A TRIP TO THE TROPICS. 17 



amount of thirt}- millions of cfoUars had been negotiated in Europe, 

 it was thought best to have an insurrection and overturn of the 

 government, so that those who had obtained the money might 

 retire on a competency without accounting for what they had 

 received. This was accomplished, and toda}- Honduras is in 

 consequence the poorest of the Central American States ; with a 

 railway of only thirty-seven miles in length, and a debt that will 

 never be wiped out. The railway with its rolling stock and work- 

 shops is now leased for $1,200 per year, and the trains run as often 

 as employment offers. We chartered a train of three cars and an 

 engine to go to San Pedro and return — we taking coal from the 

 ship to run the engine — and even with this precaution we were 

 seven hours on the way to San Pedro. However, we were well 

 repaid for the trip, as the line went through a region of the most 

 beautiful foliage I ever saw. Banana orchards and cocoanut and 

 Cohune palms extend for miles along both sides of the track, and 

 when these were passed forests of unexampled luxuriance greeted us 

 on every side. All the trees around here have a most curious for- 

 mation at the ground, as their roots seem to commence far up the 

 trunk and gradually spread out into huge buttresses ; which afford 

 the breadth requisite for supporting their enormous growth in the 

 soft ground of the tropics. This base has not onl}' to support its 

 own superstrucLure, but also innumerable vines and creepers, 

 affectionately clinging to the trunk and gaining strength as they 

 grow, even to the very top. Often the usurping vine grows with 

 such an overpowering vitality as to completely smother its support. 

 The branches of nearly all the large trees are covered with all 

 sorts of orchids and other epiphytal plants, clothing them so pro- 

 fuseh' that in some instances, when completel}^ soaked with moist- 

 ure, the mass becomes too ponderous to remain where it grows, and 

 often there falls at once to the ground a quantity sufficient to stock 

 a large orchid house. In fact, vegetation is so very rampant in 

 this country that whenever a seed happens to lodge on a tree, it 

 almost immediately germinates and begins to grow, and then comes 

 the struggle as to which will survive the longest, the horse or the 

 rider. I have seen trees completely covered and smothered by 

 others of quicker growth, and they presented a wonderfullj' 

 peculiar appearance. 



To a person not accustomed to tropical vegetation, I think the 

 most striking trees are the Palms. The Cocoanut is the most 

 2 



