57 
[ Bep. 564. ] 
not be there, and oblige me to pay them for carrying back the plants to- 
my boarding-house near the gate, and thence back again to the mole, 
when the canoe should be ready to carry them aboard. 
Hence, you perceive that,in addition to paying exorbitant prices for each 
cart-load, I was obliged to pay the same three times over for the same 
load, beside the trouble of unloading and reloading. If the load had been 
disembarked on the wharf, when the canoe was not there, I should have 
been obliged to stay alongside of it the remainder of the day and all night, 
exposed to insults and violence, or left the plants to certain destruction. 
As a young Mr. Gookins, from New Hampshire, had engaged his pas¬ 
sage in the Mexican schooner Francisco, I was so extremely anxious to 
ensure his protection of the plants from the hostility of the Mexican cap¬ 
tain and crew during their passage, that I over-exerted myself both in 
body and mind to such a degree as to be in imminent danger of death 
during the night. As this amiable young man passed both the^day and the 
night at my side, and the next day took from my feeble lips the directions 
relative to the distribution of the plants and bees, he will be able to give 
you the details of my sufferings during only twenty-four hours of the many 
years that I have passed in behalf of the domestication of tropical plants. 
You will recollect the Sr. Leal, of Yucatan, to whom I gave you a let- ^ 
ter of introduction, and to whose care I intrusted a large perspective view 
of this port and city, to be presented to our venerable President. Would 
you believe that he brought advices from a Spanish merchant in New 
York, to the Governor of this , State, to beware of permitting my embark¬ 
ing any more hemp agaves, as the cultivation of them in Florida would 
be prejudicial to the planters and State of Yucatan. That he did communi¬ 
cate that message, I have the authority of the Vice Governor himself, who 
was present during his conversation with the Governor. Mr. Leal I for¬ 
give, because he has since sent me some seeds of a species of cotton, which 
he affirms to be a climbing plant, cultivated in the interior of this penin¬ 
sula 5 but the Spanish merchant of your city must be reminded that he 
has acted unworthily the title of American citizen, which he bears, and of 
the prosperity which, under its protection, he enjoys, however character¬ 
istic of the degraded blood in his veins. 
With the foregoing circumstances in view, you will see that it is im¬ 
possible for any individual to obtain an entire cargo of living plants from 
Yucatan, unless aided by a vessel of war, expressly sent by the American 
Government for that purpose. You know that the exportation of the 
cochineal insect is expressly prohibited by the Mexican Government it¬ 
self ; and, although there is no law which prohibits the exportation of a car¬ 
go of hemp agaves, or of the cochineal cactus, yet I have no doubt that 
any individual attempt would be effectually opposed both by the people 
and the authorities. 
So extremely absurd is the ignorant jealousy of the people in general^ 
that if a foreigner manifests a desire to collect the most worthless weed,, 
they imagine it at the moment to be worth a mine of gold. The first re¬ 
ply to the most simple question about the most ordinary plant, is, “ How 
much is it worth in your country ?” And the more you endeavor to con¬ 
vince them that it has no pecuniary value, the more strongly they per¬ 
suade themselves that it Avill afford a fortune to its possessor. Like the 
dog in the manger, however, they will neither eat themselves nor permit 
others to eat. Having heard that the collectors of antiquities had acquired 
