Note XV-57 — Chapter XV · REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS. 1840-1865.

Guardiola was a dark-colored, stout-built, and rather corpulent zambo, a man of fiendish instincts, but popular with his soldiers, whom he indulged in every way. He possessed all the vices and was guilty of about all the crimes known to man. When in his cups he would order men to be shot by way of pastime. At the mention of his approach to a town, the inhabitants would flee to the woods. He was the tiger of Cent. Am. Dunlop's Cent. Am., 237; Wells' Hond., 517; Wappäus, Mex. und Cent. Am., 306-7. William V. Wells, Explorations and Adventures in Honduras, New York, 8vo, 588 pp., with maps and illustrations, went to Honduras with the object of obtaining from her government leave to work gold placers, and of opening commercial relations. He visited several places, both in Nicaragua and Honduras, which he describes quite accurately, together with the manners and customs of their inhabitants. His information on mines and mining is valuable. There are in the work three chapters devoted to history from 1821 to 1857, the groundwork of which is mostly from other authors, and one chapter is filled with data on commerce, revenue, debt, etc., and still another treats of coins and currency, weights and measures, and productions, with illustrations. The style is good, the work readable and instructive. Portions are evidently taken from Squier, and the illustrations are mostly identical with those of Squier's States of Central America. The same author gave to the press in New York, a 12mo, with 316 pp., map and portrait, under the title of Walker's Expedition to Nicaragua. This work, as the title implies, is almost entirely devoted to Walker's career in this country, which is justified as well as praised. Here and there he mentions some historical facts on British pretensions in Mosquito, a short résumé on Nicaragua, the Nicaragua transit route, and a short review on colonization, commerce, and mining, compiled from several sources. There is no system or arrangement, having been, as the author alleges, 'written, published, and put in circulation in twenty days,' a feat few authors would go out of their way to boast of. But taken all in all, the book is well worth perusing.