HONDURAS. 17 



finest agricultural lands I have ever seen. You can hardly imagine any- 

 thing but what will grow most luxuriantly : bananas, plantains, pine- 

 apples, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, tomatos, watermelons, and, in fact, 

 almost anything you plant. 



All along the coast and around the lagoons, while it is not so good 

 for bananas and plantains, it is so much the better for cocals [cocoanut 

 plantations]; and while anything in the vegetable line grows here it is 

 not so good for bananas, etc., as the soil is sandy, and they don't seem 

 to last many years. 



Black river is said to be navigable eighty miles. Ebon lake is fifteen 

 miles long, and extends west within half-a-mileof Plantain river, which 

 is navigable for forty miles. Thus you see that most all of the whole 

 grant is easily reached. 



I believe this is as good, if not the best fruit-growing country on this, 

 the north coast of Honduras, and for stock-raising, everything consid- 

 ered, 1 believe it would te hard to find a place to equal this. 



We were told that there are about the same number of Indians 

 on this side of the Patuca as there are on the southeast side. They 

 are all peaceable, and we had no difficulty in getting on all right with 

 them. 



We are told that up the Guaranta, Guineo, Black and Plantain there 

 are good lots of mahogany and cedar. I am especially delighted with 

 the Patuca country. While it is a good, large river, it has a strong cur- 

 rent and high banks, and overflows but little land even at its highest. I 

 think it is perfectly healthy ; usually a good strong breeze blows from 

 morning to night. 



The route from Juticalpa to the river Patuca, ma Dulce Nombre, 

 Lagarto, and Guampu is perfectly practicable for a wagon road, which 

 can be made at reasonable cost. The whole distance from the mouth of 

 the Guampu to Juticalpa is about 150 miles, twenty-six leagues of which 

 would be through the Juticalpa valley, and would require but little 

 work. The Lagarto section would be the most difficult, as it is moun- 

 tainous and, like the Guampu, has a heavy undergrowth ; but I think we 

 have sufficient scope to get a good, easy grade, and as the subsoil is of a 

 sandy nature, by cutting the timber well away from the road I think it 

 would be reasonably dry at all seasons of the year. 



Taking the grant as a whole, I think it is decidedly a very fine piece 

 of property, and while I believe thoroughly in some of the mines of 



and pampas abundantly provided with pure water." See page 13. 

 Reporting to the general Government in reply to questions about this 

 grant, Senor Fernando Martinez, governor of Colon, said, November 4, 

 1887: "The lands referred to contain a number of mountains covered 

 with every kind of woods, India rubber, cactus and pita fibres, and so 

 extensive and unobstructed savannas that the view is lost in the dis- 

 tance." 



