12 RUINOUS SPECULATIONS. Book I. 
siderable distance, as it takes its course through the dark 
shades of the forest. 
Behind the castle is a deep ravine, through which a clear 
brook rushes down to the sea between majestic trees. A 
crowd of half-naked women were occupied here in washing 
their linen. As we approached, they made signs that we 
should not come near — a rare instance of a feeling which in 
general seems to be almost unknown amongst the lower 
classes of Spanish America. As we proceeded in our 
walk we came to a grove of cocoa-nut trees, and on a small 
square between them saw the remains of a sugar factory, 
with several large kettles in good condition lying about. 
The establishment seemed to have never been in a working 
state, and undoubtedly has been one of the many unfortu- 
nate speculations begun in those regions of tropical America 
without a due appreciation of the difficulties and obstacles 
inseparably connected with the uncivilized state of a country. 
I have seen a like result of a similar speculation in British 
Honduras, where, in the wilderness surrounding the Mana- 
tee Lagoon, I found all the improvements and costly ma- 
chinery of an intended sugar plantation overgrown by the 
rank vegetation of a forest. 
The next day I took a walk along the coast, and after 
having followed it for two or three miles to a beautiful spot 
where, near a projecting rock, a little river empties into the 
sea, I took a footpath leading into the forest. This, after 
the distance of a mile, brought me to a number of huts con- 
structed of canes and palm leaves. Brown women, in all 
the finery described above, even the white satin shoes not 
excepted, were swinging in their hammocks in the open 
doorways. What might have induced these people to erect 
their habitations in the midst of the forest I could not learn. 
Perhaps they wanted to be near enough to the port to 
