"We engaged saddle-horses for an excursion among the mountains, and some porters to carry our baggage; the latter started off in advance, and we were to overtake them at a village where we would pass the night. There was no trouble in getting the horses, as their owners were quite willing to hire them out; but the engagement of the porters was not so easy. The people are not fond of hard work, and you may be sure it is no joke to carry ever so small a parcel in this hot climate. The mayor arranged it for us and selected the men, and he also fixed the price for us to pay. When they were assigned to the work, each man picked up the lightest thing he could find—one an umbrella, and another a field-glass that didn't weigh a pound, while a third seized a little dressing-case belonging to Mr. Segovia. They were about to move off with these loads when the alcalde called them back, and made them distribute the baggage evenly. When it was properly arranged, they had about twenty-five pounds apiece, which was not at all too much.
AN AVENUE OF PALM-TREES.
"At first the road was through a level country, and among fields of rice, tobacco, and other things that grow on the lowlands. We saw great numbers of palm-trees, and at one place there was quite a long avenue of them which somebody had set out when they were small, and allowed them to grow. It is difficult to say how many varieties of these trees we saw in the day's journey, but there must have been a dozen at least. The most useful of them was the sugar-palm; its name indicates its character, as it is cultivated for the sugar it produces, very much as the maple is cultivated in some parts of the United States and Canada.
"Perhaps you would like to know how they make sugar from a palm-tree. Well, this is the way they do it:
"The tree is tapped by cutting a deep notch in it seven or eight feet from the top, and attaching a section of bamboo to serve as a bucket to catch the sap or juice. As fast as the bamboos fill up they must be changed, and a good tree will yield eight or ten quarts daily for about six weeks. The juice is then boiled down, just as the juice of the sugar-cane or maple-tree is boiled, and is finally granulated into a coarse brown sugar.
"The juice of another variety of the tree is used for making palm-brandy, and it is said that thirty-six quarts of the juice will make six quarts of spirit. The buds of the tree are cut before they have time to blossom, and the sap that runs from them is caught in bamboos, just as in the case of the other kind of tree. The juice is then fermented into wine, which is afterward distilled into brandy. The government used to have the monopoly of the business, and though private individuals could make all they wished, they were obliged to sell to the government at a fixed price. The contractors made large profits on the business, and you may be sure the government did not lose anything. But so much of the proceeds of the business were consumed in the expense of gathering, that the government a few years ago gave up the monopoly, and allowed the manufacturers to pay taxes on what they sold, just as the manufacturers of spirits do in other countries.
"As we went back from the lake the country became more and more hilly, and when we stopped at night we were close to the mountains. The air seemed cooler, because we had been constantly ascending, but we were surrounded with tropical trees quite as much as in the lower country. Just as we came into the village where we were to spend the night, our attention was called to a native clock, and we stopped to have a look at it.