266 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



odour of blood. The liquid, which owes its colour and peculiar properties to the 

 living organisms contained in it, affords a certain nourishment to birds and other 

 animals. 



The most densely-peopled part of Honduras is the basin of the Choluteca river, 

 which descends to the Pacific at the Gulf of Fonseca. The upper portion of the 

 basin, which forms a natural transition between Salvador and Nicaragua west and 

 east, comprises the department of Tegucigalpa, which gives its name to the present 

 capital of the republic. This place almost suddenly acquired great importance in 

 the year 1762 as the centre of a region abounding in gold and silver mines. 

 Between 1778 and 1819 the Tegucigalpa district yielded nearly £40,000,000 to 

 the trade of the world, and mining operations, interrupted by wars, revolutions, 

 and oscillations in the value of the precious metals, have in recent times again 

 been actively resumed. 



Teo-ucigalpa, chosen in 1880 as the seat of congress, and even designated as a 

 future capital of the Central American Confederation, is by far the largest place in 

 the republic, and is increasing from year to year. It rises in amphitheatrical form 

 at the foot of a steep mountain on the right bank of the Choluteca, which is here 

 crossed by a ten-arched bridge. Concepcion, on the opposite side of the river, 

 forms an integral part of the city. 



Two other departments, also abounding in mineral resources, are comprised 

 within the Choluteca basin. One of these, whose capital, Yuscaran, dates from the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, has received the well-merited designation of 

 Paraiso, or "Paradise," while the other takes the name of the river and of the 

 Indian nation dwelling on its banks ; Choluteca, its capital, on the left side of 

 the estuary, was the Xeres cle la Frontera of the early settlers. 



Nacaome, on the river of like name, which also flows into the Gulf of Fonseca, 

 but much farther west, is noted for its mineral waters. Its port of San Lorenzo 

 stands at the northern extremity of the inlet of like name, where shipping finds 

 good anchorage in depths of 22 to 24 feet close to the shore. One of the projected 

 interoceanic railways has its terminus at this port ; another is carried over the Pio 

 Nacaome near its mouth, and, after crossing the marshy backwaters between 

 Gueffensi and Sacate Grande and the mainland, terminates on the west side of the 

 latter island over against a vast roadstead some 20 square miles in extent, and 

 from 30 to 50 feet deep, close to the future terminus. 



Pending the construction of this important line, Amapala, the seaport of 

 Honduras on the Pacific, stands on the north-west side of Tiger Island, at one time 

 a stronghold of the buccaneers. Sacate Grande and Tiger Islands both belonged 

 formerly to Salvador, which allowed Honduras to occupy them in 1833 in return 

 for her co-operation in the local wars. 



Economic Condition of Honduras. 

 Although fully one-half of Honduras is still almost a vast solitude, its popu- 

 lation has increased at least threefold since the beginning of the century. The 

 first census, taken in 1791, gave a population of 95,500, while the last (June, 



