HOW JOSE FORMED HIS " COCOA » ESTATE 289 



the benefit of the uninitiated, to preface it with the following 

 glossary : 



Despidido 



Moroootas 



Caramba . 



Sanoocho 



Aguadiente 



Boucan . 



Madre del cacao 



Amigo 



Compadre 



Immortelle 



Buoare . 



Anauca . 



Agouma . 



Malojo . 



Farine 



Casaripe . 



Lianes 



Rastrojo . 



Bachaco . 



Peonea . 



Guatepara, or Guatepalo 



= a parting drink. 



= Spanish gold pieoes. 



= an elegant " Cuss " word. 



= a favourite stew, flesh, fowl and vegetables. 



= strong water — rum, whisky, &o. 



= a level cemented floor for diying, also a fire heap. 



= mother of cacao. Shade tree. Erythrina, &c. 



= my friend. 



= ditto. 



= shade tree. 



= the lowland shade tree. 



= the hill shade tree. 



= a weed used in soup. 



= com or maize trash. 



= meal from cassava. 



= cassareep or the inspissated juice of cassava. 



= ropea of climbing plants. 



= overgrown with Dush. 



= the parasol ant, very destructive. 

 = labourers. 



= Trees which smother with a clasping growth. 

 After the animal known as the " sloth," 

 which, making a clasp, never lets go. 



HOW JOSE FORMED HIS "COCOA" ESTATE 



Introduction. — I had been listening for a long time to the opinions of several 

 and divers planters. My Grenada friend said : " Away with the immortelle 

 trees. Plant the avocado and nutmeg. You will have three crops." Mi 

 Amigo Corsicano said : " Diavolo, let the cocoa-trees grow, let them branch off 

 like any other fruit-tree, say the tamarind. The ' choupon ' or sucker will in 

 time bear much more than ita mother." I was not satisfied. I bethought me 

 of old Jose, the owner of that luxuriant estate at Oropouche called " Mi Amor." 

 I determined to find out how he formed it. 



Jos6 was not in a good mood for an interview. A Ward Officer was in his 

 yard asking for the year's taxes. Not that Jos^ could not pay the taxes, but 

 ever since he had " leased the land," as he termed it, he had determined to 

 let the Warden aend for the rates every year. 



After aome time old JosS came to himseU. I immediately tackled him about 

 himself — his weak point. I had heard of this. 



" Caramba," said he ; " yes, I have come from the land of Bolivar, where we 

 are not zealots, where the chopo makes bad men understand reason, and where 

 every man is a man, no matter whether he is white, green, black, or blue: I 

 am here through a family affair, having arrived in the island immediately after 

 the great war of the Federation, in the fifties — I, Jos6, who served under the 

 valiant Falcon." 



I had heard that he arrived here with a few morocotas tied around his waist, 

 the janiero system of carrying money over there, but he didn't mention this. 

 (ThiJs syatem I have found is practiaed here just now a great deal, not only by 

 the coolies, but even by aome Creoles. It is very, very safe, for neither your 

 friends, family, nor the Savings Bank people can know that you are possessed 

 of any ready money.) 



Joa6, 1 had learnt, was a very hard-working man. Two things he liked, vii. 



T 



