Positions were assigned them in the vicinity of Truxillo, whence they have spread rapidly to the eastward. All along the coast, generally near the mouths of the various rivers with which it is fringed, they have their establishments or towns. These are never large, but always neat, and well supplied with provisions, especially vegetables, which are cultivated with great care, and of the highest perfection. They grow rice, cassava, sugar-cane, a little cotton, plantains, squashes, oranges, mangoes, and every variety of indigenous fruits, besides an abundance of hogs, ducks, turkeys, and fowls, of all of which they export considerable quantities to Truxillo, and even to Belize, a distance of several hundred miles.
The physical differences which existed among them at San Vincent are still marked. Most are pure Indians, not large, but muscular, with a ruddy skin, and long, straight hair. These were called the Red or Yellow Caribs. Another portion are very dark, with curly hair, and betraying unmistakably a large infusion of negro blood, and are called the Black Caribs. They are taller than the Red Caribs, and well-proportioned. They contrast with the latter, also, in respect of character, being more vehement and mercurial. The pure Caribs are constant, industrious, quiet, and orderly. They all profess the Catholic religion, although observing very few of its rites, except during their visits to the Spanish towns, where all their children are scrupulously taken to be baptized.
I was agreeably astonished when I awoke on the morning after our arrival at Brus, to find a cup of coffee, well served in a china cup, awaiting my attentions. And when I got up, I was still further surprised to observe a table spread with a snow-white cloth, in the principal apartment of the house, where my host welcomed me, with a genuine “good morning.” I expressed my surprise at his acquaintance with the English, which seemed to flatter him, and he ran through the same salutation in Spanish, Creole-French, Carib, and Mosquito. Whereupon I told him he was a “perambulating polyglot,” which he didn’t understand, although he affected to laugh at the remark.
I had now an opportunity to make my observations on the village of Brus and its people. The town is situated on a narrow, sandy tongue of land, lying between the sea and the lagoon. This strip of land supports a magnificent forest of cocoa-palms, relieved only by a few trees of gigantic size and dense foliage, which, I suppose, must be akin to the banyan-tree of India, inasmuch as they send down numerous stems or trunks, which take root in the ground, and support the widely-spreading branches. The establishment of my host, including his house and the huts of his various wives, were all built beneath a single tree, which had thirty-five distinct trunks, besides the central or parent stem. A belt of miscellaneous trees is also left seaward, to break the force of the north wind, which would otherwise be sure to destroy the palms. But the underbrush had all been carefully removed, so that both the sea and the lagoon were visible from all parts of the village. The design of their removal was the excellent one of affording a free circulation of air; a piece of sanitary wisdom which was supported by the additional precaution of building the huts open only to the sea-breeze, and closed against the miasmatic winds which blow occasionally from the land side.
Nothing could be more beautiful than the palm-grove, with its graceful natural columns and evergreen arches, beneath which rose the picturesque huts of the village. These were all well-built, walled, floored, and partitioned, with cabbage-palm boards, and roofed with the branches of the same tree. Episodically, I may repeat what has probably often been observed before, that the palm, in its varieties, is a marvel of economic usefulness to dwellers under the tropics. Not only does it present him with forms of enchanting beauty, but it affords him food, drink, and shelter. One variety yields him excellent substitutes for bread and yeast; another sugar and wine; a third oil and vinegar; a fourth milk and wax; a fifth resin and fruit; a sixth medicines and utensils; a seventh weapons, cordage, hats, and clothing; and an eighth habitations and furniture!
The plantations of the village, except a few clusters of banana-trees and sugar-canes, on the edge of the lagoon, were situated on the islands of the latter, or on its southern shore. Those on the islands were most luxuriant, for the principal reason that they are fully protected from the wild beasts, which occasionally commit extensive depredations on the maize, rice, and cassava fields. One of the islands nearest the village, on which my hostesses had their plantations, I visited frequently during my stay. It was a delicious spot, covered with a most luxuriant growth of fruits and vegetables. I could well understand why it had been selected by the English for their settlement, when they sought to establish themselves on the coast, during the great war with Spain. A partially-obliterated trench and breast-work, a few iron guns half-buried in the soil, at the most elevated portion of the island, and one or two large iron cauldrons, probably designed to be used in sugar-works, were now the only traces of their ancient establishments.
The lagoon abounds in fish and water-fowl, and there are some savannahs, at a considerable distance up the Patuca, and on other streams flowing into the lagoon, which are thronged with deer. But it would seem that these are only occasionally hunted by the Caribs, and then chiefly for their skins, of which large numbers are exported.
As I have said, we arrived in Brus during the annual carnival, which follows on the return of those members of the community who have been absent in the mahogany-works. It is in these works that the able-bodied Caribs find their principal employment. They hire for from ten to twelve dollars per month, and rations, receiving one half of their pay in goods, and the other half in money. As a consequence, they have among them a great variety of articles of European manufacture, selected with a most fantastic taste. A Carib dandy delights in a closely-fitting pantaloons, supported by a scarlet sash, a jaunty hat, encircled by a broad band of gold lace, a profuse neck-cloth, and a sword, or purple umbrella. It is in some such garb that he returns from the mahogany-works, to delight the eyes and affect the sensibilities of the Carib girls; nor does he fail to stuff his pockets with gay beads, and ear-rings and bracelets of hoop-like dimensions, richly gilt and glowing with colored glass, wherewith to follow up any favorable impression which may be produced by his own resplendent person. He then affects to have forgotten his Carib tongue, and finds himself constantly running into more familiar English, after the immemorial practice of great and finished travelers. He scorns the native chicha for the first day, but overcomes his prejudice, and gets glorious upon it the next. In fact, he enacts an unconscious satire upon the follies of a class, whose vanity would never enable them to discover the remotest possible parallelism between themselves and the Caribs of Honduras!
During the day several large boats arrived at Brus from Limas and Roman, both of which are mahogany stations. They all carried the Honduras flag at the topmast, and bore down on the shore with their utmost speed, only striking their sails when on the edge of the breakers, when the occupants would all leap overboard, and thus float their boats to the shore. Here, under the shade of the trees, all the inhabitants of the village were gathered. They shouted and beat drums, and fired muskets, by way of welcome to their friends, who responded with the whole power of their lungs. Here, too, expectant wives, affectionate sisters, and anxious mothers, spread out tables, loaded with food, fruits, bottles of rum, and jars of chicha, wherewith to regale husband, brother, or son, on the instant of his arrival. It was amusing to witness the rivalry of the various wives of the same anxiously-expected husband, in their efforts to outvie each other in the arrangement of their respective tables, and the variety of eatables and drinkables which they supported. They were all particularly ambitious in their display of glass-ware, and some of them had a profusion of gay, and, in some instances, costly decanters and tumblers. One yellow dame, with her shoulders loaded with beads and but half-concealed by a silken scarf of brightest crimson, was complacent and happy in the exclusive possession of a plated wine-server, which supported three delicately-cut bottles of as many different colors, and filled with an equal variety of liquors.
Every body drank with every body on the occasion of every body’s arrival, a process which, it may be suspected, might, by frequent repetition, come to develop a large liberality of feeling. At noon, it exhibited itself in a profuse and energetic shaking of hands, and toward night in embraces more prolonged and unctious than pleasant or endurable to one receiving his initiation in the practice. So I was fain to retire early from the shore, although enjoying highly the excitement, in which I could not fail to have that kind of sympathy which every manifestation of genuine feeling is sure to inspire. Even Antonio, whose impassible brow had latterly become anxious and thoughtful, partook of the general exhilaration, and wore a smiling face.