be unbarked logwood, yoke, or calabash.

“If the insect which fertilizes the flowers of this orchid in its natural habitat is not present, in order to secure a crop of fruit it is necessary that the flowers should be artificially fertilized. This may be easily accomplished as follows. In the flower is a central white column, at the summit of which is a detachable cap or anther, which if touched on the lower front edge with a sharpened pencil or knife-blade will adhere to the implement. The pollen masses contained in the anther must then be made lightly to touch the sticky disk situated on the front of the column. Each flower must be so treated at or about noon of the day on which it opens.

“To cure vanilla-beans, gather when full, steep for about two minutes in boiling water, and place in flannel to dry in the sun. When perfectly dry, place them the next day on plates of iron or tin, anointing once or twice with sweet oil, to keep them soft and plump. Complete the curing process by exposing them carefully in the sun for several days [weeks]. When quite cured they should have a uniformly rich brown color, and the full fragrance of this valuable product.”

In my own experience I have found it very difficult properly to dry the pods in the damp atmosphere of the rainy season on the coast, and prefer to use the hot-air dryers now generally used for tea, coffee, cacao, etc.

Of the family of ferns little need be said. The gold-fern (Gymnogramma aurea) is a common weed at Livingston, and adiantums, lygodiums, and selaginellas are found everywhere in the forests. While the small ferns are abundant, tree-ferns are very scarce, only one specimen being seen (in the forests of El Mico), and that not a fine one.

Mahogany.—From the small extent of coast-line possessed by Guatemala, her mahogany exports are perhaps not so extensive as those of the two Hondurases on either side of her. In 1884 there was exported of all woods (mahogany being the chief) from the port of Izabal (Livingston) a measurement of 352,066 feet, valued at four cents a foot, or $14,082.64; while the shipments from Belize for the same time were about 3,000,000 feet, worth $150,000. This is not because the Guatemalan forests yield less of this valuable wood; on the contrary, mahogany-trees are very abundant in the Chocon forests, on the smaller tributaries of the Polochic, and in the Motagua valley. I have myself seen hundreds of immense trees deep in the forests, while along the larger watercourses the trees have generally been cut. In British Honduras the origin and existence of the colony is due to mahogany-cutting. The mahogany-lands are in the hands of a few proprietors who will not sell nor allow settlers, since the young trees grow rapidly; and it is said that in thirty years from a clearing, logs of large size may be cut from the shoots which spring from the stumps. The business of mahogany-cutting is thoroughly organized and made the most of. In the neighboring republic, much of the mahogany-land belongs to the Government, which allows any one to cut the timber on pretended payment of five dollars stumpage. A few private individuals cut here and there and in a desultory way. The work at a mahogany bank is generally done by Caribs, who are skilful woodmen. The hunter or montero strikes alone into the forest and searches for trees. If he finds enough of a suitable size (squaring not less than eighteen inches) within reasonable distance from the “bank,” a road is opened from the tree to the river. Often the buttresses are immense, and the platform, or “barbecue,” is raised a dozen feet from the ground. The log is roughly squared, hauled to the river, usually by night, by the light of pine-torches, and only when floated to port is it trimmed into its final shape for the market. The best mahogany comes from limestone regions.

With the mahogany is usually found the cedar (Cedrela odorata), from which cigar-boxes are made, and which is also used (as is mahogany) for single-log canoas, dories, and cayucos.

As an article of export, logwood ranks next to mahogany, of which the best is found in the region of the Usumacinta. It is not a large tree, fifteen to twenty feet high, and much easier to handle than the mahogany. The dark heartwood alone is used.

The Santa Maria (Calophyllum calaba) is much used in house-building. Rosewood (Dalbergia) grows to a large size and is most beautifully veined, as is also the exquisite Palo de mulatto (Spondias lutea); but both sink in water, and are difficult to transport. I have used rosewood logs twenty inches thick to support a cistern, as they are almost imperishable, and not attacked by insects. Sapodilla (Achras sapota) is nearly as heavy. When freshly hewn, its color is curiously red, beefy in tone; but it soon loses this on exposure, and shrinks considerably. It splits easily, but is so tough that splinters are used as nails in soft woods. Salmwood (Jacaranda, sp.) is light colored, and much used for door and window frames. Ziricote is beautifully veined.

Two species of pine are common, the Pinus cubensis, or ocote, whence is obtained the fat-pine which serves as candle for a great majority of the people of Central America, and the long-leaved pine (P. macrophylla) of the mountains. I have placed in the Appendix a list of other woods valuable in many ways, but never exported, and known only by their local names.

The two products that in former years ranked high among the Guatemalan exports, indigo and cochineal, have now been so completely superseded by other dyes, the product of the laboratory, that they no longer need be considered of importance, although enough indigo is still made to supply native dyers, the Indios especially prizing the true indigo blue. Both dye-stuffs were chiefly cultivated on the Pacific slopes, and I have seen half-neglected nopaleras in the vicinity of Antigua and Amatitlan, the nopal or opuntia generally yielding place to sugar-cane and retiring to the roadside and neglected corners, while the cochineal insect, unfed and uncared-for, is gradually disappearing. In 1883 there were exported 135.02 cwt. of indigo, valued at $16,881.25; while in 1884 only 62.67 cwt., of a value of $7,833.75. A more decided decrease is seen in the exportation of cochineal in those years, the amounts being 184.01 cwt., of a value of $9,200.50, in 1883, against 8.12 cwt., valued at $406, in 1884.

It has been my fortune to visit many of the tropical regions of the world, and I have visited them not from idle curiosity, but with a genuine interest in their inhabitants and productions. I have looked upon the human, animal, and vegetable population of these places as closely as my limited knowledge and the time allowed me would permit. It is an agreeable study to place the physical capabilities of a region, the richness of the soil, the climatic influences, the geographical and commercial situation, side by side with the people, their industry, strength, and intelligence, and from these premises draw the conclusion of the might-be.

Once in travelling alone on horseback over the desert lands which lie between the mountains of the Island of Maui, of the Hawaiian group, I was impressed with the desolate, arid land of that great plain. Stunted indigo, verbena, and malvaceous weeds thinly covered the parched soil, which was cracked in every direction. Ten thousand feet above me rose the vast dome of Haleakala, bare on this landward side, but which had sent down for centuries volcanic ash to make this plain, and which now was covering these earlier deposits with the decomposition of its rich lavas. I examined this soil and found it full of the elements best suited for the growth of cane. As is the case with many of our own Western plains comprised in what was known as the Great American Desert, which have often impressed me as the most inhospitable land, not even excepting the Sahara, I have ever seen, this Hawaiian plain needed only water to turn the desert into a fertile field. I laid before the then Government of Hawaii my plan for reclaiming this land, which in great part belonged to the School Fund. The Minister of Foreign Relations, the Hon. Robert C. Wyllie, a most remarkable man, saw the physical possibilities, but also the financial impossibilities, so far as the Government was concerned. Years went by, when on a second visit to Maui I had the pleasure of seeing that my plan had in part been carried out by private parties, and prospering sugar plantations, valued at many millions, occupied the once waste land.

In travelling through Guatemala I was convinced of the physical advantages the country possessed, though I was not blind to the indisputable fact that of all countries I have seen, Guatemala, in common with the other States of Central America, makes least use of her natural advantages, and does least to overcome those obstacles Nature has thrown in her way. My readers will pardon me, I trust, if, in briefly discussing the present outcome of the soil, I let my imagination, trained and curbed by an extended experience, suggest at the same time what the wonderfully fertile lands of Guatemala might yield, properly cultivated. While I will endeavor to guard myself from all exaggeration, I cannot conceal from myself the fact that those not familiar with tropical luxuriance of growth and fruitfulness will not fully acquit me of this fault so generally charged to travellers.

Indian Plough; a Type of Guatemaltecan Agriculture.

Sugar-cane.—Arranging the products to be described, not in a scientific order, but in that sequence which their commercial importance seems to suit, sugar-cane easily leads; and this in spite of the difficulties of the labor supply, which I deem of more importance than the artificial competition of the very inferior sugar-beet. It is a bold assertion that no country or climate is better suited to the culture of sugar-cane. I have watched the growth of four of the choicest varieties[52] of cane side by side with that usually cultivated on the Atlantic coast (Bourbon), compared this with the growth of cane in Louisiana, the West Indies, Guiana, the Hawaiian Islands, India, the East Indies, Egypt, and the Mauritius, and I have ascertained the cost of cultivation, expense of living, yield and freight of product to market, in all these various centres of sugar-production, in a much more elaborate way than would be in place to record in this book.

A Primitive Sugar-mill.

At present the sugar-plantations of any importance are on the Pacific side of Guatemala, although some, as that of San Geronimo, near Salamà, are in the high interior. The valley of the Michatoya is full of small plantations, or ingenios. From the Pacific ports was exported in 1883, 44,927.27 cwt. of sugar, valued at $223,136.35; in 1884. about 7,000 cwt. less. The home consumption of sugar is very great, and most of that raised in the Department of Chiquimula is not exported. Much of the manufacture is by the rudest wooden mills, and the sugar resembles the poorest quality of maple-sugar; it is cooled in wooden blocks in hemispherical form, and comes to market wrapped in corn husks, when it is called panela.

That the sugar production may be better understood, I give the statistics for 1883, as published by the Government. A finca is a plantation; a manzana equals an acre and three quarters, more or less; an arroba weighs twenty-five pounds, and a quintal one hundred pounds.

Departments.Number of fincas.Manzanas planted.Arrobas of sugar.Loads of panela, 64 parcels each.Arrobas of molasses.Quintals of moscovado.
Guatemala682033,2591,5715,1621,472
Escuintla551,85140,5077,31566,44115,168
Sacatepequez216313,49441335,76545,796
Chimaltenango2652162,1682,12813
Sololà162141321,067150
Suchitepequez203127,9994,1499,560
Retalhuleu313054,2003,1919,8258
Quezaltenango232491,6416,661
San Marcos662526,9964,918
Huehuetenango5131123114,043122
Quiché57431,256
Baja Verapaz773842,2013,8893,4012,003
Alta Verapaz61157411867632
Peten71127499
Zacapa1062134,6961,5492,1258
Chiquimula50560556,25417,2017,55842
Jalapa1351,8001,052741269
Jutiapa14438015,1362,2026,461
Santa Rosa321742,7196,465121
Totals2,2477,810154,59967,183159,18464,497
@ $1.75@ $8.00@ 25 cts.@ $2.00
Value$270,548.25$537,464$39,896$128,994

While this table is by no means exact, it shows fairly the amount of saccharine products and their distribution. It is curious to note how many very small plantations are reported from the Department of Huehuetenango yielding almost exclusively the coarse panela. In Chiquimula the large proportion of sugar is due to foreign enterprise. There the cane-fields are capable of irrigation from the Hondo or other streams, and the cane is chiefly a small red variety. Escuintla and Jalapa have nearly the same area of cane planted, but the former, by superior machinery, produces forty times the amount of sugar, and ten times as much panela. The cultivation at present is almost confined to burying the seed-cane and trashing, that is, stripping the lower leaves twice in a season. In the rich valleys of the Atlantic, cane will grow nine feet in as many months, will yield four tons of sugar to the acre, will rattoon freely for twenty years without replanting, and may be ground during nine months of the year. Much of the product of the cane is in Guatemala converted into aguardiente, or rum. With the exception of the experimental plantation to which I have referred, I know of no sugar fincas in northern Guatemala, although there are several in similar situations in British Honduras.

It is a well-known saying in this part of the world that “Wherever mahogany will grow, there every tropical product will flourish; and wherever logwood grows, there you can produce the finest rice.” Cane certainly is no exception to this rule.

Coffee.—Second on the list may be placed coffee, both from the importance of the present product, and from its very excellent quality. On the coast the Liberian coffee flourishes, and as the berries do not drop as soon as ripe, the trouble of harvesting is much lessened. Most of the crop exported from Livingston goes to England, and it has up to the present time been difficult to obtain the best quality, except through England. In 1883, 404,069.39 cwt. of a value (at twelve cents) of $4,848,832.68 were exported. On this the Government levies a tax, varying year by year, proportioned to the harvest.

The present importance of the coffee interest is shown by the following table of the coffee crop, commencing October, 1883, and ending June, 1884:—

Departments.Fincas.Trees.Crop.Value.Pounds per tree.
Guatemala213756,48411,340.26$113,402.601.50
Amatitlan5075,152,90045,288.76452,887.60
Escuintla1045,914,85038,560.00385,600.000.65
Sacatepequez6262,805,40018,286.18182,860.80
Chimaltenango473,511,83927,573.26275,732.60
Sololà822,287,52527,993.52279,935.20
Suchitepequez2533,511,83952,860.32528,603.201.50
Retalhuleu5985,129,85733,250.15332,501.50
Quezaltenango4098,903,552124,779.701,247,797.001.50
San Marcos1771,595,48845,115.68451,156.800.40
Huehuetenango248627,2767,354.9473,549.40
Alta Verapaz2653,835,0842,883.25288,732.500.75
Baja Verapaz54900,856813.548,135.40
Peten10118,545278.362,783.601.50
Zucapa9156,410182.361,823.60
Chiquimula1,000908,6706,595.5265,955.20
Jalapa9630,210206.862,068.60
Santa Rosa5604,354,42826,032.45260,324.500.60
Totals5,43160,301,213495,385.11$4,953,850.110.82

If the figures of this table are correct, the average yield throughout the republic is 0.82 lb. per tree; in Escuintla .65 lb.; in Santa Rosa .60; in Guatemala 1.5; in Quezaltenango and Peten the same; in Alta Verapaz .75; and in San Marcos .40,—figures which show a very large number of non-bearing trees.

Coffee is planted in the shade, and the young plants require the protection of banana or other trees until well established. Plants are set ten feet apart each way, and topped when about six feet high. The Liberian variety is large beaned, and although of a lower price than the best Arabian, is more prolific, and in the lower lands, where the latter does not do well, is certainly more profitable.[53] It begins to bear the third year, produces three to four hundred pounds per acre in the fifth year, attains its maximum in the tenth, and is old in the thirtieth. Coffee exhausts the soil more than any crop except tobacco.

Cacao.—All through the forests of the Atlantic coast cacao grows wild, and even in this condition generally of choice quality. On the Pacific coast are the chief plantations, although the amount exported is insignificant (1,492 lbs. in 1884). Just over the Mexican boundary, in the province of Soconusco, grows the most celebrated cacao known; and probably careful selection of seed and cultivation would produce the same results in Guatemalan territory. Throughout the republic there is probably less cacao raised than before the Conquest, when the nib was current as money, and chocolate a royal drink. Like the coffee-tree, cacao requires protection,[54] which must be continuous, for the cacao never outgrows it; but a thin shade such as the India-rubber affords will answer very well, and in this case the madre cacao is profitable. A cacao-plantation should be in full bearing about the seventh year; and while the curing of the pods requires much care and experience, the cultivation of the trees is very simple. The many varieties and the interesting process by which the bean is prepared for market are well described in the pamphlet to which reference has been made. Plantations in the valleys of the Polochic, Chocon, and Motagua would yield a rich return. In Guatemala are several factories for preparing chocolate from the bean, and I have seen samples of very high quality. It is generally, if not always, flavored with cinnamon, and when used as a beverage is churned or beaten into froth.

Theobroma Cacao (Chocolate Tree).

India-rubber.—Like the cacao, the Castilloa elastica grows wild in all the coast valleys; but although the Government has placed a bounty on plantations of this very desirable tree, few have been formed. Now, as formerly, the Indios collect the gum in a very wasteful way, and soon the supply will be greatly lessened. I am tempted to quote from Juarros[55] what I believe is the earliest notice of the use of India-rubber for waterproof garments. “On pricking the trunk of this tree [ule] an abundant juice issues, which serves, as Fuentes assures us, to coat a boot, with which one can pass a stream or a swamp dryshod.”

Castilloa elastica (India-rubber Tree).

The castilloa grows to a height of about forty to fifty feet, and its clean, smooth stem may be two feet in diameter at the base. The leaves are large, oblong in shape, and rather hairy. The foliage is light green in color, and not very dense. The small greenish flowers appear in February and March, and the seed ripens three months later. Mr. Morris[56] gives the following account of the rubber gathering:—

“The castilloa rubber-tree is fit to be tapped for caoutchoue, or the gummy substance produced by its milk, when about seven to ten years old. The milk is obtained at present, from trees growing wild, by men called rubber-gatherers, who are well acquainted with all the localities inhabited by the Toonu [ule]. The proper season for tapping the trees is after the autumn rains, which occur some months after the trees have ripened their fruit, and before they put forth buds for the next season. The flow of milk is most copious during the months of October, November, December, and January. The rubber-gatherers commence operations on an untapped tree by reaching with a ladder, or by means of lianes, the upper portions of its trunk, and scoring the bark the whole length with deep cuts, which extend all round. The cuts are sometimes made so as to form a series of spirals all round the tree; at other times they are shaped simply like the letter V, with a small piece of hoop-iron, the blade of a cutlass, or the leaf of a palm placed at the lower angle to form a spout to lead the milk into a receptacle below. A number of trees are treated in this manner, and left to bleed for several hours. At the close of the day the rubber-gatherer collects all the milk, washes it by means of water, and leaves it standing till the next morning. He now procures a quantity of the stem of the moon-plant (Calonyction speciosum), pounds it into a mass, and throws it into a bucket of water. After this decoction has been strained, it is added to the rubber milk in the proportion of one pint to a gallon, or until, after brisk stirring, the whole of the milk is coagulated. The masses of rubber floating on the surface are now strained from the liquid, kneaded into cakes, and placed under heavy weights to get rid of all watery particles.” It is true that either very heavy weights are not handy, or the honest Indian wishes to sell water at the price of rubber; for the masses, as I have examined them freshly brought in for sale, contain a large quantity of water held mechanically in the interstices. Alum is sometimes used to coagulate the milk, but is thought to render the gum hard and less elastic. A full-grown tree should yield about eight gallons of milk when first tapped,—which is equivalent to sixteen pounds of rubber, worth from ten to twelve dollars. Although the law of Guatemala forbids the tapping of young trees, and tries to regulate the frequency of the attack, it is ineffectual to prevent the gradual destruction of the wild trees through improvident bleeding, and only the establishment of private plantations will prevent the final extinction of this most valuable source of rubber. The Para rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) grows only in swamps unfit for cultivation; the true rubber (Ficus elastica), so popular a house-plant, does not seem to thrive and yield a supply of rubber away from its native East Indies; and the Ceara rubber of South America (Manihot Glaziovi) is not of easy cultivation, so that the Castilloa certainly promises to be the tree, of the many known to produce rubber, most likely to supply in cultivation that useful gum civilized nations cannot now do without, although the science of adulteration has progressed so far that an ordinary pair of so-called rubber boots contain hardly a spoonful of the pure gum, the rest being sulphur, coal-tar, and other matters.

The trees should be planted forty feet apart; and as the seed is very perishable, it should be planted, or at least packed in earth, as soon as gathered.

Sarsaparilla.—One of the most troublesome vejucos, or vines, common all through the forests of the Atlantic seaboard is the zarza, or sarsaparilla. Probably the American public is familiar with the popular remedies compounded in part with this valuable medicinal plant, which, belonging to the Smilax family, affects damp, warm forests, climbing to great heights over the trees. The portion used is the long, tough root; this the zarza-gatherer digs and pulls from the loose soil, replanting the stem, which in due time replaces its stolen roots, to be again robbed. The roots are washed, loosely bundled, and sold to the dealers, who have the fibres made up into tight rolls, a few hundred of which are then pressed together and sewed up in the thickest hide that can be found; for the “custom of trade” includes the wrapper in the tare of the more costly drug. Most of the sarsaparilla exported from Belize comes from Guatemala and Honduras; but from Livingston more than 60,000 pounds were exported in 1884, of an appraised value of ten cents per pound. The plant is easily propagated by cuttings or seeds, and of course needs no cultivation or clearing; the yield will average twenty pounds of dried root from each plant.

Bananas and Plantains.—No export from Guatemala has increased more rapidly in value than have the products under this head. The permanent establishment of lines of steamers between New Orleans and Livingston, and the bounty offered by the Government, stimulated the planting of many small fincas along the shores and on the river-banks. Under contract with the steamship companies, the producer sells his bananas at 50 cents a bunch (of not less than eight hands) during five months of the year, and for 37½ cents the rest of the year. The cost of production may be placed at 12½ cents per bunch. All these prices are in silver currency of the value of the sham dollar of the United States. Plantains are sold at 25 cents a bunch of twenty-five, sometimes commanding $1.25 per hundred. The profits of this business go, as usual, not to the producer, but to the middle-man or the steamer-companies. For example, a man raises a hundred bunches of good fruit; the cost to him is $12.50 delivered on board the steamer. He is paid in the best season $50 in silver, for which he can get $40 in American gold. The steamer people, after a voyage of four days, during which all their expenses are paid by the passenger-list and the Government mail-subsidies, sell the bananas on the wharf in New Orleans for $125 in gold, or its equivalent,—clearing $85; while the planter, for a year’s labor put into the bananas, gets $30. I have put the price paid the planter at the highest, and the sales in New Orleans at the lowest. The loss is insignificant at these figures, and it is not uncommon for the profits of a single round trip of two weeks to exceed $40,000. Half this shared with the planter would make him rich.

If the planting of bananas is to profit the grower, he must raise enough—say twenty thousand bunches a month—to freight his own steamer, and be independent of the present monopolies of the Italian fruiterers. The extent of this business is seen in the fact that from Livingston in 1883 were exported 29,699 bunches, and in 1884, 54,633, or nearly double the amount.

Bunch of Plantains (young).

This is not the proper place to enter into a detailed history of the banana, its culture and its varieties; but there is much uncertainty in the Northern markets as to the distinction between bananas and plantains, which it may be well to remove. At present plantains are not brought to the Boston or New York markets. Botanically, it is difficult to distinguish between these two fruits, as connecting varieties run imperceptibly into the two extremes; no one, however, would ever mistake a typical plantain for a banana, either single or in bunch. Of all the varieties of the banana (and I have myself seen at least two hundred, including the seeding-banana of Chittagong), only two or three are raised for exportation in Guatemala, and these are by no means the best; but as the steamer people will give no more for a choice variety, there is no inducement to improve the stock. Both yellow and red varieties are grown, and the former sometimes have two hundred and fifty bananas on a bunch, weighing, unripe, ninety pounds. The plantain is yellow when ripe (I have never seen a red variety), and is much larger and more curved than a banana, while the bunches are looser and much smaller, seldom numbering more than thirty-five fruits. Some plantains attain a length of fifteen inches, and some are quite palatable uncooked; but the usual way to eat them is either baked or fried. Few of our Northerners appreciate the wonderful nutritive qualities of the plantain, which in this respect surpasses the banana; and it may be authoritatively stated that sixteen hundred and seven square feet of rich land will produce four thousand pounds of nutritive substance from plantains, which will support fifty persons, while the same land planted with wheat will support but two. When the plantain is dried, it will keep from twenty to thirty years; and if dried before ripening, an admirable meal (better than arrowroot) can be made from the ground white fruits, while the ripe fruit forms a conserve not unlike a fig in flavor, and of course free from the seeds so troublesome in that fruit. One hundred parts of the fresh fruit contain twenty-seven parts of nutritive matter, easily digested and superior to pure starch. The comparative cost and profit of the two fruits may be thus stated:—

Banana. Plantain.
Cost of one acre of land $1.00 300 bunches
at .50
less cost		 15,000 fruits
at $1.25
per hundred
Clearing and planting 20.00
430 stools 2.50
Care to first crop 10.00
Shipping 10.00
$43.50 $106.50 $144.00

The second year the increase would be in favor of the plantain, and the product has reached more than thirty-five thousand per acre. Of the fibre no account has been taken, although this bids fair to become an important by-product. The plantain contains more fibre than the banana,—the inner portion in both stems being much finer. At present the possible four pounds of fibre in each stem is wasted; and as the stems should be cut to the ground after the fruit is gathered, these large fibrous trunks are much in the way of cultivation. It will be remembered that the Manilla hemp is the product of a species of banana (Musa textilis).

Usually bananas or plantains are planted in a cafétal or in a cacao or orange orchard, to shade the young plants, and after three or four years are removed as the more permanent trees attain their growth. All the fruit exported must be cut and shipped while quite green and not fully grown; and this, conjoined to the tar and bilge smell of the steamers, certainly gives the fruit a flavor it does not have in its native land when allowed to attain its full growth and then slowly ripened under shelter from the sun. Bananas, like some pears, should not be allowed to ripen on the trees.

There are two articles of food and commerce which should certainly attract the attention of merchants, and so of the public, in our Northern States,—fresh plantains, as a most nutritious and delicious vegetable, more costly than the banana, though of easier transport; and the dried plantain, for which there is already an increasing market on the Pacific coast.

Pita and Sisal Hemp.—The mention of the plantain-fibre calls to mind two very valuable fibrous plants at present little cultivated in Guatemala, except for home consumption. The pita, or silk-grass (Bromelia pita) belongs to the pineapple family, and is very commonly used for hedges in the interior of the country. The long sharp leaves are rotted, and the fibre extracted by the rudest means, usually by pounding on stones in a running stream; but the product makes most durable and desirable hammocks and bags and cords. The other plant is most cultivated in Yucatan, whence the name Sisal hemp, from the shipping port. It is also called henequen (Agave ixtli), and much resembles the century-plant. Common over the mountain-ranges, certainly to a height of eight thousand feet, it is little used, except for hedges. From Yucatan it is exported to the annual value of $500,000. The ixtli grows in poor dry soil and is easily propagated by cuttings. An American machine removes the pulp and cleans the fibre at the rate of a leaf a minute, and the product is then baled and shipped without further trouble. The fibre, according to the “Textile Record,” costs the planter two thirds of a cent per pound, the freight to New York is three quarters of a cent, and with commissions and incidental expenses, the total charge per pound is a cent and a half, and it sells for from five to seven cents per pound. In the English market Sisal hemp is quoted at £30 per ton.

The species and varieties of the agaves or henequen and pulque plants are not clearly distinguished; but two types are tolerably distinct. Agave Americana, or maguey, is cultivated in Mexico for the juice which when fermented is called pulque. The plant after some years of growth in a stemless condition throws up a stem very rapidly to a height of forty feet, or even more. The Mexican cultivator, however, nips this stem before it has attained two feet; and scooping a large hollow in the cut stump, waits for the sap to collect. The yield from a vigorous plant—and the sap continues to run for three months—is from two to three hundred gallons! The agave, it must be remembered, grows in the driest soil. The fibre of the leaf is very strong, and is used to make paper of the toughest and most durable kind.

Pounding Rice.

The Agave ixtli, or henequen, is larger than the last species. When the plants are three years old the leaves may be cut, and a good plant should yield from fifty to a hundred leaves annually, the cutting being repeated every four months. The continuous fibres in a leaf are sometimes five and a half feet long, and are used by the natives without spinning. The life of the ixtli subjected to this pruning and not allowed to flower, may extend to ten years, but usually is several years less.

Bromelia pita produces a much finer and stronger fibre, but is not so easy to handle. As these fibres come to market they are often confounded, even by the Indios, and the term “pita” is not infrequently applied to the product of agaves, and even of plantains.

The genus Fourcroya, closely allied to agave, also yields valuable fibres.

Rice.—The upland variety grows remarkably well in the bottom-lands of the Chocon River, producing two crops a year of very heavy rice. All through the logwood country it might profitably be cultivated; but up to the present time not enough has been raised fairly to determine how much the yield per acre may be. There are no suitable rice-mills, and the grain is hulled by the rude and wasteful method of pounding in mortars.

Oranges.—The delusion which has led so many to plant orange-trees on the frost-visited sand-banks of Florida has at least turned the attention of Americans to the desirability of orange-walks not too remote from our principal fruit-markets. The Florida oranges, while sweet and juicy, are wanting in flavor, especially the mandarin variety, which is far inferior to the fruit of that variety raised in China. Even the Louisiana oranges, which are generally superior to those from Florida, are not first-rate, and in both States I have seen the foliage utterly destroyed by frost,—an accident which must seriously interfere with the succeeding crop. As a substitute for these unsuitable regions, Guatemala offers great advantages. At Teleman, on the Polochic, the quality of the uncultivated fruit is nearly equal to the Syrian oranges; that is, finer than any I have seen in Jamaica or the West Indies generally,—and the same fruit can be raised on all the bottom-lands of the Atlantic coast. Lemons do not do so well, as this fruit requires a cooler climate and must be relegated to the higher interior valleys; but limes grow wild in remarkable perfection, being often used as hedge-plants. Raised from seed, the plants at three years are six feet high, and in five are bearing. On the western side limas, or sweet lemons, citrons, and toranjas, or shaddocks, grow very well. Oranges of many varieties can be grown in the greatest perfection in the rich valleys; and yet it is difficult to obtain oranges enough for home consumption even where the alcaldes are not so stupid as one reported during the cholera scare in 1884, who ordered all the orange-trees in his village to be cut down, as their fruit was sure to cause cholera! Along the coast of Honduras, near Trujillo, I have bought for one dollar a barrel the finest limes I ever saw.

Coconuts.—On the sandy shores, where no other fruit will grow, the coconut flourishes. As a rule the nuts are not so large as those of the Pacific Islands; but I have seen some of good size on the north shore of the Island of Roatan. The low, sandy cayos and the equally low shores of Manabique are admirably suited for coconut-walks. In one place on the Hondureñan coast a large factory was established at great cost, but for some reason not known to the writer it has been abandoned; and now, nowhere on the northern coast of Guatemala is any organized attempt to prepare either the oil or fibre (coir or cobre), and the nuts are shipped to the United States or to England. Prolific bearers, these palms require no care after they come into bearing in the fourth year; and as they bear heavily by the seventh year, a young walk soon becomes a source of profit. Usually a tree produces a flower-spathe every month; so there are generally on a tree nuts in all stages. On a single spadix I have counted five thousand nine hundred and fifty staminate or male blossoms, and fifty-two pistillate or female. Of the latter not more than thirty, and usually only twenty, develop into nuts; but a young tree in a good soil will probably bear three hundred and sixty nuts per annum, worth $9. In a walk, however, it is a good tree that is worth $3 per annum.

The trade in green nuts is of course limited; but they usually sell at the rate of two cents apiece. No more delicious drink is found in the tropical fruits than the rich milk of the nut when so green that the shell is easily cut with a knife. When fully ripe, the nuts may be piled in a damp place and left to germinate. The milk disappears, and its place is occupied by a porous mass completely filling the cavity and of the consistency of sponge-cake, quite edible withal. As the shoot pushes through the eye and breaks through the thick husk, the innocent-looking sponge seems to absorb the meat of the coconut; when this is finished, the plant has, as it were, hatched itself from the old shell, and is ready to continue life on its own basis. The coconut presents a good illustration of the development of pinnate or feather leaves from palmate (or leaves shaped like a fan),—all the early leaves of this palm being of the latter class, while the noble leaves of the mature palm are long pinnate.

Growth of a Young Coconut.

If the trees are planted about sixty to the acre in ordinary situations, such a plantation should not cost, including the land, more than forty dollars until the trees bear; and in eight years the planter may expect a crop of at least eight thousand nuts annually,—which should net him about two hundred dollars. It is a great mistake to plant the nut on the surface of the ground, as it is liable to be overturned by the winds, or too thick, as it then grows tall and spindly, and bears poorly.

The exports of coconuts from Belize during six years previous to 1882, as given by Mr. Morris,[57] are shown thus:—

1876381,000
1877604,000
1878698,000
1879919,000
18801,623,000
18816,047,160

A remarkable increase, that shows that the profits induce more extensive planting. As to the duration of a fruitful coconut, I have not sufficient data. I have seen old trees on Utila that had been growing less than twenty-five years, and I have seen trees still bearing on the shores of Hawaii which are distinctly marked with the cannon-balls Captain Cook’s ships fired at the village of Kaawaloa after the great navigator’s tragic death, more than a century ago; and these trees must have been well grown at that remote day. I may add that on the Hawaiian Group few coconuts bear before they are seven years old,—some not until they are fourteen.

Pineapples.—No systematic cultivation of this most delicious fruit has been undertaken in Guatemala, although the wild pines are of good quality. The piña de azucar, or sugar-pine, is large (over six pounds), and very tender and juicy; but the horse-pine has more flavor. On the Chocon plantation the pine-fields planted in the lighter soil do very well, but require cleaning five times each year. The sprouts from the base of the fruit are planted, and after two years the stock has spread so as to produce several pines annually. Three thousand plants to the acre should yield, at six cents per pine, a hundred and twenty dollars the first crop, and a hundred and eighty dollars afterwards. Whether these fine fruits can profitably drive the inferior pineapples of the West Indies from our markets, is yet doubtful. A wild pine, in which the fruit is not crowded into a compact head, but is more acid and of less flavor, is common in the mountains; but I have never seen this species offered for sale.

Nutmegs.—While I do not know of a dozen trees of the nutmeg, outside of the Chocon plantation, the soil and climate are admirably suited to this tree. The nutmeg requires at least eighty inches of rainfall per annum, begins to bear when eight or ten years old, and improves for a century. The first few years the yield is from one to five thousand nuts, of from sixty-eight to one hundred and twenty to the pound. In the Botanic Gardens, Trinidad, the net yield per tree has been more than twenty pounds (say eighteen hundred nuts), with an average price of fifty-four cents per pound. This would amount to three hundred and fifty dollars per acre. The value of the mace is additional. In the Chocon region the trees have not yet matured; but there seems no doubt that the conditions of growth and fruitfulness are better than on the Island of Trinidad, and with these trees planted thirty feet apart, or forty-five to an acre, allowing one third to be male or barren trees, we should have at least 1,600 × 30 = 48,000 nutmegs to the acre. Averaging the nuts at ninety to the pound, the crop would weigh five hundred and thirty-three pounds, and at fifty cents per pound would amount to two hundred and sixty-six dollars. Considering the less expense for care this permanent crop would require, the profit would be sufficient even at forty cents per pound. The red, fresh mace does not bring so high a price as when old and golden-colored.

Maiz.—Indian corn (Zea mays) grows well all over the republic, and forms the most important food of the Indian tribes. Yet the kinds cultivated are not of fine quality, although growing freely. The stalks are often a dozen feet high, and three ears are not uncommon. Three crops can be raised annually. The corn is always stored and transported in the husk. When the Spaniards first came among the Central Americans, they found the milpas of maiz carefully cultivated; and as to-day the little cornfields are found all over the country cultivated precisely as the ancients were doing centuries ago, so the product is to-day prepared and eaten in the same old-time manner. Mr. Belt,[58] in his work on Nicaragua,—unfortunately too little known,—describes the preparation of maiz better than I have seen done elsewhere. He says: “In Central America the bread made from the maiz is prepared at the present day exactly as it was in ancient Mexico. The grain is first of all boiled, along with wood-ashes or a little lime. The alkali loosens the outer skin of the grain, and this is rubbed off with the hands in running water; a little of it at a time is placed upon a slightly concave stone,—called a metatle, from the Aztec metatl,—on which it is rubbed with another stone, shaped like a rolling-pin. A little water is thrown on it as it is bruised, and it is thus formed into paste. A ball of the paste is taken and flattened out between the hands into a cake about ten inches diameter and three sixteenths inch thick, which is baked on a slightly concave earthenware [or iron] pan. The cakes so made are called tortillas, and are very nutritious. When travelling, I preferred them myself to bread made from wheaten flour. When well made and eaten warm, they are very palatable.”

Besides the importance of this grain for human food, it is necessary for the horses, who could not well endure the hard steep roads on sacate alone. Much might be exported to the neighboring republics.

Wheat.—Throughout the uplands much wheat is grown. The straw is generally small, but the grain heavy and good. In the grain centres, such as Sololà, the wheat is inspected and weighed by Government officials. The seed is sown in drills rather than broadcast. I found the bread made from this home wheat of a uniformly good quality, though sometimes dark colored,—indeed it is superior to the bread found in the country throughout the United States.

Potatoes, and other Food-Plants.—However the philosopher may try to confine his attention to those products of a country which may have a commercial value, be he cynic or epicurean he will be interested in those fruits and vegetables not necessary to the support of life, but none the less very important factors in human comfort. I have briefly noticed the principal fruits that may be exported from Guatemala, and have passed unnoticed the scores of valuable woods, because I can add nothing to the general knowledge of these. For the same reason I have omitted the hundred and one drugs or medicinal plants; but I should fail in my duty to this pleasant country if I did not tell of some of those fruits and vegetables that add to the pleasure of life.

The common potato I have already mentioned in a former chapter (p. 136). The sweet potato (Batatas edulis) will grow in all its varieties, from the huge purple-fleshed tuber to the delicate little yellow form; but it is very little cultivated. The yam (Dioscorea) is much more common, but dry and tasteless. The cocos or kalo (Colocasium esculentum) grows well in the wetter lands, but is more common in Belize than in Guatemala, and in neither place attains the prominence as a vegetable that it enjoys in the Pacific Islands or in China and the East Indies. The cassava (Manihot utilissima), so important a food in South America, is here mostly confined to Carib use, and I have never seen it inland or on the south coast; as a dietary its importance merits attention, and it should be exported. In a dry climate it keeps well, and I have specimens four years old still perfectly good. Frijoles, or beans, black, white, and red, are very abundant and good. The Mexicans are the greatest consumers of beans in the world, and their neighbors southward probably rank next.

The breadfruit (Artocarpus incisa) grows remarkably well in Livingston and Belize, although I think the fruit is smaller than in the Pacific islands. Carefully baked when full grown, but not ripe, it is a fine vegetable, and the baked fruit sliced and fried is a delicacy. The odor of the uncooked fruit is very unpleasant. Squashes, cucumbers (including a small spiny wild one which is very good), melons, grow well, and pumpkins are planted among the corn, as in New England. Indeed, the variety of squashes is very great, and one may see a dozen or fifteen kinds in a single heap. They are fed to cattle as pumpkins are with us. Some are so hard that they keep a long time. The chiote (Sechium edule) is a rapid growing runner, often covering the houses, and bearing a fruit about the shape of a pear and three inches thick, covered with soft prickles. This was abundant all through the villages, and in the plazas it was sold parboiled, fried, or preserved in sugar. It tastes much like a vegetable marrow.

Tomatoes grow everywhere, and are of great importance in the kitchen, next to the universal chile (Capsicum annuum). Peppers of other kinds are used, especially a large green one which is stuffed with minced meat coated with egg and crumbs and served as Chile relleno. Pawpaws (Carica papaya) are common (a small wild species is abundant on the Pacific coast); and the fruit, as large as a cantaloupe, and filled with pungent seeds like those of the tropæolum, is eaten raw, or cooked in tarts. Its juice is of the greatest use in making tough meat tender. The akee (Blighia sapida) is much like a custard when cooked.

The avocado (Persea gratissima) is one of the fruits that have many names. In Peru it is called palta, and the Mexican ahuacatl was twisted by the Spaniards into aguacate and avocado, and the English corrupted this last into alligator-pear. Intermediate, like the carica, between vegetable and fruit, few strangers like the aguacate at first. There are many varieties; but the best is pear-shaped, weighing about a pound, with a shiny purple, leathery skin. Between the skin and the rather large kernel is a greenish pulp nearly an inch thick, which is the edible part of this delicious fruit. It is of a buttery consistency, and may serve as substitute for butter, and be eaten alone, or with salt and pepper. The sapote (Lucuma mammosa) somewhat resembles the aguacate in the size and position of the edible pulp; but the outside is rough and brown, and the salmon-colored interior is insipid and inferior.

Among the first rank of fruits may be placed the mango (Mangifera indica), although the West Indian is far inferior to the East Indian representative. As a mere shade-tree the mango is beautiful; but the rich juicy, golden-meated fruit, slightly tinged with a flavor of turpentine in the poorer sorts, is a never-to-be-forgotten delight. The unripe fruit is good baked or made into a sauce, when it much resembles apples in taste. The slippery, juicy meat, and the strong fibres which attach this to the large flat stone, make it anything but an easy task for the novice to eat this fruit; he should have plenty of water and napkins within reach. When the tree does not bear well, root-pruning may be resorted to, although the natives usually hack the stem. I have planted seeds of the sour mango sent from Hawaii, and they have grown rapidly and promise well. The mango may be grafted as easily, it is said, as the cherry or apple.

The icaco (Chrysobalanus icaco), or coco-plum, grows near the shore, and makes an excellent preserve; so does the manzanilla, a small crab-apple.

In the interior, a tree very commonly used for fences is the jocote (Spondias purpurea?). This bears a plum-like fruit all over the smaller branches, which is either yellow or red when ripe, and very juicy. The stone closely resembles a medium-sized peanut. The juice when fermented makes a very popular drink (Chicha). To propagate the tree it is only necessary to plant a branch or cutting, which may be several inches in diameter, and it takes root and bears the next season. I am not sure of the species of spondias, but it is much smaller than the S. dulcis of the Pacific Islands, and more like the hog-plum of Jamaica. Peaches grow in the highlands, but of the poorest quality, and the trees are in blossom and fruit at the same time. Figs grow very well; yet the Guatemaltecans import canned figs from New Orleans. The star-apple (Chrysophyllum cainito), so popular in the West Indies, the mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), the most delicious fruit of the East Indies, the loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), the durian (Durio zibethinus), that foul-smelling but pleasant-tasting fruit, the bhêl (Ægle marmelos), the Marquesan plum (Spondias dulcis), and a host of others might grow here, but do not.

Guavas or goyavas grow wild, but are of very poor quality; I have not found the very fine strawberry guavas, but have planted seeds of the black guava, the best of its kind. Cherimoyers (Anona cherimolia) are very common in the uplands, extending even into the region of occasional frosts. A red-pulped variety is much prized. The sour-sop (Anona muricata) is cultivated all along the coast, and is seldom absent from a Carib village. Grapes grow finely on the Pacific slope, and would probably do equally well on the north. That most pleasing fruit of the passion-flower (Passiflora sp.), the granadilla, or water-lemon, may be found, in the season, for sale in every plaza in the highlands. The more common kind is of the size of a large hen’s egg, and the tough shell contains an aromatic jelly of which one can eat almost without limit; this fruit is sold at ten for a cuartil (3 cents). The larger species has a fine purple blossom as large as a saucer, while the fruit is more than a foot long. These vines are easily propagated by cuttings. The tamarind (Tamarindus officinalis) is found all over the country, and its pulpy pods make a wholesome and cooling drink. There are many other fruits which I have not tasted and cannot describe; but they are generally those that a stranger does not especially like, nor are they abundant. While our common garden vegetables can be easily raised, if kept from ants, especially from the ravages of the zompopos, there are few gardens that contain any of them.

With food for man, it is important to provide well for his faithful servants, horses, mules, and cattle. On the uplands the pasturage is good, and the sheep and neat cattle thrive. On the lowlands and in the river valleys grass must be planted, and the Guinea grass (Panicum jumentorum) and Bahama grass (Cynodon dactylon) are usually chosen. On the ridges Paspalum distichum grows naturally, and in the interior the grass is the same, I am told, as that of the famous plains of Yoro, Olancho, and Comayagua in Honduras, where one acre will pasture two animals, while in Texas four acres will barely feed one.

The fauna of Guatemala has been almost as much neglected as the flora; but although insect-life seems abundant, and many of the rivers swarm with fish, I believe that animal life is comparatively scarce. Game certainly is, red-deer, peccaries, javias, turkeys, and pigeons being almost the whole bag. Among the mammals the monkeys are here fairly represented, the little white-faced (Cebus albifrons) being the most attractive. This monkey has a face nearly devoid of hair, and as white as a European. The hands and feet are very well formed, the nails especially so, and the tail is quite long. It seems less difficult for him to stand erect than for most monkeys, and when domesticated (an easy process) he is an affectionate pet. The howling-monkeys (Mycetes stentor) will be remembered by every traveller as the noisiest of the nocturnal animals. Several other small monos are common in the forests (Simia apella, S. fatuellus, and S. capucina), where they feed on wild-figs and other fruits. The pezote (Nassua solitaria) is found in the forests of the eastern mountain-ranges.

The manatee, or lamantin (Manatus Americanus), once found in the Golfo Dulce, is now seldom, if ever, seen on the coast of Guatemala, although still found in British Honduras, where the hide is used for whips, canes, etc. I have seen the tracks of the danta (Tapirus Americanus) in the Chocon forests, but never the animal, as its habits are more nocturnal than mine. Conies (Lepus Douglassi), taltusas (Geomys heterodus), mapachines (Procyon cancrivorus), and armadillos (Dasypus sp.) are common articles of food among the Indios. Red-deer (Cervus dama) are found in the interior. Peccaries (Jabali, Dicotyles tajaçu) feed in droves in the bottom-lands, and are perhaps the most dangerous of the wild animals of Guatemala; their sharp tusks will cut terribly, and the little beast is too stupid to be frightened away when thoroughly angered. It is said that even the jaguar fears to attack a drove, but skulks behind, hoping to pick up a straggler. They can, however, be tamed, and I have seen them with domestic pigs about the streets of San Felipe, Pansos, and other places. The white-lipped peccary, jaguilla, or warree (Dicotyles torquatus), makes its presence known at a considerable distance by the peculiar odor emitted from a small pouch on its back. The hunter, when killing, takes care to cut this sack out at once, or it would quickly taint the entire body of this otherwise good pork. In the open forests I have often found peccary tracks, but never unaccompanied by the full, round print of the jaguar. When pursued, the peccary takes readily to the water, and swims rivers. The jaguar, or tigre, as he is always called in Central America, is not a very dangerous animal, as he fears man much more than man fears him. The tigre is especially fond of dogs, and will enter a house at night to carry off the prized morsel; sometimes when hungry he will persistently resist all efforts to drive him away from a house-yard, and one of my monteros was attacked by one when sleeping in the forest. In this case the tigre was in complete darkness, and was badly gashed by the man’s machete; but so far from being frightened, he actually pursued the montero more than a mile to the nearest house, where a gun was obtained and the wounded animal shot. I have seen skins between five and six feet long, exclusive of head and tail. The puma (Felis concolor) is more common in the mountain regions, and the “lion” that descended from the Volcan de Agua and ravaged the country about the young City of Guatemala (antigua) was of this species. The ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and coyote (Canis ochropus) are also found in the interior.

Of creeping things the warm regions of the earth are supposed to be prolific. I had been told of the terrible serpents,—the boas that hung from the trees and whipped up deer, the deadly tomagoff, and others, until I was ready to see their folds around every tree, or their coils under every bush. I was to be deprived of a swim in the rivers and lakes because of the alligators, and I must beware of scorpions and centipedes. Now, in fact, the alligators are few in number, small in size, and very deficient in courage. There are a hundred in Florida to every one in Guatemala, and I seldom got a shot at any; I was able to kill only one, and he was not over seven feet in length. A much larger one came ashore to lay her eggs near a house on the Chocon plantation, and was killed. The musky odor of the alligator is very strong during the breeding season, and the eggs (which are eaten by the Caribs) have a very strong flavor. They are small,—less than three inches long,—alike at each end, and rough; when dry, the shells contract, and finally split in spiral strips. Young alligators, not more than a foot long, are eaten, it is said, by the Indios.

The iguana I have already described. So abundant are these delicious reptiles that they are sometimes brought to Belize by the dory-load; and one may see several hundred Caribs each carrying home one or two iguanas, still alive, but with toes tied together, over the back. Of other lizards there are many kinds, from the harmless little fellows which make a squeaking in the thatch at night, to the long-tailed, crested lizards which rob the hens’ nests and even make way with the small chickens. Fresh-water turtles are abundant, and one, the hikatee, is excellent eating; so are its eggs, of the size of a pullet’s, of which some two or three dozen are found in a nest six or eight inches below the surface of the sand. The sexes are easily distinguished by the shape of the tail, the female having a shorter and thicker one. The sea-turtle (including the hawksbill, so valuable for the tortoise-shell) are very abundant, and are caught in seines by the use of floating decoys. Some of these turtle weigh one hundred and fifty pounds, and their steaks are white and tender as the best veal. I have never been on the shore at the egg-season, and so can say nothing of the taste; but I am told they are much inferior to the eggs of the iguana. It is a common thing to capture sea-turtles which have had a flapper bitten off by sharks, and usually the wound has healed well, the soft scales covering the stump completely.

Of the frogs, the most troublesome are those which get into the cisterns or behind the water-jars, and make a very loud and disagreeable noise.

On the Atlantic coast snakes are much less common than on the Pacific. Two long, slender snakes, quite harmless,—one green, the other reddish-brown,—are seen once in a while; but although the natives believe that all snakes are poisonous, only the tomagoff,—a short, thick snake of dark color,—the rattlesnake, and the coral snake are really venomous, and these are rarely seen. Stories are told of boas seen lying across a road with head and tail concealed in the trees on either side; but they lack confirmation, and perhaps may be classed with the absurd snake story told by Juarros.[59]

The supply of fish is good. The saw-fish grows to a great size, and its teeth are very long and sharp. The jew-fish is large, weighing several hundred pounds, and is good food. Snappers, mullet, bone-fish, king-fish, and a score of others of which we know only the local names, including one with solid red meat, are found in the rivers and bays. Of crustaceans, the crayfish takes the place of the lobster, and a small crab is common among the mangroves and in swampy forests; larger crabs come to the shores in breeding-time, but not in such numbers as at Belize.

Scorpions are large and dreaded; but their sting is not more painful than that of a hornet, and they are sluggish, and not abundant even in their chosen haunts. Centipedes are seen on the tree-stems, and many are drowned during the rains. This articulate is by no means quick in its motions, and falls a prey to the agile cockroach.

Spiders are abundant, both in species and individuals; and Mr. Frederick Sarg, of Guatemala, has drawn most beautifully, and carefully described, many new species. The hairy tarantula is the most dreaded; but others found on the rocks by the river-sides are perhaps larger.

The birds of Guatemala are of great beauty; and the quetzal (Macropharus mocino), the pavo (Meleagris ocellata), and the curassow, are perhaps unsurpassed in splendor of plumage. The wild turkey was supposed to be peculiar to Honduras, but has been found in Verapaz. Toucans with enormous bills and brilliant colors, parrots even more brightly colored, especially the guacamayo (Psittacus macao), and many species of humming-birds, frequent the river-banks; the palomas, or doves, and the social and noisy yellow-tails are on the trees, especially the qualm (Cecropia sp.); the white cranes and the great pelicans frequent the shoals; the johncrows (Cathartes aurea) congregate on the trees about the towns and serve as scavengers; and owls, hawks, and eagles are distinct elements of the Guatemaltecan avifauna.

Not less brilliant than the birds are the lepidoptera. The superb blue butterfly (Morpho sp.) flits among the trees with its wings spreading nine inches; with this are smaller relatives,—black, blue, carmine, and yellow; some with swallow-tails (Papilionidæ), others short and broad. Among the beetles are two of immense size,—the Hercules beetle (Dynastes Herculis) and the harlequin (Acrocinus longimanus); the former attains a size of five inches in length, and the latter infests the rubber-trees. Another beetle—one of the Elateridæ (Pyrophorus nyctophorus)—gives a most brilliant and constant light, quite as bright as the cacuyo of the West Indies. All through the highlands wasp-nests of large size and curious form are seen in the trees; ants also build mud-nests in the trees and on posts. Many chapters might be written of the habits of the Central American ants, which are perhaps the most abundant of indigenous insects,—the little “crazy ant,” which runs rapidly in all directions, seemingly without any object; the zompopos, or leaf-cutters (Œcodoma), whose trains are seen all through the forests, bearing above them the great sail-like fragments of leaf they have cut to stock their homes; the comajen (white ant), which destroys dead-wood and is intolerant of light; the fire-ant; and many others. The zompopos are very destructive in the vegetable garden, and indeed would quickly destroy a cacao, orange, or coffee plantation if allowed to establish their immense burrow in the midst. Some of the burrows are thirty feet in diameter, and can only be destroyed by persistent efforts,—fire, coal-tar, and carbolic acid being the best agents of destruction.[60] The sandflies are almost unendurable along the coast at certain seasons, and so are the mosquitoes (the genuine Culex mosquito, with striped body and black lancet) on the rivers. House-flies are not seen at Livingston; but all through the country the “botlass” is a pest. A bite by this fly leaves a persistent black spot, surrounded by an inflamed circle. Jiggers, beef-worms, and coloradias are troublesome about the towns and where there is uncleanness. The garrapatos (Ixodes bovis) are often found on horses and other animals, and when full are as large as a coffee-bean. Man does not escape this pest; but they are so large that they are easily picked off, especially if one has a monkey.

Among the mollusks the conch holds an important place both as an article of food and as an instrument of noise. Three kinds are distinguished,—the queen, king, and horse; the two last being the best for eating, while the first is much sought for cameo-cutting. A fine pink pearl is found in some of the shells. I consider a conch-soup quite equal to oyster-soup; but it is said (with some reason) to be a strong aphrodisiac. Madrepores, corals, sea-fans, and the varied inhabitants of reefs, are found in considerable variety, and are now the subject of collection and study by at least two competent observers. Jellyfish (Medusæ), Portuguese men-of-war (Physalia), and star-fish (Asterias) are abundant, and a naturalist would have a good harvest on the cayos and reefs of the Bay of Honduras.

Passiflora Brighami, Watson.

Transcriber’s Note: image is clickable for larger version

CENTRAL AMERICAN VOLCANOES.

CHAPTER XII.
EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES.

Much has been written of the effect upon the character and feelings of a people caused by constant dwelling among the more marked phenomena of Nature. It is a mistake to suppose that the eye sees all that is impressed on the retina, that the ear catches more than an insignificant share of the innumerable sounds falling ceaselessly on the tympanum, or that the mind interprets many of the marvels that each instant presents to it. Only the educated eye, the practised ear, the cultivated mind, can appreciate what the Creator has placed before it in this beautiful world whose wonders no human understanding, however taught, is capable of wholly comprehending. The worldly wisdom of the saying that “familiarity breeds contempt” is applicable to the greater portion of humanity; and dwellers among the Alps cease to see, if indeed they ever saw, what strikes the dweller on the plain with awe as he gazes for the first time at the Jungfrau. To a thinking, studying man, familiarity is the mother of awe.

In a region where the molecular forces, those mighty slaves of a Divine Will, are working out of doors, so to speak; where from the summit of a volcanic peak one can count scores of others ranged on his right hand and on his left; where he can see, if he has opened the door for such vision, the cooling globe wrinkling with age, the force of contraction liquefying in fervent heat the solid materials of the earth’s crust and pouring out into daylight the molten rock, or puffing out the dust of stones ground to powder in the gigantic mill,—his heart, his brain, his very being, will be enlarged by the reflections that come to him in such moments. Not so the Indio who lazily cultivates his milpa on the lower slopes of this same volcano. His feet never seek the summit, where no maiz can grow. He knows that the ground is very fertile where his hut is placed; he has nothing that an earthquake can destroy, and the showers of ashes, while injuring his present crop, are a pledge of increased fertility in the future; then from the streams of lava he can run, should they come in his way. When a more terrible outbreak of the great mass above him disturbs his stolidity, he attributes it to some supernatural agency, and calls upon his especial saints for the protection due their votary. Have not the Central Americans baptized their volcanoes, and have not these huge Christians since that rite been quiescent and proper members of the Church?

The people who live in the midst of this region of volcanic disturbances have not been elevated by communion with this manifestation of the agencies of Nature. Their religion is not autochthonic; their choicest traditions come from the non-volcanic lands to the eastward, and are not tinged with the lurid glow of the earth-fires. Even their hell is no fiery furnace, and the apostles of an Eastern religion introduced to their imagination that supposed element of future punishment. Where a suggestion of fire-worship appears, it is always called forth by the sun,—that source of life and warmth and growth.

And yet, here is a country where volcanoes cluster,—their number reaching several hundred,—where hot-springs are more common than the cold-springs in most countries, and where earthquakes are very frequent and destructive. The volcanoes of the Hawaiian Archipelago are larger, those of Java more destructive, and the equatorial group of South America is loftier; but here between Popocatepetl and Istaccuahuatl, the giants of the plain of Anahuac, and the Costa Rican Turrialba extends an unbroken line of mighty cones and gaping craters. Somewhere on that line, smoke is ever rising; and at night the mariner along the Pacific coast sees the beacon-fires lighted by no mortal hand.

We must not expect to find in native records any careful account, or even notice, of eruptions or earthquakes; if referred to at all, it will be much as in the quotation I have already given from the “Popul Vuh,” where Cabracan is said to be in the habit of shaking the mountains. In the three centuries and a half since Spain sent her educated sons to this land, with the exception of some three hundred earthquakes and half a hundred eruptions, we have no better record. While it is true that geology has existed as a science only within the present century, yet one would suppose that a catastrophe causing the death of hundreds of people and the destruction of much property would be entered with some minuteness in the annals of the time; but were it not for the masses and church processions to calm the trembling earth or appease the angry mountains, the worthy padres would perhaps have failed to notice these disturbances of Nature in their parochial records. Even the stories we have of the early experiences of the Spaniards in matters of vulcanology are so mingled with devils and unholy work that they are nearly incredible; and the stone volumes lying about the mountains, written by the hand of Nature, rather than the human chronicles, must be our guide.