BIO GRANDE AND TOLEDO SETTLEMENT. . 37 



settlers from Louisiana, in the Southern States of America, after 

 the late war. ':". 



The forest between Seven Hills and the Toledo Settlement, 

 is composed of what may be termed a characteristic " cohune 

 ridge." It is a natural forest composed of valuable timber trees 

 such as mahogany, Santa Maria, axe-master, rosewood, augusta^ 

 salmwood, sapodilla, &c., with numerous palms. Chief among 

 the latter is the noble cohune palm, which forms about ten per 

 cent, of the forest growth. The ground generally, in the more 

 open parts, was carpeted with selaginellas, ferns, and shade- 

 loving grasses. Under dense shade the undergrowth was very 

 slight, and one could ride almost anywhere under the tall 

 canopy formed by the cohune palms and majestic timber trees. 



The Eio Grande Eiver is navigable for dorays some 40 or 50 

 miles, and it passes through magnificent country, as yet little 

 known. There is no doubt that if this southern district were 

 thoroughly opened, the lands on such rivers as this would soon 

 attract attention and become the seats of thriving industries. 



At the Toledo Settlement, which, as mentioned above, is 

 essentially American, about fourteen families settled, a few 

 years ago, in the virgin forest, with little or no capital. But by 

 undaunted courage and perseverance in overcoming the first 

 difficulties, they have succeeded in establishing comfortable 

 homesteads, and in placing under cultivation, chiefly in sugar- 

 cane, some 600 acres of land. The results of the experiment 

 are in many respects most interesting and suggestive. Although 

 in tropical countries, as a rule, the white man is not suited 

 for hard, laborious work in the sun, and it is better for him to 

 possess capital and to employ negroes and coolies for field 

 work, it speaks well for the climate of British Honduras that 

 the white settlers here have, by their own hands, turned a wild 

 tropical forest into a number of apparently rich and prosperous 



