Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/107

Rh in their prevailing habits of intoxication, and in the multitude of spirit-shops which, on every hand, offer temptations too powerful to be resisted by a people untrained to any habits of self-government. The liquor commonly taken, is prepared from what are termed panelas; these are small loaves of unrefined sugar, drawn from the cane, and by some called raspings; they are excessively sweet and cloying to the taste. Dissolved in water, and mingled with the juice of different fruits, the fluid is left to ferment until it becomes very strong and acquires its intoxicating effects. When in this state, it is considered fit for sale; and as it can be prepared at so cheap a rate as to come within the reach of the poorest Indian, immense quantities are disposed of, under the name of chicha, and these wretched creatures may be seen rolling about the streets and suburbs, in a state sometimes approaching to madness, and sometimes to insensibility, under its overpowering influence. In this way they spend the little money they acquire by their labour, and never rise higher in the scale of civilization than the low grade in which their progenitors have lived and died.

A more permanent and universal source both of crime and laxity of morals will however be found in the want of that early education which checks the growth of the corrupt principles of the