194 THK TROPICAL WORLD. 



tlie swampy forests of Yucatan, and in the low alluvial grounds 

 tliat g-irdle the Bays of Campeachy and Honduras. 



About the year 1661, logwood became in great request ; and 

 as the indolent Spaniards to whom the country at that time 

 belonged failed to supply the market, several English adven- 

 turers, without first asking permission, settled or squatted on 

 the uninhabited coast of Yucatan, and made the woods near 

 Laguna de Terminos ring with the sound of their industrious 

 axe. Many years passed without the Spaniards taking any notice 

 of the intruders ; but as these, growing bolder by sufferance, 

 began to penetrate farther into the country, to build houses 

 and form plantations, as if they had been masters of the soil, 

 their jealousy was at length aroused, and in 1680 the English 

 settlers were forcibly ejected. This triumph on the part of 

 their adversaries was, however, but transitory ; and a few months 

 after our sturdy countrymen were again cutting their logwood 

 as busily as ever, in spite of the enmity of man and the in- 

 numerable hardships of their laborious occupation. 



Their mode of life is thus quaintly described by Dampier in 

 his Voyage to the Bay of Campeachy : — ' The logwood-cutters 

 inhabit the creeks of the lagunes in small companies, building 

 their huts by the creeks' sides for the benefit of the sea-breeze, 

 as near the logwood groves as they can, and often removing to 

 be near their business. Though they build their huts but 

 slightly, yet they take care to thatch them very well with 

 palmetto leaves, to prevent the rains, which are there very 

 violent, from soaking in. For their bedding, they raise a 

 wooden frame, three feet and a half above ground on one side 

 of the house, and stick up four stakes at each corner, to fasten 

 their curtains, out of which there is no sleeping for mosquitoes. 

 Another frame they raise, covered with earth, for a' hearth, to 

 dress their victuals ; and a third to sit at, when they eat it. 

 During the wet season, the land where the logwood grows is so 

 overflowed that they step from their beds into the water, 

 perhaps two feet deep, and continue standing in the wet all 

 day till they go to bed again ; but, nevertheless, account it 

 the best season for doing a good day's labour in. Some fell 

 the trees, others saw and cut them into convenient logs, and 

 one chips off the bark, and he is commonly the principal 

 man ; and when a tree is so thick that after it is logged it 



