Notes on Central America: Particularly the States of Honduras and San Salvador: Their Geography, Topography, Climate, Population, Resources, Productions, Etc., Etc., and the Proposed Honduras Inter-oceanic Railway

Front Cover
Harper & brothers, 1855 - Central America - 397 pages

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 261 - In granting, however, their joint protection to any such canals or railways as are by this article specified, it is always understood by the United States and Great Britain that the parties constructing or owning the same, shall impose no other charges or conditions of traffic thereupon than the aforesaid governments shall approve of as just and equitable...
Page 342 - ... occupy, or fortify or colonize, or assume, or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Central America...
Page 261 - ... any other practicable communications, whether by canal or railway, across the isthmus which connects North and South America, and especially to the inter-oceanic communications, should the same prove to be practicable, whether by canal or railway, which are now proposed to be established by the way of Tehuantepec or Panama.
Page 261 - The governments of the United States and Great Britain having not only desired, in entering into this convention, to accomplish a particular object, but also to establish a general principle, they hereby agree to extend their protection, by treaty stipulations, to any other practicable communications, whether by canal or railway, across the isthmus which connects North and South America...
Page 172 - At this season the leaves of the mahogany tree are invariably of a yellow-reddish hue, and an eye accustomed to this kind of exercise, can, at a great distance, discern the places where the wood is most abundant. He now descends, and to such places his steps are directed...
Page 174 - About the end of May the periodical rains again commence. The torrents of water discharged from the clouds are so great as to render the roads impassable in the course of a few hours, when all trucking ceases ; the cattle are turned into the pasture, and the trucks, gear, and tools, etc., are housed.
Page 197 - Sulphur is burned in the fields, guns are fired, drums beaten, and every mode of making a noise put in requisition for the purpose. In this mode detached plantations are often saved. But when the columns once alight, no device can avail to rescue them from speedy desolation. In a single hour, the largest maize-fields are stripped of their leaves, and only the stems are left to indicate that they once existed.
Page 174 - Each gang then separates its own cutting by the mark on the ends of the logs, and forms them into large rafts ; in which state they are brought down to the wharves of the proprietors, where they are taken out of the water, and undergo a second process of the axe, to make the surface smooth. The ends, which frequently get split and rent by the force of the current, are also sawed off, when they are ready for shipping.
Page 319 - There were, however, two principal ones, viz., "at the beginning of winter and the commencement of summer,'" probably at the periods of the summer and winter solstices. On these occasions, according to Herrera, they sacrificed human beings, illegitimate children of their own nation, " from six to twelve years of age.
Page 342 - Barbarat. Helene, and Morat to be a colony to be known and designated as the Colony of the Bay of Islands,' and signed • By command of Her Majesty's superintendent, Augustus Fred. Gore, colonial secretary...

Bibliographic information