Beans  —  known  here,  as  in  all  Latin  -  American
countries,  as  frijoles — form  a  large  proportion  of  the
humbler  people's  daily  diet.  They  are  large,  brown,
and  flat  in  appearance,  very  nourishing,  and  very
palatable  when  properly  cooked.  They  are  grown  all
over  the  Republic,  and  seem  to  flourish  even  in  poor-
quality  soil.  Indian  corn,  or  maize,  wheat,  potatoes,
sweet-potatoes,  yams,  and  other  vegetables  in  great
variety,  flourish  here,  and  one  is  reminded  of  a  famous
cultivator's  exordium  upon  the  merits  of  Jamaica  :
^g"  You  have,"  said  he,  "  but  to  tickle  the  ground  with
V  a  hoe,  and  it  at  once  smiles  a  yam."

Except  in  Brazil,  which  probably  stands  unrivalled
among  the  South  American  States  as  a  precious-wood-
yielding  country,  I  know  of  no  State  possessing  finer
timber  forests  than  Salvador.  I  have  ridden  mile
upon  mile  through  magnificent  timber-tree  lands—
the  cedar,  the  mahogany,  the  ebony,  the  granadilla,
and  many  other  valuable  cabinet  woods  ;  but  upon
inquiry  as  to  what  is  being  done  with  all  this  precious
material  provided  by  a  bountiful  Nature,  I  was  in-
formed that  it  is  rarely  marketed,  although  it  is  cut


NATIVE  WOODS

occasionally  for  local  building  purposes.  Many  of
the  larger  private  houses  and  public  buildings  in  San
Salvador  are  constructed  of  native  woods,  and  one
is  struck  with  the  beauty  of  their  grain  and  their
extreme  hardness,  while  they  will  mostly  take  on  a
high  polish.  In  the  lowlands  there  is  an  extremely
large  variety  of  dye  woods  to  be  met  with  ;  but  here,
again,  the  great  forests  are  left  almost  untouched,
many  of  them  being  as  trackless  as  the  day  that  they
came  into  being.  The  only  tree  among  these  latter  of
which  use  is  made  is  the  mora,  or  fustic  of  commerce.
