Arroba

“ The price of a Brazilian arroba of charqui, weighing thirty-three pounds, varies from six to ten milreis, say from fourpence to sevenpence per pound. Obidos is about the highest place on the Amazon at which the daily influence of the tides is felt, the river rising and falling about two feet at this place; against a tide of about twenty feet at Pará. ”

“ Every hundred plants will give an arroba of leaves, which is worth, in Tarma, from six to seven dollars. Some persons do not transplant, but sow several of the seed together, and, when they come up, pull up all but the one most flourishing, and leave that in its original place.
The leaf of this plant is to the Indian of Peru what tobacco is to our laboring classes in the South—a luxury, which has become a necessity. Supplied with an abundance of it, he sometimes performs prodigies of labor, and can go without food for several days. Without it, he is miserable and will not work. ”

“ The plant averages four feet in height. Good Borba tobacco is worth in Barra seven dollars the arroba, of thirty-two pounds; it does not keep well, and therefore the price in Pará varies very much.
The tree that gives the Brazil nut is not more than two or three feet in diameter, but very tall; the nuts, in number about twenty, are enclosed in a very hard, round shell, of about six inches in diameter. The crop is gathered in May and June. It is quite a dangerous operation to collect it ”

“ In good ground, and without accident, every thousand trees will give fifty arrobas of the fruit; but the average is probably not over twenty-five. A tree in good condition, and bearing well, is worth sixteen cents; the land in which it grows is not counted in the sale. One person will take care of two thousand trees. The value of the arroba in Pará is one dollar. With these data, calculation will make the cultivation of the cocoa, in the neighborhood of Obidos, but a poor business; and, indeed, I heard that most of the cultivators
were in debt
300 OBIDOS. ”

“ Continuing the voyage one Friday morning, we arrived at a rapid, where the river passes between steep rocks. Large quantities of gold-fish (dorados) descend this rapid, and it was the largest rapid we had yet met with. We passed it sailing and rowing. Here the Spaniards and Indians caught in one hour large quantities of gold-fish, as many as forty of them being taken by one man. These fish are so big that they weigh half an arroba [348] each, and some as much as one arroba. They are excellent eating, the head being the best part. ”

“ In 1895, at the breaking out of the insurrection, the 1100 acres under cane cultivation produced about 2,500,000 arrobas (an arroba is twenty-five pounds) , and aside from this, a sufficient quantity of corn and vegetables were grown for all the requirements of the colonia, so we never had to purchase. From the 1st of December to the 1st of June, an average of about 350 people were employed; of these ten per cent. were Canary Islanders or Spaniards, ten per cent. negro women and boys (white women do no field work) ; twenty per cent. native whites, and about sixty per cent. ”

“ An Indian can gather and grind two mantadas in a day. Ten or twelve mantadas are required to calk such a boat as mine. The pitch of the country is said to be the deposit of an ant in the trees. I never saw it in its original state. It is gathered 226 by the Indians; heated till soft; made into the shape of wide, thin bricks; and is worth sixty-two and a half cents the arroba. It is very indifferent. A better kind is made by mixing black wax with gum copal.
Father Valdivia entertained us most kindly. His aguadiente gave out ”

“ Whenever they see that they cannot resist the onslaught, they disperse in the woods, but almost instantly come together again at a previously designated meeting-place. They are very fleet of foot and good racers, and of an almost incredible endurance for walking long distances, even with a load of six to eight arrobas [150 to 200 pounds] [10] on their backs. They also can stand a long time without food or drink. ”

“ A broad ribbon of sand marks the dry bed of a torrent, and on the clays of its banks, if the sheet of water underground is not too deep, one finds, in spite of the goats and asses and charcoal-burners, little forests of algarrobas, which the foundries use for fuel. ”

“ There were twenty tatacuas, twenty barbacues, and twenty pies of the yerba cut and ready for manufacture. Two days after that the whole colony was in a blaze, tatacuas and barbacues were enveloped in smoke; on the third day all was stowed away in the shed; and on the fourth the peons again went out to procure more of the boughs and leaves."— (Letters on Paraguay, vol. ii. p. 142-147) .
Each peon or laborer, going into the woods for six months, can procure eight arrobas, or 200 lbs. of yerba a day. This, at the rate of two rials, or 1s. for each arroba, would make his wages per day 8s. ”

“ The extensive family of leguminous or pod-bearing trees also grace these gardens with three additional members remarkable for fine foliage and useful products, such as the algarroba, with hard-shelled pods, containing a number of brown, round seeds or beans—also very hard, enveloped in a farinaceous and very nutricious fecula; a fine aromatic resin, good for varnishes, exudes from the trunk and branches of this tree, and a still finer one can be extracted from its horny pericarp by infusion in alcohol or other extractive medium ”

“ In the time of the Yncas the principal ccompi workers lived at Capachica, near the lake of Titicaca. They use dyes which are gathered from various plants.
“The llamas carry loads weighing from four to six arrobas (100 to 150 lbs.) , but do not go further than three, or at the most four leagues a day. They are all fond of a cold climate, and die when they are taken down into the warm valleys. ”

“ The algarroba, carob tree, grows in the vicinity of Lambayeque in great abundance, and is of such utility, that a law exists to prevent the owners from cutting them down: they grow to the size of our largest oaks; the wood is very hard, the leaf small, and the branches bear an abundance of clusters of pods, about four inches long and three-quarters of an inch broad, containing five or six black seeds, like small beans. ”

“ Still down the Lerma from Acambaro is the Hacienda de Robles extending thirty-three kilometers on each side of the river, and which furnishes hundreds of peons, and still further is the city of Irapuata, the perpetual home of the strawberry. For three hundred and sixty-five days in the year no train has ever passed Irapuata without strawberries being offered for sale, for in this rich valley it is perpetual seedtime and harvest. The whole year is springtime, and the energies of all the people are devoted to strawberries. ”

“ Only his ravages and his poison deserve serious attention.
On the Sérignan hills, sunny heights upon which the Mediterranean vegetation comes to an end, the arbutus, or strawberry-tree, [151] abounds: a magnificent shrub, with lustrous evergreen foliage, vermilion fruit, round and fleshy as strawberries, and hanging clusters of little white bells resembling those of the lily of the valley. When the frosts come at the approach of December, nothing could be more charming than the arbutus, decking its gay verdure with both fruits and flowers, with coral balls and plump little bells. ”

“ The Arafuras, when at sea, protect themselves from the rain, which they dislike greatly, by means of long bags open on one side, made from the bark of a tree. When the weather is fine, they roll these up and use them as a cushion to sit upon. ”

“ When the eating was finished, the snakes arose and took wooden swords and launched their canoe, for they were about to fight Arebo. And Wakeke, fearing lest he might be forbidden, coiled himself upon the outrigger. Then did they paddle, and paddle, and paddle, until they floated over the place where dwelt Arebo at the bottom of the sea. And that they might better see him they squeezed coconut milk upon the water and made it calm, and so looked upon Arebo sitting below eating betel nut. ”

“ Our old pilot of the Ciawani, whom, as I said before, we took to redeem Ferdinando, told us, that if we would enter a branch of a river on the right hand with our barge and wherries, and leave the galley at anchor the while in the great river, he would bring us to a town of the Arwacas, where we should find store of bread, hens, fish, and of the country wine ”

“ When it has paid its tribute to the royal pile, and visited its gardens and parterres, it flows down the long avenue leading to the city, tinkling in rills, gushing in fountains, and maintaining a perpetual verdure in those groves that embower and beautify the whole hill of the Alhambra.
Those only who have sojourned in the ardent climates of the South can appreciate the delights of an abode combining the breezy coolness of the mountain with the freshness and verdure of the valley. ”

“ Situated in the smiling valley of the Abra, it is reputed to be the most beautiful city in Central America, while it is the second in extent and the third in population, having about thirty thousand souls. Its altitude is nearly four thousand and seven hundred feet above the level of the sea, and it has a mean annual temperature of 70° F. Foreign residents declare that the climate during the dry season is ideal. ”

“ Finally we see her no more, but now the larger Aragua, flowing toward the Lake of Valencia, reaches out a bold hand, and we follow the new pathfinder where she commands.
One last look into the shadowy depths before we drop to the plains. It is only a glimpse, for the passing is so swift that the eye cannot reach its entirety of beauty; but that glimpse is like the shadow of a great rock,—a lasting memory. ”

“ The arroyo near the ranch was no longer an arroyo, but a stream fifty feet wide; and on the hither side of the pecan-trees of the creek could be seen a silver line: the water had already surpassed the banks. Before noon there was neither creek nor arroyo, but a river a mile wide rushing down the valley: we knew where the trees had been, by the swirling waves. A flood is like those serpents which fascinate before they strike. ”

“ For a time Rasba thought that perhaps he had better just let the river carry him whither it would, but upon reflection he remembered what an old raftsman, who had run strands of logs down Clinch and Holston, told him about the nature of rivers:
“Come a falling tide, an’ she drags along the banks and all that’s afloat keeps in the middle; but come a fresh an’ a risin’ tide, an’ the hoist of the water is in the mid-stream, and what’s runnin’ rolls off to one side or the other, an’ jams up into the drift piles.” ”

“ The wells made by the Moors are always in repute, for it is well known what pains they took to penetrate to the purest and sweetest springs and fountains. The one of which we now speak is famous throughout Granada, insomuch that water-carriers, some bearing great water-jars on their shoulders, others driving asses before them laden with earthern vessels, are ascending and descending the steep woody avenues of the Alhambra, from early dawn until a late hour of the night. ”

“ Farther down the scenery was stern and harsh, with great rock-masses, crowning slopes that rose steeply three or four thousand feet above the valley, but here and there where there was room for cultivation beside the river, a patch of bright green alfalfa relieved its monotony of178 brown and black—a weird country, with these sharp contrasts of heat and cold, of verdure and sterility. The air was already warm, and after thirty miles, one comes into the rains and the insects and the fevers of the tropics. ”

“ An unsuccessful manœuvre followed, and we had to ride afar to seek fresh bandadas. After traversing leagues of corn-land—at this season as lonely as an African desert,—we descried a considerable pack, and again luck favoured us as to site. An arroyo, or stream, ran along the valley below—one of those small rapid currents that, in winter, tear deep and narrow gulleys, and in the summer become quite dry, save in a few of the deeper pools or favoured corners which resist the heat and afford nesting homes for the mallard and drinking resorts for the bustard. ”

“ It is always swept by cool breezes. The view of sea and land from the crest of a hill just before Bangui is entered will hold the attention of even the most travelled tourist.
ABRA PROVINCE is south of Ilocos Norte. It is a beautiful mountainous region. It is considered to be the seismic center of Northern Luzon. It is drained by the voluminous Abra River which is the highway to the Province of Ilocos Sur. The valley drained by this river and its tributaries is covered with luxuriant vegetation. Corn, tobacco, and rice are the most important products. ”

“ Seeing his beauty, in love with it fell.
The flower and fruit of the Arbutus, or Strawberry-tree, are represented in the following plate. We have few shrubs which contribute so much and so constantly to the adornment of our gardens and lawns as this. Its deep glossy ever-green leaves are alone beautiful; but when in Autumn these are gemmed with its clusters of delicate flowers, and the richly-hued ripening fruit (which is a year in attaining maturity, and so appears with the succeeding blossoms) , I know few objects so beautiful as a fine Arbutus. ”

“ In every particularly dry summer springs by the thousand are entirely dried up, and the flow from the majority of others is greatly diminished. On the other hand, in wet seasons all but the most extraordinary springs have their flow increased. In some geological formations increase of flow occurs very soon after the beginning of rains. Arago states as the uniform observation of miners, especially those of Cornwall, that in mines situated in the midst of certain limestones water increases in the deepest drifts a very few hours after it has begun to rain on the surface of the earth. ”