History: Bananas During 1840s in Rio Negro
In the mid 1840s, Thomas Young, Deputy Superintendent of the British Central American Land Company, traveled along the Rio Negro, one of many rivers that cut through the narrow coastal plain that stretches along Honduras’s Caribbean coastline.
Paddling upstream with a group of Miskito Indians, Young observed “thousands of banana tress growing spontaneously, the fruit of which is so much sought after by the natives, who come from very distant parts to Black River, to gather it.”
He noted the ease with which the plant could be cultivated and added that “the ripe fruit is highly esteemed, although it is apt to disagree with European if eaten shortly before or after taking spirits.
The green fruit is cut onto slices by the Spaniards and expose to the sun, and when rubbed, forms a kind of flour of which they are fond.
When Young visited the Rio Negro region, bananas were a novelty item in Europe and the United States, and little export oriented agricultural of any kind took place in the Caribbean lowlands of Honduras.
Most of the region’s nineteenth century exports, including mahogany, fustic (a dyewood), deer skins, sarsaparilla, and rubber, were extracts from forested ecosystems and wetlands.
As late as 1859, traveler journeying by canoe from Omoa to Puerto Corte’s described forests that extended from hillsides down to the edge of narrow sandy beaches along the coast.
Agriculture in the region can best be described as small scale monocultures and polycultures, Extensive plantings of bananas, plantains, sugar cane, and pastureland were few and geographically dispersed.
This situation started to change in the 1870s, when schooners from US ports began arriving with increasing frequency in order to purchase bananas and coconuts.
Around the same time, the Honduran national government began to embrace export oriented economic development models.
History: Bananas During 1840s in Rio Negro
