195 
Chap. XII.—B. S.J FUSTIC OF COMMERCE. 
natives. The fruit is sweet and edible. The wood 
might he profitably collected for export if there were 
any good ways of communication, as it fetches some¬ 
times as much as £5 per ton in Liverpool. At present 
nobody notices it. 
Don Lucas and one of his sons accompanied me to 
the Javali. "We left the estate at noon on the 23rd of 
November, and arrived at the mine on the following 
day towards sunset, riding across country, and passing 
the farm of Cunagua, where we stayed for the night. 
There had been a few slight showers since I had landed 
at San Ubaldo, but on the whole the weather had been 
fine, and the dry season was evidently beginning to 
set in on the plains. But it was different in the 
wooded mountains of Chontales, where the roads were 
yet in a dreadful state, and the rains still very heavy. 
In order to reach our destination the second day, we 
were obliged to leave our cargo-mules behind, and the 
consequence was that during the first night at the 
Javali we found it so cold—a strong northerly breeze 
blowing—that we could not get warm under the little 
covering we had brought with us. I may remark that 
one can sleep all the year round under blankets, unmo¬ 
lested by any mosquitoes, in the Chontales mountains, 
though their elevation above the sea is but 2000 feet 
in the parts where the principal mines are situated. 
This is one great element to be taken into considera¬ 
tion in speculating on the ultimate success of foreign 
enterprise in this region. 
No sooner had possession been given of the mines 
than Captain Holman and I put our heads together 
o 2 
