Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/117

Rh from the woods. Even monkeys are eaten, especially in the country bivouacs, though seldom offered for sale in the town markets.

The chief articles of farinaceous food are maize, or Indian corn, and rice; yet the home growth of each seems very moderate. They are peeled, or shelled, by head, in a rude mortar, made by hollowing out a piece of a large tree; and the operation is so troublesome as to make a great difference in the price of the article before and after it is performed.

The greater part of the sugar used in the Isthmus is imported in skins from Central America, or from the Valley of Cauca, by way of Buonaveutura, on the Choco Coast. It is thus dear. The home produce is chiefly miel, or molasses, and raspadura, or pan-sugar, which are preferred by the.inhabitants to the finer preparations. Great quantities of wild honey are found in the woods, the bees collecting which do not sting, and are thus robbed without precaution. No return is made of the manufactory of ardent spirits.

Mr. Lloyd thinks that the Statistical Table, given above, of the province of Los Santos, may be considered generally as descriptive of the others also, with the exception of Darien and Porto-Bello, which are comparatively uncultivated, and of Panamà, in which the vicinity of the capital city gives a preponderance the other way. In general, however, he adds, the western and central districts, with the islands in the bay of Panamà, are the best cultivated and most populous, Los Santos being one of them. Elsewhere the landlords keep their estates chiefly in grass to save trouble; and the population is nowhere industrious, though strong, and enduring, under occasional fatigue.

Their indolence, it is added, is not to be attributed wholly to the climate, or their own original constitution, but chiefly to the extreme fertility of the soil, and the comparative ease with which a man and his family can derive subsistence from it. With a gun and axe individuals, otherwise unprovided, take up their residence in any corner of the woods, and in two or three days will have erected a substantial hut, with upright posts and cross-pieces, as firmly fastened with vines as any nails or clamps could make them, and thatched with the split branches of the wild palm-tree, one of the best materials possible against either wind or rain. The family, at their leisure, then form a staga or second floor, to which a piece of balsa, cut with notches, serves to ascend; and a few stones for a fire-place, an iron cooking-pot, and some pieces of wood to sit on, complete the establishment. The nearest trees to the habitation are cut down, fire is. applied to the more distant, which, after burning some days, leaves the ground ready for a crop; advantage is taken of the first rainy season to get in the requisite seeds; and for everything else implicit reliance is placed on the gun. None of these people stir, even to work, without this their constant companion (generally an old musquet); and in tn hour or two they are