96 NICARAGUA. 



An intoxicating liquor is made with the fruit. It is rather 

 pleasant and has a peculiar taste. 



Sugar can be extracted from the fruit. 



I have also seen parcels of dried fruits sent to Europe, 

 and we had a fair sample of them in the Guatemala Pavilion, 

 at the Paris International Exhibition of 1889; but it was not 

 much appreciated by the Visitors. 



With a little care, the plants may be made to bear fruits 

 all the year round, and it is estimated that an acre planted 

 with bananas will produce forty times more in weight than 

 potatoes, and one hundred and thirty times more than 

 wheat. It has also been calculated that the produce of one 

 acre, planted in bananas, will yield a yearly income of four 

 thousand pounds sterling. 



It is very easy to set out a plantation of bananas. The 

 stems are annual and usually die after the exhaustive process 

 of fruiting has been completed, new ones being produced 

 from the root-stock. It is by planting these buds that the 

 banana is propagated, and a new plantation made. These 

 stems being numerous round the dead plant, the task is 

 easy. In about ten months, the new plants will bear fruit. 

 It requires scarcely any work at all in the way of weeding,* 

 these plants being so perennial that they do not leave room 

 for any other plants to grow between them. 



To the fertility and large productive power of these 

 plants is partly due the laziness of the Negroes and Indians 

 inhabiting the tropical countries of America, and this is more 

 especially seen in Nicaragua, where these fruits are the 

 principal food of the inhabitants. 



To that fact, I have attributed the difficulty I experienced 

 in getting men to help me in my researches. As soon as they 

 had earned a few shillings, it was quite impossible to make 

 them work. So long as they had a little money for drink, 

 they lazily remained for hours and days' warming themselves 

 in the sun, like lizards, or bathing in the lake for hours at a 

 time. 



From the town to the lake, the route was always crowded 

 with people, some going, others returning. In fact it was a 

 curious and interesting sight to see these people bathing, both 

 sexes together. It is true that a bath in the lake was delightful, 

 and I enjoyed man_y ; but I never remained in the water for 

 hours as the natives did. 



They were not at all afraid of crocodiles, which were 

 abundant at certain places, and which from time to time 



