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.

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.

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 manoeuvre 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.

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]

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.

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.