650 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April i, 1895. 
"Peru," hut the earlier paragraphs refer to the 
way thither, and we may sample them for our 
readers after the following fashion i — 
There are three routes available from Europe to 
Peru — the most direct, after crossing the Atlantic, 
being up the Amazon ; the most comfortable by the 
Straits of Magellan; and the quickest, via the . 
Isthmus of Panama. To save time, let us choose 
the last. One advantage of this route is, that it 
gives us a peep, in passing, at the island of Earba- 
Soes and Jamaica — the two oldest and most valuable 
of our West Indian possessions. Uarbadoes is only 
160 square miles in extent, but every acre is culti- 
vated, chiefly in sugar-cane, and, altogether, the best 
cultivated little tropical colony I have come across. 
It is densely populated, chiefly by negroes, who look 
much happier and better off than the poor " whites." 
The English language only is spoken — spoken with a 
terrific fluency and an unmistakable Irish brogue. 
Headers of Carlyle's "Cromwell" will not be at a 
loss to account for this, remembering how Oliver sent 
so many of his refractory Irishmen there. " Terrible 
Protector ! " exclaims the Sage, " can take your estate, 
your head off if he likes. He dislikes shedding blood, 
bat is very apt to Barbadoes an unruly man; has 
sent, and sends up in hundreds to Barbadoes, so 
that we have made an active verb of it — Barba- 
does you." 
Jamaica has a magnificent harbour, from which 
superb views of the grand old Blue Mountains are 
ti be seen. Kingston, the capital, is spread out on 
the rich flat land lying between ; sweltering under a 
blazing sun, from which even the laughing negro is 
glad to take shelter below the umbrageous tree-. 
The climate and vegetation strikingly remind one of 
Ceylon, but alas ! the abandoned hillsides testify to 
the greater labour difficulties of the poor planter 
here. A few days more and we heave in sight of 
the Isthmus of Panama. 
Europeans, or men from temperate regions do not 
readily acclimatise to the tropics, and for that matter, 
a3 far as my experience goes, the same rule holds 
g)od in the vegetable kingdom; for although nearly 
all our most cherished plants come to us from near 
the equator, we cannot, as a rule, induce our native 
trees to take root there. 
The railway on which we cross the Isthmus belongs 
to an American compauy, and Jonathan knows well 
how to make the most of it. No such exorbitant 
charges would be tolerated in any civilised country, 
and beyond the mere cost of ticket and transport 
of baggage the amount of palm-oil one has to ex- 
pend cn "officials in order to get along at all is 
. simply iniquitous. " Ah !" says Jonathan, '■ but you 
little 'know how costly this railway has been. Every 
sleeper it rests upon cost a life." As if those who 
paid down those lives or suffered through it got the 
profit ! It takes about four hours to get over the 
45 miles of comparatively flat land dividing the 
Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and such is the con- 
ditio*! of the first-class American carnages that a 
shower of rain renders the use of an umbrella abso- 
lutely necessary, even while seated in them. 
The outlook from the carriage windows is not ex- 
actly inviting. There is not an acre of real cultiva- 
vation ; we simply pass between living walls of 
natural greenery. The beautiful banana leaf, the 
graceful bamboo, and curious mangrove, the glossy 
mangoe tree and feathery palms, ail mixed up with 
ferns, orchids, and creeping flowers of every possible 
form and hue, display a truly tropical scene. By 
those who have never left a temperate region, the 
astonishing variety of plants near to the Equator can 
ssarcely be realised. 
A more beautiful situation for a city than that of 
Panama would be difficult to find in the world. 
Historically, Panama is chiefly interesting to us as 
the quondam headquarters of the Spaniards during 
the years they were spying out with envious eyes 
that great land of promise, Peru. 'Twas from here, 
360 years ago, that the bastard, but ambitious, 
swineherd Pizarro set sail with his cruel and greedy 
adventurers. 
Pizarro took six weeks to accomplish the distance 
we covered comfortably in one afternoon, namely to 
Point Piuas, nbere he turned into the river Bim, 
which some suppose to be the origin of the name 
Peru. After sailing up this stream for a few miles 
he caj e to anchor, and proceeded to explore the sur- 
rounding swamps. There we must leave him for a 
time. Pity it was he ever came out of them ! 
Peru in Pizarro's time, the magnificent, prosperous, 
and wisely-governed land of ancient Inca, extended 
along the coast for 3.000 miles, including what is now 
Columbia, Ecuador, Ciiili, and Bolivia. Since then 
it has been considerably curtailed, divided, and sub- 
divided into little Republics, each more corrupt than 
its neighbour. 
Now-a-days our first port of call from Panama is 
Guayaquil, the commercial capital of Ecuador, sixty 
miles inland, beautifully situated on th* Guay, the 
Suest river flowing into the Pacific, fl'he inland of 
Puna, at the entrance, may be noted as the frequent 
rendezvous of Pizarro and his crew. Ecuador is a 
rich and lovelv country, owned, however, by one of 
the rottenest little Republics in South America, and 
this is saying a great deal. 
The descendants of Europeans living near the 
Equator seem to degenerate more rapidly aud 
thoroughly than they do at a safe distance. The 
descendant of the Spaniard here is a very different 
type from tho Chilian, for instance, who. with all his 
faults, is a brave, active and industrious nmn. 
But the country around is a vegetable paradise, 
such as Britain; with all her tropical colonies, can 
scarcely lay claim to be supplying spontaneously the 
very finest varieties of tropical products and fruits, 
such as cocoa, coffee, pine-apple-, plantain, and chiri- 
moya, &c, tho latter beyond all comparison the most 
delicious fruit I ever tasted, so unlike anything else 
that it cannot well be described. Mr. Clements Mirk- 
ham, the illustrious traveller, speaks of it as •' spiri- 
tualised strawberries," but I do not know that this 
description conveys very much. The tree, usually 
about 15 or 20 feet high, is a native of Peru, and 
belongs to the natural order called Anpna 1. exten- 
sivcly represented in India and Ceylon by a relative 
known as tbe .Sour noj), a rather refreshing fruit in 
a hot climate, but coarse compared with this " master- 
work of nature." 
Of commercial products cocoa is the chief, and yet 
there cannot be said to be any cultivation. " At what 
distance apart do you plant your cacao trees?' 
I asked an old planter I chanced to meet. "Plant!" 
he repeated reflectively, "why, the donkeys plant 
all our cacao." "The donkeys!" I exclaimed, w r ith 
unfeigned surprise. "Yes, yes," hi hastened to ex- 
plain, " the human-being-like animal yoo English 
call donkeys." It dawned upon me that the man 
meant "monkeys." And it turned out that, being 
fond of the fruit, they o .-oa-donaHy mwae inroa Is upon 
the ripe cocoa, whicii they carried lo M diVtai.ce, en- 
joying the luscious pulp, but dropping the iieeds, and 
thus extending the plantation. 
We think we have quoted enough to show the 
intelligent reader that in travelling along the 
South Armericaii borderlands, visiting the rainless 
hut (through irrigation) most productive Coast 
districts of Peru, or in climbing over the Cor- 
dilleras, visiting towns and districts on the plateaux 
at varying altitudes and finally in exploring the 
grand forest country about the sources of the 
Amazon, he has in Mr. Sinclair no bare recorder 
of information such as the Guide-book, Directory 
or even the historical volume affords. As a prac- 
tical tropical planter himself, as well as a ac- 
complished horticulturist, our author has bruoght 
to his task, a literary ability which enables him 
even on the most wearisome and forbidding part 
of his route, to make his pages attractive as well 
as pleasantly instructive. He mingles ancien^ 
