[XXVIII-74] Laferrière, De Paris à Guatém., 211-21.
[XXVIII-75] Upon the death of an infant, all rejoice, dance, and carouse, the parents also taking part, presumably on the belief that it has joined the choir of angels in heaven. If the child is a male one, they paint whiskers and a mustache on its face to make it resemble that of Jesus, and call it a jesusito.
[XXIX-1] A large number of the priests are blacks, and they regard with ill-concealed jealousy the advance of Americans in Cent. Am. Every measure of the liberals to promote foreign immigration meets with opposition on the part of the black priests.
[XXIX-2] Lying between the Rio Roman and Cape or Segovia River, an area of some 15,000 square miles.
[XXIX-3] Their ancestors had favored the French in the squabbles with England, and in 1796 were, by order of the British government, transported en masse, to the number of about 5,000, and at heavy expense, to the then deserted island of Roatan, in the bay of Honduras. They were subsequently invited by the Spanish authorities to the mainland; and aided to found settlements near the port of Trujillo. Since then they have rapidly increased, extending themselves both to the eastward and westward of that port. Squier's Cent. Am., 232.
[XXIX-4] The black Caribs are represented as tall and stout, and more mercurial and vehement than the pure Caribs; the latter are shorter, but powerfully built.
[XXIX-5] Leaving out the dignified and courteous members of the old and wealthy families, the people show a strange mixture of politeness, simplicity, shrewdness, and effrontery, and above all, an indescribably passive indifference of countenance. Wells' Hond., 202-3.
[XXIX-6] It has been said of the Cent. Am. woman, 'she nursed, made tortillas, and died.' Id., 215.
[XXIX-7] The women of this class lead a degraded life. If the man has large means, his mistress has menials under her; if not, she is maid of all work. Bates' Cent. Am., 115.
[XXIX-8] Notwithstanding this lack of education, Cent. Am. women never fail to interest the traveller by the peculiar gentleness and dignity of their demeanor. Wells' Hond., 227-8.