gruesome work to the church) weeping at the sight. In a church at
Esquipulas is a picture of the people lassoing Christ, and in another is
a picture of a priest offering a consecrated wafer to a kneeling ass.

Huge figures, which are really dolls, represent the Virgin and other
Marys. _Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe_, Our Lady of Guadalupe, is
generally represented as a large doll, all lace and tinsel, and is
carried through the streets accompanied by music, flowers and fireworks.
On December 8th is celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception. On
this occasion religious processions are held which march over the
principal streets and women dress up as devils and animals and dance
before the image of the Virgin in many places. Many rockets are fired
and candles are burned in almost every window. Holy week is also filled
with processions in which images of the Virgin, Christ and the saints
are carried through the streets. The day is a public holiday and candles
are burned in almost every window. The most famous shrine is that at
Esquipulas, called Our Lord of Esquipulas, and where the statue (if such
it can be called) generally known as the Black Christ, is found. This
was made in Guatemala City in 1594. The image is less than life size and
has long female hair. Formerly as many as fifty thousand pilgrims came
there in a year even from far away Mexico and Panama. Money then flowed
into this shrine in great abundance, but it is now rather neglected.

It is little wonder that the men of the Creole class very seldom attend
the services. Bringing down the Christian worship to such a low level
cannot do otherwise than alienate one who thinks for himself. The
majority of the men simply stand by without interfering with the
services, but at heart they are atheistic and it is little wonder.

Several Catholic writers have been the most severe critics of the
religious conditions in many parts of Spanish-America. The cause, in my
opinion, has been the mixture of the religious with the political, in
which the corruption of the latter lowered the high plane on which
religion should stand. Those of the clergy who were ambitious for power
cloaked their movements under the guise of religion and thus brought the
odium of their political movements upon the Church, which, as an
organization, had nothing to do with it. It is impossible, however, to
absolutely separate the two in treating of the conditions which have
existed in times past and which still exist in some places.

The Roman Church, as a body that has done great good in times past, and
is doing great work in other countries such as the United States, owes
it as a duty to itself to reform the Church in Mexico, Central and South
America, and lift it to the high standard it has reached elsewhere. The
priesthood should be improved and the immoral and unworthy members
removed from that office. The fees for the services of the Church should
be reduced so that the poor Indians can have the offices of the Church
for marriages, burials, confirmations, etc. The Church could also assist
greatly in advancing the work of educating the native. I believe that
conditions are improving to a great extent and I know that there are
scores of hard-working and conscientious priests of the Catholic Church
in Guatemala who are honestly endeavouring to inculcate the truths of
religion among the natives, and the results are seen in the communities
in which they work. To them all praise and honour is due.

Protestantism has scarcely made an impression in Guatemala as yet. The
Presbyterian Church maintains missionaries in Guatemala City and
Quezaltenango who preach there and occasionally in outlying towns. The
Wesleyan Methodist ministers living at Belize hold services at Puerto
Barrios at infrequent intervals, and one or two other missionaries are
stationed at other points in the republic. The priests are generally
hostile, naturally, and very little has been accomplished.

I quote from the Presbyterian missionary stationed at Quezaltenango in a
report made to the home board in 1906:

“Just a week ago while passing along the street in San Marcos in company
with the missionary of that Station we had about eight or nine stones
thrown at us, but fortunately none of them struck us. Later many of the
better people of the town on hearing of it came to us repudiating such
conduct toward the Christians. The church here in Quezaltenango has
grown but little in numbers during the past year and there have been
many failings among the believers. There is noticeable growth among some
that is encouraging enough to cheer the missionary in spite of the
falling away of others. The work at Retalhuleu has been given up
indefinitely as the Mission force here has not been sufficient to
provide a worker there, and until there are more missionaries on the
field it would be unwise to attempt to reopen it or start any new work
whatever.”

Also from a report by another missionary located at the capital:

“There is a wide open door for us among the poor people, where there
will be no conflict with local physicians and where there will be no
intrusion upon the territory of another. Children and poor people
literally die here by the hundred without any proper medical care. The
story in this line is simply pathetic, heartrending. My wife has, with
her very limited knowledge, saved the lives of many, and if she had the
strength could have done much for many more people, but she has had to
give up this work, almost entirely.”

There is a broad field, I believe, for missionary work, and the medical
missionary will accomplish the best results just as is the case in
oriental lands. Good physicians are few and the poor people cannot
afford to pay them for their services. A lack of hygiene is prevalent
everywhere and the people are ignorant of ordinary sanitary measures
which would lessen sickness and suffering in a great degree. A moral
awakening is badly needed also and the field is ripe for such a movement
either from within the Catholic church or through the evangelizing
efforts of Protestant bodies. Institutional churches would, in my
opinion, best meet the situation so that the social as well as spiritual
side of the people could be brought up to a higher plane. The field is
there and it only awaits the workers.

In Guatemala City there is a good opening for a Young Men’s Christian
Association. It could accomplish a great work both among the foreigners
residing there and the native residents. It could, because of its
undenominational character, be made a centre not only for religious work
but for the social and intellectual life of the capital in a way that no
other institution could fill. I met many Americans in business there who
expressed the need of such an institution for the expatriated citizens
of foreign countries.

                               CHAPTER X

              PRESENT CONDITIONS AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIES

THE foreigner in Guatemala is absolutely safe, and travelling in that
country is as free from danger as in our own land. Sensational rumours
sometimes appear in American newspapers about the imprisonment of
American subjects, but, if the reports are true, the persons arrested no
doubt deserve punishment, for meddlers and persons seeking to escape
punishment for wrong-doing in other lands frequently seek an asylum in
the Central American republics. Were they innocent our own officials
would be called upon to right the injustice, and this government has not
deemed it necessary to interfere. The country is practically free from
robbers and it is absolutely unnecessary for the traveller to make of
himself a walking arsenal before visiting Guatemala. The natives are
harmless and trustworthy. One can entrust thousands of dollars with a
cargador to be carried across the country, and, if he is informed that
he will be held responsible for his charge, the native will accomplish
his mission or die in the attempt. This trait of fealty to trust is a
striking characteristic of the native character.

The cause of education has been promoted very much in recent years and
schools have been established in many of the villages. The “Festival of
Minerva” was instituted as an annual commemoration in the interest of
education. It was thought that a popular celebration would draw the
attention of the people to the value of education and would stimulate
the desire for greater learning. To a certain extent it has succeeded,
and there is no doubt that a larger percentage of people can read and
write to-day than was the case a decade ago. At least limited facilities
for primary education exist in most of the villages, but the schools are
entirely inadequate to accommodate those of school age. Education is
compulsory in theory, but practically voluntary in practice, because of
the non-enforcement of the laws. The appropriations are wholly
inadequate for efficient results.

There are six papers published in the capital. “The Diario Official” is
a government organ. Then the other more important publications are the
“Diario de Centro-America,” “La Republica” and “La Nacion.” In all there
are about thirty papers published in the entire republic. All of these
newspapers are subject to strict government supervision and censure. Any
mention whatever of a revolutionary movement would bring severe
punishment upon the head of the offending editor. It is even forbidden
to give an account of murders and assaults that take place. It is easy
to see that an editor’s position is not an easy one, for his range of
news is limited and an overslip might lead to confiscation and
imprisonment.

The fluctuating value of the currency of the country is an unfortunate
condition. There is absolutely no silver or gold money in circulation. A
customs examination of my baggage upon leaving the country caused me to
inquire the purpose of it. The reply was that the law forbids the taking
of silver out of the country. As I had not seen a silver coin in
circulation this explanation made the examination seem like a jest.
Paper certificates issued by the banks, together with minor coins of
alloy, constitute the sole currency. The value of these dollars
fluctuates from six to eight cents on a gold basis. This is rather to
the advantage of the investor, however, as he pays for all native
supplies and labour in the depreciated currency of the country and sells
all his productions at gold values. The wages of unskilled labourers are
very low, averaging from one to two and a half dollars in paper per day,
or from eight to twenty-five cents per day. The best results are
obtained by assigning a task to the peon. He will perform the allotted
task, but extra pay is no inducement for him to work overtime. The only
consideration that will move him to do extra work is the promise that
the overtime will be credited on another day in order to give him an
extra holiday.

The foreign trade of Guatemala slowly increases each year. The last year
for which statistics are available, 1907, show total exports amounting
to $10,174,486 and imports of $7,316,574. Of the exports, the bulk of
which is coffee, Germany is the largest consumer, taking 53.79 per cent.
of the total, while the United States uses only 21.6 per cent. In the
matter of imports the proportion is different and the United States has
a fair proportion of the trade. Of the total imports the United States
furnished 58.1 per cent., and its nearest competitor is England with
about 22 per cent. to her credit. Spain, the mother country, brings up
the rear with less than two per cent. of the whole. The value of the
goods imported from the United States for 1905 was only $1,442,000, and
those sent in return $2,292,000, showing a considerable balance of trade
in favour of Guatemala. The chief imports from the United States consist
of foodstuffs, hardware, railroad supplies and cotton goods. Germany has
the lead in machinery, and England provides by far the most of the
cotton manufactures, furnishing at least three-fourths of the entire
imports of that line of goods.

Guatemala, because of its nearness to our seaports, ought to be an
unusually good market for the United States. With the opening of the new
railroad to the Gulf, the Capital, which is the chief distributing
point, is placed within such easy communication of our southern ports,
such as Galveston, New Orleans and Mobile, that Europe can not
successfully compete if all other conditions are made satisfactory.
American concerns ought to furnish practically all the manufactured
articles needed by Guatemala, and can do so if the business is properly
looked after. Upon this subject a recent consular report says: “If this
field is properly worked and sufficiently long credit is given,
practically nothing but American goods need be found in the markets of
Guatemala, for they are generally conceded to be the best. The market is
worth cultivating, for the next few years will see great development
here. Everything points that way, and the national resources are great.
Packages should be very firmly nailed and bound by band iron, so that
they would be difficult to open, as there is much complaint about goods
being stolen from boxes in transit. It will pay exporters to pack well
everything they ship. Dollars spent in this line will bring hundreds in
profits.”

Another report says: “It must be borne in mind that the importers of
this republic are for the greater part Germans, and their interest and
inclination lead them to trade with the fatherland. England also is
preferred over the United States, possibly because Guatemala merchants
can more easily identify themselves in England, and get better credits.
American goods therefore are imported only when their quality places
them so far ahead of the European article that the merchant is almost
compelled to have them in stock. The American manufacturers should
become better acquainted with this trade, ascertain who are worthy of
credit, and extend it. The long voyage and delay _en route_ compel the
importers to ask long credits. It is sometimes two or three months after
shipments destined for this city leave the manufacturer, before they can
be displayed in the store of the importer. The custom duty on about all
cotton goods is collected on gross weight of the package. Great care
should be taken with invoices for custom-house purposes; the goods must
be described in exact phraseology of Guatemala custom tariff.”

A credit of nine months is generally asked, and this is readily granted
by European merchants, but Americans usually demur at this long credit
and trade is lost. Furthermore, American salesmen seldom understand the
Latin nature or even the language, and endeavour to hurry sales. They
want to get away by the next train or steamer, while a European drummer
will cultivate his trade leisurely. In the end the sales are large
enough to justify his methods and very little is lost by failures if
reasonable precaution is exercised.

The conquest of what have heretofore been regarded as the unhealthful
and disagreeable features of the lowlands of the tropics is now at hand.
Those localities where yellow fever has prevailed and that troublesome
mosquito, the _stegomya fasciata_, has heretofore held sway, will soon
come into their own. The transformation that has taken place at Panama,
Colon and Havana will be repeated along the whole Caribbean Shore and
great and prosperous ports will take the place of the little towns which
are now found. When modern methods of drainage and sanitation, sewerage,
and water supply have been installed, those coasts will be the site of
prosperous cities almost as desirable as those more distant from the
equator.

The possibilities of life in the tropics are so favourable that an
almost unlimited population can be supported. The island of Java, with
an area scarcely as large as Guatemala, supports a population of twenty
millions of people. Bangkok, the capital of Siam, located at sea level,
about the same distance from the equator as Guatemala, is a city of
wealth and good sanitary conditions and has a population of about four
hundred thousand. These comparisons might be made in great numbers, all
tending to show what capabilities of development now lie inert right at
our very doors.

The Spanish-Americans have a great many good qualities which we have
heretofore failed to appreciate. Americans are too much inclined to
thoughtlessly criticize everything and everybody that is not as we would
have it. The world would be a prosaic world indeed if all nations were
alike, just as it would be if all individuals were cast in the same
mould. Environment and heredity have given them different
characteristics which will always prevail. We should look upon our Latin
neighbours with more sympathy and aid them wherever possible, for
Americans themselves, though an especially favoured people, are not
perfect. The Spanish-Americans have an innate courtesy which is sadly
deficient in our own land, and they admire Americans, but they resent
that superior, not-as-good-as-I attitude adopted by so many of our
people.

We assume to exercise a guardianship over the Latin-American republics.
Whether the Monroe Doctrine is a good thing for those countries or not
depends upon ourselves. It can be made a good measure or it may become a
curse. European domination would be better than political chaos, and the
Latin-Americans resent the Monroe Doctrine. It is advisable for us to
study our wards. It behooves all classes, professional and business, to
realize the importance of Latin America, which comprises three-fourths
of the two Americas, and study her economic and political needs. In that
way any barrier that may still exist will be broken down. Seventy
millions of people are found among those nations and such an aggregation
of people are worthy our interest and friendship.

“_Mañana_” and “_no es costumbre_” are expressions that explain two of
the elements in the Spanish-American character which account for his
non-progressiveness. The first is the “to-morrow” spirit—the desire to
put everything off until the future. It is almost impossible to get him
to do anything promptly, but it is delayed from day to day in the
blandest way imaginable. It can well be called the land of “to-morrow”
and “wait-a-while.” The other expression means “it is not the custom”
and illustrates the adherence to usage which is so prevalent. If you
attempt to do anything in a different way, and even a better way, he is
not interested because it has not been the custom to do it that way with
his forefathers. He meets your argument with the terse expression “_no
es costumbre_” and the matter is dismissed. It is for this reason that a
crooked stick with an iron point is still used in plowing, for that has
been the unchanging method since “the memory of man runneth not to the
contrary,” as Blackstone, the great law giver, would say. This habit
makes the Guatemalan slow to adopt new devices, even though they might
be a convenience and labour-saving. He is satisfied until his neighbours
adopt it, and then his pride is aroused and he will begin to use the
articles or adopt the new methods himself.

Guatemala will never be a manufacturing country unless coal is found in
greater abundance than has yet been done. Even the fuel used in
locomotives is imported, and it becomes very expensive because of long
and difficult transportation. Some waterfalls exist which might be
utilized to develop electric power. This would be a profitable
undertaking at this time as some small factories for domestic needs
always exist, and electric energy for light and electric street railway
system is needed. The only factories that are now found are for the
manufacture of coarse textiles, hats, pottery, foundry products and the
necessary railway repairs. Pottery ware in the average home is used for
flour barrels, cisterns, stoves, baths, stew-pans, coffee-pots, dishes,
lamps, floors, etc. The looms in use are of the very crudest pattern,
being simply two harnesses worked by the foot of the weaver, and the
bobbins are wound on bamboo sticks which are shoved in and out through
the web.

The mineral riches have been practically unexploited. The mining
archives of the old colonial government show that during the three
centuries of Spanish occupancy more than thirteen hundred mines of gold,
silver, lead, copper, tin and iron were successfully worked and were a
source of great revenue to both church and state, and that enormous
quantities of gold and silver were taken from those mines. From one
group of mines the records prove that nearly fifty millions of dollars
in silver were coined besides large amounts that were shipped to Europe
in bullion. From 1627 to 1820 more than thirteen hundred mines of
valuable metals were discovered and worked under the Spanish domination,
for that government kept an elaborate and accurate record of the mines
of the precious metals. On the banks of the Montagua River a few gold
mines are being worked. Judging from the few American miners I met, not
all of them, at least, are getting rich out of the precious metal.
Guatemala is not as highly a mineralized section as Mexico. Little
scientific prospecting or exploiting has been done as yet. In Honduras
several valuable gold mines are being worked, and Guatemala, sandwiched
in between that country and Mexico, must contain some gold. Silver mines
are being worked profitably in some parts of the country, and very rich
veins of argentiferous lead have been located. Lead, tin, copper,
antimony, marble of superior quality, sulphur, asbestos and alabaster
have been discovered, and coal in small veins. Mining experts have
reported extensive veins of all those metals, but little has been done
since the establishment of the republic in working them. These mines
will offer great inducements as soon as the transportation facilities
are improved and new cyanide mills constructed for the thorough and
economical working of the raw ores. The very isolation of the mines and
difficulty of establishing communication have heretofore prevented the
working of the veins already known. The small quantity of coal is a
serious detriment to the development of manufactures, for fuel becomes
an expensive item in manufacture. There are a number of waterfalls,
however, which might easily be used for the generation of electric power
for manufactures and railroads. This field remains entirely undeveloped
at the present time, but it is certainly worth investigation.

[Illustration: DUGOUT CANOE ON THE MONTAGUA RIVER.]

Railroads are now needed more than anything else. Only four hundred
miles of railroad in a state nearly as large as Illinois illustrates the
difficulty of communication. For instance, the distance from Guatemala
City to Totonicapan, a city of twenty-five thousand people, is only one
hundred miles, yet it requires almost as long to travel this distance as
it does to go from New York to San Francisco on one of our express
trains. A mule path is the only road, and the average traveller will not
make it in less than four days. Five hundred or a thousand miles of new
railway lines would do far more to develop the country than anything
else, for the telegraph and telephone would follow the iron rails. At
present there are about three thousand miles of telegraph and a few
hundred miles of telephone wires that spread over the country. These
improvements would also go far toward establishing peaceful conditions,
for they would enable the central government to learn promptly of any
disaffection, and hurry troops there before the movement could become at
all formidable.

Guatemala is a land of possibilities. Everything that can be raised in
the temperate and tropical zones will grow here. If irrigation is
provided in the _tierra templada_ there need be no unproductive season
for the warm air and bright sun will propagate the seeds that are sown
at any time of the year. Two crops of wheat and three crops of corn will
reward the industry of the planter. Fertilizers are unnecessary, for the
heavy rains of the rainy season wash down the rich soils from the sides
of the mountains and fertilize the plains. The great secret is therefore
for the agriculturist to adapt his cultivation to the nature of the
climate and soil and his success is assured. Greater success will be
realized on plantations where a colony of peon labourers is maintained,
however, because otherwise it is difficult to secure labour when needed,
and the farmer can not expect to do as much with his own hands as in a
cooler climate. Continued peace, stability of government, construction
of more railways and the investment of foreign capital are the four
essential needs for the growth and prosperity of Guatemala. No one can
travel through that republic, or the neighbouring one of Honduras, and
note their nearness to the great markets of the world, variety of
climate, wealth of natural resources and vast areas suited to profitable
agriculture and not be deeply impressed.

Stability of government will come, I believe, very soon. The
Spanish-American character is developing. The prosperity of Mexico and
railway connections with that country will have a far greater influence
in bringing about that result than any one other condition. The peace
conference held at Washington in 1907, composed of prominent
representatives of all the Central American republics, was a notable
event, and will have a far-reaching effect in bringing about permanent
peace among those turbulent states. The meetings were characterized by
an earnestness of desire and seriousness of intention that were pleasing
to one interested in the welfare of those countries. Already many
millions of foreign capital, including about eight millions of American
gold, are invested in Guatemala, and the aggregate is increasing each
year. Tourists and commercial salesmen are going there in greater
numbers, and each one comes back enthusiastic over the possibilities of
development of that country.

Guatemala is the most important of the Central American republics and is
the nearest to the United States in geographical situation. It is a
short journey for the traveller in search of new and novel sights, and
should not be overlooked by the merchant or manufacturer on the lookout
for new fields of conquest. The near-west is just as good a field as the
far-east and the exertion is less. The land is yet virgin, for the wants
of the people have not been developed. The leaven is working, however,
and the transition period is near at hand. It began in Mexico and is
slowly working its way downward toward Panama. Its progress can be
hastened by judicious and studied effort. It is not a thankless or
profitless task, for the returns will compensate for the effort
expended.

                               CHAPTER XI

                            BRITISH HONDURAS

IT was with romantic feelings that I sailed along the coast of British
Honduras, past the numerous little coral reefs, called cays, and into
the beautiful harbour of Belize. For many years these shores were the
rendezvous of organized bands of pirates, who practically ruled the
Caribbean seas during a good part of the seventeenth century. Each
wooded island and cay has its legend of buried treasure, but no one has
ever been able to locate a single “caché,” although expeditions in
search of this fabled treasure-trove are still organized and as often
fail. Each new leader feels that he has discovered the true key to this
hidden wealth, and comes to these shores armed with “magnetic needles”
or “divining rods,” which will be sure to point out the exact location
of the buried gold.

The pirates who sailed the Caribbean waters were of many nationalities,
Dutch, French, Spanish and British. An old Scotch buccaneer, named Peter
Wallace, with eighty companions, was the first to enter the port of
Belize, which name was originally given to the whole settlement. These
men immediately erected houses at that place enclosed by rude palisades
for defence. From here they set out on their expeditions after stray
merchantmen. It was not long, however, before the shrewd Scotchman
discovered that there was more and surer money in marketing the native
woods than in the uncertain and dangerous occupation of robbing ships.
Logwood at that time was in such demand for the manufacture of dyes that
it sometimes brought as much as one hundred dollars a ton, and is now
worth not one-tenth of that price because of the cheaper chemical dyes.
So prosperous had this colony become by 1733 that Yucatan sent troops
and attempted to drive away the colonists by force.

[Illustration: A POLICEMAN OF BELIZE.]

England had at one time laid claim to the “mosquito coast,” which is now
a part of the Republics of Honduras and Nicaragua, and which was at that
time nothing but a howling wilderness occupied by a hybrid race of
negroes and Indians, called “Zambos,” who were ruled by a hereditary
king. When difficulties arose with Spain England waived all her rights
to that shore in return for the sovereignty of Belize, which since that
time has been known as British Honduras. Spain afterwards repented of
her bargain and sent a formidable (?) fleet in 1798 to capture the place
which was ignominiously defeated in the “Battle of St. George’s Caye,”
which is much celebrated locally. The United States and Great Britain
entered into the treaty known as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850,
which provided that neither country should occupy, fortify, colonize, or
exercise dominion over any portion of Central American territory, except
Belize, or make use of a protectorate in any form.

British Honduras forms a slice of land off the northeast coast of
Guatemala and lying between that country and Yucatan. Its greatest
length is one hundred and seventy-four miles and its greatest width
sixty-eight miles, and, with the adjacent cays, contains an area of
about seven thousand five hundred and sixty-two square miles. On the
coast it is swampy and covered with dense tropical vegetation, but the
interior is composed of ridges which reach the dignity of good-sized
hills. There are a number of little villages along the coast from which
bananas and other tropical fruits are shipped, and in the interior are
the settlements of the logwood and mahogany workers, but none of the
places pass beyond the dignity of villages. The total population is in
the neighbourhood of twenty-five thousand, of which negroes predominate,
and the whites are only a small percentage.

Belize, the principal town, and capital, is the largest and most
important town on the Caribbean coast of Central America. As our steamer
wended its way through the cays and low green islands, the long line of
white buildings setting amidst rows of royal palms, with here and there
a clump of cocoanut trees, made a picturesque and beautiful sight. As we
came to anchor a mile from shore a number of fleet sail-boats manned by
coal-black negroes came out to meet us and take the passengers ashore. I
afterwards learned that this place is the negro’s paradise, for they
have absolute social and political equality. They are the soldiers and
policemen, and fill nearly all the other important positions except
governmental. These places at least are reserved for the members of the
small white colony.

[Illustration: ENGLISH HOMES AT BELIZE.]

It has been said that the Englishman always carries his atmosphere with
him no matter in what latitude it might be. I have visited several
British colonies and have always found that true, and nowhere is it more
impressed on you than here at Belize. It is such a contrast from the
Spanish-American towns that the change is almost startling. Although
there are perhaps not more than two or three hundred Englishmen there,
you will see all the characteristic of that race in their native land.
There are of course always a few concessions made in order to conform to
local conditions but, as a rule, they are not many in number.

As one writer says of his visit: “We were not at all surprised to find
that the black native police wore the familiar blue-and-white striped
cuff of the London bobby, the district attorney a mortar-board cap and
gown, and the colonial bishop gaiters and an apron. It was quite in
keeping, also, that the advertisements on the boardings should announce,
and give equal prominence to, a Sunday-school treat and boxing match,
and that officers of a man-of-war should be playing cricket with a local
eleven under a tropical sun, and that the chairs in the Council room and
Government House should be of heavy leather stamped V. R. with a crown
above the initials. An American official in as hot a climate, being more
adaptable, would have had bamboo chairs with large, open-work backs, or
would have supplied the council with rocking-chairs.”

The Governor’s House is a large building set in a little grove of royal
and cocoanut palms and with a fine view of the blue waters of the bay.
The background of blue sea is filled with the dories of the Caribs,
which are merely huge logs hollowed out and rigged sloop-fashion with
white sails, or sails that had once been white. Several cannon are set
up in the yard and a number of dusky-hued natives in the uniform of a
British soldier pace back and forth in the hot sun—this giving a
semblance of the power of the British lion.

The city of Belize contains a population of about eight thousand souls,
and a very cosmopolitan population it is with its negroes, British,
Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans, etc., etc. The city itself is generally
clean and tidy, but not so picturesque as the Spanish towns. The Belize
River divides the town, and over it there is one bridge. Across this
bridge passes in review the entire life of the town like the famous
Rialto bridge at Venice. The houses are generally three stories in
height and painted white. Cistern water is used exclusively for domestic
purposes, and immense cisterns twenty to thirty-five feet high and
greater in circumference are a common sight. The water is rendered
delightfully cool by porous earthen jars which are placed in a draught
of air, and the water is thus cooled by the rapid evaporation of this
climate. Around the houses are flowers in endless variety, of which the
most conspicuous are the oleander trees which frequently reach a height
of twelve feet, and whose beautiful white blossoms contrast so strongly
with the dark-green foliage of other trees such as the mango.

The market is a most interesting place for an American. The stalls are
generally presided over by negro women or Carib men who have brought
their produce in a dory. Every kind of tropical fruit can be purchased
at a low price, from the delicious mango to a peculiar fruit that very
much resembles ice cream in appearance, though not in temperature. Many
of these tropical fruits are delicious and would be popular in our
northern markets, but they are too delicate for transportation, so that
it is very doubtful whether they will ever be found for sale so far from
their natural habitat. In the flower department one can find many kinds
of beautiful blossoms, and at prices so cheap that it is almost a sin
not to buy them. The traveller will find many flowers with which he is
familiar mingled with new varieties whose appearance is no less
beautiful because of their strangeness. He will find times and seasons
much confused in the assortment of carnations, marigolds, sweet peas,
poppies, gladioles, dahlias, roses, fuchsias, lilies and mignonettes
which meet his astonished gaze. Then there are many beautiful orchids
over which many people fairly rave. Pigs of the razor back variety and
with a porcupine-like coat of hair are for sale, being held by the owner
with a string attached to a hind leg. Here every one comes for their
table supplies of vegetables and fruits, and at times it is a very
animated place.

[Illustration: A STREET IN BELIZE.]

Belize is a delightful place to be during the months from December to
March. While people in Northern latitudes are bundling themselves up as
a protection against the chilly blasts of old Boreas, the populace of
Belize are enjoying pleasant summer weather and wearing their
warm-weather clothes. At night the trade winds which nearly always blow
across this bay lower the temperature so that refreshing sleep can be
obtained. It is healthful and there is no more fever than at our own
Gulf ports, and yellow fever very seldom gets any foothold whatever,
even though the town is only a few feet above the level of the sea. The
most disagreeable occasions are when the “Northers” sweep across the
Gulf with indescribable velocity and lash the waves with great fury.
Then the inhabitant on shore may congratulate himself that he is not at
the mercy of old father Neptune.

British Honduras has few modern improvements. There is not a railway in
the land, and even the cart roads are only passably good. It contains
within its borders possibilities of development that are hardly
believable to one who has not seen these incredibly rich tropical lands.
Although considered small, it is several times as large as our smallest
states, and its agricultural possibilities far exceed those
commonwealths. Its nearness to markets makes it especially attractive,
and its stable government renders investments absolutely safe. At
present its chief distinction is its logwood industry, of which Belize
is in the lead, and the mahogany which is floated here in rafts from its
own borders and the neighbouring forests of Guatemala and the State of
Campeche, Mexico.

The Belize River with its tributary streams leads back into the great
tropical forests of Peten where mahogany is abundant. Much of the
mahogany lands are in the hands of large owners or companies who have
the business thoroughly organized, although large tracts still belong to
public lands, where concessions can be secured for cutting the valuable
export woods. The timber is roughly squared and then floated down the
streams during the rainy season, and most of it finds its way to Belize,
where it is put in shape for the market. The mahogany grows rapidly, and
it is said that in thirty years a tree will grow from a shoot and
furnish logs of large size. This city is also a great market for the
chicle gum, which is obtained in the neighbouring forests and shipped to
the United States to be used in the manufacture of chewing gum, for
which more money is spent by the great family of Uncle Sam than is sent
to all the foreign missions of the world by the same nation.

                              CHAPTER XII

                          REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS

THE Republic of Honduras is situated immediately east of Guatemala and
has a frontier line of perhaps two hundred miles next to that republic.
On the Caribbean Sea its coast line from Guatemala to Cape
Gracias-a-Dios (thanks to God) measures about four hundred miles. The
true boundary line between Honduras and Nicaragua has caused much
confusion and misunderstanding in the past, and it is hardly well
defined yet, although several commissions have been appointed by the two
governments and made their reports. It has but a small coast line on the
Pacific in the Bay of Fonseca.

There are many rivers which rise in the interior and wend their way
toward the ocean. The principal rivers flow northward and empty their
waters into the Gulf of Mexico. Of these the largest is the Ulua, which
drains a large expanse of territory and discharges a greater amount of
water into the sea than any other river of Central America. It is
navigable for a distance of a hundred and twenty-five miles for
light-draft vessels, and regular service is now maintained on it by a
small combined freight and passenger steamer operated by an American
company. It opens up a rich agricultural district to commerce. The
Aguan, Negro, Patuca and Coco, or Segovia, rivers are also considerable
streams which are navigated by the natives. The Lake of Yohoa, the only
lake of any note, is about twenty-five miles long and from three to
eight miles broad.

Cortez reported to his sovereign that Honduras was a “land covered with
awfully miry swamps. I can assure your majesty that even on the tops of
the hills our horses, led as they were by hand, and without their
riders, sank to their girths in the mire.” The great conqueror doubtless
landed during the rainy season, when the rains are literally “downpours”
and the rivers become torrents. At that season the mud does seem to be
almost without bottom, and the immense areas of mangrove-tree swamps
which cover the mud flats in the immediate vicinity of the mainland made
the finding of a good landing-place a difficult matter. Although he
found the natives tractable and the country was easily subdued, yet he
could not control nature, which here exhibits herself in her wildest and
most terrible aspects. He named his landing-place Puerto Caballos,
because he lost a number of horses, but it has since been named in his
own honour.

Honduras is not all swamp, for this condition only exists along the
coast of the Atlantic and Pacific and for a distance varying from only a
few miles to fifty miles inland. Then the land begins to rise, gradually
spreading out into plains and plateaus, until the mountainous region is
reached with its many volcanic peaks which lift their graceful heads
above the clouds. The same general mountain system that has been
described in Guatemala enters Honduras, and with many breaks takes a
general southeasterly course through the republic to Nicaragua. The mean
altitude is not nearly so high as in Guatemala, nor are there so many
lofty peaks, but there can be found almost every possible variety of
climate, soil and production.

Nature has been prodigal in her gifts to this republic, and nowhere upon
the whole earth can greater returns be realized with a minimum of
effort. It seems that all Nature is awaiting with welcoming arms the
farmer, the rancher and the fruit-grower, for there is very little of
the land that is not susceptible of some sort of profitable development.
Nowhere on earth are there more fertile valleys, more genial suns,
softer breezes, or fairer skies. And yet with all these natural
advantages, and with all this inducement to labour and development,
there is no place on this great globe where nature’s gifts are so poorly
utilized or so little appreciated, and to-day Honduras is the least
advanced of all the Central American republics.

[Illustration: Copyright, 1907, by Judge Company, New York. THE HONDURAS
NAVY, _THE TATUMBLA_.]

It is as difficult and almost as long a journey from New York to reach
the capital of Honduras as the capital of Persia, which seems so far
away, while Central America is so near. One must go by steamer to Colon,
across the Isthmus of Panama by rail, then a several days’ journey on
the Pacific to Amapala, and lastly a three or four days’ journey by mule
to Tegucigalpa; or, he can take the steamer to Puerto Cortez, railroad
to San Pedro Sula, and an eight or ten days’ journey over the mountains
on the long-eared, but short-legged, nondescript quadrupeds above named.
There are no accommodations or comforts along the way and, on arriving
at the capital, one is obliged many times to depend on the good will of
citizens for a decent stopping-place as the hotel is not a very
desirable hostelry.

The harbour of Puerto Cortez, in the northwestern corner of the
republic, is large, commodious and safe. As our boat steamed through the
blue waters of the bay, the town set in among clumps of cocoanut palms
following the sweep of the shore, and with its background of mountains,
made a beautiful picture that lingers in the memory. We passed by the
Honduras navy resting at anchor. It consisted of a single vessel, the
_Tatumbla_, which made a great show of strength with its two little guns
which have seen little more warlike service than to fire a salute when a
foreign man-of-war has appeared in the harbour. Formerly it was the
private yacht of an American, then saw service in the Spanish-American
war, after which it was sold to Honduras.

Puerto Cortez is the principal Gulf port of the country and is a
fair-sized town of twelve hundred or more. There are a few frame and
corrugated-iron buildings which house the railroad office, custom-house,
steamship freight house, _commandancia_, and offices of the United Fruit
Company, generally known as the banana trust. A few frame houses are the
homes of the various consular agents stationed at this port. The native
quarters are made up of a row of mud and thatch huts facing the bay and
almost hidden by the foliage of the palms which overtower them. A
syndicate is now at work filling up the lowlands and converting it into
a modern seaport by the aid of steam shovels and a good force of
workmen.

Puerto Cortez is very subject to yellow fever and is often quarantined
for months at a time in the summer. I had one letter from a business man
written in July in which he stated that they had been quarantined since
May 22nd and that it would probably last until about the first of
October. This condition seriously interferes with business, for visitors
cannot come in and the planters all flee to the higher lands for safety.
Anyone desiring to visit the country should do so from October to March
when there is no danger of quarantine delay, and during the dry season
travelling is much pleasanter. Some day, perhaps, the government may
learn a lesson from Havana and Panama and introduce modern sanitation,
and thus destroy the breeding places of the troublesome _stegomya
fasciata_, the yellow-fever mosquito, which is at present the bane of
the country.

[Illustration: Copyright, 1907, by Judge Company, New York. PUERTO
CORTEZ.]

The most pretentious building in the town is a large two-storied
building surrounded by verandas, looking like an old colonial home. In
the yard were two flag-poles, on one of which was the stars and stripes
and on the other the blue and white flag of Honduras. A closer
inspection showed that it was the home of the exiled Louisiana State
Lottery, now known as the Honduras National Lottery. After being driven
from the United States by the action of the Postmaster General, and
later by the State government of Louisiana, that State having refused a
renewal of its franchise, this insidious monster, which at one time
absorbed profits of many millions of dollars annually from the people,
and supported its officers in luxury, was obliged to seek a new
domicile. Mexico refused it a charter and even poverty-stricken Colombia
and liberal Nicaragua denied it a home. Honduras, however, gave it a
local habitation and a name upon the promise to pay an annual license
fee of twenty thousand dollars and twenty per cent. of its gross
receipts. So here it was housed in a great building, and here once each
month a drawing took place to see which one of the many foolish persons
investing their money was the successful gambler. There is not a
Spanish-American country, however, which does not charter some one or
more public lotteries, generally to raise money for charitable purposes,
and in almost all of these the vendor of lottery tickets is a familiar
sight on the streets.

From Puerto Cortez a railway runs about sixty miles inland to Pimienta.
The principal town on this transcontinental line, however, is San Pedro
Sula, about thirty-eight miles from that port. The train runs every
other day at irregular intervals, and is made up of some poor coaches, a
poor engine, and banana freight cars something like the open cars for
the transportation of live stock. The track at that time was in harmony
with the equipment. This line was built by an English company which took
the contract for constructing the line from coast to coast, passing
through the capital. The company was to do the work on a percentage
basis and the government to foot the bills. The construction company
worked in so many extras and padded the bills so that the government was
obligated for twenty-seven millions of dollars by the time the road
reached San Pedro Sula, or nearly three-quarters of a million dollars
per mile of actual track. By this time the government was bankrupted and
construction work stopped. Most of the bonds issued have never been paid
and a great part have been repudiated, although they are still the
subject of international dispute.

The road passes through a fine stretch of tropical swamp and jungle.
Sometimes there are veritable tunnels of palms which reach within a few
feet of the track. Beyond there is an impenetrable net-work of vines,
creepers, ferns, and trees covered with all kinds of orchids. For many
miles the road passes through banana fields, or forests, they might be
called, for these tropical plants grow fifteen or twenty feet high in
this rich soil. It requires almost four hours to cover the distance
between the two towns, but the entire run was fortunately made without
an accident.

San Pedro Sula lies in a beautiful broad valley sixty miles long and
from five to thirty miles in width, which is known as the plain of Sula.
It is drained by several rivers, is comparatively low and level, and is
one of the richest districts in the entire republic. In spite of its low
altitude it is remarkably salubrious, which is due to the constant
winds. Banana fields surround it on all sides except one where it
nestles close to an imposing mountain. It is the most modern town in
Honduras and contains many good frame buildings. There are also a couple
of fairly good hotels in this city conducted by Americans, so that an
American can stop here under pretty favourable conditions so far as
physical comfort is concerned. A number of streams of clear water run
through the town which add to its attractiveness and cleanliness. There
is, of course, a native quarter much similar to other towns, but the
foreign influence has had a good effect even among them.

While in San Pedro an American “gentleman of colour” and a Jamaican
negro got into an altercation and the latter was terribly cut by the
other, for of course the weapons used were knives. The latter, although
seriously cut and unable to walk, was arrested, and the former was tied
with ropes and conducted to the jail. It is an almost invariable rule
that both parties to an affray are arrested and thrust into prison. They
are there held “_incommunicado_.” This means to be incarcerated
seventy-two hours in solitary confinement, without bail, at the end of
which time a judicial examination is given. Their theory is that after a
man has been kept in solitude for three days with only his own thoughts
for company, he is more likely to tell the truth than if he had been in
communication with his lawyers, friends and reporters all that time.
Witnesses are sometimes held in the same way, so that it is advisable
for a stranger to keep away from scenes of trouble or, if it arises in
his vicinity, to get out of that neighbourhood as soon as possible.

The railroad runs inland a few miles farther, but San Pedro Sula is
generally made the starting point for the capital for it is easier to
secure good mules and _mozos_ at this point. It is necessary not only to
have those but a certain amount of _impedimenta_ in the shape of
hammocks, blankets, etc. must be carried along, and it is even advisable
to carry such provisions as will not be affected by the climate. The
trail to the capital, Tegucigalpa, is nothing but a mule path, narrow
and winding, and for the average traveller it is an eight days’ journey.
The road passes through forests which comprise an enchanted wilderness
where the white-faced monkeys peer at you from the branches of the trees
and gaily-plumed parrots screech as they fly overhead; again it winds
among the mountains on a narrow ledge which causes the uninitiated
traveller to hold his breath when he gazes at the chasm below; at other
times it follows the bed of streams which, during the rainy season, are
raging torrents.

There are no hotels and few public inns on the route. It is generally
necessary to stop with the natives in the villages, or the public
_cabildo_, which is always at the service of the wayfarer. Hammocks are
used for sleeping on account of the insects. As one writer has put this
superabundance of insects:—“There will be sometimes as many as a hundred
insects under one leaf; and after they have once laid their claws upon
you, your life is a mockery, and you feel at night as though you were
sleeping in a bed of red pepper.”

Richard Harding Davis has given us an amusing account of his experience
one night as follows: “I took an account of the stock before I turned
in, and found there were three dogs, eleven cats, seven children, five
men, not including five of us, three women, and a dozen chickens, all
sleeping, or trying to sleep, in the same room and under the one roof.
And when I gave up attempting to sleep and wandered out into the night,
I stepped on the pigs, and startled three or four calves that had been
sleeping under the porch and that lunged up out of the darkness.”

The only town of any importance that is passed is Comayagua. This was
the former capital and at one time the largest city in the country. This
city was selected under direct orders of Cortez who directed one of his
lieutenants to lay out a capital midway between the two oceans. If a
straight line should be drawn across the country, Comayagua would be in
the exact centre. Its one time thirty thousand inhabitants are now
reduced to seven thousand who sleep and dream away life in the warm
sunlight and surrounded by groves of orange trees. It is a dull and
desolate place of one-storied buildings and contains a half dozen or
more old churches, some of them with roofless walls overgrown with moss
and vines that stand as a silent reminder of the religious fervour of
the earlier days. There is a fine old cathedral which stands as a good
example of the Spanish-Moorish architecture so prevalent in every land
colonized by the Spaniards. This, the second city in the republic, is
situated in a broad fertile valley which stretches away for miles, while
dim, cloud-crowned mountains surround it like grim sentinels. The
elevation is less than two thousand feet. It has gradually lost its
former prestige since the seat of government was removed to its rival.

Tegucigalpa, the capital since 1880, is situated on a bare, dreary plain
and is surrounded by several abrupt hills which guard the sleeping city.
It is a city of twelve thousand inhabitants and is a typical
Spanish-American town with all the characteristics which have heretofore
been described. The houses are usually painted pink, blue, yellow,
green, white or some other pronounced colour. The public buildings are
not pretentious, although it contains the administration buildings,
hospitals, colleges, etc. A clock on the cathedral tower marks the time
of which the inhabitants have a supply more than equal to the demand.
The town is divided by a small stream which is the public laundry, and
this is the only industry that is always running, for women may be seen
here from early morning until late at night rubbing and pounding their
clothes to a snowy whiteness. Although the hills contained enough water
to supply the city in abundance no effort was made until a few years ago
to utilize it, and all the water used was carried into the city in jars
from the river upon the heads of the women. A reservoir has been
constructed in the mountains a few miles away from which water is now
brought to the city by a pipe line so that the city is well supplied
with this necessity.

Tegucigalpa was founded in 1579 and soon grew to be as large a town as
it now is. For venerable antiquity Americans must doff their hats to
this old city. While Chicago was yet the site of Indian wigwams and long
before our great Eastern metropolis was more than a small town,
Tegucigalpa was a noted city. The name of the town comes from two native
words—_Teguz_, meaning a hill, and _Galpa_, meaning silver; thus it
means the “city on the silver hill.” A half-century ago it was perhaps a
larger town than it is to-day. There are several public squares of
considerable beauty. In Morazan Park, the principal square, there is a
fine equestrian statue of General Morazan, the liberator of Central
America. For a wonder in a Spanish town there is neither a theatre nor a
club, so that the cafés furnish the only social centres. Although hard
to believe from its somnolent character, yet Tegucigalpa has been the
scene of stirring events and has been a hotbed of revolutions. Only a
few years ago Tegucigalpa was besieged for six months, and many
buildings show the mark of bullets fired by the revolutionists. In this
city the execution of revolutionists has frequently taken place along
the walls of one of the churches, and there is a row of bullet holes in
the wall just about the height of a man’s chest. A revolutionist meets
death bravely and stoically as though he looked forward to that end with
pleasure. He is often compelled to dig his own grave which he does with
equanimity. He takes the gambler’s chance in a revolution. Success may
take him into the presidential chair and failure will probably place him
before a squad of soldiers with guns aimed at his heart.

Richard Harding Davis in “Three Gringos in Venezuela and Central
America” gives the following instance of the varying fortunes of
revolutionists: “I saw an open grave by the roadside which had been dug
by the man who was to have occupied it. The man who dug this particular
grave had been captured, with two companions, while they were hastening
to rejoin their friends of the government party. His companions in
misery were faint-hearted creatures, and thought it mattered but little,
so long as they had to die, in what fashion they were buried. So they
scooped out a few feet of earth with the tools their captors gave them,
and stood up in the hollows they had made, and were shot back into them,
dead; but the third man declared that he was not going to let his body
lie so near the surface of the earth that the mules could kick his bones
and the next heavy freshet wash them away. He accordingly dug leisurely
and carefully to the depth of six feet, smoothing the sides and
sharpening the corners. While he was thus engaged at the bottom of the
hole, he heard shots and yells above him, and when he poked his head up
over the edge of the grave he saw his own troops running down the
mountain-side and his enemies disappearing before them.”

Honduras has perhaps suffered more from revolutionary disturbances than
any of the other Central American republics. Bordering as she does on
all these states, except Costa Rica, she has not only had to contend
with her own troubles but has been the helpless and unwilling
battleground for contentions between Nicaragua on the one side and San
Salvador or Guatemala on the other. Weaker than any of these her own
government has often been dictated by one or more of her more powerful
neighbours. With all the machinery of a republic and with an excellent
constitution and laws on paper, a change of rulers is usually effected
by a revolution as that seems to be the only way the will of the people
can be determined. They are sometimes almost bloodless as two armies
manœuvre around until one decides it is weaker than the other and takes
to flight. Selfish partisanship too often passes for patriotism, and the
leaders are only too willing to plunge the country into war to gain the
spoils of office for themselves and their followers.

Although many men may not be killed in these revolutions, as very many
times they are only local, nevertheless they keep the country in a
continual ferment, for the vanquished never quite forgive the victors.
The most formidable disturbance in recent years was a war between
Nicaragua and Honduras in the winter of 1906–07. This war resulted in a
victory for Nicaragua, partly because of the revolutionary party in
Honduras grasping advantage of the conditions and taking arms against
the government. As a result Manuel Bonilla, who had been president for
several years, was driven from office and General Miguel Davila became
his successor. This war-revolution lasted for several months and as a
result the business was demoralized to a great extent for the whole
country was involved. United States marines were landed at Truxillo and
Puerto Cortez to preserve order. Since that time there have been no
serious disturbances. The agreement recently entered into between the
five republics promises to do away with the interferences from other
more powerful states in the internal affairs of Honduras, and the
extension of railroads and telegraphs, and the investment of foreign
capital promise much better conditions for the future.

Most presidents have begun their career as revolutionists, or, I
suppose, they would rather be termed reformers. A man is spoken of as a
“good revolutionist” as we would speak of a “good lawyer” or a “good
doctor,” meaning that he is successful in that line of work. The fate
suffered by many unsuccessful revolutionists would not be a bad one for
some of our own corrupt and selfish politicians. The history of Honduras
down to 1840 is so closely identified with Guatemala that it does not
need special mention. With the election of Francisco Ferrera as
president in that year it began a separate existence. There was much
agitation among the various towns because of the heavy burdens imposed
on them, and in 1847, during the Mexican war, one president practically
declared war against the United States, which challenge was ignored. On
several occasions Great Britain sent warships to the coast of Honduras
to enforce her demands which were not always just. During a part of the
time that Carrera was ruling Guatemala, President Guardiola was in
charge of the affairs in Honduras. He was a man of the same stripe, part
negro, and is said to have been “possessed of all the vices and guilty
of about all the crimes known to man. At the very mention of his
approach, the inhabitants would flee to the woods.” One writer calls him
“the tiger of Central America.” He was finally assassinated. Internal
trouble and disputes with her neighbours kept Honduras in turmoil down
to 1880, when President Soto was inducted into office. During his term
of three years, and that of his successor, General Louis Bogran,
progress began, agriculture was stimulated and trade increased.

Honduras is a country about the size of Ohio and contains forty-six
thousand four hundred square miles of territory, although the estimates
vary greatly for no accurate surveys have ever been made. For
governmental purposes it is divided into sixteen departments, each of
which has a civil head. Its governmental divisions and its legislative
and judicial systems are very much like those of Guatemala. The
president is assisted by a cabinet and circle of advisers.

On the Atlantic coast are five large and a number of smaller islands,
known as the Bay Islands. One of these, Roatan, has been described as a
lazy man’s paradise. It is forty miles long and about three miles in
width, with a population of three or four thousand. It is a beautiful
and prolific island where the people are lazy because work is not
necessary. Even the cocoanuts will drop to the ground to save the
inhabitants the necessity of climbing after them, and all he has to do
is to strike them on a sharpened stake driven into the ground in order
to prepare them for eating. Native yams will grow to a weight of forty
or fifty pounds, and a piece of cane stuck into the ground will renew
itself almost perennially. Roses and flowers grow wild. The climate
ranges from 66 degrees to 88 degrees, and the air is not even disturbed
by revolutions. The only jail is a little one-room hut in which a drunk
occasionally sleeps off a stupor.

Cassava bread, one of the staple articles of food, is made from the
tuberous roots of the manioc which often weigh as much as twenty pounds.
The roots are grated into a coarse meal which is then washed carefully
to remove the grains of starch. The mass is next placed in a primitive
press and the poisonous juice pressed out. The squeezed mass is then
made into flat loaves which are dried and then baked. It is said to make
a nutritious and quite palatable food. This bread forms one of the
principal articles of food of these natives.

The half-million inhabitants include a considerably smaller percentage
of Spanish descendants and a much larger number of negroes than
Guatemala. The “Zambos,” a mixture of Indian and negro, used to be quite
numerous along the Mosquito coast, but many of them have migrated to
Nicaragua. They were formerly ruled by a hereditary king. The Caribs,
who were originally inhabitants of St. Vincent, have taken their place
in the Gulf settlements. They are the best sailors along the coast and
can be seen at any time out on the sea in their dories. These dories are
hewed out of solid logs, equipped with sails, and vary in length from
thirty to sixty feet, and are from three to eight feet across the beam.
Their houses are always the same, with a high, peaked and thatched roof,
sometimes twenty-five to thirty feet in height. No nails are used in the
construction. They sometimes look almost like huge stacks of hay from a
distance.

The Caribs are said to have lived on the island of St. Vincent, where,
at the conclusion of the war between England and France, they were found
to be in such sympathy with the French that they were deported to the
island of Roatan. From there they drifted to the mainland and
established a number of settlements all along the coast. One writer
describes them as follows:—“They are peaceable, friendly, ingenious and
industrious. They are noted for their fondness of dress, wearing red
bands around their waists to imitate sashes, straw hats turned up, clean
white shirts and frocks, long and tight trousers. The Carib women are
fond of ornamenting their persons with coloured beads strung in various
forms. They are scrupulously clean and have a great aptitude for
acquiring languages, many of them being able to talk in Carib, Spanish
and English. Polygamy is general among them, some of them having as many
as three or four wives; but the husband is compelled to have a separate
house and plantation for each. It is the custom when a woman cannot do
all the work for her to hire her husband. Men accompany them on their
trading expeditions, but never by any chance carry the burdens, thinking
it far beneath them.”

The average native or half-breed on the higher lands lives from year to
year in his thatched hut. He may look after a few cows and make cheese
from their milk. He plants a small patch of maize each year and grows a
few bananas and plantains for food. He is content to live on the
plainest food and in the simplest way in order to live an indolent life.
Thus he exists during his allotted years until he drops into his grave
and in a year or two there is not even a sign to show where he was laid.
Occasionally graves of the early inhabitants are found, but the
burial-places of later generations are practically unmarked and no
attempt is made to preserve their location as there are no tombstones
and after a few months there is nothing to show its location.

[Illustration: A TYPICAL BEGGAR.]

Beggars are not very common except the blind, the lame and the sick. The
necessaries of life are so easily procured, so little clothing is
required, and any one may find land upon which to plant a little maize
or bananas that it does not require much money or much exertion to
sustain life. The condition of those who are helpless, however, is
pitiable in the extreme and the sympathy of a stranger is aroused each
day by a sight of some poor unfortunate.

Next to maize (corn) bananas and plantains form the principal food. The
latter are cooked in many ways, boiled, baked or made into pastry, but
are never eaten raw. Maize was indigenous on those shores, because the
Spanish conquerors found it growing and it formed the principal food of
the people. The banana is believed to have been introduced by the
Spaniards, and the one argument used for this theory is that all the
names of this plant are of Spanish derivation. In Honduras a sort of
beer is brewed from maize that the natives are very fond of, but they
prefer on “_fiestas_” the _aguardiente_ (brandy) because it is stronger
and affords more exhilaration. This is a drink brought by civilization,
for the earlier inhabitants, not having any distilled liquors, had to be
contented with the milder fermented forms of intoxicants.[3]

Footnote 3:

  _Note._ “On the warmer plains the wine-palm is grown. The wine is very
  simply prepared. The tree is felled and an oblong hole cut into it,
  just above the crown of leaves. The hole is eight inches deep, passing
  nearly through the trunk. It is about a foot long and several inches
  broad; and in this hollow the juice of the tree immediately begins to
  collect, scarcely any running out at the butt where it has been cut
  off. In three days after cutting the wine-palm the hollow will be
  filled with a clear yellowish wine, the fermented juice of the tree,
  and this will continue to secrete daily for twenty days, during which
  the tree will have yielded some gallons of wine.”—_Thomas Belt._

Cock-fighting is one of the principal forms of amusement among the
people of Honduras. Their mode of cock-fighting is very cruel, as they
usually tie long sickle-shaped knives onto their natural spurs with
which they are able to give each other fearful gashes and wounds. It is
no unusual sight to see a game cock tied up at the door by the leg, or
in some other part of the house, and being treated as an honoured member
of the family. The comb is cut off near the head in order that his
opponent cannot grasp him there and thus place him at a disadvantage.
Bets are made on every fight and considerable money is lost and won on
this sport.

Education is not far advanced although the number of schools has been
increased each year. There are very many full-grown boys and girls who
do not even know their letters. Perhaps not more than half the
inhabitants can boast of even a rudimentary education. There are only
about seven hundred schools for primary instruction in the entire
republic, with an average attendance of about twenty-five thousand
pupils. The wealthier families send their boys to the famous university
in Guatemala City for their education. They are not so much interested
in the matter of education for girls.

A large force of soldiers is always kept under arms—that is, large in
proportion to the population. Its standing army is almost half as great
as our own with about one one-hundred and fiftieth of the population.
Every town and village of any size has its _commandancia_, or barracks,
in which a force of troops is quartered. They are not formidable looking
troops, and yet they sometimes have a reckless way of shooting that is
destructive to human life. Military service is compulsory for men from
twenty-one to thirty years of age, and after that they remain members of
the reserve until they are forty. This is the written law but the
unwritten law of the revolutionary leader is far more potent.

As I have stated above, Honduras is the least progressive of the five
republics of Central America, and yet it is a country of wonderful
natural resources and is burdened with plenty of opportunities. The low
coast land sloping up to the high mountain plateaus furnish every
variety of climate and give a wide range of agricultural possibilities.
Bananas, cocoanuts, oranges, sugar cane, wheat, corn, rice, rye, barley
are among the list of profitable products that can be cultivated. Few
fields are properly plowed and the care bestowed on growing crops
amounts to nothing. The ground is so fertile that the mere insertion of
a kernel of corn in the earth is sufficient. A kernel thus planted on
Thursday has been found four inches high by the following Monday. With
all this fertility there is sometimes an insufficient food supply for
the cities. Agriculture is in the most primitive condition and will
probably remain so until there are better roads, better markets and
cheaper transportation facilities.

[Illustration: Copyright, 1907, by Judge Company, New York. SOLDIERS OF
HONDURAS.]

In many parts of Honduras there are lands well suited to cattle raising.
They may be found grazing on the sterile slopes of the mountain ranges
as well as in the more fertile valleys. There is much fine rolling land,
well watered during the rainy season and rich in pasturage, to be found
in the republic, which is well suited to this industry. In the dry
season, however, many of those plains, or savannahs, furnish scant
fodder for the cattle. As irrigation has not been attempted the cattle
have a feast half the year and a famine the other half. No care whatever
is taken of their herds by the owners and they are left to forage as
best they can. It is not much wonder that the grade of stock is poor,
although hundreds of thousands of cattle are raised in this way, and
wander over the public domain. Each rancher has his own brand which is
recorded the same as in the United States. Thousands more would be
raised and sent out of the country were it not for the heavy export tax.

There are no industries in the country worthy of mention except
_aguardiente_ manufacture which is a government monopoly. The sugar cane
growers enter into a contract with the government to furnish a
stipulated amount of this brandy each month, and it is then sold by the
government to the regularly licensed dealers at a fixed price. A large
part of the revenue of the republic is derived from this source as many
hundred thousand gallons are consumed each year. A cheap grade of
“Panama” hat is also manufactured in one province which is exported to
the neighbouring republics and the United States.

Nearly the whole of the republic, except the lowlands, is mineralized.
Old workings among the gold-bearing formations show that the aboriginal
tribes understood the art of separating the gold from quartz. Documents
deposited in the archives of Tegucigalpa show that the Spaniards found
the mines of Honduras very profitable, and the king’s tithe no doubt
aided in building real castles in Spain. The Spaniards were good
prospectors but poor workers, for they did their work in the most
primitive way. Their work was mostly done by slave labour so that this
was an inexpensive item to them. Any of the natives could be drafted
into this work upon the initiative of the government. They were seldom
carried to any great depth, so that there are hundreds of mines
scattered over the country to-day which are abandoned and filled with
water. They cannot be operated successfully until roads are constructed
over which machinery can be transported.

The chief mining district is not far from the capital city. The Rosario
Mining Company is the most successful and best-known company and has
been placed on a profitable basis. Silver ores are the most abundant but
gold has been washed on the rivers of Olancho for many years in small
quantities. Silver is generally in combination with lead, iron, copper
or antimony. There are some valuable copper deposits in some places
containing eighty per cent of pure copper. Iron ores are common, zinc
occurs, but coal has been found only in very small quantities. Opals
have been found in considerable numbers and many of them are large and
beautiful. About one million dollars’ worth of the various minerals have
been mined annually in recent years.

Honduras has a small coast line on the Pacific with Amapala as its only
seaport on that ocean. It is situated on the island of Tigre about
thirty miles from the mainland, and nearly in the centre of the
magnificent Bay of Fonseca. This is a very poor open roadstead with no
pier, so that lighters are the only means of loading and unloading
vessels. The Atlantic coastline is much longer and well protected by
outlying islands which affords much better protection to vessels. Ceiba
is a pretty little port at the foot of the Congrehoy, the highest
volcanic peak in the country. It has a population of several thousand
and is in the centre of a rich banana belt. Recently a short railroad of
about thirty miles in length has been constructed here which reaches out
through this fertile field and will aid in developing this section of
the country. Many hundred thousand bunches of bananas are shipped from
this port each year and the number constantly increases. Truxillo, or
Trujillo, is another fair harbour on this coast. The town is not very
large yet, although it is nearly four centuries old, having been founded
in 1525. The filibusterer William Walker, who made himself dictator of
Nicaragua at one time, was captured by Honduras’ troops at this place
and executed, thus ending a romantic and venturesome career.

Honduras has never attained the prominence in commerce that her natural
resources would warrant one to reasonably expect. The total imports for
the year ending July 31st, 1908, were $2,829,979, according to the
statistics of that government. Of this amount the United States
furnished more than half. The exports to the United States for the same
period amounted to nearly $3,000,000, which was nearly five-sixths of
the whole exports. This is accounted for by the fact that the principal
export is bananas nearly all of which are sent to the various ports of
Uncle Sam. After minerals coffee and hides furnish the next two largest
items of export. All import duties are levied by weight, so that the
duties on many articles comparatively inexpensive in first cost become
expensive luxuries in Honduras. An ordinary cooking range might be cited
as an example. The shipping of imports and exports is almost entirely in
the hands of Germans who conduct all the great commission houses and do
a very profitable business. The importation of goods is oftentimes a
complicated matter for in addition to the fixed import duties there are
the fees for manifest, custom-house permit, transfer fee, sanitary fee
on goods destined for the interior, and a municipal impost at some
towns. Add to this the brokerage fees and the total expense oftentimes
amounts to quite a sum.

The money of Honduras is on a silver basis and is subject to all the
fluctuations of that metal. Guatemalan and Chilean silver coins are the
principal currency in circulation although one bank is authorized to
issue paper currency which passes at par with the silver. The silver
peso or dollar is the standard. As exchange varies from 215 to 250 per
cent it will be seen that its value ranges from about forty to
forty-five cents in gold. Even this is better than the paper money of
Guatemala.

What shall be done with this great unimproved country? That question is
reserved for the future to decide. I believe that the influence of
America and Americans will do far more toward the settlement of the
turmoil which has been so general in that country and the development of
the natural resources than any other one influence. The number of
Americans residing in Honduras is increasing each year, and their
influence is already being felt wherever they reside. Sometime the
people themselves may awaken to the fact that they have been living in
poverty with wealth at their very doors. The eastern coast is developing
more rapidly than the western because of the nearness to the markets of
the United States. Good steamship service is now maintained so that it
is only a four or five days’ journey to New Orleans and Mobile. Let
Americans waken up to the great possibilities of trade and development
that lie at their very door. Let American merchants and manufacturers
exploit their goods and secure the trade of this country that is now
controlled by British and German merchants. The people generally prefer
American goods, but the merchants of this country have never learned the
art of dealing with the Spanish-American. It is a situation that must be
studied, but success is worth the effort.

“_Adios_,” with the Spaniard means “how do you do,” “good-bye,” and “a
pleasant journey to you.”

I close this narrative with this one word to the reader which is
greeting, benediction and farewell, all three combined, trusting that
our acquaintance has been mutually beneficial.

                                 ADIOS.

                               APPENDIX I

THE following table gives the names of the departments in Guatemala, the
name of the chief town, or capital, and the number of inhabitants and
elevation of that city, the compilation being made from the latest and
most reliable statistics available:—

              DEPARTMENTS   CHIEF TOWN  INHABITANTS ELEVATION
                                                   (feet)

              Alta Verapaz Coban          24,475    4,010

              Amatitlan    Amatitlan      10,000    4,212

              Baja Verapaz Salamá          7,125    2,831

              Chimaltenango Chimaltenango   14,000    5,365

              Chiquimula   Chiquimula     10,602    1,232

              Escuintla    Escuintla      12,000    1,248

              Guatemala    Guatemala      85,000    4,810
                           City

              Huehuetenango Huehuetenango   10,000    7,052

              Izabal       Livingston      1,500       45

              Jalapa       Jalapa         10,000    4,777

              Jutiapa      Jutiapa        12,000    2,821

              Peten        Flores          6,000      478

              Quezaltenango Quezaltenango   22,265    7,351

              Quiché       Sante Rosa      6,237    5,492
                           del Quiché

              Retalhuleu   Retalhuleu     10,000      968

              Sacatepequez Antigua         8,000    5,314

              San Marcos   San Marcos     10,000    7,150

              Santa Rosa   Cuajinicuilapa    2,000    3,214

              Sololá       Sololá         15,000    6,974

              Suchitepequez Mazatenango    10,000    1,085

              Totonicapan  Totonicapan    25,196    7,894

              Zacapa       Zacapa         12,000      536

                              APPENDIX II

THE Republic of Honduras is composed of sixteen departments, or
provinces, and one territorial district. The territory of Mosquitia is
situated in the extreme northeastern section of the country and is the
second largest political division in the republic, comprising about
one-fifth of the entire landed surface and with a population of four
thousand, mostly a mixed race of negroes and Indians. This is an average
of about one person for every two square miles. The country is covered
with a dense forest of tropical verdure, through which the waters of
several rivers course. Along the rivers the lands have been partially
explored but much of the interior is still unknown. The Bay Islands
department comprises a group of five low islands lying at a distance of
from twenty-five to fifty miles from the northern shore. The names of
the islands are Utila, Roatan, Elena, Barbareta and Bonaca, and they
contain a total population of about five thousand whites, negroes and
Indians. The English language is quite commonly used on those islands
for they were long under the sovereignty of England.

The names of the different departments, together with the capital city,
its population and elevation, according to the best and most recent
statistics available, are as follows:—

               DEPARTMENT    CAPITAL    POPULATION ELEVATION
                                                   (feet)

              Tegucigalpa  Tegucigalpa    12,000    3,200

              Copan        Santa Rosa     10,000    3,400

              Choluteca    Choluteca       8,636      250

              Gracias      Gracias         5,324    2,520

              Olancho      Juticalpa      11,103    1,500

              El Paraiso   Danli           8,878    2,300

              Santa        Santa           3,593      750
              Barbara      Barbara

              Valle        Nacaome         8,913      110

              Comayagua    Comayagua       7,206    1,650

              La Paz       La Paz          4,490    2,000

              Intibuca     La Esperanza    4,026    4,950

              Cortes       San Pedro       7,182      255
                           Sula

              Yoro         Yoro            6,127    2,000

              Colon        Truxillo       l4,040      sea
                                                    level

              Atlantida    La Ceiba        3,379      sea
                                                    level

              Bay Islands  Coxin Hole       l500      sea
                                                    level

The uneven character of the configuration of the earth’s surface and the
effect of the trade winds gives the Central American republics a great
variety of climate. The so-called “seasons,” the wet and dry, do not
always express the real conditions, for local conditions influence the
temperature and amount of rainfall. There is a wide difference, for
instance, between the Atlantic and Pacific slopes. On the Atlantic coast
there is literally no dry season. The central plateaus have a climate of
their own subject neither to excessive droughts or heavy rains. When you
consider that the highest temperature inland rarely exceeds 90° F. and
does not go below 50° F. it will be seen that the land is quite
inhabitable, for there are no great extremes. The “wet” season from May
to November is called _invierno_, or winter, and the “dry” season from
November to May is termed _verano_, or summer.

In order to set forth clearly the temperature I herewith give a table of
the thermometer readings at Tegucigalpa for an entire year as given in a
handbook compiled by Mr. A. K. Moe, formerly United States Consul at
that city, and issued by the International Bureau of the American
Republics, to which same book I am indebted for some other valuable
information herein contained:—

                AVERAGE   AVERAGE                       EXTREME
        MONTHS  MINIMUM   MAXIMUM   LOWEST    HIGHEST  DIFFERENCE
        January  °F. 60    °F. 76    °F. 54    °F. 79    °F. 25
        February    60        81        52        84        32
        March     61        83        55        88        33
        April     63        84        56        89        33
        May       67        84        63        90        27
        April     63        84        56        89        33
        May       67        84        63        90        27
        June      67        82        65        86        21
        July      67        81        64        84        20
        August    66        81        62        84        22
        September    65        82        61        84        23
        October    65        79        61        83        22
        November    65        78        61        82        21
        December    59        75        50        81        31

                              APPENDIX III

                               VOLCANOES

PEOPLE living in volcanic regions do not seem to fear the presence of
these lofty peaks any more than people living in mountainous regions
fear their overhanging ridges. One would think that the terrible and
destructive eruptions of Vesuvius would leave that region depopulated,
but no sooner have the earth’s tremblings ceased than the people flock
again to their accustomed haunts, and the fertile fields once more
respond to the efforts of the farmer and gardener. And so it is in
Central America, where volcanic peaks abound and mild earthquakes are
common. The volcanoes of Hawaii are larger, those of South America
loftier, some in Italy and Java more destructive, but nowhere on the
world is there such an unbroken line of volcanic peaks as along the
Pacific coast of Central America. The Atlantic coast has but one
distinct cone of any great height and that is the Congrehoy (8,040 ft.),
which runs clear to the water’s edge. It is the only lofty peak in
Honduras and has perhaps the sharpest and most clearly marked cone in
that section of the world.

Little is known of the early history of the eruptions of these volcanoes
and earthquake disturbances, called by the natives “_temblors_.” The
early natives believed that earthquakes were caused by a god, Cabracan,
who was in the habit of shaking the mountains. The stories of the
Spanish conquerors are so mingled with devils and their work that they
are incredible and convey no enlightening information. Their chroniclers
tell an amusing instance of the attempt of a friar to draw up the lava,
which had the appearance of molten gold, in an iron bucket from a
crater. The bucket and chain as well melted as soon as it approached the
seething lava.

History records the birth of the volcano, Izalco, in San Salvador in
1770. For several days strange subterranean noises accompanied by
earthquake shocks had been heard in that vicinity and the people fled in
terror. After a few days a lateral opening appeared in a field from
which fire, smoke and lava belched forth. This was followed by sand and
stones from which a cone has been gradually built up, until now it is
higher than Vesuvius. It has been named the “lighthouse of Salvador” by
the sailors, because it is nearly always visible at night.

I append an account of an ascent of Santa Maria made a few months after
its destructive eruption of 1902, which appeared in the Scientific
American:—

“I began the ascent of the volcano from the plantation of La Sabina, a
favourite health resort famous for its springs of mineral water.
Journeying from Palmar to La Sabina we passed two plantations whose
buildings were ruined and fields devastated. We found the hotel of the
town buried many feet beneath mud. I found the crater a huge pit some
500 feet in depth, from the bottom of which spouted a magnificent
geyser. The steam issued with terrible force, roaring and crackling.
Almost at my very feet arose another geyser, through the vapour of which
there could be dimly seen a large pool formed by the condensed steam.
Besides the large geysers, innumerable small jets of steam spouted from
the edge of the crater in a vapourous fringe, sending forth little
clouds toward the centre. At intervals a strong odour of sulphur
assailed the nostrils. It is probable that when the volcano was in full
eruption the entire crater was open, for the earth seemed to have fallen
in and to have formed a kind of floor. Otherwise it would be impossible
to account for the enormous mass of material ejected by the crater.”

The following table gives a list of the principal volcanic peaks in
Guatemala, all of which are classed as “extinct,” or “quiescent,” except
Santa Maria:—

                        VOLCANIC PEAK     HEIGHT
                                            feet

                        Tajumulco         13,814

                        Tacana            13,334

                        Acatenango        13,012

                        Fuego             12,821

                        Agua              12,300

                        Atitlan           11,849

                        Cerro Cerchil     11,830

                        Cerro Quiché      11,160

                        Cerro Calel       10,813

                        Santa Maria       10,535

                        Cerro Quemado     10,200

                        Quezaltenango      9,238

                        Pacaya             7,675

                        Ipala              6,019

                        Chingo             6,019

                              APPENDIX IV

                             RUINS OF COPAN

NO American has spent so much time in exploring the ruins of this
mysterious city of Honduras as Mr. George Byron Gordon. For a number of
years he spent the greater part of the year in making excavations,
removing debris, and in exploring every nook and corner of this ancient
seat of civilization. Through the courtesy of The Century Company I am
permitted to give the following description of Copan as written by Mr.
Gordon and published in the Century Magazine, which, though greatly
abbreviated, is yet sufficiently full to give the reader a fair idea of
the one-time grandeur and magnificence of this ancient city:—

    Hidden away among the mountains of Honduras, in a beautiful
    valley which, even in that little-travelled country, where
    remoteness is a characteristic attribute of places, is unusually
    secluded, Copan is one of the greatest mysteries of the ages.
    Not only do the recent explorations confirm the magnitude and
    importance of the ruins, but the collection of relics now in the
    Peabody Museum is sufficient to convince the most skeptical that
    here are the remains of a city, unknown to history, as
    remarkable and as worthy of our careful consideration as any of
    the ancient centres of civilization in the Old World. Whatever
    the origin of its people, this old city is distinctly
    American—the growth of American soil and environment.

    The area comprised within the limits of the old city consists of
    a level plain seven or eight miles long and two miles wide at
    the greatest. This plain is covered with the remains of stone
    houses, doubtless the habitations of the wealthy. The streets,
    squares, and courtyards were paved with stone, or with white
    cement made from lime and powdered rock, and the drainage was
    accomplished by means of covered canals and underground sewers
    built of stone and cement. On the slopes of the mountains, too,
    are found numerous ruins; and even on the highest peaks fallen
    columns and ruined structures may be seen.

    On the right bank of the Copan River, in the midst of the city,
    stands the principal group of structures—the temples, palaces,
    and buildings of a public character. These form part of what has
    been called, for want of a better name, the Main Structure—a
    vast, irregular pile rising from the plain in steps and terraces
    of masonry, and terminating in several great pyramidal
    elevations, each topped by the remains of a temple which, before
    our excavations were begun, looked like a huge pile of fragments
    bound together by the roots of trees, while the slopes of the
    pyramids, and the terraces and pavements below, are strewn with
    the ruins of these superb edifices. Its sides face the four
    cardinal points; its greatest length from north to south is
    about eight hundred feet, and from east to west it measured
    originally nearly as much, but a part of the eastern side has
    been carried away by the swift current of the river which flows
    directly against it.

    Within the Main Structure, at an elevation of sixty feet, is a
    court one hundred and twenty feet square, which, with its
    surrounding architecture, must have presented a magnificent
    spectacle, when it was entire. It was entered from the south
    through a passage thirty feet in width, between two high
    pyramidal foundations, each supporting a temple. The court
    itself is inclosed by ranges of steps or seats rising to a
    height of twenty feet, as in an amphitheatre; they are built of
    great blocks of stone, neatly cut, and regularly laid without
    mortar. In the centre of the western side is a stairway
    projecting a few feet into the court, and leading to a broad
    terrace above the range of seats on that side. The upper steps
    in this stairway are divided in the midst by the head of a huge
    dragon facing the court, and holding in its distended jaws a
    grotesque human head of colossal proportions.

    One temple, in many ways the most interesting yet explored,
    furnishes a typical example of this class of building. From the
    stone-paved terrace above the western side of the court, a great
    stairway, with massive steps, leads up to a platform which runs
    the whole length of the building, and is carried out at each end
    upon solid piers to the line of beginning of the steps. From the
    head of the stairway two graceful wing stones, extending across
    the platform, guard the approach to the first entrance, which
    gives access to the outer chambers. This doorway is nine feet
    wide, and was covered with a vaulted roof, now fallen. Directly
    opposite it, in the interior, is a second doorway, leading to
    the inner chambers. In front of this second entrance is a step
    two feet high, ornamented on the face by hieroglyphics and
    skulls carved in relief. At each end a huge death’s-head forms a
    pedestal for a crouching human figure supporting the head of a
    dragon, the body of which is turned upward, and is lost among
    the scrollwork and figures of a cornice that runs above the
    doorway. All the interior walls were covered with a thin coat of
    stucco, on which figures and scenes were painted in various
    colours; and the cornices were adorned with stucco masks and
    other ornaments, likewise painted. The roofs, with the massive
    towers which they supported, had fallen and filled the chambers
    completely. The horizontal arch formed by overlapping stones was
    always used in the construction of roofs—a type that is common
    to all the Maya cities. The outside of the building, profusely
    ornamented with grotesques at every line, bears witness to the
    ambitious prodigality of the architect, his love of adornment,
    and his aversion to plain surfaces—a characteristic that is
    manifested on all the monuments and carvings at Copan. An
    elaborate cornice with foliated design, adorned with plumage,
    all beautifully carved, ran around the four sides. Higher up, a
    row of portrait-like busts was also carried around the entire
    building. Whatever of plain surface remained was covered with
    pure white stucco, and the same material was used upon the
    sculptures to give a finish to the carving and a suitable
    surface for the colours that were used to produce the desired
    effect.

    The northern slope of the main structure goes down abruptly, in
    a broad, steep flight of steps, to the floor of the plaza, which
    stretches away to the north, and terminates in an amphitheatre
    about three hundred feet square, inclosed on the eastern,
    northern, and western sides by ranges of seats twenty feet high.
    The southern side is open, except that its centre is occupied by
    a pyramid that rose almost to a point, leaving a square platform
    on top. In the plaza stood the principal group of obelisks,
    monoliths, or stelae, as they are variously designated, to which
    Copan owes its principal fame. There are fifteen in all
    scattered over the plaza, some overthrown and others still
    erect. Although affording infinite variety in detail, in general
    design and treatment these monuments are all the same. They
    average about twelve feet in height and three feet square, and
    are carved over the entire surface. On one side, and sometimes
    on two opposite sides, stands a human figure in high relief,
    always looking toward one of the cardinal points. Upon these
    personages is displayed such a wealth of ornament and insignia
    that the figures look over-burdened and encumbered, giving the
    idea that the chief object of the artist was the display of such
    adornment. While nearly all these human figures are
    disproportionately short, the accurate drawing and excellent
    treatment of the smaller figures in the designs surrounding the
    principal characters show that this is not owing to deficient
    perception on the part of the sculptor.

    The sides of the monuments not occupied by human figures are
    covered by hieroglyphic inscriptions. In front of each of the
    figures, at a distance of a few feet, is a smaller sculpture,
    called an altar. These measure sometimes seven feet across and
    from two to four feet in height. The design sometimes represents
    a grotesque monster with curious adornments; but a common form
    of altar is a flat disk seven or eight feet in diameter, with a
    row of hieroglyphs around the edge. Much of the carving on these
    obelisks and altars is doubtless symbolical; and until this is
    better understood it is useless to speculate upon the character
    of the monuments themselves—speculations in which our ignorance
    would allow us unlimited scope. Two of the figures have their
    faces hidden by masks, a circumstance which seems to preclude
    the theory that they are portraits, although that is suggested
    by the striking individuality of many of the faces. But who can
    tell? The statues may be those of deified kings or heroes; on
    these altars a grateful people may have paid the tribute of
    affection; or, as some would have us believe, they may have been
    idols, insatiate monsters, on whose reeking altars the bloody
    sacrifice prevailed. We would fain believe that the Mayas were a
    humane and gentle people, given to generous impulses and noble
    deeds; that these relics of their art, in which the thought and
    feeling of the people strove to find expression, had for their
    object and inspiration a better motive than the deliberate
    shedding of human blood.

    No regular burying-place has yet been found at Copan, but a
    number of isolated tombs have been explored. The location of
    these was strange and unexpected—beneath the pavement of
    courtyards and under the foundations of houses. They consist of
    small chambers of very excellent masonry, roofed sometimes by
    means of the horizontal arch, and sometimes by means of slabs of
    stone resting on the top of the vertical walls. In these tombs
    one, and sometimes two, interments had been made. The bodies had
    been laid at full length upon the floor. The cerements had long
    since moldered away, and the skeletons themselves were in a
    crumbling condition, and give little knowledge of the physical
    characteristics of the people; but one fact of surpassing
    interest came to light concerning their private lives, namely,
    the custom of adorning the front teeth with gems inlaid in the
    enamel, and by filing. The stone used in the inlaying was a
    bright-green jadeite. A circular cavity about one-sixteenth of
    an inch in diameter was drilled in the enamel of each of the two
    front teeth of the upper row, and inlaid with a little disk of
    jadeite, cut to a perfect fit, and secured by means of a bright
    red cement.

    Besides the human remains, each tomb contained a number of
    earthenware vessels of great beauty and excellence of
    workmanship, some of them painted with figures in various
    colours, and others finished with a peculiar polish resembling a
    glaze. Some of these vessels contained charcoal and ashes; in
    others were various articles of use and adornment. The beads,
    ear-ornaments, medallions, and a variety of other ornaments,
    usually of jadeite, exhibit an extraordinary degree of skill in
    the art of cutting and polishing stones, while the pearls and
    trinkets carved from shell must have been obtained by trade or
    by journeys to the coast. In the same tombs with these ornaments
    were frequently found such objects of utility as knives and
    spear-heads of flint and obsidian, and stone hatchets and
    chisels. These were doubtless family vaults, though none of them
    contained the remains of many burials.

    As to the antiquity of the city, although we have no data that
    will enable us to fix a date, there are certain historical facts
    that remove it from the reach of history or tradition, and place
    the era of its destruction long anterior to the discovery of
    America.

                               APPENDIX V

                              BIBLIOGRAPHY

For the benefit of those who may wish to pursue their study of these
countries more extensively I append herewith a list of a few of the
books which give information about Guatemala and Honduras:—

_Bard, S. A._: Waikna: Adventures on the Mosquito Shore. London, 1855.

_Brasseur de Bourbourg_: Popul Vuh. Sacred book of the Quiché Indians.
Paris, 1861.

_Bancroft, Hubert Howe_: History of Central America. San Francisco,
1886.

_Bancroft, Hubert Howe_: The Native Races of the Pacific Coast of North
America. San Francisco, 1880.

_Brigham, William T._: Guatemala: The Land of the Quetzal. New York,
1887.

_Casas, Bartolomeo de Las_, Bishop of Chiapas: London, 1699. This is a
narrative of an eye witness of the Spanish invasion in Mexico and
Central America. A very interesting and very rare book.

_Charles, Cecil_: Honduras: The Land of Great Depths. Chicago, 1890.

_Curtis, William Eleroy_: Capitals of Spanish-America. New York, 1888.

_Diaz del Castillo, Bernal_: True History of the Conquest of New Spain.
Madrid, 1632. An English edition. London, 1844.

_Dunn, Henry_: Guatemala in 1827–8. London, 1829.

_Davis, Richard Harding_: Three Gringos in Venezuela and Central
America. New York, 1896.

_Humboldt, Alexander von_: Political Essay on New Spain. Berlin, 1811.

_Keane, A. H._: Central America and West Indies. London, 1901.
(Stanford’s compendium of geography and travel.)

_Morlan, A. P._: A Hoosier in Honduras. Indianapolis, 1897.

_Maudslay, Anne C. and Alfred P._ A glimpse at Guatemala and some notes
on the ancient monuments of Central America. London, 1899.

_Pepper, Charles M._ Guatemala, the country of the future; a monograph,
Washington.

_Squier, E. G._: Honduras; descriptive, historical, statistical. London,
1870.

_Stephens, John Lloyd_: Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas,
and Yucatan. New York, 1841.

_Vincent, Frank_: In and Out of Central America. New York, 1896.

_Wells, William V._ Explorations and Adventures in Honduras. New York,
1857.

                                 INDEX

 Agriculture, 26, 91;
   in Honduras, 272.

 Aguardiente, 270.

 Agua, volcano of, 55.

 Agua Caliente, 31.

 Aguacate, 98.

 Alcaldes, 120.

 Alvarado, Pedro de, 13, 14, 166.

 Amapala, 275.

 Amatitlan, Lake of, 6, 27.

 American Club, 70.

 Americans, 43–44.

 Amusements, 68.

 Aniline dyes, 139.

 Animals, wild, 88.

 Ants, 83.

 Antigua, 55–58.

 Aqueducts, 77.

 Army, the, 127.

 Atitlan, Lake of, 6.

 Aztecs, the, 149.

 Balconies, 111.

 Bamboo, the, 83.

 Bananas, 99, _et seq._, 253.

 Banana plantations, 47.

 Baptism of natives, 204.

 Barillas, President, 22.

 Barrios, J. Rufino, 67, 70, 76, 124, 141, 188, 190–194.

 Barrios, José Maria, 196.

 Bargaining, 73.

 Bay Islands, 265, 282.

 Bear, playing the, 112–123.

 Beds, native, 35.

 Beggars, 269.

 Belgian colony, 46.

 Belize, 235, 238, 244.

 Belize River, 240, 244.

 Bibliography, 300–301.

 Birds, 86–87.

 Bogran, General, 264.

 Books, Ancient, 153–154.

 Bonilla, Manuel, 263.

 Boys, 114.

 Brandy, native, 97.

 Bull-fight, 68–69, 111.

 Butterflies, 89.

 Cabrera, President, 24, 126, 195–201.

 Cabildo, the, 122.

 Caballeria, 92.

 Cacao, 97–98.

 Cakchiquels, 14.

 Calendar of the ancients, 155.

 Campeche, 244.

 Cantinas, 44.

 Caribs, 127–128, 240, 267.

 Caribbean Sea, 235–236, 264.

 Carcaste, 123.

 Cargadors, 122–125.

 Carera, Rafael, 181–187.

 Casa, the, 110.

 Cassava bread, 266.

 Cathedral, the, 59, 66.

 Cattle raising, 273.

 Ceiba trees, 83, 276.

 Central America. United Provinces of, 175, 193.

 Central America, conquest of, 12. _et seq._

 Central Railroad, 138–139.

 Cerna, Vicente, 187.

 Chocon River, 50.

 Cholera, 181.

 Champerico, 19, 23.

 Chicle, 244.

 Churches, 209.

 Cisterns, 241.

 Cities, location of, 61.

 Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 237.

 Climate, 8, 10, 60, 248, 284.

 Clothing, 121–122.

 Coban, 7, 50, 146–147.

 Cochineal, 25, 139.

 Cocoanut palm, 95.

 Cock-fighting, 270.

 Coffee, 105–108, 136.

 Columbus, Christopher, 13, 165.

 Colon, statue of, 63;
   theatre, 67.

 Comayagua, 257–258.

 Commandancias, 127.

 Commerce in Honduras, 276–278.

 Congress, First, 175.

 Congrehoy, 276, 286.

 Conventionality, 113–114.

 Copan, ruins of, 151, 160, 164, 290, _et seq._

 Cordilleras, 9.

 Corn, 91.

 Cortez, Hernan, 90, 246.

 Costa Rica, 100.

 Costume, 129.

 Courting customs, 112–113.

 Credit, 117, 224.

 Creoles, 109, _et seq._, 212.

 Cruelty of Spaniards, 166, 205.

 Crusades, the, 203.

 Currency, 220–221.

 Customs, 33, 65, 71–73, 110–111, 227.

 Custom-house, 20.

 Dandies, 65.

 Davila, Miguel, 263.

 Debt, 117.

 Departments of Guatemala, 281;
   of Honduras, 283.

 Diaz, Porfirio, 12, 199.

 Dogs, 138.

 Drunkenness, 129.

 Earthquakes, 5, 287–288.

 Education, 75, 114–115, 219;
   in Honduras, 271.

 El Carmen, church of, 58.

 El Rancho, 141.

 Engineers, American, 147.

 Escuintla, 26, 138–139, 140.

 Exports, 221–222;
   of Honduras, 277.

 Farming, 92.

 Fiestas, 38, 77, 207.

 Flores, Vice-President, 6, 176.

 Flowers, 241–242.

 Fonseca, Bay of, 245, 276.

 Food, 32.

 Foreigners, 71.

 Foreign trade, 221–222.

 Forests, tropical, 81, _et seq._

 Fruits, 98, 241.

 Fuego, Volcano of, 5, 55.

 Gainza, Gavino, 172–173.

 Golfete, Gulf of, 48.

 Gracias-a-Dios, Cape, 245.

 Granados, 187, 188, 189.

 Granadilla, 98.

 Gualan, 42, 143.

 Guardiola, President, 264.

 Guardia Viejo, 77.

 Guatemala, Kingdom of, 13.

 Guatemala, area of, 9;
   population of, 11;
   travelling in, 24, _et seq._

 Guatemala City, 8, 54, _et seq._, 115, 141, 271;
   destruction of, 5, 55.

 Guatemala Northern Railway, 100.

 Hidalgo, 170.

 Hieroglyphs, 155, _et seq._, 294.

 Holidays, 121.

 Honduras, 100.

 Honduras, History of, 204.

 Hotels, 78, 254, 256.

 Houses, 62.

 Humming birds, 53.

 Hustler, a tropical, 101.

 Hut, building of, 45.

 Idols, 156.

 Iguala, Plan of, 174.

 Iguana, 88–89.

 Imports, 221–222;
   of Honduras, 277.

 Improvidence, 117–119.

 Indians, 31, 38, 74, 116;
   Customs of, 115–118.

 Independence, 173, _et seq._

 Industries, lack of, 273.

 Inquisition, 167.

 Insects, abundance of, 52, 86, 89, 256.

 Izabal, Lake, 6, 8, 47, _et seq._, 100;
   town, 49.

 Java, an American, 82.

 Jefe, 123.

 Jesuits, 190.

 Labor, laws of, 93.

 Land, cost of, 92.

 Las Casas, 167.

 Laundries, public, 77.

 Livingston, 7, 47, 128.

 Logwood, 84, 94, 243.

 Lotteries, 25.

 Machete, 42, 84.

 Mahogany, 83, 94, 244.

 Maize, 91.

 Mañana, 143, 227.

 Mango, 99.

 Mangrove-tree Swamps, 246.

 Manufacturing, 228.

 Manzana, 96.

 Marimba, the, 125.

 Markets, 72–74, 114, 241.

 Marriage, 112–113.

 Matapolo, the, 85.

 Mayas, the, 150, 297.

 Mazatenango, 9, 122, 138.

 Medicinal plants, 93.

 Mexican War, 264.

 Mexico, Annexation to, 175.

 Military service, 272.

 Minerva, Festival of, 219;
   temple of, 77.

 Mining, 229;
   in Honduras, 274–275.

 Missions, Protestant, 191, 214–216.

 Mistletoe, 34.

 Monroe Doctrine, 2, 226.

 Montagua River, 144, 157–158, 230.

 Montezuma, 151.

 Money, 20, 72, 220–221, 278.

 Monkeys, 86–87.

 Morazan Francisco, 176–179, 184, 259.

 Mosquito coast, 236, 266.

 Mountains, 3, 247.

 Mozo, the, 116–117, 122–125.

 Mulua, 137.

 Music, 124–125, 210.

 Museum, 75.

 Nature, Prodigality of, 247–248.

 Natives of Honduras, 267–269.

 National Palace, 63.

 Navy of Honduras, 249.

 Negroes, 144, 238.

 Newspapers, 219.

 New Orleans, 145.

 “No hay,” land of, 117–118.

 Nopal, the, 25.

 Northers, the, 243.

 Northern Railroad, 140–145.

 Nutmegs, 98.

 Occidental Railroad, 134, 136–138.

 Ocos, 5, 18, 146.

 Opportunities, 222;
   in Honduras, 278–279;
   in British Honduras, 243.

 Orchids, 83, 242.

 Outlaws, 182.

 Oxen, use of, 29.

 Pacific slope, 105.

 Palms, 82, 94.

 Panama, 135.

 Panama hats, 274.

 Pan American Railroad, 134–136.

 Panzos, 146.

 Parasitic growths, 83.

 Parks, 76.

 Parrots, 86.

 Paseo de la Reforma, 76.

 Passion-flower, fruit of, 98.

 Patio, 63.

 Patulul, 138.

 Peonage, 119–121.

 Peten, Lake, 6, 50, 151.

 Picture writing, 154.

 Pirates, 235–236.

 Plaza de Armas, 63.

 Plants, medicinal, 93.

 Political divisions, 11.

 Polochic River, 7, 50, 146.

 Popul Vuh, 152.

 Possibilities in tropics, 225.

 Post office, 75.

 Pottery, 229.

 Presbyterian missions, 71, 191, 214–216.

 President, term and election of, 12.

 Prisoners, 79.

 Priests, Spanish, 153, 206.

 Prisons, 254–255.

 Pronunciamentos, 171.

 Processions, Religious, 212.

 Protestant Missions, 214.

 Puerto Barrios, 7, 46, 145–146.

 Puerto Cortez, 249–252.

 Quahtemala, Kingdom of, 90.

 Quetzalcoatl, 201–202.

 Quetzal, 75, 86.

 Quezaltenango, 8, 137, 176.

 Quiché Indians, 14, 208–209.

 Quirigua, 151, 155, _et seq._

 Railroads, 132, _et seq._, 231;
   of Honduras, 252–253, 276.

 Rancho San Agustin, 39.

 Religion of ancients, 151.

 Retalhuleu, 9, 23, 122, 136.

 Revolutions, fear of, 22, 261–263.

 Rio Dulce, 47, 91.

 Rivers of Honduras, 245–246.

 Roads, 33.

 Roatan, Island of, 265, 267.

 Routes to Honduras, 248.

 Royal palm, 95.

 Rubber, 96.

 Ruins, 149, _et seq._, 202.

 Saint day, 121.

 Salina Cruz, 16.

 Salvador, San, 143.

 Santa Maria, Volcano of, 4, 6, 137, 288.

 San Benito, 17.

 Sanarate, 34.

 San Felipe, Fort of, 49.

 San Felipe, 137.

 San Jose, 139.

 San Juan, Fort of, 79.

 San Pedro Sula, 252–254.

 Santo Tomas, 46.

 Sarsaparilla, 85.

 Scavengers, 138.

 Schools, 75.

 Señoras, 114.

 Señoritas, 111–113.

 Servants, 116.

 Sierra de Santa Cruz, 47.

 Sierras de las Minas, 40, 47.

 Sloth, the, 88.

 Smoking, 130–131.

 Snakes, 88.

 Soldiers, 64, 79, 126–127, 271.

 Spaniards, Government by, 165, _et seq._

 Spanish-American women, 101–101.

 Staring, custom of, 111.

 Sugar cane, 96–97, 274.

 Superstition, 209.

 Tacana, Volcano of, 4.

 Tajumulco, Volcano of, 4.

 Tapachula, 22, 134.

 Tegucigalpa, 248, 255, 258–259.

 Temperature of Honduras, 284.

 Theatre, 111.

 Tierra caliente, 9, 42.

 Tierra fria, 10.

 Tierra templada, 10.

 Timber, variety of, 93.

 Tobacco, 98.

 Toltecs, the, 150.

 Tortillas, 75.

 Totonicapan, 8.

 Travelling, 61, 255.

 Tram cars, 79.

 Transportation, 132.

 Tropics, vegetation of the, 51.

 Tropical fruits, demand for, 104.

 Truxillo, 276.

 Tula, 150.

 Turtles, 88.

 Umbrella ants, 90.

 University of Guatemala, 75.

 Vanilla, 85.

 Vegetation, 37.

 Volcanoes, 4, 56, 286–290.

 Wages, 221.

 White-eye, 97.

 Wizards, Indian, 209.

 Women, 110, 128–129, 140.

 Yellow fever, 250.

 Yohoa, Lake of, 246.

 Yucatan, 149.

 Zacapa, 143.

 Zambos, 236, 266.

 Zutugils, 14.

 ● Transcriber’s note:

    ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.

    ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.

    ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
      when a predominant form was found in this book.