Chap. XI. VISIT TO HONDURAS — OMOA. 177 
CHAPTEK XL 
Visit to Honduras, continued — Omoa — Pleasant Navigation of the Gulf of 
Honduras — Carib Villages of the British Territory — The Zapodilla 
Keys — Cerro de Guyamel — Omoa — The Malinche, or Guacamayo — 
Wild Scenery in the Neighbourhood — Climatic Influences of Northerly 
Winds — Oak Trees by the side of Cocoa Palms — Northern Birds of Pas- 
sage — Excursion to the Northern Terminus of the Honduras inter-Oceanic 
Railway — Carib Village of Tulian — Severity of Caribean Criminal Justice 
— Port Cortez and Alvarado Lagoon — Prospects of this Locality — The 
Honduras inter-Oceanic Railway. 
On the 28th of March we left Belize for Omoa, one of 
the two seaports which, at the present time, the State of 
Honduras possesses on its Atlantic side. Four or five 
small schooners keep up the communication between that 
place and Belize ; their crews, as well as their masters, are 
either negroes or Caribs, from whom nothing beyond the 
merest elements of the art of navigation can be expected. 
Nevertheless, these vessels find their way. The passage, 
however, it must be confessed, needs no great skill ; the 
greater part of the distance, which is generally made in 
one day and a half or two days, leads through a portion of 
the Bay of Honduras, well protected against the heavy 
swells of the ocean by an almost continuous line of reefs 
and keys. It is a quiet sea, on which even the nut- 
shell canoe of the negro woman or Carib boy may pass 
safely along. In one of these coasting- vessels we took our 
passage. 
The little trip is a very pleasant one : the climate is 
delightful, the water smooth, the aspect of the coast on one 
side and of the keys on the other highly interesting. As 
N 
