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Letter from Punta Gorda

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Title	Letter from Punta Gorda
Description	Letter from L. K. Hill, a Mississippi native living in Punta Gorda, British Honduras (present-day Belize) to "Nick." Hill describes the people and culture of Punta Gorda for his friend in Mississippi.
Digital ID#	20-219
Physical ID	20-219
Object Type	Letter
Creator	Hill, L. K.
Subject	Punta Gorda (Belize)--History. Agriculture--Belize.
Geographic location	Punta Gorda (Belize)
Date (original)	1888-03-03
Time period	1890-1899
Original Collection	Williams (Daniel) Papers
Publisher	Mississippi State University Libraries (electronic version).
Rights	Copyright protected by Mississippi State University Libraries. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required.
Format (original)	8-page letter 20.3 x 13.3 cm.
Format (digital)	200 dpi JPEG image
Repository	Manuscripts Division, Special Collections Department, Mississippi State University Libraries.
Location of Original	Williams (Daniel) Papers/Box 1/Letters from Central America
Related materials	A digitization project sponsored by the Consortium for the History of Agricultural and Rural Mississippi (CHARM).
Language	en
Contact information	For more information send email to sp_coll@library.msstate.edu or call 662-325-7679.
facet format	correspondence
Transcript	Punta Gorda [British Honduras] March 3 / [18]88 Dear Nick Yours of the 23 of Jan came to hand some time since[.] I intended answering it long ear [sic] this, but pressure of business has rendered me unfit for anything save the necessary of the hour, which equals the work of [page 2] 2 ordinary men[.] Now that we have completed & moved in our house I find more leisure time but somehow I can find no other time to write but on Sunday. I dislike greatly however the necessity of putting off letter writing until then, nevertheless I make a ? of [page 3] necessity, for in the week my business will not admit of so much mental exertion as is required to write a letter to go some 10 or 15 hundred leagues to its destination. From what I have said do not misconstrue my inability to perform such in the week to a lack of [page 4] Knowledge or the absence of same - but to the performance of my daily routine of duties which without the judicious exercise of mental & physical powers cannot be successfully performed. I do not deny I have a free volition - but the mind as well as the body is made inflexible from over exertion [page 5] of the physical powers. But I am digressing. When you bring me before your imagination Nick don't picture me to be an object of pitty [sic] far removed from civilization & the gratification it affords viewed from a social standpoint. But one in the most prosperous & civilized of countrys [sic]. Though small [page 6] when compared to Australia it is well up in what constitutes a most desirable place to live in. Sugar is the chief industry of this section though bananas constitute the largest persent [sic] of what is grown aside from it (cane) & of late is vastly increasing & I hope [page 7] the demand for them will not lessen as they become more plentiful as I am preparing to put in about 10 acres. We are going into sugar next year on quite a large scale. I should not go into it were it not from the fact the banana boom might possibly play in a year or too [sic]. You [page 8] might possibly be astonished when I tell you cane is planted but once in 20 or 25 years. And the prodigious yield per acre 20 to 25 barels [sic] or 5000. lbs. Per lb 4 to 5 c. I just note this to show you how we make more profitable farming here than the States. Where there is so much [page 9] sacarine [sic] matter you should conjecture there are many "dulcit" [sic] girls so there are a few but so few it nettles one to death nearly to have the old folks eyes continuously on you when standing a fair chance. Nick I cannot refrain from telling you of my devotion to one said [page 10] Miss Ella Waters of this place who is the personification of beauty, educated & refined & with lots of chink. Our little town Punta G. is a place of about 400 inhabitants consisting almost entirely of Caribs and Spaniards. The men spend [page 11] Their time in sleeping & loafing, fishing occasionally by way of varying the monotany of their lives while the women work ? and make cassava bread & minister generally to the wants of their lords & masters. The town is very prettily situated on a high coast line. The houses [page 12] are for the most part of thatch with earthen walls, & have been erected without any regard to regularity. The only buildings which can boast of any superiority are the magistrates house, the court house, the police station, catholic church & presbyters 3 stores, all these being 2 & 3 story [page 13] Buildings. Three others are now being erected which will do credit to the place. We live 3 miles from here in a strictly American settlement of about 50 families. We have the most delicious fruit all the year round. Pine apples, oringes [sic], citrous custard, apples, [page 14] guava, sour sap, sweet sap, aligator pears, 4 diferent [sic] varietys of bananas, the cherimoyer [sic] the most delicious of them all & many hundred others too numerous to mention here. Cous you must go to see our Bear Creek girls often don't stand back because Miss M. went back on you there are 3 of the best still [page 15] left for you to fall back on. Go to see Miss Mattie & Miss Laura for now & give them best reggards [sic] & tell them I am pining to see them. Tell old Bill I have not ever foroten [sic] him yet & will drop him a letter [page 16] soon. Has Olive & that young fellow D--? Made it yet? Are they still carrying on? Write me all the news. Give my best regards to your Mother & family. Your true friend L. K. Hill P. S. Excuse bad penmanship. I write this in R.R.T. L.H.
Collection Title	Daniel Williams family papers

Digital ID#	20-219-p01.jpg
Physical ID	20-
Original Collection	Williams (Daniel) Papers
Publisher	Mississippi State University Libraries (electronic version).
Rights	Copyright protected by Mississippi State University Libraries. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required.
Format (digital)	200 dpi jpeg image
Repository	Manuscripts Division, Special Collections Department, Mississippi State University Libraries.
Location of Original	Daniel Williams Papers/Folder 20
Related materials	A digitization project sponsored by the Consortium for the History of Agricultural and Rural Mississippi (CHARM).
Language	en
Contact information	For more information send email to sp_coll@library.msstate.edu or call 662-325-7679.
Transcript	Punta Gorda [British Honduras] March 3 / [18]88 Dear Nick Yours of the 23 of Jan came to hand some time since[.] I intended answering it long ear [sic] this, but pressure of business has rendered me unfit for anything save the necessary of the hour, which equals the work of

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Letter from Punta Gorda

Letter from Punta Gorda

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