THE TRADE IN LOGWOOD. 329 



law passed in the 23rd year of her reign. At length, after a century of 

 absurd prohibition it was allowed to be used. Alcohol extracts most of 

 the active principles of this wood and forma a deep coloured tincture. 

 The cutting, barking, and transport of logwood also known in the 

 European market as Campechy wood (Palo de Campeche) is a branch 

 of industry conducted in Yucatan. The tree is indigenous to the forests 

 of Tabasco, to the lowlands, islands, and banks of rivers, and lagoons, 

 and gives employment to very many, forming the principal article of 

 foreign export from that State. 



Far from the laud producing it in abundance it begins to disappear. 

 It is seldom met with near the mountains, although when planted on the 

 highlands and hills it arrives at perfection. To procure it cutting 

 establishments are formed in those places where it abounds, which are 

 called " tintales," and a more or less considerable capital is employed 

 in procuring hands, tools, boats, victuals, and other articles necessary to 

 the undertaking. It is cut with the axe, and is a work of torment, for 

 the low lands in which it grows are very marshy, and teem with mos- 

 quitoes. However, it is the most lucrative for the labourer. For in- 

 stance, in husbandry, say in the breeding of cattle, the labourer, if mar- 

 ried, gets four dollars per month, and three if unmarried, besides the 

 food necessary for his family. Whilst in the tintales every labourer 

 whether married or single, is paid according to his labour, and as there 

 is no overseer, as in cultivation, to take note of their work, each makes a 

 separate delivery, keeping a daily account of weight and date in the 

 " tintales," from which they cannot remove the wood until the 

 floods. 



They employ themselves in cutting and stacking it, till the season 

 approaches in which it is removed in small boats ; then each person 

 barks and delivers by weight as much as he has cut, and this is divided 

 into daily tasks (tareas), and the value of each tarea is placed to his credit. 

 These tareas consisted formerly of 25 pieces, averaging nine inches in 

 thickness, and weighing between ten and twelve Castilian quintals, or 

 cwt. without the bark. This method is still in vogue in some establish- 

 ments, but in others the tarea has been reduced to four or five light 

 quintals barked and brought to the loading-place. It is calculated that 

 when there is abundance of wood a man of mediocre strength can com- 

 pass that amount of labour in a few hours. Some labourers are paid a 

 real and a half (9|d.) for every quintal delivered within certain bounds ; 

 these are called quintaleros, and their families are not maintained by the 

 proprietor. But most commonly eight reals per tarea are paid, and that 

 shows that the labour applied to this branch produces 150 per cent, 

 more than the farm labour, supposing a man does not cut more than 

 half a tarea a day, which, including the food he receives, amounts to 

 five reals. The farm labourer only receives two, hence it is that logwood 

 cutters look better and are more comfortable than the others, although 

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