28 INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL. 



We anchored a short distance from the beach, and 

 went ashore in the small boat. We landed at the foot 

 of a bank about twenty feet high, and, ascending to 

 the top, came at once, under a burning sun, into all 

 the richness of tropical vegetation. Besides cotton 

 and rice, the cahoon, banana, cocoanut, pineapple, or- 

 ange, lemon, and plantain, v^ith many other fruits 

 which we did not know even by name, were growing 

 with such luxuriance that at first their very fragrance 

 was oppressive. Under the shade of these trees most 

 of the inhabitants were gathered, and the padre imme- 

 diately gave notice, in a wholesale way, that he had 

 come to marry and baptize them. After a short con- 

 sultation, a house was selected for the performance 

 of the ceremonies, and Mr. Catherwood and I, under 

 the guidance of a Carib, who had picked up a little 

 English in his canoe expeditions to Balize, walked 

 through the settlement. 



It consisted of about five hundred inhabitants. Their 

 native place was on the seacoast, below Truxillo, with- 

 in the government of Central America ; and having 

 taken an active part against Morazan, when his party 

 became dominant they fled to this place, being within 

 the limits of the British authority. Though living 

 apart, as a tribe of Caribs, not mingling their blood 

 with that of their conquerors, they were completely 

 civilized ; retaining, however, the Indian passion for 

 beads and ornaments. The houses or huts were 

 built of poles about an inch thick, set upright in the 

 ground, tied together with bark strings, and thatched 

 with coroon leaves. Some had partitions and bed- 

 steads made of the same materials ; in every house 

 were a grass hammock and a figure of the Virgin or 

 of some tutelary saint ; and we were exceedingly 



