230 



MEXICO. 



hands were covered with them. It is said, how- 

 ever, that there is a bee in the country which 

 does sting ; but the kind we saw seem to have 

 neither the power nor the inclination, for they 

 certainly did not hurt us ; and our friends said 

 they were always " muy manso,^ very tame, and 

 never stung any one. The honey gave out a rich 

 aromatic perfume, and tasted differently from 

 ours ; but possessed an agreeable flavour. 



On the 26th of April, an answer to the appli- 

 cation of the merchants, for permission to ship 

 money in the Conway, was received from Mexico. 

 But the terms in which the licence was worded 

 showed, that although government had felt it 

 right, in conformity with a proclamation issued 

 some time before, to grant this permission, yet they 

 still retained the characteristic feeling of doubt, 

 as to the expediency of allowing gold and silver 

 to leave the country. They could not, all at 

 once, divest themselves of the mistaken idea, that 

 money, independent of its exchangeable value, 

 was riches. They had not yet learned to separate 

 the idea of wealth and power from the mere pos- 

 session of gold and silver ; not seeing that it wa» 



