166 . THE BOOM. Book I. 
of cattle are roaming. Both land and cattle are the pro- 
perty of Mr. B., a wealthy individual, if the mere possession 
of valuable materials, without the inclination of turning them 
to a useful purpose, constitutes wealth. But while we passed 
a night under the hospitable roof of Mr. B., we had an 
opportunity of seeing the owner of many square leagues of 
land and of thousands of cattle deprived even of that degree 
of comfort which in the United States may be found in the 
log-cabin of the squatter ; and this in the neighbourhood of 
a town like Belize, where cattle for the consumption of the 
inhabitants is imported almost weekly by sea from Omoa. 
A Yankee, in the position of Mr. B., would have mono- 
polized the cattle-market of Belize. His lands he would 
have parcelled out in half a thousand farms. He would 
have laid out on his property on the river a town ; and 
farms, as well as town-lots, he would have sold to some 
thousands of emigrants, whom he would have known how 
to induce to settle there ; and after having realized millions 
by this process, he would either have built a palace as his 
family seat at the Boom, or have retired to some of the 
fashionable cities in the United States or in Europe. 
The Boom, under more favourable circumstances, will 
not fail to become the site of a considerable town, and a 
delightful site it will be. We left early in the morning, 
and about three o'clock in the afternoon arrived at Bakers, 
where we remained for the rest of the day, spending a part 
of the time in a walk to the neighbouring "pine ridge." 
As from the borders of the river the traveller passes to 
this new region, the whole aspect of nature becomes changed 
. — the luxuriance of tropical vegetation disappears. Sur- 
rounded by scattered pine-trees and groups of palmettos, 
we found ourselves on a sandy soil, covered with a scanty 
growth of grass of very inferior quality. The country is 
