216 



Doc. No. 75. 



Cochineal and indigo form the principal; great quantities; particularly of 

 the former, are shipped from the ports on the northern side of Honduras. 

 From the ports of the Pacific, 1,500 seroons have been exported during 

 the year to Europe, and the ports of Peru find Chile. Hides, iiorns, sarsa- 

 parilla, and balsam, for Europe and the United States, and mahogany, ce- 

 dar, and sugar , for Chile and Peru. Those form the principal articles of the 

 export trade, which, in proportion to the imports, is on the increase. Bra- 

 zil wood, with which this State, as well as Cost Rica, abounds, formerly 

 afforded employment to a great number of British vessels. The fall of 

 this article in the home markets^ has for the present caused it to be but 

 little sought for. 



*'In agriculture, this State is rapidly improving. In addition to indigo, 

 sugar, cacao, wheat, rice, (fee, (fee, coffee and cotton are now better at- 

 tended to, but more particularly cotton and indigo. The former, which is 

 much esteemed and known in the European market as ^ green suche,' is 

 an annual plant. The staple is short, which defect is overbalanced by its 

 superior texture, and it is particularly adapted to certain manufactures. 



The province of Nicaragua has the advantage of diversity of climate, 

 the plains in the vicinity of the large towns of Leon, Grenada, and Ni- 

 caragua being tropical, and the heights nearing the lakes from the Pacific, 

 as Chocoyes, Matagalpa, and Segovia, being temperate, whilst in the re- 

 gions about Honduras it is generally cold even for an European. 



^' The soil is everywhere fertile and capable of yielding every species of 

 produce of corresponding temperature. Mines also exist, but are not 

 worked for want of capiial and population, particularly as the plains af- 

 ford abundance of nutriment to the limited population at very trifling 

 labor. 



The seasons are periodical, with slight variations. The summer, or 

 dry season, commences in the early part of November; and the winter, or 

 wet season, in the laUer end of April or beginning of May. 'Vhe summer 

 is perfectly dry, at which time commercial interpourse is carried on; which 

 during the winter, particularly at the latter end, becomes difficult from the 

 state of the roads. 



*'Itis during the winter that the agriculturist commences his labors, 

 and during the months of September and October that the rains are ex- 

 cessive. 



The chmate is considered generally very healthy, although inter- 

 mittent fevers, by neglect, degenerate into typhus: there are no epidemical 

 diseases peculiar to it. The health of the natives, as well as that of Euro- 

 peans, is influenced at the change of the season. Any important devia- 

 tions may be traced to neglect or excess, especially as regards foreigners. 



The temperature in the shade ranges from seventy to ninety degrees 

 in the plains near the seacoast. 



" The internal comrjierce of the country is facilitated by good cart 

 roads in the plains, which are practicable (even in their neglected state) 

 from the South Pacific to the town of Grenada, on the lake of Nicaragua.'* 



MINES OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 



Dunlap, who paid considerable attention to the mines and minerals of 

 Central America, observes : 



Though the vegetable productions of Central America are so valu- 



