threes, the centre one driving the one on each side of it by
projecting cogs. The whole are set in motion by oxen travelling
round the same as in a thrashing-mill. The ungreased axles of the
rollers, squeaking and screeching like a score of tormented pigs,
generally inform the traveller of their vicinity long before he
reaches them. The juice is boiled, and an impure sugar made from
it. I do not think that the sugar-cane was known to the ancient
inhabitants of the country: it is not mentioned by the historians
of the conquest of Mexico and Peru, nor has it, like maize and
cacao, any native name.

As soon as we passed Pital we entered the great forest, the black
margin of which we had seen for many miles, that extends from this
point to the Atlantic. At first the road lay through small trees
and brushwood, a second growth that had sprung up where the
original forest had been cut for maize plantations; but after
passing a brook bordered by numerous plants of the pita, from which
a fine fibre is obtained, and which gives its name to Pital, we
entered the primeval forest. On each side of the road great trees
towered up, carrying their crowns out of sight amongst a canopy of
foliage; lianas wound round every trunk and hung from every bough,
passing from tree to tree, and entangling the giants in a great
network of coiling cables, as the serpents did Laocoon; the simile
being strengthened by the fact that many of the trees are really
strangled in the winding folds. Sometimes a tree appears covered
with beautiful flowers, which do not belong to it, but to one of
the lianas that twines through its branches and sends down great
rope-like stems to the ground. Climbing ferns and vanilla cling to
the trunks, and a thousand epiphytes perch themselves on the
branches. Amongst these are large arums that send down aerial