A lighter came alongside with some cargo for the steamer, and Frank made a note of what it brought. There were hides of cattle, deer-skins, sugar in bags made of the pita plant, bales of that textile product, beeswax, and a considerable quantity of Campeachy cigars. The tobacco grown in the States of Campeachy and Tabasco is of very good quality, and the cigars are often sold for "Havanas" in foreign markets.
Frank learned that logwood is an important article of trade on this part of the coast, but it is mostly shipped on sailing-vessels, on account of the lower charge for freight. Carmen has a considerable commerce in logwood, which grows so extensively that there is no immediate danger of the exhaustion of the supply, especially as its cultivation has extended to other countries by planting the seed or transplanting the young trees.
"Logwood is used for dyeing purposes," wrote Frank, after he had informed himself concerning it, "and also in medicine. There is a belief that it is used by wine-makers in coloring claret quite as much as for dyeing cloth or leather. The tree is usually about twenty-five feet high and fifteen inches in diameter. Only the 'heart' of the trunk contains the dyeing substance, and this is the part exported, the outer sap-wood being cut off in the forest as soon as the tree is felled. The logwood-cutters have a hard life, and their business is less profitable of late years, owing to the extensive use of aniline dyes."
THE QUEZAL.
A passenger who came on board the steamer at Campeachy had as part of his baggage a cage containing a bird of remarkable plumage. It presented a variety of colors—green, golden, red, and white—and its tail feathers were so long that they seemed out of all proportion to the size of the creature's body. Frank and Fred were immediately attracted to it, and asked what it was.
"It is a quezal, or quetzal," was the reply, "which was at one time the sacred and imperial bird of Mexico. The one you see here is not a fine specimen. Sometimes you find these birds with the tail feathers four feet long; and in ancient times none but the emperors were permitted to wear them. Perhaps you saw the feather cloak of Montezuma in the museum at the capital? Well, the feathers that adorn that cloak came from the quezal, and the bird is so rare that it takes a long time to gather feathers enough to make a single garment.