CHAPTER XIV

THE RICH COAST

"But oh! the free and wild magnificence

Of Nature in her lavish hours doth steal,

In admiration silent and intense,

The soul of him who hath a soul to feel.

"The river moving on its ceaseless way,

The verdant reach of meadows fair and green,

And the blue hills that bound the sylvan scene,--

These speak of grandeur, that defies decay,--

Proclaim the eternal architect on high,

Who stamps on all his works his own eternity."

--Longfellow.

The afternoon preceding our arrival at Puerto Limon, the captain of

our steamer called our attention to a wonderful mirage due south of

us. High above the water--apparently midway between the sea and the

sky--was suspended one of the islands of the Caribbean that stand off

from the Panama coast. So far away was it from our course that, had

it not been for the peculiar atmospheric conditions then prevailing,

it would have been quite invisible, even with the aid of the most

powerful glass. A beautiful, fantastic shape it exhibited as, seen

through the trembling and shimmering air, it seemed to float in the

hazy atmosphere. At first it was of a pearly-gray tint, then of a

fustian-brown, and finally, as it became more distinct in outline,

it shaded into a dark olive green. The apparition lasted for nearly

an hour, when it gradually disappeared.

"The Vanishing Island of St. Brendan," exclaimed a young Celt who had

been admiring the scene. And then he read for us what John Sparke,

a companion of Hawkins in the voyage of 1564, writes:

"Certaine flitting ilands, which haue beene oftentimes seene, and when

men approched neere them they vanished, ... and therefore it should

seeme hee is not yet borne to whom God hath appoynted the finding of

them." [288]

The flitting islands that Sparke refers to were, it is true, supposed

by him to be in the neighborhood of the Azores. But their location

was uncertain, at least the one named after the seafaring Irish

monk, for divers positions have been assigned it by cosmographers

and mediæval writers. Among other peculiarities possessed by this

island was that it had an apparent motion towards the west--a motion

that was quite sufficient to have carried it at the beginning of the

twentieth century to the westernmost part of the Caribbean.

"In this motion westward," said C.--as our representative of classical

lore--"the Island of St. Brendan would have but followed the example

set by the Elysian Fields and the Isles of the Blessed. Pindar and

Hesiod placed them in the Western Ocean, but much farther west than

Homer had located his Elysium. As the years rolled by, the Fortunate

Islands and the Gardens of the Hesperides, for these were but synonyms

of the Isles of the Blessed, were also found, like St. Brendan's,

to have moved towards the region of the setting sun. Subsequently,

birth was given to legends respecting a Transatlantic Eden and a

Mexican Elysium somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico or among the beauteous

isles of the Caribbean Archipelago."

"Very true, very true," said one of our party, a good-natured German

privat-docent, who was perched hard by on what seemed to be the first

reclining chair ever devised. It was a cumbersome structure about

four feet high, apparently modeled after one of those lofty bedsteads

once the vogue in certain parts of the Vaterland, and vastly different

from the modern reclining chair so popular with ocean travelers, and

so rickety that it threatened every moment to collapse and deposit

its portly occupant--for he was a man of weight, physically as well as

intellectually--on the hard floor of the hurricane deck. "You are quite

right, Sr. C. The Isles of the Blessed, like the Island of St. Brendan,

are quite as ubiquitous and elusory as is the Terrestrial Paradise

described in Genesis. For learned men who have written about it have

located it, at one time or another, in almost every part of the earth's

surface. Some maintain it was somewhere in the valley of Mesopotamia,

others that it was east of the Ganges, or near the head waters of

the Nile. Columbus imagined it was nigh the source of the Orinoco,

while an American author--a Bostonian, I believe--some decades ago

published a work in which he endeavoured to prove that the seat of

Paradise was the North Pole. As for myself, I have never ventured

to formulate a theory on any of these interesting subjects. They are

out of my line. Davus sum non OEdipus."

Just then there was a crash. Like the "wonderful one-hoss shay,"

the tottering old chair had collapsed and the docent lay sprawling

under the ruins.

"Caramba, donnerwetter!" These two exclamations, so dear to the

Spaniard and the German, when they wish to express surprise and

disgust, were emitted with an explosive violence that left no one

present in doubt as to what thoughts were uppermost in the mind of our

friend as he was endeavoring to extricate himself from the entangling

frame. With the aid of some of the bystanders he finally regained

his feet, but he manifested no desire to continue the conversation

so suddenly interrupted.

"Carajo, donnerblitz!"--two expressions even more vigorous than

the preceding--constituted the finale to the performance that

afforded amusement to all except the leading character, who disliked

exceedingly the undignified position in which he had momentarily been

placed. Fortunately, the last call for dinner had been given just a

few moments previously, and we accordingly adjourned to the dining

saloon, where other matters absorbed the attention of the unlucky

docent as well as the spectators of his ungainly tumble.

The morning following the little episode just referred to, we were in

sight of Costa Rica [289]--that rich coast--discovered by Columbus

during his eventful fourth voyage. The wooded lowlands, bordering

the sea, are clothed in a mantle of rich tropical verdure. A short

distance behind them arise the escarpments of the Central American

Cordillera, that is the scene of the activity of such noted volcanoes

as Poas, Irazu and Turialba. Owing to the proximity of the Sierra

to the sea, it appears much higher than it really is, and, when the

weather is clear, it presents a picture of rare magnificence. This is

particularly the case when it is seen at sunrise, the time it first

met our view. Then we had before us the violet expanse of the summer

sea canopied by the splendid azure vault of heaven, while before us

stood up in all its majesty the gentian blue peak of the Cordillera

that gradually melted into crimson and then into gold.

Owing to the reports that had been received at Limon regarding the

plague at Trinidad, and the fear that it might already have reached the

Spanish Main, none of the passengers were allowed to land until they

had passed, on the part of the health officers, an examination of more

than usual strictness. Fortunately, we had provided ourselves with a

health certificate before leaving Barranquilla and were permitted to

land after but little delay. Those, however, who could not exhibit

such a document were at once ordered off to quarantine. Everyone,

however, had to be vaccinated, unless one could produce evidence

that he had been vaccinated only a short time before. As very few

could present such evidence, the great majority had to submit--many

of them much against their will--to being inoculated with the virus

that is supposed to render one immune against smallpox.

While these operations were going on, we had an opportunity of getting

a good view of the coast in front of us. It had a special interest

for us, for it was the favored land along which Columbus sailed in

his last voyage in 1502. Here, before us, there is reason to believe,

was the land of Cariari, and, just a stone's throw from our steamer

was the charming island of Quiribri, which, on account of its beauty

and the lovely trees with which it was adorned--palms and bananas and

platanos--the Admiral called El Huerto--the orchard. To-day it is known

as the island of Uvita, and is used for quarantine. As we gazed on

this exquisite spot, provided with cozy cottages nestling among clumps

of stately palms, and decked with beauteous flowers of every hue, we

almost regretted that we could not spend a few days there. Had we been

sent there with the others we should certainly not have complained.

So fascinating was this place that Columbus anchored here between the

island and the mainland to give his crew an opportunity to refresh

themselves after their arduous voyage. And so fragrant were the

groves on the mainland that their perfumes were wafted out to the

ships. This, we have noted, was also the experience of the early

explorers of Florida.

While here, Columbus held frequent converse with the Indians, whom he

found intelligent and well disposed. They brought him gifts of cotton,

cloth and gold and evidently were inclined to enter into friendly

relations with their strange visitors. In his letter to Ferdinand and

Isabella, referring to this land, he writes: "There I saw a tomb in

the mountain side as large as a house, and sculptured. [290] This is

remarkable as being the only passage in all the Admiral's writings

which could warrant us in concluding that he ever set foot on the

mainland of the New World.

Until the middle of the last century Port Limon was but a

small rancheria--it did not deserve the name of village--of poor

fishermen. Now it is the chief port of the republic and a flourishing

town of 6,000 inhabitants. Its present importance and prosperity

are due to the completion of the railroad from this point to the

capital, San José, and to the fact that it is the principal centre

of the rapidly-increasing banana industry controlled by the United

Fruit Company.

The place is quite modern in appearance, and were it not for its

exuberant tropical vegetation, might easily pass for one of our

enterprising Gulf Coast towns. It boasts of all modern improvements,

has good sanitation, broad streets, comfortable homes and a delightful

park that, for wealth and variety of tree and shrub and flower,

looks like a well-kept botanic garden. While the white race is

well represented, the majority of the population is made up of West

Indian negroes.

During our travels among the Antilles and on the Spanish Main, we

frequently had occasion to note the importance of the banana and

the platano as articles of food, but it was not until our arrival in

Limon that we had an opportunity of observing the extent to which the

cultivation and shipment of these fruits have been carried. Here are

two long iron piers at which one will occasionally find as many as

six or eight large steamers being freighted at the same time with

the golden fruit of Costa Rica, preparatory to distribution among

the leading ports along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

The culture of the banana in Costa Rica on an extensive scale is of

recent date. In 1880 but three hundred and sixty bunches were sent to

the United States. Now the amount shipped from Limon alone averages

more than a million bunches a month. During the year 1908 the number

of bunches that left Port Limon aggregated more than thirteen million,

and the amount shipped is rapidly increasing. In addition to the daily

shipments made to the United States weekly cargoes are forwarded to

France and England.

But great as are the proportions which the banana trade has already

assumed, it is safe to say that it is as yet but in its infancy. What

in most parts of our country and Europe has hitherto been practically

unknown, or been regarded as a luxury beyond the reach of the poor,

is now rapidly finding its way among all classes and at such prices

that even those of the most limited means can have it on their tables.

That which first impresses the visitor from the North is the large

number of species of the Musa and the extraordinary number of uses made

of them. Already fully forty species have been described and nearly a

hundred varieties. Most of these bear fruit which is as agreeable as it

is nutritious, and which is often of a flavor of the utmost delicacy.

Reference has already been made in a previous chapter to the extensive

and varied use made of bananas and platanos by the peoples of tropical

climes, but even they have still much to learn regarding the food

value of their great staple. Recent investigations have revealed the

fact that the fruit of the Musa is henceforth to be regarded not only

as one of the most wholesome and nutritious of foods, but also as one

of the most important means of subsistence for the world's rapidly

increasing population. Even now it is felt that the supply of flesh

meat and cereals is rapidly becoming less than the demand, and too

expensive for the poor, and thoughtful men have already set to work

to devise ways and means to meet the emergency. And one of the means

suggested is a more extensive cultivation of platanos and bananas,

as well as a more general use of their manifold products.

Humboldt long ago pointed out the great economic value of the banana

and the platano as sources of food supply. [291] But he did not have

the data we now possess for arriving at just conclusions. As the

result of numerous experiments it is now known that bananas afford

per acre one and a third times as much food as maize produces, two

and a third times as much as oats, three times as much as buckwheat,

potatoes and wheat; and four times as much as rye. Then the labor

involved in the cultivation of the banana is far less than that

demanded for our northern crops. No skill is required, and unlike

many of our northern fruit-bearing trees, the banana and the platano

are entirely exempt from insect pests and diseases.

Chemical analysis discloses the curious fact that bananas and

potatoes are practically identical in composition. As compared with

the principal vegetables and fruits consumed in the United States and

Europe, the food value of the banana and the platano stands in the

ratio of five to four in favor of the latter. Comparing banana flour,

a new product of this remarkable fruit, with the flour made from sago,

wheat and maize, it is found that the nutritive value of all four is

about equal--the banana product being slightly in the lead.

As a consequence of recent researches the commercial products obtained

from the banana and platano have been greatly increased, while some

of them are vastly different from anything that people who have been

living on them for thousands of years have ever dreamed. Among these

are meal in the starchy state for making superior kinds of bread and

porridge, flakes and meal in a dextrinous condition for the preparation

of nourishing soups and puddings, sauces and fritters. [292] In dried

slices it is used in the manufacture of beer and alcohol. Bananas are

also employed in making marmalades, for the manufacture of glucose

and syrups for confectionery, and, dried entire without the peel,

they are put up in boxes like figs. Dried and roasted they afford

a nutritious beverage that is said to be a valuable substitute for

coffee and chocolate. Even the stems and leaves of the banana are

put to use, for from them are manufactured paper and cordage.

These facts open up a splendid vista as to the future food

possibilities of the tropics. They demonstrate also the wisdom of

giving more thought to this neglected part of the world, for it is

to tropical America that the teeming millions of coming generations

will be obliged to look for much of their sustenance. Our northern

climes will be unable to meet the demands that will eventually be

made on them.

Before we boarded the train at Limon for San José, the capital of

the little republic, a young German, who had visited the lowlands

through which the railway passes, said that we would there see the

most remarkable exhibition of vegetable growth in the world. "It is,"

he declared, "the Urwelt"--the primeval forest--"in all its luxuriance

and glory."

As he had never seen any tropical scenery outside of Costa Rica, and

very little of that, we, who had just come from the exuberant forest

regions of the Magdalena and the Orinoco, were disposed to give little

heed to his statement. Compared with Germany, the floral display of

Costa Rica was doubtless something really marvelous in the estimation

of our untraveled Teutonic friend, but it could not compare, we said

to ourselves, with the wonders of plant life on which we had been

feasting our eyes during our journey among the Antilles and through

the Northern part of South America.

Our conclusion, however, as we very soon discovered, was quite

unwarranted. The vegetation of the lowlands and of the foothills

of the Costa Rican Cordillera, as we noted on our way to San José,

was really something wonderful. It was the Urwelt in very truth, and

exhibited a wealth of plant and tree, foliage and bloom such as must

have characterized the foreworld during its richest period. For miles

upon miles along this picturesque railway, we reveled in the glories of

the virgin forest at its best--a dense, complicated mass of verdure,

a tousled, world-old jungle, surmounted by giants of the forest,

loaded down with festoons of countless creepers and bound together

by innumerable cable-like lianas, each of the richest hues. At one

time we were passing through valleys of enchantment, valleys pervaded

by a languorous haze of lilac and indigo, like the smoke of incense,

valleys rendered musical by scores of hidden streams and tumultuous

torrents bridged over by an entanglement of green fathoms in depth. At

another we were winding around rugged crags and inaccessible peaks,

not bald and barren, as in our temperate climes, but covered to their

very summits with a tapestry of leaf and flower of the most vivid

tropical tints, that at times resembled a cascade of palpitating

color, of emerald foliage and glowing bloom. Here it was the crimson

bouganvilla, there lovely aroides with spathes of delicate purple or

immaculate white, while hard by, fanned into motion by the trickery

of the shifting breeze, were the slender tufts of the bamboo or the

tenuous fronds of the ever-graceful fern tree. On all sides was a

parade of foliage and blossom, a bravery of color to be found only

in the tropics and then only in its most favored regions.

The astonishing variety and richness of the flora of Costa Rica is due

to the fact that it is the connecting link between the floras of the

two great continents of the North and the South. Besides exhibiting

species peculiar to itself, it presents an infinitude of others

found in North and South America. Those, however, of South America

predominate, the reason being that Costa Rica was connected with the

southern continent long before it was united with that to the north.

It is a hundred and three miles from Limon to San José by rail. The

road, a narrow-gauge one, was constructed by an American, Mr. Minor

C. Keith, and compares favorably with our narrow-gauge roads in

the Rocky Mountains. Many difficulties were encountered in laying

the track, some of which, especially those caused by landslides

and the overflowing rivers, seemed at times insuperable. The most

serious impediments, however, were due to the steaming, sweltering,

putrid, fever-laden swamps between the coast and the foothills of the

Cordillera. So great was the mortality among the workmen on account

of pernicious fevers that it is stated that this section of the line

cost a human life for every tie that was laid. Like the valley of

the lower Magdalena, this part of Costa Rica is habitable only by

negroes. The white men who are called there by business make their

sojourn as brief as possible.

It is along this route that are found the best and most extensive

platanales--banana plantations--of the country and, as a consequence,

there are many settlements and villages all along the railroad. And

what banana plants are seen here! In height they resemble trees

rather than plants. We saw some that were thirty-five feet high,

bending under golden clusters of fruit weighing at times nearly

a hundred pounds. While sailing along the Orinoco and the Meta we

thought that the platanales we saw on their banks were unrivaled

for magnitude of plants and wealth of fruitage, but they were fully

equaled if not surpassed by those of Costa Rica.

Most of the labor connected with the cultivation and shipment of

bananas is performed by negroes from Jamaica and other West Indian

islands. One sees their little frame houses, or shacks, scattered

all along the road in the banana region, and their occupants have the

same jovial, happy-go-lucky disposition that characterizes the negro

the world over. Crowds of them, old and young, are always assembled

at the station on the arrival of every train--attracted thither by

apparently the same reason that causes their brethren of the North

in the cotton belt to flock to the depot when they hear the whistle

of the locomotive--childlike curiosity and a desire to get the latest

news at the earliest possible moment.

Quite a number of the female portion had sliced piñas--pineapples--for

sale, but they asked as much for a single slice as a whole piña would

cost in our markets, while for an entire pineapple they expected four

or five times the price of this fruit in New York, and that in the land

of the piña. They demanded extravagant prices because, I suppose, they

took it for granted that those who were able to travel in a Pullman

car, as our party did, would not, if the fruit was really wanted,

begrudge paying the amount asked, however exorbitant. But high as

the price was, the fruit was worth it and far more. It was the most

luscious and fragrant fruit we had ever tasted, and incomparably

excelled the best that ever reaches our markets. It was so soft and

juicy that it could be eaten with a spoon, and contained all the

fabled virtues of nectar and ambrosia combined.

Incredible as it may seem, where there were train loads of bananas

at every siding, we were unable to get even a sample of edible fruit

anywhere between Limon and San José, although we asked for it at every

stopping place. All that was destined for shipment was unripe, and,

while there were several other kinds of fruits for sale, there was

not a single ripe banana.

The negroes we saw along the railroad, as well as those observed in

Limon, were a constant study for us, especially when congregated in

large numbers in halls or churches. Like the negroes of Martinique

they are, in the words of Lafcadio Hearn, "A population fantastic,

astonishing--a population of the Arabian Nights." [293] They exhibit

the whole gamut of skin tints from the milk-white of the albino to

the coal-black of the Nubian.

Some of the women are remarkable for beauty of form and delicacy

of features. Lissome, statuesque, and of graceful bearing, they are

Juliets in ebony, who exhibit the classic proportions of "ox-eyed"

Juno or of the Venus of Milo. As simple as children, they, like their

sisters in the Antilles, are as talkative as parrots and their laugh

is as hearty as it is spontaneous.

But it is the dress of the Costa Rican negress that arrests attention,

especially when she is seen in public gatherings of any kind. Then

the design and color of her attire is bizarre in the extreme. She

selects by preference the most flaunting and garish colors, and,

when she appears in her Sunday costume, one would declare that she

had tried to combine the hues of tropical birds, and to mimic the

gorgeousness of the blue-red-yellow macaw.

The description given by Sir F. Treves of the dress of the negress

of Martinique, sums up in a few words the salient features of the

Sunday costume of her sister in Costa Rica. "The headdress," he writes,

"is very picturesque. It consists of a 'madras,' an ample handkerchief

wound about the head turban fashion, and finished by a projecting end,

which stands up like the eagle's feather in an Indian's hair. The color

of the madras will be usually a canary yellow striped with black. The

hues of the dress are bewildering. Here are a skirt of roses and a

foulard of sky-blue, a gown of scarlet and yellow with a terra-cotta

scarf across the breast, a dress of white striped with orange below a

foulard of green, a frock of primrose spotted with red and completed

by a scarf of mazarine blue. Add to this the necklace of gold beads,

the heavy bracelets, the great earrings, and the 'trembling pins'

that fix the madras, and then realize over all, the white light of

a tropical moon." [294]

The two places along our route in which we were specially interested

were the village of Matina, in the fertile valley watered by the river

of that name, and Cartago, which was founded by the Spaniards in 1563,

and was, during colonial times, the capital of the country.

In the latter part of the eighteenth century Matina was a port of some

importance and the centre of the largest and best cacaotales--cacao

haciendas--in Costa Rica, but owing to the frequent incursions

of pirates and Mosquito Indians, this fertile territory had to be

evacuated. There was also another reason for abandoning it and that was

the hot, enervating, pernicious atmosphere, and the torrential rains,

which were the causes of malaria and malignant fevers from which the

district was never exempt. So bad was the reputation of the Matina

valley in this respect that people, as the Costa Rican writer, Don

Ricardo F. Guardia, informs us in his Cuentos Ticos, "used to confess

and make their wills when they went to Matina, to the famous Matina

which inspires fear in men and madness in mules, [295] as they used

to say in those days when men were braver and mules better."--

Cartago--how often this Carthaginian name recurs in this part of the

world!--is a delightful place nearly a mile above sea level, with

a population of about seven thousand souls. It was founded in 1562

by Juan Vazquez de Coronado, the real conqueror of Costa Rica. It

has a very salubrious climate with a mean annual temperature of 66°

F. In 1841 it was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake caused

by a violent eruption of the volcano of Irazu, at the foot of which

the town is situated. It is noted as the seat of the Central American

Court of Justice, which was inaugurated here as one of the results

of the Peace Congress held in Washington in 1907. In consequence of

the establishment of this tribunal here, the town has been called

the "Hague of the New World." Mr. Andrew Carnegie has contributed

$100,000 for the erection of a suitable edifice in which to hold the

sessions of the court. The site selected for it is the most beautiful

in the city, and the structure, on which work was begun without delay,

promises to be the most attractive feature of Cartago.

Costa Rica is justly celebrated for its coffee. In the London market it

has long been a favorite brand and always commands a high price. It

has a delicious aroma scarcely inferior to that of the best Java

or Mocha berries. We preferred it to any we had found elsewhere in

our tropical wanderings. The haciendas devoted to the cultivation of

coffee--especially those in the vicinity of Cartago and San José--are

kept in splendid condition, and the trees are of exceptional vigor

and productiveness.

Next to bananas, coffee constitutes the most important export of

the republic. It was introduced from Havana about a century ago, and

one may yet see in Cartago the centenarian trees that supplied the

seeds for the plantations of Costa Rica and other parts of Central

America. The value of the coffee and bananas annually exported from

the republic is much greater than that of all the other commodities

combined. Indeed, these two staples are to the commerce of Costa

Rica what tobacco and sugar are to Cuba. Columbus and his followers

searched these countries for gold and spices, but they found but little

of either. If they could return now to these favored lands they would

discover that their real treasures, more precious far than gold mines

and groves of spice trees, lay in the indigenous banana and tobacco

plants, and in the two exotic growths, coffee and sugar cane.

The schedule time of the train from Limon to San José, although only

one hundred and three miles, is about seven hours. This is due to

the numerous stops made and to the heavy grades up the flanks of

the Cordillera.

Our arrival at the capital was signalized by a genuine tropical

downpour, such as we had not seen elsewhere during our journey. For

a while it seemed to justify the Spanish expression--llover á

cántaros--to rain bucketfuls. But the aguacero--the name given these

short, heavy rainfalls--was of short duration. It was but one of those

daily afternoon showers that characterize the plateau during the winter

season--invierno, our summer--which extends from the month of May

until the end of November. The dry or summer season--verano--lasts from

December until May and is distinguished by absence of rain. The verano

is the season of the northeast trade winds, which lose their humidity

in crossing the Atlantic Cordillera. The monsoon, which comes from the

southwest during the winter, does not encounter on the Pacific side

mountains of sufficient height to condense the vapor with which it is

charged. Thus it still contains, on its arrival at the central plateau,

enough moisture to produce the heavy precipitation just noted. [296]

But notwithstanding these daily aguaceros, one can always count

on sunshiny mornings, except during October, which is the wettest

month of the year. It scarcely ever rains before two o'clock P. M.,

and rarely after five o'clock in the evening.

We were quite charmed with San José and its hospitable and cultured

people. In many respects we thought it the most delightful city we had

seen in Latin America--especially for a protracted sojourn. Situated in

the smiling valley of the Abra, it is reputed to be the most beautiful

city in Central America, while it is the second in extent and the

third in population, having about thirty thousand souls. Its altitude

is nearly four thousand and seven hundred feet above the level of the

sea, and it has a mean annual temperature of 70° F. Foreign residents

declare that the climate during the dry season is ideal.

The city counts a number of beautiful churches and public buildings,

but the greatest surprise for us was its superb Teatro Nacional. In

some of its leading features it is modeled after the Grand Opera

House in Paris, and is really a gem of architecture. It cost nearly

$1,000,000 in gold, and was paid for by an extra tax on coffee. We have

nothing in the United States to compare with it in beauty and artistic

finish, especially in the decoration of its sumptuous foyer. In the

New World it is surpassed only by the Teatro Municipal of Rio de

Janeiro and the Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires.

There are many attractive parks adorned with tastefully arranged

flowers and trees and monuments that would be a credit to

any capital. The monument that appealed most strongly to us was

located in the Parque Nacional, and commemorates the campaign of

1856 against the Filibusters led by that daring adventurer from the

United States, William Walker. It is also dedicated to the fraternity

of the five Central American republics made one in defense of their

independence. Let us hope that this is a symbol of the birth in the

near future of a new federation of the Central American republics,

similar to the one that was established shortly after they had

achieved their independence under the name of the Republic of Central

America. Such a republic would have fifty per cent more territory than

the whole of Great Britain, and, considering all the natural resources

it possesses, it would, under a stable and progressive government,

soon take an honorable place among the nations of the world.

We visited a number of coffee plantations, as well as orchards and

gardens, in the vicinity of San José, and were surprised at the

variety and luxuriance of every species of vegetable growth.

But it is to the city market that one must go--especially on Sundays

and dies de fiesta--holidays--if one would have an adequate conception

of the floral and pomonic riches of this favored land.

Here we could easily imagine that we had before us every blossom that

blows. Exposed for sale at a nominal price are the most gorgeous of

flowers still fresh with the morning dew; roses of every size and

color; orchids of the most fantastic forms and of dazzling beauty,

to possess which a New York belle, would, if necessary, pawn a

favorite jewel.

And here one beholds in lavish abundance citrous fruits of every

species, bananas of untold varieties, and scores of other fruits

equally common here but scarcely known except by name in our northern

latitudes. At every turn we see booths filled with guavas, mameys and

mangoes; zapotes, avocados and chirimoyas; papayas, pomegranates and

sapodillas; anonas, bread-fruit, mangosteens, and others too numerous

to mention, that are prized by the natives for the preparation of

dulces--sweets--and preserves.

The avocado, also called avocado pear, on account of its shape,

is the fruit of the beautiful tree called by botanists Persea

gratissima, after Perseus, the son of Jupiter and Danæ. The English

in the Caribbean Islands name this delicious fruit alligator pear,

or midshipman's butter. It, indeed, somewhat resembles butter in

appearance, and, to a certain extent, replaces butter on the table

in the tropics, where real butter is difficult to procure and more

difficult to keep. Of late years it has been introduced into the

North as a salad, and promises, as soon as it becomes generally known,

to be one of the most popular of tropical fruits.

Speaking for myself, I prefer it to any other, except possibly the

piña--pineapple. But one must taste the fresh, ripe pineapple of the

tropics to know its full lusciousness. It is incomparably more juicy

and fragrant than anything our Northern markets offer. Old Benzoni

says of it, "It smells well and tastes better," and declares it to be

"one of the most relishing fruits in the world." Sir Walter Raleigh

was right when he called it "the prince of fruits." King James thought

so highly of it that he remarked that "it was a fruit too delicious

for a subject to taste of." The poet Thomson doubtless entertained

a similar view when he penned the following lines:

"Witness, thou best Anana! thou the pride

Of vegetable life, beyond whate'er

The poets imagined in the golden age:

Quick let me strip thee of thy tufty coat,

Spread thy ambrosial stores and feast with Jove."

But delicious as is the pineapple it is, in the estimation of

many, surpassed by the chirimoya. This fruit is likened by Paez to

"lumps of flavored cream ready to be frozen, suspended from the

branches of some fairy tree amidst the most overpowering perfume

of its flowers." Clements R. Markham was so enthusiastic about it

that he declared that "He who has not tasted the chirimoya fruit

has yet to learn what fruit is." "The pineapple, the mangosteen,

and the chirimoya," Dr. Seeman writes, "are considered the finest

fruits in the world. I have tasted them in those localities in which

they are supposed to attain their highest perfection--the pineapple

in Guayaquil, the mangosteen in the Indian Archipelago, and the

chirimoya on the slope of the Andes, and if I were called upon to act

the part of Paris, I would, without hesitation, assign the apple to the

chirimoya. Its taste, indeed, surpasses that of every other fruit, and

Haenke was quite right when he called it the masterpiece of nature."

A fruit that always appealed to us was the papaya, or pawpaw. It grows

in clusters on a tree about twenty feet high. In taste and appearance

it closely resembles a good-sized muskmelon. It is surprising to see

such large fruits growing on so small a tree. It flowers and fruits

at the same time.

The fruits, however, that are the mainstay for the greatest number

of people in the tropics, are, as has already been stated, the banana

and the plantain. The former is known to botanists as Musa sapientum,

because sages have reposed beneath its shade and eaten its fruit. The

latter is called Musa paradisiaca, on account of a certain tradition

that it was the forbidden fruit in Paradise. [297] Both the banana

and the plantain number almost as many varieties as the apple. The

bananas are smaller than the plantains. The former range from one

to six inches in length, while some varieties of the latter attain a

length of fifteen inches. They are eaten raw, boiled and roasted and

as preserves. A few trees will supply a whole family with the means

of subsistence during the entire year.

The banana and plantain are just the kinds of plants that specially

appeal to the natives of the equatorial regions, for they give at

all seasons a never-failing abundance of nutritious food, and that,

too, without any more labor and care than are entailed by clearing

the ground and placing them in the ever-productive soil. [298]

Sir Charles Dilke, however, regards these food producers in quite a

different light. In his estimation, the banana is the curse of the

tropics. Their very abundance, and the little care they require,

constitute, according to him, a bar to progress and to civilization

of the highest kind in the tropics, for the reason that all true

civilization necessarily presupposes labor and effort. It is for this

reason that the highest faculties of man are most conspicuous in the

temperate zone, where there is a constant struggle for existence.

Before leaving Barranquilla we met a gentleman who had just completed

a tour of all Latin America and he declared that San José was the

most beautiful city he had seen in all his travels.

At the time we gave little credence to what seemed a very exaggerated

impression, but after we were able to judge for ourselves, we were

forced to admit that Costa Rica's fair capital is, indeed, a most

delightful place.

In a charming, secluded vale near the city, where stood the country

seat of a wealthy merchant of the capital, was a particularly romantic

spot. The only places I could recall that could fairly compare with it

were certain upland valleys in the larger islands of the equatorial

Pacific. Hidden away in the luxuriant tropical forest, alongside a

broad mountain torrent, where fruit and flower and foliage vied with

one another in delicacy of fragrance and richness of hue, it required

but little strain of fancy to imagine that we were gazing upon the

wonders of the enchanted isle of Armida and Rinaldo; for here,

"Mild was the air, the skies were clear as glass,

The trees no whirlwind felt nor tempest's smart,

But ere the fruit drop off, the blossom comes;

This springs that falls, that ripeneth and thus blooms." [299]

Whilst gazing in silent rapture at the incomparable beauty of the

scene before us, and carried away by the matchless exhibitions

of Flora and Pomona, we were suddenly transported on the wings of

memory back to the beautiful plaza of Ciudad Bolivar, where, some

months before, we had heard a happy, enthusiastic fiancée declare

that she considered the lower Orinoco, aboard a yacht or a steamer,

an ideal place to spend one's honeymoon. With no claim to the power

of mind-reading, or to the spirit of prophecy, we assert, without

fear of erring, that if she had the opportunity of choosing between

the Orinoco valley and this beauty spot near San José, as a place to

spend her honeymoon--her luna de miel, as the Spaniards phrase it--it

would not be to the Orinoco that Don Esteban would take his bride,

but to this Edenic spot on the charming Costa Rican plateau.

Costa Rica, despite what has often been said to the contrary, has, for

the past half century, been practically free from those fratricidal

revolutions that have so characterized the other Central American

republics. There have, it is true, been occasional pronunciamientos

and periods of excitement about the time of some of the presidential

elections, but none of those devastating insurrections that have so

long been the curse of her less-fortunate neighbors.

Costa Rica points with pride, and well she may, to the fact that she

has more school teachers than soldiers. Everywhere one finds schools

for both sexes, admirably appointed and conducted, and constant

efforts are being made to have them compare favorably with similar

institutions in other parts of the world.

The original Spanish inhabitants of the central plateau were of

sturdy Galician stock, and their descendants still exhibit the thrift,

industry and enterprise of their ancestors. One meets many families

of pure Spanish blood, but the majority are evidently mestizos--the

result of the intermarriage of Spaniards with the aborigines. The

number of pure-blooded Indians is comparatively small--only about three

thousand out of a total population of a third of a million. There are

few negroes seen outside of the low coast lands, where they constitute

the majority of the inhabitants. We were, indeed, greatly impressed

to note the sudden transition from the black to the white race as

we ascended the Cordillera. In San José the number of negroes is

astonishingly small, while the complexions of the whites, compared

with that of the majority of the people living in the Andean lands

we had recently visited, is unusually clear and ruddy.

"How fair and delicate are the features of the Josefinas!" [300]

exclaimed C., as we took our first promenade in the broad and well-kept

streets of San José. And with the eye of a connoisseur, he continued,

"How tastefully dressed they are!"

He was right. The number of beautiful, Madonna-like types one meets

with is surprising. This impression is probably enhanced in some

degree by the beautifully embroidered pañolones--large Chinese

silk shawls--which they know so well how to display to the best

advantage. When to the tasteful costume and delicate features one

adds the culture and refinement that often distinguish the Josefina,

one can easily realize that she but continues the best traditions for

beauty and grace of mind and heart that have so long distinguished

her sisters in the land of Isabella of Castile.

After a delightful week spent in San José we prepared to return to

Limon. We then experienced, probably more than at any other place in

our long journey,--what all travelers more or less dread in their

peregrinations--the pang of leaving places that have especially

appealed to one and of saying farewell to newly-formed friends

almost as soon as one has learned to know their goodness of heart

and nobility of character. To me, I confess, this has always been

the greatest drawback of traveling and is something I have never been

able to outgrow.

Armed with a certificate from our consul stating that we had spent

in San José the time required of passengers coming from quarantined

ports, by the health regulations of Panama, we took our place in a

comfortable parlor car, and were soon on our way towards the Caribbean

coast, but not before we had taken "a last, long, lingering look,"

at beautiful, hospitable, fascinating San José.

As the train slowly moved eastwards towards Cartago, our attention

was directed for the hundredth time to the rich cafetales--coffee

plantations--that covered the fertile acres on both sides of the

road. Here and there we noted one of those cumbersome ox-carts

with solid wooden wheels drawn by a yoke of oxen in charge of an

odd-looking boyero. These are rapidly giving way to more modern means

of transportation, but the lover of the bizarre and the picturesque

will regret their disappearance.

"Observe," said a Josefino, having some pretensions to physiognomy,

"the peculiar features of that boyero on his way to the market. I will

wager anything that that man is a firm believer in ceguas and cadejos

and lloronas; that he dreams of botijas, even in the daytime, and that

he has greater fear of hermanos than any of your countrymen have of

ghosts." He then proceeded to explain the meaning of these terms.

"A cegua," he continued, "is a monster somewhat like the sirens

of old, that assumes the form of a beautiful woman and leads men

astray. A cadejos is a fantastic animal, black and hairy, resembling

an enormous dog which has resounding hoofs instead of paws. A llorona

is a frightful phantom that is sometimes heard moaning in the mountains

in such wise as to strike terror into the passer-by. [301] Botija--the

Spanish for a large earthen jar--is the name given in Costa Rica to

a buried treasure. The country people believe that, if one having

buried money dies in debt, his ghost--hermano--will haunt the place

in great distress until the treasure is found and the debt is paid."

"I wish I could have the assistance of a few such hermanos," interposed

C. laughingly. "If I had, I should have several thousand dollars more

to my credit than I have now. Unfortunately, in my country we have

not such aids in bringing our debtors to book."

On our way down the Cordillera, while crossing one of the numerous

iron bridges that span the Reventazon and other mountain rivers and

torrents, our Josefino friend pointed to a pier of masonry standing

alone about forty feet to one side of the bridge. "That pier,"

he said, "was formerly under the bridge, but in consequence of a

peculiar landslide or earthquake, it was transported, together with

a part of the bed of the stream, to the spot where it now stands."

And then he told us of the opposition of the boyeros to the

construction of the railroad. They, like ill-advised people in other

parts of the world, feared that it would ruin their occupation and

reduce them and their families to starvation. The government and

railway company cleverly overcame this opposition by employing the

boyeros to haul the material used in the construction of the road.

Then, too, there were wiseacres in Costa Rica, as there were in our

Rocky Mountain region when there was question of undertaking some

of the remarkable engineering feats that characterize several of our

transcontinental railroads, who declared that the projectors of the

road from Limon to San José were essaying the impossible. "General

Guardia"--the dictator under whose rule the road was begun--they

declared "is trying to build a railroad to Port Limon, where the

birds themselves can scarcely go with wings."

And yet, aside from the landslides which occur in all mountainous

countries, and the miasmatic climate, there were but few great

difficulties encountered. From an engineering standpoint the

construction of the road offered far less difficult problems than

many of the railroads in Colorado, Peru and Ecuador. The curves are

not so sharp and the grades are less, while the altitude attained is

less than half of that reached by several Rocky Mountain roads and

less than one-third of the height of the celebrated Andean railway

which connects Oroya with Lima.

Our first care on arriving at Limon was to have the health officer

of that place countersign the certificate we had received from our

consul in San José. We then boarded our steamer and were ready to

start for Panama.

The weather was again in our favor, and we had a most delightful sail

to Colon, and needless to say, we enjoyed every moment of it. We

enjoyed it particularly on account of its interesting historical

associations, and the romantic legends that have been woven about

every isle and inlet and headland along the coast.

That, however, which appealed most strongly to us was the land of

Veragua, near the dividing line between Costa Rica and Panama. It

was here that Columbus imagined he had found the Golden Chersonese,

the land whence came the gold used in the construction of Solomon's

temple. In the letter to his sovereigns, dispatched from Jamaica,

he contends "that these mines of the Aurea are identical with those

of Veragua." [302]

It was here, too, near the mouth of the river Belen, that the first

settlement on the continent of the New World was located. Although

it had soon to be abandoned, it was begun with a view of permanent

occupancy, and as such is deserving of special notice. A suitable

memorial should indicate this spot, as one should also mark the site

of Isabella, the first settlement in the New World.

It was while on the coast of Veragua that Columbus heard of the

great ocean now known as the Pacific. [303] He was not, however,

permitted to add its discovery to the long list of his marvelous

achievements. That honor was reserved for Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.

About nine o'clock the morning following our departure from Limon we

dropped anchor in the harbor of Colon. The sea was so tranquil that

there was scarcely a ripple on its placid waters. It was certainly

in marked contrast with the condition in which Columbus once found

it in these parts; for he assures us, in the oft-quoted letter to

Ferdinand and Isabella, that "never was sea so high, so terrific,

and so covered with foam." It seemed like a "sea of blood, seething

like a cauldron on a mighty fire." So continual, indeed, were the

shifting winds, and so terrific were the storms, that the coast from

Veragua to Colon which we had found washed by so calm a sea was by

Columbus and his companions named La Costa de los Contrastes.

Immediately on our arrival our vessel was boarded by the health

officers of the port. Those who could not produce a satisfactory

health certificate--and many could not--were sent to quarantine. Many

of our party, however, did not require any, as they did not purpose

landing at Colon. Some of them were bound for Jamaica and for points

more distant. Among them was C., my brave and resolute companion

across the Andes, the loyal and generous young cavalier who, if

he had not been of superior mold, would more than once have lost

his heart during the course of our long journey. I would fain have

enjoyed his companionship longer while following the conquistadores

in lands farther south; but it was not to be. To him, and to other

friends, I had regretfully to pronounce the words of parting that

had so frequently been addressed to us by the kindly and hospitable

people we had met all along our route--Que Uds. vayan bien, y con la

Virgen!--A happy journey and with the Virgin Mother!

As I left our good ship and the friends it bore to divers destinations

and stepped ashore alone, a stranger in a strange land, I felt, I must

confess, not unlike Dante when he suddenly found himself deprived of

the companionship of Virgil, who had been his friend and guide during

his arduous journey down through the fearsome pits of Hell and up the

precipitous ledges of the mountain of Purgatory. But this impression,

strong though it was, could not long remain dominant. What had in

the beginning of my journey been but "a consummation devoutly to be

wished," had during our wanderings in tropical lands crystallized into

a determination to make the desire a reality. The happy termination

of our voyage up the Orinoco and down the Magdalena was conclusive

evidence that travel, even through the least frequented parts of

South America, was far from being as difficult as it has long been

depicted. The moment, then, that I stepped from the gang plank that

connected our steamer with Panaman soil, the Rubicon was crossed, and

I had resolved, coûte que coûte,--alone, if necessary,--to realize

the long-cherished dream of my youth,--to visit the famed lands of

the Incas and explore the fertile valleys under the equator. If my

experience in the llanos and among the Cordilleras had not made

me "fit to mount up to the stars," as Dante was when he left the

Terrestrial Paradise, it had at least renewed me "even as new trees

with new foliage," and I was ready to undertake a longer and more

difficult journey than the one just completed and eager to follow

the conquistadores along the Andes and down the Amazon.

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NOTES

[1] Dec. 1, Lib. IX, Cap. 10.

[2] 1513 is the date given by Garcilaso de la Vega, and Peschel, in

his Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, p. 521, has proved

that this is the date that should be accepted.

[3] The History of Hernando de Soto and Florida; or Record of the

Events of Fifty-six Years, from 1512 to 1568, p. 111, 78 and passim,

Philadelphia, 1881.

[4] "Floridamque appelaverat quia Resurectionis die eam insulam

repererint; vocat Hispanus pascha floridum resurectionis

diem." Dec. IV, Cap. 5.

[5] Les Cortereal et leur Voyage au Nouveau Monde, pp. 111, 151.

[6] Le Premier Voyage de Amerigo Vespucci, par F. A. de Varnhagan,

Vienne, 1869, p. 34.

[7] Historia General de las Indias, Tom. XXII de Autores Españoles,

Madrid, M. Rivadeneyra, Editor, 1877--I have reproduced the passage

in the quaint translation of Richard Eden, as given in The first three

books on America, p. 345, edited by Edward Arber, Westminster, 1895.

[8] Colección de documentos inéditos del archivo de Indias, Tom. V,

pp. 536, 537.

[9] Elegias de Varones Ilustres de Indias, in the Biblioteca de Autores

Españoles, Tom. IV, p. 69, Collection Rivadeneyra, Madrid, 1850.

In spite, however, of the scepticism of Martyr and of the ridicule

of Castellanos and the denunciation of Oviedo, the quest for the

Fountain of Youth was, according to Herrera, continued until the end

of the sixteenth century, and probably longer.

[10] The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight, chap. LII.

[11] Richard Eden, op, cit., p. 34.

[12] For an illuminating discussion of this subject, with citation

of authorities, see M. Beauvois' article, La Fontaine de Jouvence

et le Jourdain dans les Traditions des Antilles et de la Floride,

Le Muséon, Tom. III, No. 3.

[13] "By projecting our modern knowledge into the past," to employ

a favorite phrase of John Fiske, many, even among recent writers,

speak as if the early explorers knew for a certainty that the land

discovered by Columbus was actually distinct from Asia. None of them,

however, go to the extreme of Lope de Vega, who, in one of his dramas,

El Nuevo Mundo Descubierto, makes the Genoese mariner, in a talk with

his brother Bartholomew, ask why is it, that I, "a poor pilot, broken

in fortune, yearn to add to this world another and one so remote?"--

"Un hombre pobre, y aun roto,

Que casi lo puedo decir,

Y que vive de piloto

Quiere á éste mundo añadir

Otro mundo tan remoto."

[14] Writings of Columbus, edited by P. L. Ford, New York, 1892.

[15] Relaciones y Cartas de Cristobal Colón in the Biblioteca Clásica,

Tom. CLXIV, Madrid, 1892.

[16] Relaciones y Cartas, ut sup., pp. 57, 58.

[17] Hakluyt's Early Voyage, Vol. III, p. 615, London, 1810. The

introduction of tobacco into England is by some attributed to

Hawkins rather than to Lord Raleigh, who is generally supposed to

have introduced it.

[18] "Vedete che pestifero e maluagio ueleno del diaulo e questo." La

Historia del Mondo Nuovo, p. 54, Venezia, 1555.

[19] Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de L'Amérique, Vol. II, p. 120, par

Jean Baptiste Labat, à la Haye, 1724.

[20] Even royalty took part in the controversy. In A Counterblaste

to Tobacco King James concludes his argument against the use of the

weed as follows:--

"A custome loathsome to the eye, hatefull to the nose, harmfull to

the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume

thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that

is bottomlesse." The Works of the Most High and Mightie Prince James,

by the Grace of God, King of Great Britaine, France and Ireland,

Defender of the Faith, etc., p. 222, London, 1616.

[21] "Hail, happy soil, whence Mother Nature lavishes in abundance

the odoriferous, smokable plant! Hail, happy Havana."

[22] Vida y Escritos de Don Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Obispo de

Chiapa, por Don Antonio Maria Fabié, Tom. I, pp. 235, 236, Madrid,

1879.

[23] Fray Bartolemé de las Casas, Sus Tiempos y Su Apostolado, por

Carlos Gutierres, pp. 351, 352, 368, 369, Madrid, 1878.

[24] Étude sur les Rapports de L'Amérique et de L'Ancien Continent

avant Christophe Colomb, par Paul Gaffarel. p. 124 et seq., Paris,

1869.

[25] The diminutive of España, and signifying little Spain. Also known

by the Latinized name Hispaniola, and as Isabella, in honor of the

illustrious patron of the discoverer. Haiti is an Indian word meaning

"craggy land," or "land of mountains."

[26] Historia de las Indias, Dec. II, Lib. 3, Cap. 14.

[27] Southey's History of Brazil, Vol. III, Chap. XXXIII.

[28] Sir Clements R. Markham in his introduction to Hawkins' Voyages,

says, speaking of this subject, "It is not therefore John Hawkins alone

who can justly be blamed for the slave trade, but the whole English

people during 250 years, who must all divide the blame with him."

[29] The Spanish Conquest in America, by Sir Arthur Helps, Vol. I,

p. 350, London and New York, 1900. See also Girolamo Benzoni, Historia

del Mondo Nuovo, p. 65, Venezia, 1565, in which he says many Spaniards

of Española predicted that the island would surely, within a short

time, fall into the hands of the blacks. "Vi sono molti Spagnuoli que

tengono per cosa certa que quest' Isola in breue tempo sara posseduta

da questi Mori."

[30] Eden's First Three English Books on America, p. 240.

[31] For a complete discussion of this subject, see Christopher

Columbus, His Life, His Works, His Remains, pp. 507-613, by

J. B. Thatcher, New York, 1904. According to this author, very small

portions of the precious ashes of the great discoverer exist in the

Vatican, in the University of Pavia, where Columbus was a student,

in The Municipal Hall of Genoa, in the Lenox Library, New York, and

in the possession of four different private individuals whom he names.

[32] "To Earth he gave immense riches, to Heaven souls innumerable."

[33] Histoire de la Géographie du Nouveau Continent, par Alexander

de Humboldt, Vol. V, pp. 177, 178, Paris, 1839.

[34] "This narrow space is a sepulchre of the man who was a Lion in

name and much more one in deed."

[35] Historia de la Conquista y población de la Provincia de Venezuela,

Tom. II, p. 36, Madrid, 1885.

[36] The Romans declare that those who cast a coin into the fountain of

Trevi are sure to return to the Eternal City. The Caraquenians have a

similar saying, viz., that he who drinks of the water of the Catuche,

a stream flowing through the city, will return to Caracas. El que

bebe de Catuche vuelve á Caracas.

[37] Historia de las Indias, Dec. II, Lib. 3, Cap. 14.

[38] The Pearl Coast extends from Coro to the Gulf of Paria, a distance

of more than five hundred miles.

[39] Padre A. Caulin, Historia coro-grafica, natural y evangelica

de la Nueva Andalucia, Madrid, 1779, and Conversion en Piritu de

Indios Cumanogotos y Palenques, por el P. Fr. Matias Ruiz Blanco

O. S. F. seguido de Los Franciscanos en las Indias, por Fr. Francisco

Alvarez de Vilanueva, O. S. F., Madrid, 1892.

[40] Even Captain John Hawkins, "an atrocious slave dealer," is forced

to pay his tribute of praise to the gentle and peaceful character

of the Indians of this part of Venezuela, for of them he writes:

"The people bee surely gentle and tractable, and such as desire to

liue peaceablie, or else had it been vnpossible for the Spaniards to

haue conquered them as they did, and the more to liue now peaceable,

they being many in number, and the Spaniards of few." Op. cit.,

Vol. III, p. 28.

[41] F. A. MacNutt's Bartholomew de las Casas, His Life, His Apostolate

and His Writings, Chaps. VIII, XI, XII, New York, 1909.

[42] Antonio de Remesal, Historia de la Provincia de Son Vicente de

Chyapa, 1619.

[43] In his last will he writes "Inasmuch as the goodness and the

mercy of God, whose unworthy minister I am, called me to be the

protector of the inhabitants of the countries, which we call the

Indies, who were once the lords of those lands and kingdoms, ... I

have labored in the court of the Kings of Castile, going and coming

from the Indies to Castile and from Castile to the Indies many times

for about fifty years--i. e., from the year 1540, for the love of God

alone and through compassion seeing those great multitudes of rational

men perish, who originally were approachable, humble, meek and simple,

and well fitted to receive the Catholic faith and practice all manner

of Christian virtues." Fabié, op. cit., Tom. I, pp. 234, 235.

[44] "In contemplating such a life," writes Fiske, "as that of Las

Casas, all words of eulogy seem weak and frivolous. The historian can

only bow in reverent awe before a figure which is in some respects

the most beautiful and sublime in the annals of Christianity since

the Apostolic age. When now and then in the course of the centuries

God's providence brings such a life into this world, the memory of it

must be cherished by mankind as one of its most precious and sacred

possessions. For the thoughts, the words, the deeds of such a man,

there is no death. The sphere of their influence goes on widening

forever. They bud, they blossom, they bear fruit, from age to

age."--The Discovery of America, Vol. II, p. 482.

[45] Dec. 1, Book 8. The same writer informs us that the sailors

of Pedro Alonzo Niño, on leaving Curiana to return to Spain, "had

three score and XVI poundes weight (after VIII vnces to the pownde)

of perles, which they bought for exchange of owre thynges, amountinge

to the value of fyve shyllinges."

[46] Of these gems of the ocean, "tears by Naiads wept," one could then

repeat, as well as now, the words of Pliny, "The richest merchandise

of all, and the most soveraigne comoditie throughout the whole world,

are these perles."--Naturalis Historia, Lib. IX, Cap. 35.

[47] The Venezuelan pearl-oyster--Margaritifera Radiata--is related

to the Ceylon species, Margaritifera vulgaris, and ranges in color

from white to bronze and, sometimes, black. It is slightly larger

than the Ceylonese gem, and is occasionally of excellent quality.

About three hundred and fifty boats, each manned by five or six men,

are now engaged in the pearl fishery of Venezuela. Most of them are

from the ports of Cumana, Juan Griego and Carupano.

The reader who is interested in the pearls of Margarita and of the

Pearl Coast, may consult with profit the very elaborate work, The

Book of the Pearl, by George F. Kunz and Chas. H. Stevenson, New York,

1908, and The Pearl, by W. R. Castelle, Philadelphia and London, 1907.

[48] Rokeby, Canto I, 13.

[49] "The wind then failed me, and I entered a climate where the

intensity of the heat was such that I thought both ships and men would

have been burned up, and everything suddenly got into such a state of

confusion that no man dared go below deck to attend to the securing

of the water-cask and the provisions. This heat lasted eight days;

on the first day the weather was fine, but on the seven other days it

rained and was cloudy, yet we found no alleviation of our distress;

so that I certainly believe that if the sun had shone, as on the first

day, we should not have been able to escape in anyway."--Writings of

Christopher Columbus, ut sup., pp. 113, 114, and Irving's Life and

Voyages of Christopher Columbus, Chap. XXIX.

[50] Op. cit., p. 136.

[51] Eden's First Three English Books on America, p. 338.

[52] Chapman's Odyssey, Bk. VII.

[53] Called Bois immortelle by the French, and in Spanish bearing

the appropriate name of madre de cacao, mother of cacao.

[54] It was upon the "boughs and spraies" of these trees that Raleigh

found "great store of oisters, very salt and wel tasted." A species

of edible oyster is still found on this tree--the Rhizophora Mangle

of Linnæus--but, although served on the table in the West Indies, it

is far from being as luscious as our "Blue Points" or as large as our

"Lynn Havens."

[55] At Last, p. 79, London, 1905.

[56] "At this point called Tierra de Brea or Piche," writes Raleigh,

"there is that abondance of stone pitch, that all the ships of the

world may therewith loden from thence, and wee made triall of it in

trimming our ships to be most excellent good, and melteth not with the

sunne, as the pitch of Norway, and therefore for ships trading in the

south partes very profitable."--The Discovery of Guiana, pp. 3 and 4,

published for the Hakluyt Society, London, 1848.

[57] Writings of Columbus, op. cit., pp. 120, 121.

[58] Coleccion de los Viajes y descubrunientos que hiaeron por mar

los Españoles desde fines dil siglo XV. Tom. III, p. 583.

[59] See the aforementioned letter of Columbus to Ferdinand and

Isabella for the quotations above given. The whole letter will well

repay perusal. See also Relaciones y Cartas de Cristobal Colon,

Tom. CL, XIV, de la Biblioteca Clasica, Madrid, 1892, p. 268 et seq.

Americus Vespucius shared with Columbus the belief in the existence

of the Terrestrial Paradise in the newly-discovered lands near the

equator. Writing to his friend, Lorenzo de Medici, giving him an

account of his second voyage, he declares "In the fields flourish so

many sweet flowers and herbs, and the fruits are so delicious in their

fragrance, that I fancied myself near the terrestrial paradise," and

again, "If there is a terrestrial paradise in the world it cannot be

far from this region."--The Life and Voyages of Americus Vespucius,

pp. 197 and 214, by C. Edwards Lester and Andrew Foster, New York,

1846.

[60] The curious reader will be interested in learning that Sir

Walter Raleigh, as well as Columbus and Vespucius, speculated about

the probable site of Paradise. In his History of the World he devotes

a long chapter to the subject, and several pages to the discussion

"Of their Opinion which make paradise as high as the moon; and of

others which make it higher than the middle region of the air,"

Chap. III, Oxford, 1829.

[61] He who goes to the Orinoco dies or becomes crazy.

[62] The Discovery of the Large, Rich and Beautiful Empire of Guiana,

p. 46, edited by Sir Robert Schomburgk, printed for the Hakluyt

Society, London, 1848.

[63] Purgatorio, Canto 1, vv. 13-16.

[64] Sir Robert Schomburgk is no less enthusiastic in his praise

of the tawny beauties of this part of South America. Commenting on

Raleigh's opinion, just quoted, he writes as follows:--

"During our eight years' wandering among the tribes of Guiana,

who inhabit the vast regions from the coast of the Atlantic to the

interior, between the Cassiquiare and the upper Trombetas, we have met

with many an Indian female who in figure and comeliness might have

vied with some of our European beauties. Although they are rather

small in size, their feet and hands are generally exquisite, their

ankles well turned, and their waists, left to nature and not forced

into artificial shape by modern inventions, resemble the beau ideal

of classical sculpture."--The Discoverie of Guiana, ut sup., p. 41.

[65] The reader, I am sure, will be interested in the following

paragraph from Peter Martyr on the plantain.

Speaking of the fruit of the Cassia tree (as he calls the plantain),

he, in Michael Lok's translation, says,--

"The Egyptian common people babble that this is the apple of our first

created Father Adam, whereby hee ouerthrewe all mankinde. The straunge

and farraine Marchantes of vnprofitable Spices, perfumes, Arabian

Yseminating odours, and woorthlesse precious stones trading those

Countries for gaine, call those fruites the Muses. For mine owne part

I cannot call to minde, by what name I might call that tree or stalke

in Latine," p. 273. De Novo Orbe, the Historie of the West Indies,

comprised in eight Decades whereof three haue beene formerly translated

into English by R. Eden, whereunto the other fiue are newly added by

the industrie and painfull Trauaile of M. Lok, Gent., London, 1612.

[66] The Anaconda is called by the inhabitants of Guiana, La

Culebra de Agua, or Water Serpent. It is also named El Traga

Venado--Deer Swallower--while in British Guiana it is known as the

Camoudi. Mr. Waterton, speaking of it, says, "The Camoudi snake has

been killed from thirty to forty feet long; though not venomous, his

size renders him destructive to the passing animals. The Spaniards in

the Oroonoque positively affirm that he grows to the length of seventy

or eighty feet, and that he will destroy the strongest and largest

bull. His name seems to confirm this; there he is called 'matatoro,'

which literally means 'bull-killer.' Thus be may be ranked among

the deadly snakes; for it comes nearly to the same thing in the end,

whether the victim dies by poison from the fangs, which corrupts his

blood, and makes it stink horribly, or whether his body be crushed

to mummy, and swallowed by this hideous beast."--Wanderings in South

America, First Journey.

[67] Neue Reisen, p. 698, Berlin. Cf. Wandertage eines Deutschen

Touristen im Strom und Küstengebiet des Orinoko, Chap. XXXIII-XXXV,

von Eberhard Graf zu Erbach, Leipzig, 1892.

[68] "The navigator," writes the illustrious savant, "in proceeding

along the channels of the delta of the Orinoco at night, sees with

surprise the summit of the palm trees illumined by large fires. These

are the habitations of the Guarons (Titivitas and Waraweties of

Raleigh), which are suspended from the trunks of trees. These tribes

hang up mats in the air, which they fill with earth, and kindle,

on a layer of moist clay, the fire necessary for their household

wants. They had owed their liberty and their political independence

for ages to the quaking and swampy soil, which they pass over in

the time of drought, and on which they alone know how to walk in

security to their solitude in the delta of the Orinoco; to their

abode on the trees, where religious enthusiasm will probably never

lead any American stylites. Vol. III, Chap. XXV.

[69] History of the New World, printed for the Hakluyt Society,

pp. 237, 238.

[70] Historia del Almirante de las Indias, Don Cristobal Colón,

Escrita por Don Fernando Colón, p. 178, Madrid, 1892.

[71] Dec. II, Bk. IV. Eden's translation.

[72] Op. cit., pp. 50, 51.

[73] With reason does the pious missionary call the moriche

palm--Mauritia flexuosa--"nuevo arbol de la vida, y milagro del Supremo

Autor de la naturaleza"--a new tree of life, and a miracle of the

Author of Nature--for this tree alone furnishes the Indian with victum

et amictum--food and raiment.--Historia Natural Civil y Geografica de

las naciones situadas en las Riberas del Rio Orinoco, Vol. I, Cap. IX,

Barcelona, 1882. Compare the following lines of Thomson's Seasons:--

"Wide o'er his isles, the branching Oronoque

Rolls a brown deluge, and the native drives

To dwell aloft on life-sufficing trees,

At once his home, his robe, his food, his arms."

[74] Op. cit., Vol. III, p. 9.

[75] Discoverie of Gviana, p. 50.

[76] Unter den Tropen, Erster Band, p. 521, Jena, 1871.

[77] El Delta del Orinoco tomado de la esploracion al alto bajo Orinoco

y central en 1850, por Andres E. Level, Vol. III, de la Memoria de

la Dirección General de Estradistica al Presidente de los Estados

Unidos de Venezuela, en 1873.

[78] Chapter XXXI.

[79] Op. cit, Vol. II, pp. 255, 256.

[80] The Ewaipanomas, to whom Othello, in his address to the fair

Desdemona, refers in the following passage:--

"... the cannibals that each other eat,

The anthropophagi, and men whose heads

Do grow beneath their shoulders."

Captain Keymis, who served under Raleigh, tells us, as we read in

Hakluyt, of people "who have eminent heads like dogs, and live all

the day-time in the sea, and they speak the Carib language."

[81] John Hagthorpe, a contemporary of Raleigh, writes about the matter

as follows: "Sir Walter Rawley knewe very well when he attempted

his Guayana businesse, who err'd in nothing so much,--if a free man

may speak freely,--as in too much confidence in the relations of

the countrie: For who knowes not the policy and cunning of the fat

Fryers, which is to stirre up and animate the Souldiers and Laytie

to the search and inquisition of new Countries, by devising tales

and coments in their Cloysters where they live at ease, that when

others have taken payne to bringe in the harvest, they may feed

upon the best and fattest of the croppe?"--England's Exchequer,

or A Discourse of the Sea and Navigation with Some Things Thereunto

Coincident Concerning Plantations, London, 1625.

[82] Kingsley in Westward Ho! speaks of Columbus and Raleigh as "the

two most gifted men, perhaps, with the exception of Humboldt, who ever

set foot in tropical America." Spanish writers, it is safe to say,

would strongly demur to this statement so far as Raleigh is concerned.

[83] Elsewhere he tells us of the thousands of "vglie serpents," which

he calls Lagartos, the Spanish word for lizards, that he saw everywhere

along the Orinoco. They were what are now known as crocodiles and

caymans, the former of which, according to Schomburgk, are seldom more

than six to eight feet long, while the latter are said sometimes to

attain a length of twenty-five feet. We saw several of them every day

but their number was far from being as great as is usually represented.

Of the armadillo, which is prized as a delicacy in Guiana, Raleigh says

"it seemeth to be barred ouer with small plates like to a Renocero with

a white horne growing in his hinder parts, as big as a great hunting

horne which they vse to winde in steed of a trumpet." Op. cit., p. 74.

[84] According to Sr. F. Michelenena y Rojas, Exploracion Oficial,

p. 54, the palm for physical superiority and intelligence is to be

awarded to the Caribs. He says the Carib race is without doubt ... the

most beautiful, the most robust and the most intelligent of all those

in Venezuela. Not only this; he seems inclined to consider them the

superiors of all the Indians in South America. Vespucci speaks, too,

of them as "magnae sapientiae viri"--men of superior intelligence--as

well as men of superior strength and valor.

[85] Raleigh gives the following graphic description of the wife of

an Indian chief whom he met during his voyage to this region:--

"In all my life I haue seldome seene a better fauored woman: She

was of good stature, with blacke eies, fat of body, of an excellent

countenance, hir haire almost as long as hir selfe, tied vp againe in

pretie knots, and it seemed she stood not in that aw of hir husband, as

the rest, for she spake and discourst, and dranke among the gentlemen

and captaines, and was very pleasant, knowing hir owne comelines,

and taking great pride therein. I haue seene a Lady in England so

like hir, as but for the difference of colour I would haue sworne

might haue beene the same." Op. cit., p. 66.

[86] Peter Martyr says of them:--"Edaces humanarum carnium novi

helluones anthropophagi, Caribes alias Canibales appellati."

Notwithstanding all that has been said on the subject since the

discovery of America, it is still a moot question with many serious

investigators whether the Caribs of Tierra Firme were ever cannibals,

as is so generally believed. That the Caribs of certain of the West

Indian islands were addicted to anthropophagy there can, it seems,

be little doubt. The concurrent testimony of the earlier writers,

including Peter Martyr and Cardinal Bembo and others, have apparently

placed the matter beyond controversy. It was the cruelties and

anthropophagous habits of the Caribs, as reported to Spain, that

provoked the law which was promulgated in 1504 in virtue of which every

Indian, who could be proved to be of Carib origin, might be enslaved

by the Spaniards. This law, however, although designed by its framers

to eliminate a practice that was a disgrace to humanity, opened the

door to evils almost as great--if not greater in some instances--as

those it was expected to suppress. Selfish, soulless colonists had but

to circulate the report that certain Indians, whom they coveted for

slaves, were cannibals, in order to justify themselves before the law

for tearing them from their homes and keeping them in servitude. Thus

it happened that, shortly after the promulgation of the law aforesaid,

the Caribs of the Mainland, as well as those of the West Indies,

were classed as cannibals. They were accordingly hunted like wild

beasts, and countless thousands of them--the same innocent, gentle,

inoffensive creatures that so strongly appealed to Columbus--were sold

into slavery and met with a cruel death in the mines of Española. So

successful were the atrocious slave-dealers of the time in fixing the

stigma of cannibal on the Indians of the Mainland that Herrera felt

authorized to declare that there was in every pueblo of Venezuela a

slaughter house in which human flesh could be obtained--en cada Pueblo

havia Caneceria publica de carne humana (Dec. VIII, Lib. II, Cap. XIX).

Direct and specific as is this charge, it is quite safe to assert

that it is utterly devoid of foundation in fact. The most charitable

construction we can put on Herrera's statements is that he was misled

by the false reports of those whose interest it was to have it believed

that the Caribs of Venezuela, as well as those of the West Indies,

indulged in the horrid practice of devouring their enemies. Humboldt

was among the first to raise his voice in defense of the Indians of the

Mainland and to assert that it was only the Caribs of the West Indies

that had "rendered the names cannibals, Caribbees and anthropophagi,

synonymous." (Personal Narrative, Vol. II, p. 414.)

A recent Venezuelan writer, Tavera-Acosta, declares that it is "an

incontrovertible fact that so far the anthropophagy of which they

have been accused by their ferocious and ignorant executioners has

never been proved" against the Caribs. Their sole crime was that

they took arms against their ruthless invaders in defense of their

homes, and relying on their numbers and conscious superiority over

other tribes endeavored by all possible means to preserve their

independence. (Anales de Guayana, p. 320, Ciudad Bolivar, 1905.)

There can be no doubt that the Indians, during the period

of the conquest and subsequently, were the victims of gross

misrepresentations and had in consequence to endure untold hardships

and miseries. Not content with denouncing them as cannibals, their

relentless persecutors--Dutch, Germans, English, French and Portuguese,

as well as Spaniards--insisted on regarding them as mere animals--like

a species of chimpanzee or orang-outang--that had no souls and no

rights any one was bound to respect. It required the bull--Sublimis

Deus--of Pope Paul III to define the status of the hapless Indians,

to make it clear that they are not "dumb brutes created for our

service," but that they "are truly men"; that "they are by no means

to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property";

that they are not "to be in any way enslaved"; and that "should the

contrary happen, it shall be null and of no effect."

What has been said of the cannibalism of the South American

Indian in times past may with even greater truth be iterated of it

to-day. In spite of what has been written to the contrary, even by so

distinguished an explorer as Rafael Reyes--ex-president of Colombia--it

may well be doubted if there is a single tribe in South America that

can justly be accused of cannibalism. Some of them, owing to their

miserable social condition, or because they have for generations

past been the victims of the injustice and cruelty of the whites,

may be ferocious and vindictive, but, that even the worst of them are

cannibals, is yet to be proved. Compare Oviedo y Baños, op. cit., II,

p. 377 et seq., and Across the South American Continent, Exploration

of the Brothers Reyes, Paper Read at the Pan-American Conference,

by General Rafael Reyes, the Delegate for Colombia, Dec. 30th, 1901,

Mexico and Barcelona, 1902.

[87] Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de l'Amérique, Vol. VI, pp. 127, 128,

Paris, 1743.

[88] "Facilius enim mulieres incorruptam antiquitatem conservant, quod

multorum sermonis expertes ea tenent semper, quæ prima didicerunt."--De

Orat., Lib. III, Cap. XII, 45.

[89] See, among other works on the subject, Du Parler des Hommes et

du Parler des Femmes dans la Langue Caraïbe, par Lucien Adam, Paris,

1879, in which the author makes the following statement:--