ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. 151 



the past fifteen years there is reported to have been sixteen revolutions. 

 The continuous struggle of those out of power to get back in has resulted 

 in a discord which has been a bar to advancement. With this situation 

 in mind it is an easy step to the conditions that exist and keep the coun- 

 try where it is today, and where it will remain until some more stable 

 form of government will have become permanently established. 



Many of the custoir.s brought over by the Spaniards in the early days 

 of the country are in existence, and no doubt will be for generations 

 to come. For instance, the old Spanish method of milking a cow is in 

 practice from one end of the country to the other. It is the common 

 belief that a cow will not give down her milk unless first started by 

 the calf. The calf gets two teats as pay for getting the flow started, 

 and is then tied to one of the front legs of the cow while the remain- 

 ing contents of the udder are drawn into a gourd cup. The native ex- 

 planation is that the cow will not give down the milk for a man until 

 the calf starts it, and the cow is content in the belief that the calf 

 is extracting the entire supply even after it is tied to her leg. 



The total estimated area of this country is about 40,000 square miles 

 (or about the size of the state of Ohio). It has a population of 543,741, 

 more than half of whom can neither read nor write. There are 27,000 

 whites, 217,000 mixed, 27,000 negroes, and 271,000 Indians. In other words, 

 there are more Indians than any other race, and at the present time there 

 are few pure-blooded Spaniards who are natives of the country, the In- 

 dian or aboriginal element predominating. In the eastern section of 

 the country these races have experienced little intermixture with the 

 whites. The better-known tribes are the Caribs and Sambos. The Caribs 

 being a livelier and more energetic race than the sluggish Sambos, who 

 are of negro and Indian descent, have driven the latter southward 

 and have forced them to relinquish their former domain. Their origin in 

 Honduras is ascribed to the wreck of a large slaver which was driven 

 ashore not far from Cape Gracias, early in the seventeenth century. The 

 negroes escaped, and, mingling with the Indians, soon exterminated them, 

 and later, by the receipt of firearms and other means of aggression sup- 

 plied them, became the masters of the entire region. They engaged 

 extensively in the traffic of slavery, by capturing and selling Indians into 

 bondage. The Indians, thus driven into the interior by the Sambos, 

 left the usurpers in power. The number of Samobs now in Honduras 

 is small. 



The story of the alleged coming of the Caribs to Honduras is not 

 without romance. They are said to have lived on the Island of St. Vin- 

 cent, in the West Indies, where, at the conclusion of the war between 

 England and France, they were found to be in such sympathy with the 

 French that their deportation in 1796 to Roatan, in the Bay of the 

 Islands, was brought about. From the Bay Islands they soon made 

 their way to the mainland of Honduras, where they established a num- 

 ber of settlements near Truxillo. The Caribs who came to Honduras 

 were of the tribes of Black and Yellow Caribs, and the distinction in 

 this direction is apparent after the lapse of a century. 



