The Republican journal., 1896-08-20

facilities for raising and shipping fruit
which Livingston is now developing, it is
reasonable to suppose that New Orleans
will not long be allowed to absorb all the
bananas and pine apples, or England all
the coffee and mahogany shipped at Liv-
beyond the natural advantage of port
and the conveniences of trade between it
and other countries to insure permanent
prosperity. At present no systematic
cultivation is known in this region, out
side the few plantations owned by citizens
of the United States, but the wonderful
ly profuse crops grow much as they did
in the Garden of Eden before our earliest
ancestors learned the importance of fig
leaves. Bananas and plantains are yet al
most the only products of commercial i'm
poltance; for the pine-apples grow wild,
cassava, breadfruit, mangroves and zap
otes are not exported, and all the shores
are lined with cocoanut trees. Planta-
ton work consists of clearing the land of
forest, usually in January and February,
allowing the felled trees to dry, burning
in May, and planting in June. No pillow
ever burrows the virgin soil, and the hoe
is the only implement needed by the hus-
bandman. The greatest labor is keeping
the crops clear of weeds; but | am told
that it is not so great as on our northern
farms; because, although vegetable
growth is much more rapid. the country
is yet free from foreign weeds. They say
that in the United States the most PERM
cions and rapid growing weeds have been
imported; as in the Hawaiian Islands,
the vegetable growths that have ruined
thousands of acres of pasturage, are not
one of them Indigenous. The Guatema-
Ian planters have only palms, canes,
ferns, ginger and other easily eradicated
plants to contend with. Indian corn is
planted in slight holes made with a stick
and covered with the foot; and it is a well
attested fact that within four days from
planting the corn may be four inches high.
The stalks are often II feet high, and only
ninety days are required to mature the
crop, which is harvested three times a
year. Upland rice is scattered broadcast
on the soil, and the straw grows 6 feet
high, with generous heads, yielding the
finest rice known, two crops every year.
Sugar cane has yielded in the vicinity of
Livingston three tons of sugar per acre,
for 20 years without replanting, result
unknown in any other sugar country and
a very big story, l know, but true, never
theless. At present there is not sugar
mill in eastern Guatemala, and only
enough cane is planted to supply the de-
mand for eating, or rather for chewing,
for a native of the lower class is seldom
seen in his leisure moments without a
section of cane between his teeth.
We cannot say much for the attractive
ness of life in Livingston at the present
time, though nature has done its best for
the place. Bread fruit trees and bananas
grow in the streets, and palms of every
variety, including the cahoon, one of the
most beautiful and useful trees of the
tropics. The natives live in the most
primitive style in their low houses of
whitewashed mud The Caribs, who
comprise the bulk of the population,
keep themselves entirely aloof from the
whites. Their strong family-feeling is
often troublesome enough to those who
depend upon them for labor OF supplies.
No money will induce them to sell an
ounce of their marketable goods to white
men until every Carib has first been sup
piled. They always work by the task,
or stint" and do certain amount
faithfully for small sum but when that
task is accomplished, though it be in the
morning and they have earned but few
cents, no amount of money will induce
them to do another stroke. Livingston S
foreign colony resides mostly ON the hill
known as Ell Campo Santo Viejo, 1.-The
Old Burial Ground where hundreds of
the early CARDS found last resting place
and many more modern tombs remain,
the latter built above ground, in the form
of bake-ovens The hill stands at the
western end of the settlement and over
looks long strip of the beautiful ''Sweet
River and the shabby village street with
its stores and saloons. As the ancient
Romans provided entertainment for the
eye when they reclined at meat, so we,
while taking our simple meal near the
open door of the grave yard cottage, had
an entertaining panorama constantly be-
fore US. In front, the amphitheatre of
limestone cliffs, draped with convolvulus
and topped with matched houses under
groves of cocoa palms; below, the narrow
beach, lined with canoes of every shape
and size. The big custom house-the
, only prominent building in the town,
) built before Livingston became free
port and now devoted to other govern
ment uses; the new campo santo with it's
t collection of bake ovens; the barracks
and close beyond, the jungle. 1t is relat-
ed of this valiant garrison that few
years ago French corvette anchored off