TOPOGEAPHY OF HONDUEAS. 265 



Paerto Sal and Triunfo, lying east of tlie Ulua, are mereh^ exposed roadsteads, 

 followed by tlie mvicli more frequented port of Progreso, wliicli is formed by an 

 indentation on the south side of Roatan Island, perfectly sheltered from all 

 winds, but a hotbed of deadly fevers. 



TnixUlo, founded in 1524, and chosen as the capital of the new department of 

 Colon, is also well protected from the trade winds by a promontory disposed, like 

 that of Puerto Caballos, from east to west, and enclosing a basin accessible to the 

 largest vessels. But the town is a mere collection of huts, inhabited by a few 

 hundred Caribs, who are engaged in the export trade of mahogany, sarsaparilla, 

 cattle, hides, and other produce brought down by convoys of mules from the mag- 

 nificent province of Olancho. 



This highly-favoured upland region, watered by the headstreams of the Patuca 

 and Romano rivers, enjoys a perfectly salubrious climate ; its soil is extremely 

 fertile, forest glades and woodlands alternating with rich arable tracts and 

 savannus under succulent herbage, while copious streams flow through every 

 valley, washing down auriferous sands from the wooded and picturesque slopes of 

 the encircling heights. On an affluent of the Patuca stands the little town of 

 Jutigalpa, and in the neighbourhood the Indian village of Catacamas, the products 

 of whose industry might be forwarded northwards by the Romano Valley to 

 Truxillo, south-westwards by the mountain passes leading down to the Choluteca 

 Valley, and north-westwards by the Patuca river, accessible to the Carib canoes 

 to the port of Delon, within a few leagues of Jutigalpa. Yet, with all its 

 exceptional advantages, this glorious region is still almost deserted. For the whole 

 of the extensive department of Olancho, the last census returned a population of 

 little over 30,000, while that of Colon, comprising all the noith-west corner of 

 Honduras, is occupied by less than 8,000 natives ; altogether scarcely 35,000 in 

 a region where millions might easily be supported without any overcrowding, as 

 in some of the "West India Islands under the same latitude. 



Comayagua, chief town of the department of like name, and former capital of 

 the republic, stands at an altitude of 2,000 feet on an extensive plain about mid- 

 way between the two oceans. Founded in 1540 by Alonzo Caceres, Nueva Valla- 

 doUd, as it was formerly called, was a prosperous city of nearly 20,000 inhabitants 

 before the year 1827, when it was besieged, taken, and sacked by the Guatemalan 

 *' Serviles." It never recovered from that blow, and at present its chief attractions 

 are the numerous ruins of ancient cities by which it is everywhere surrounded. 

 Of these the most remarkable is Tenampua- {Pueblo Viejo), standing on a lofty 

 eminence nearly 20 miles south-east of Comayagua, and comprising within its 

 enclosures a number of apparently religious edificeS; pyramids, terraces, sculptures, 

 and much painted pottery. 



West of the department of La Paz, whose present capital, La Paz, stands on the 

 site of the ancient city of Las Piedras, the chief place towards the Salvador frontier 

 is Esperanza, not far from the famous Erandique opal mines. Near Virttid, in the 

 same hilly district of Intibucat, is seen the remark-able cave of the " Agua de 

 Sangre," a red fluid which coagulates as it falls and then putrefies, emitting an 



