HONDURAS. 39 



in 1839-41 by an English company, under the countenance of the British 

 settlement at Belize, but all have proved signal failures. The last adven- 

 turers named the district " Province Victoria," and made an unimportant 

 establishment, to which they gave the name of Fort Wellington. An 

 account of this expedition was written by Thomas Young, a person con- 

 nected with it in some official capacity, which conveys considerable 

 information concerning this portion of the coast. He describes that 

 portion of the stream called Rio Tinto as flowing through a low, but rich 

 and densely- wooded country, which, a few miles higher up, becomes 

 swampy, and covered with willow trees. At the point where a branch of 

 the main stream diverges to connect with the Criba, or Black River 

 lagoon, commences the savanna and pine-ridge country, where some 

 Sambos have a settlement. The savanna supports a few cattle, but the 

 land is poor, and unfit for cultivation ; " but, notwithstanding its aridity, 

 it is very beautiful. It extends several miles in every direction, and 

 appears to have been laid out by some landscape gardener. It is relieved 

 by clumps of papter trees and low shrubbery, which are the haunts of 

 many deer. There are also great quantities of lofty pine trees. Some of 

 the pine-ridges on this coast are very extensive, and are valuable for 

 their timber, which is the red pitch-pine, rich in turpentine. This tim- 

 ber, from its length and straightness, is not only very useful for build- 

 ing, but also for masts and spars. In the pine-ridges many mounds of 

 earth rise above the level surface to the height of eight or ten feet, and 

 have broad tops, large enough for dweilingr-houses. Some parts of the 

 savanna, however, are swampy, and are the nurseries of annoying 

 insects." Above this pine-ridge the river is bordered by a continuous 

 " bush," relieved higher up by many gracefully-bending bamboos, and 

 the tall cabbage palm, the crown of which affords food, and the straight 

 trunks, when split, boards for native buildings. At a point sixteen miles 

 above the mouth of the river, the English anciently had an establish- 

 ment, and here the sarsaparilla and cacao begin to make their appear- 

 ance. Near this point had been anciently a coffee plantation, at a place 

 called Lowry Hill, and near by had been a sugar estate, the boilers for 

 which still remained at the time of Young's visit., " Thousands of banana 

 trees, loaded with fruit, were growing spontaneously." The ground 

 here becomes elevated, and the Poyer, or Sugar Loaf Peak, 2,000 feet high, 

 shuts off the view seaward. Up to the " Embarcadero " the river is much 

 obstructed by snags, which, even in small boats, it is difficult to avoid. 

 Young adds that " the passage from Fort Wellington to the Embarcadero, 

 during a flood in the river, takes a pitpan, with six men, three days and 

 a half. The descent, under similar circumstances, can be made in a day 

 and a half." The Embarcadero is estimated by Roberts (Strangeways 

 following his authority as ninety miles from the sea, but this is probably 

 an over-estimate. 



