42 



NARRATIVE OF A 



the road leading from Izabal to the capital. But the same 

 fatality that attends all efforts at improvement in this 

 country, rendered this plan abortive, and it was in like 

 manner abandoned. 



Our object in coming hither was to take in fuel. While 

 this was doing, I landed with two or three of the passen- 

 gers, and proceeded to the huts just mentioned. We 

 found there only a white man and two negro women ; 

 the latter inhabiting one of the huts, and the former 

 lodged in a sort of barn, open to the four winds, except 

 at one extremity, which was boarded off, and served as a 

 bed-chamber. The man was a sort of commandant in the 

 place. He had erected a flag-staff close by his dwelling, 

 and wore a cockade as an indication of his authority. He 

 received from the Government a salary of eight hundred 

 dollars for remaining there, but was now, he said, pretty 

 nearly tired of the solitude of the place and of the insig- 

 nificance of his office, and was about to resign. All his 

 furniture consisted of a truckle-bed, a few stools for chairs, 

 and a rude table of rough boards. There was a ham- 

 mock suspended from the beams of the roof, a rusty fowl- 

 ing-piece in one corner, and a fishing-net in another. He 

 had some pigs and plenty of poultry, who had the range 

 of the house, and seemed quite at home in it. He also 

 had a kitchen garden, which I looked into and found well 

 stocked with plantains, pumpkins, and other vegetables. 

 In one of the largest huts, or rather in a large shed sup- 

 ported by upright shafts, there was a quantity of boards 

 and shingles, which had been procured by the Govern- 

 ment and sent thither for the erection of houses. But 

 there was now no probability that this lumber would be 

 used for the purpose for which it was intended, or for any 

 other, as it was in such a state of decay as to be almost 

 useless. We remained in this Robinson Crusoe establish- 

 ment only a short while, the mosquitoes becoming so 

 troublesome, that we were glad to return to the vessel. 



The quantity of wood required having been now taken 



