THE TONCA-BEAN INDUSTRY 11 



long for what they have earned to disappear in the round 

 of parrandas ^ sudi fiestas '^ the peon loves to indulge in 

 when he has money. But the profits of the sarrapieros 

 are not what they used to be, for the days when tonca- 

 beans were worth three or four dollars the pound have 

 passed away, to the benefit of the tobacco manufacturer of 

 the United States, the only market for large quantities of 

 this product. The beans are never shipped in the raw state ; 

 they are treated with strong rum, the process being called 

 * crystallising.' Puncheons open at one end, having been 

 placed in a row, are filled with beans to within a foot or 

 eighteen inches of the top. Strong rum is then poured 

 into the puncheons until they are quite full, when they 

 are covered over with layers of bagging. At the end of 

 twenty-four hours the rum not absorbed is run off, and the 

 beans are spread out to dry in a current of air. When 

 first taken out of the puncheons the beans are of a dull- 

 black colour and are soft and swollen; but on drying, 

 shiny white crystals appear on their surfaces, and by the 

 time they are ready for packing they look as if they had 

 been sprinkled over with powdered sugar. They have 

 shrunk a good deal and are wrinkled in appearance. They 

 are then put into wine-casks or rum-puncheons and are 

 ready for shipment. 



In referring to the tonca-bean industry I have touched 

 upon a subject intimately connected with my two voyages 

 to the region I have just roughly described, for it was 

 as the guest of a gentleman who was deeply interested 

 in this industry that I paid my first visit to the Caura 

 in the latter part of 1897. Some time in the eighties, 

 it must have been] in 1885 or 1886, I made the 

 acquaintance of Mr. J. B. Richard, who was on his way 



' Serenades. - Feast-days. 



