18 BRITISH HONDURAS. 



Honduras offers inducements superior, I believe, to those of 

 most British Colonies. There are thousands of acres of magnifi- 

 cent land offered by Government at an upset price of a dollar 

 an acre, capable of growing nearly every tropical product. 

 Some of these lands are either near the banks of rivers, with 

 easy communication with the coast, or on the coast itself. 

 There is an abundant market for bananas, plantains, coco-nuts, 

 oranges, pine-apples, and all tropical fruits in demand in 

 America, and regular direct communication, by means of mail 

 and other steafaers, with both England and the States. For 

 the. cultivation of sugar-cane, coffee, tea, cacao, spices, tobacco, 

 vanilla, and rice, British Honduras offers special advantages. 



As regards mineral wealth, there has always existed an idea 

 in the colony, suggested no doubt by the yield of mines in the 

 neighbouring Eepublics, that precious stones, and especially gold, 

 might be found in British Honduras. About five years ago this 

 idea took a definite form, and steps were taken to explore the 

 country at the head-waters of the Sittee Eiver, and if possible 

 find whether gold-bearing quartz existed there, and in the Cocks- 

 comb Mountains. The leaders of the party, accompanied by 

 four Creoles, proceeded up the Sittee Eiver, took the left branch, 

 and found chiefly rocks of " blue and red slate, flint shingle and 1 

 limestone." Finding the prospect in this direction so uninviting* 

 they retraced their steps, and then proceeded up the Main Eiver. 

 Taking a land journey to the westward, they found the country 

 very broken and rugged : " a succession of steep hills and 

 gulches " rendering travelling exceedingly laborious. No 

 indications of minerals were met with, except occasionally 

 huge quartz boulders in the bed of the river. Many valuable 

 woods, such as Santa Maria, were found in abundance; but 

 animal life was almost entirely absent, except in the coast-belt. 

 After a month's absence in the bush the party at last was com- 



