HONDURAS, or HruuERAs, a maritime province of the Spanish kingdom of Guatimala in America, which the Spaniards calculate to extend 1 S5 leagues from north to south, and 50 from east to west. The surface is in gene ral mountainous, and is intersected by deep wallies, con ducting numerous rivers down to the sea ; but part of the coast is extremely low and marshy. A hot and humid at mosphere renders the province unhealthy, unless on the shore, where regular breezes refresh the inhabitants ; and here epidemical diseases rarely prevail. Thunder showers are frequent (hiring the warmest season, sometimes raging with great violence. This province is penetrated by a large bay, called the Bay of Honduras, to which our no tice shall be more particularly directed : the coast abounds in dangers to the mariner front rocks and shoals ; and all along its margin aro keys, that is, peninsulas or promonto ries, between creeks and the mouths of rivers. These keys are known by different names, as St George's key, Turneff key, Ambergrease key, and the like ; and sonic of the islands pass by the same denomination.
Some authors affirm, that gold and silver are found in Honduras ; but, according to the late traveller Humboldt, it scarcely presents any metallic mines. Vegetation is in remarkable luxuriance, and the plants numerous and di versified. Grapes are produced twice a year from the vines ; sugar canes, coffee, cotton, and indigo, are abun dant, and also grain of several kinds ; but the inhabitants arc too indolent to avail themselves of the benefits of na ture. The most important plants, in a commercial view, are mahogany and logwood; the former is employed for all descriptions of furniture in Britain and America, and the latter for dyeing. Chiefly for the purpose of obtaining these two commodities, a British settlement has long been established in the Bay of Honduras ; and a vast quantity of the former is exported annually. The mode of pro curing it, is to dispatch a skilful negro to climb the high est trees on lofty places, for the purpose of discovering mahogany in the woods, which is generally solitary, and visible at a great distance, from the yellowish hue of its foliage. A gang of from ten to fifty slaves is then sent out to erect a scaffold around each tree that is selected, and to cut it down about twelve feet from the ground. When
felled, the logs are, with much labour, dragged to the banks of the streams, and being formed into rafts, some times of 200 united, are floated as many miles, to places where the rivers are crossed by strong cables, and then the owners separate their respective shares. It is said that the boughs and limbs afford the finest wood, but in Britain mahogany is more valued on account of size; and none is allowed to be exported to the United States of America exceeding 20 inches in diameter. The logwood, on the other hand, affects low swampy grounds, growing conti guous to fresh water creeks and lakes, on the edges of which the roots, the most valuable parts of the wood, ex tend. It is sought in the dry season, and the wood-cutters having built a hut in the vicinity of a number of trees in the same spot, collect the logs in heaps ; and afterwards 'float up small canoes in the wet season, when the ground is laid under water, to carry them off. This is considered a veey unhealthy employment.
Many wild animals inhabit the province, among which are two kinds of tiger, as generally described ; but they are more probably of the leopard species, the Brasilian and black tiger. Both of them are fierce ; they are said some times to attack man; but their depredations are chiefly confined to cattle. The tapir, which is nearly the size of a small cow, is reputed to inhabit the thickest parts of the i forests, in the neighbourhood of creeks and rivers, and is very rarely to be seen by day. There are different kinds of wild hogs, three species.of the armadillo, and numer ous monkeys. Of birds may be named the turkey, con cerning whose native country naturalists have expressed doubts ; but here it lives in pairs in the most sequestered recesses of the woods, and cannot easily be taken alive. It .never survives in captivity, and the young hatched from eggs, generally wander away to the original haunts of the mothers. The toucan, oriole, macaw, and pelican, are common. A great quantity of honey and wax are obtained. front the bees of this country, which construct their combs in holes of the earth. The rivers abound in fish ; and the manati and turtle are the constant objects of pursuit on the shores.