Coffee and sugar are cultivated, but not in sufficient quantity to meet even the home demand. I append in a note an official account of agricultural production for 1882, though not giving it much value.[XXXII-25]
VERAGUA AND CHIRIQUÍ.
Veragua and Chiriquí have good plains for raising neat cattle, goats, pigs, horses, asses, and mules.[XXXII-26] Poultry, and a great variety of wild animals exist in abundance. The seas on the two coasts are well stocked with fish.
The Isthmus has plenty of timber of the best kinds and of enormous size, found in South Darien, and in all the mountains on both coasts, and in the islands; also cabinet and dye woods, and medicinal plants.[XXXII-27]
Of the five states of Central America, Honduras appears to be the most plentifully supplied with mineral wealth. Mount Merendon was long celebrated for its silver and gold mines. Until about thirty or forty years ago, mining was the most prominent interest in the state, but wars and political disturbances caused the abandonment of the mines, and the works fell into decay, after which there was neither enterprise, capital, nor skill to restore them. The owners of the property afterward became owners of immense grazing estates. Some mines were continued in operation, however, on a small scale, and in a rude manner.[XXXII-28] In 1860 and for some preceding years the bullion export of Honduras amounted to about $400,000 annually, most of it being gold collected by the Indians from shallow washings.
MINERALS AND METALS.
The development of the mining wealth of Honduras is engaging the attention of foreign capitalists.[XXXII-29] Several companies have been organized in the United States, France, and elsewhere to work the mines in the departments of Tegucigalpa, Santa Bárbara, Yuscaran, and Jutigalpa.[XXXII-30]
Guatemala has not been noted for mines. However, the district in the Alotepec mountains was rich toward the latter part of the eighteenth century, yielding large quantities of silver.[XXXII-31] The river sands of the department of Chiquimula are auriferous, and the Indians wash them for gold.[XXXII-32] Recently several deposits have been reported to the government, of lead, silver, gold, cinnabar, coal, kaoline, marble, etc.[XXXII-33]
Nicaragua possesses an immense wealth in minerals, which has not been developed as yet, except on a small scale, and generally, without any intelligence. Gold and silver and several useful metals are found in great abundance.[XXXII-34] There are also deposits of gypsum, marble, alabaster, lime, saltpetre, etc. Sulphur is sometimes found pure. The mining laws favor the industry by either natives or foreigners. A mint has existed in the republic for several years.[XXXII-35]
In Salvador there can be no mines of precious metals out of that portion of the state which is geologically dependent on the mountain system of Honduras. The silver mines of Tabanco, Encuentros, Sociedad, Loma Larga, Divisaderos, Capetilla, Santa Rosalía, etc., in the department of San Miguel, on the north-eastern part, and bordering on Honduras, have had a wide celebrity. Some of them were extensively worked, and with great profit. The group called Minas de Tabanco, holding the ore in combination with galena and sulphuret of zinc, are easily worked.[XXXII-36]