RICE AND MAIZE. 101 



demand for rice must exceed the supply ; indeed, at the present 

 time, rice is being imported to the extent of some two thousand 

 bags. If it is accepted as an axiom- that " wherever mahogany 

 will grow, there every tropical product will nourish, and where- 

 ever logwood grows there you can produce the finest rice," then 

 British Honduras should produce rice, not merely enough for its 

 own wants, but to supply the whole of the West Indian Islands. 



Indian corn. Maize (Zea mays), or Indian corn, may be 

 looked upon as the staple food of the Indians and Caribs, who 

 make it into tortillas, or thin cak.es baked upon gridles. The 

 cultivation of maize is probably one of the oldest upon the 

 Americali continent, the Indians having been found engaged in 

 it at the period when the New World was discovered.* 



Combined with bananas and plantains, or as a catch crop 

 with oranges, cacao, and other plants of a permanent character, 

 maize may be grown to a very large extent. 



Although some 7,000 acres are returned as under cultivation 

 of maize, the whole of the produce is consumed in the colony, 

 none being at present exported. 



* " In Central America, the bread made from the maize is prepared, at 

 the present day, exactly as it was in ancient Mexico. The grain is first of 

 ;dl boiled along with wood ashes, or a little lime ; the alkali loosens the 

 outer skin of the grain, and this is rubbed off with the hands in running 

 water ; a little of it at a time is placed upon a slightly concave stone, called 

 a metlate, from the Aztec metlatl, on which it is rubbed with another stone, 

 shaped like a rolling-pin. A little water is thrown on it, as it is bruised, 

 and it is thus formed into paste. A ball of the paste is taken and flattened 

 out, between the hands, into a cake about 10 inches diameter, and -^ inch 

 thick, which is baked on a slightly concave earthenware pan. The cakes 

 so made are called tortillas, and are very nutritious. "When travelling, I 

 pref erred them myself to bread made from wlieaten flour. When well 

 made and eaten .warm, they are very palatable." The Naturalist in Nica- 

 ragua, p. 56. . 



