124 BRITISH HONDURAS. 



As indicating that the residents in the colony have strong 

 faith in its capabilities and prospects, and are prepared to invest 

 their savings in it, four small companies have been organised for 

 the acquisition of land, and the cultivation of fruit for the 

 American market. As mentioned in the account of my visit to 

 that locality, two of these companies are established on the 

 Mullin's Eiver, namely, the British Honduras Fruit Company, 

 with a capital of $5,000 ; and the Belize Fruit Company, also 

 with a capital of $5,000. The larger Walize Fruit Company, with 

 a capital of $15,000, is on the Monkey River ; while the Manatee 

 Fruit Company is established on Soldier Creek. With careful 

 management and favourable seasons these undertakings have 

 every prospect of success ; and, as already they have large areas 

 under cultivation in bananas, the returns with this early 

 maturing and prolific crop should yield handsome returns on 

 the capital invested. I regard these local efforts as most favour- 

 able indications of the energy and spirit of enterprise which 

 characterise the people of British Honduras, and as also of the 

 strong faith which they have in the land of their adoption. 



The extent of land in possession of the Crown is very large 

 in the south, where the chief unopened forest-lands lie. In the 

 north the Crown has hardly any land. The Crown lands lie 

 south of a line drawn from the Sibun River to Garbutt's Falls ; 

 and, with the exception of a few lots on lease or already sold, 

 include the rich lands on Indian Creek (Sibun River), Manattee 

 River, Mullin's River, the upper lands on the North Stann Creek 

 and Sittee River, embracing the Cockscomb country, as well as 

 a large extent of back-lands in the interior on the frontier, as 

 far as the river Temash. Naturally the coast lands, and those 

 within easy reach of the rivers, are being taken up first ; but, 

 including all Crown and private lands, there are probably over a 

 million acres of fine cohune-ridge, or alluvial virgin soil, in 



