Chap. XXIV.—B.P.] 
MUSHLA. 
407 
all the tribes on the Mosquito coast; and such pre¬ 
cisely was u masato,” a national drink of the Incas, 
who can say how many years before the Conquest ?* 
In the face of such a fact, where is the philanthropist 
who will still maintain that at the door of Europeans 
lies all the guilt of introducing drunkenness and de¬ 
bauchery into the New World? 
In the tropics the light disappears with the sun; 
there is no twilight, no gentle blending of day and 
night; and, as I had not written up my journal, I 
told my Caribs to bring me a candle from the canoe. 
Instead of the candle, however, they brought me a 
bundle of splinters cut from the pitch-pine, which is 
found in great quantities at the back of Pearl Cay 
Lagoon; this, when lit, gives a bright clear flame, 
much more intense than that of a dozen candles, so 
I was not sorry for the change. 
The Woolwa was roused up from the corner where 
he had been dozing, and speedily converted into a 
candlestick,—holding out the lighted torch close to 
me, and looking on with stoical indifference at my 
journal-writing, respecting which he evinced not the 
smallest curiosity. Occasionally he varied the mono¬ 
tony of the task by scratching his head and different 
parts of his naked body, slapping his thigh or calf oc¬ 
casionally when a flea or some other vermin gave him 
a nip. 
I have before alluded to the mahogany trade which 
* Can there be any philological connection between the American 
terms “ cassava,” or “ kasava,” and the Polynesian “ kava” or “ ava,” 
supposed to be derived from the Sanskrit “ kasya” (intoxicating beve¬ 
rages) P 
