Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/20

Rh Britannic majesty and seven magistrates annually elected by the settlers. The market is generally ill supplied. The want of energy is so great that although every kind of fruit and vegetables would grow almost spontanteously, there is often a considerable scarcity. Turtle is procured in abundance, but like every thing else very dear.

The trade of the place is considerable; employing annually about 16000 tons of British shipping. The neighbouring Spanish provinces are supplied with British manufactures; and cedar, fustic, hides, indigo, logwood, cochineal, mahogany, sarsaparilla, tortoise shell and specie are exported: commerce is also carried on with Omoa, Truxillo, and the Golfo Dulce.

The soil is generally good, an abundance both of heat and moisture, favouring the putrefaction of a mass of organic substances, while it often proves the cause of disease, produces a stiff deep loam, capable of bringing to perfection all kinds of European vegetables, as well as the productions of the torrid zone. The difficulty of obtaining labourers is the only obstacle to the production of every thing calculated to administer to the comforts or luxuries of life. “The cactus, upon the leaf of which the cochineal insect subsists, grows spontaneously in the woods; the cotton tree, the indigo plant, the palma christi or castor oil plant, and the sugar cane all thrive on the soil, and