eds or kernels, enveloped in a white pithy
pulp with a sweet taste. These seeds when dried form the cocoa of
commerce, from which the beverage is made and chocolate is manufactured.
There are three harvests in the year, when the pods are pulled from the
trees and gathered into baskets. They are then thrown into pits and
covered with sand, where they remain three or four days to get rid of,
by fermentation, a strong bitter flavour they possess. They are then
carefully cleaned and dried in large flat trays in the sun. After this
they are packed in sacks for the market. Our friend in the morning
showed us some blossoms which had burst forth from the roots during the
night, which happened to be somewhat damp and warm--an example of the
expansive powers of vegetable life in that region. An oil is extracted
from another species of cacao, the nut of which is small and white. It
is called cacao-butter, and is used by the natives for burns and sores
and cutaneous diseases. A large quantity of cacao for the manufacture
of chocolate is exported to Spain. Among the trees were numbers of the
broad-leaved plantain and banana, which had been planted to protect the
young cacao trees from the heat of the sun. The fruit of the banana,
one of the most useful productions of the Tropics, is eaten raw,
roasted, boiled, and fried. It grows in large bunches, weighing from
sixty to seventy pounds each.

Continuing our voyage the next day, we passed amid groves of oranges and
lemons, whose rich perfume was wafted across the water to us. Here also
the mango, bearing a golden fruit, spread around its splendid foliage;
while, above all, the beautiful cocoanut palm lifted its superb head.
Now and then we saw monkeys gambolling among the trees, as well as many
birds of brilliant plumage. Among others, a beautiful bird got up from
a bed of reeds we were passing, spreading wide its wings and broad tail
directly before us. John shot it, and the small canoe we sent to pick
it up. It was about the size of a partridge, with a crane-like bill, a
slender neck, and shorter legs than ordinary waders, though a wader it
was. The plumage was shaded curiously in bands and lines with brown,
fawn-colour, red, grey, and black, which Ellen said reminded her of a
superb moth she had seen. It was the caurale, or sun-bird (_Scolopax
Helios_), our books told us, found also in Demerara. Less attractive in
appearance were the gallinazos, or vultures, the sc