Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/21

Rh might be cultivated advantageously.” But the free negro will not work. With a hook and line he can in half an hour provide sustenance for himself and family for the day, and with this he is content. No stimulus will arouse him. He will undertake no employment but at an exorbitant rate of wages, and even then he is careless about finishing what he commences.

Considerable quantities of land are covered with pine of a superior quality. Where these abound the soil is sandy and not so productive; it would, however, be well adapted to the cultivation of the coffee plant.

The neighbouring woods are rich in objects of natural history, and it is much to be regretted that a field which promises so much should so long have remained untrodden.

Belize, like many other settlements similarly situated, abounds with insects, which by their number and venomous properties, become a complete pest. Swarms, or rather myriads of ants, darken every household utensil, and leave no corner of any dwelling free from their intrusions; hundreds of cockroaches (the Blatia Americana) appear in the evening, in almost every apartment; the very chambers of the houses are not free from the unwelcome visits of lizards, centipedes, and scorpions, to say nothing of the mosquito, or of that most fruitful of all the insect tribe, the