LIFE OP THE LOGWOOD-CUTTERS 239 



" For their bedding, they raise a wooden frame, three feet and 

 ;i licilf above ground on one side of the house, and stick up four 

 stakes at each corner, one to fasten their curtains, out of 

 Avhich there is no sleeping for mosquitoes. Another frame 

 tliey 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 

 tliat they step from their beds into the water, perhaps two feet 

 deep, and continue standing in the wet all day till they go to 

 hed 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 re- 

 mains still too great a burden for one man, it is blown up with 

 gunpowder. The logwood-cutters are generally sturdy strong 

 fellows, and will carry burthens of three or four hundred- 

 weight. 



" In some places they go a-hunting wild cattle every Saturday 

 to provide themselves with beef for the week following. WTien 

 they have killed a beef they cut it into quarters, and taking out 

 the bones, each man makes a hole in the middle of his quarter, 

 just big enough for his head to go through, then puts it on 

 like a frock and trudgeth home ; and, if he chanceth to tire, he 

 cuts off some of it and throws it away." 



The entire freedom from all restraint which accompanied this 

 wild and adventurous life had such charms for a bold and roving 

 spirit, that Dampier himself sojourned for about a year among 

 the rude wood-cutters of Campeachy, and left them with the 

 intention of again returning for a longer stay. 



The intrusion of the British continued to give rise to per- 

 petual disputes and hostilities, until at length, by the treaty of 

 Utrecht in 1713, the privilege of cutting logwood was confirmed 

 to the English, in plain and express terms, so that it was sup- 

 posed the question was now set at rest for ever. Yet it still 

 continued to be a subject of constant dispute between the parties ; 

 and in 1717 the Spanish ambassador delivered a memorial to 

 the British government against the English settlements at 

 Laguna de Terminos, declaring that if, in the space of eight 

 months, they were not abandoned, the inhabitants should be 



