The Countries of the World: being a popular description of the various continents, islands, rivers, seas, and peoples of the globe

Front matter

THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. A THICKET OF CACTUS (CEREUS DYCKII) IN GUATEMALA. THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD BEING A POPULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIOUS CONTINENTS, ISLANDS, RIVERS, SEAS, AND PEOPLES OF THE GLOBE BY Robert Brown, m.a 1-H.n., F.L.S., F.R.G.S Author of "The Races of Mankind," etc. etc. Vol. Til Cassell Petter & Galpin LONDON, PARIS d- NEW YORK: ("All Rights Reskeved. CONTENTS. PAOE Central America: — ■ Physical Geography 1 General Geography ... ... ... 3 Climate ... 6 Roads — that are: Canals— to re ... 9 Political Divisions ... ... 14 Guatemala 14 Belize ... ... ... ... ... 26 San Salvador ... ... 30 Honduras ... ... ... 32 Nicaragua ... ... ... ... 34 The Mosquito Territory ... ... 39 Costa Rica 46 The Isthmus of Panama 48 Men and Manners ... ... ... ... 58 Political Life 70 Social Life ... ... ... ... ... 76 Natural Productions ... 78 South America ... ... ... ... ... 82 Colombia ... ... ... 87 Ecuador ... ... ... ... ... 91 Venezuela and the Valley of the Orinoco 95 Statistics and Physical Features 100 The Orinoco Valley 104 States op Venezuela ... ... ... 104 Some Venezuelan Traits ... ...

Ill Guiana ... ... ... „. 116 British Guiana... ... ... ... 119 Dutch Guiana 122 French Guiana ... ... ... ... 124 The Empire of Brazil : — The Amazons ... ... ... 126 Physical Geography ... ... ... 128 Plant and Animal Life ... ... ... 131 Commerce and Resources ... ... ... 135 Provinces and People ... ... ... 143 Men and Manners 162 The Republic of Bolivia 168 Geography ... ... ... ... 170 Climate ... ... ... ... ... 174 History ... ... ... ... ... 178 The Government and the People... 179 Products and Commerce ... ... 185 Prospects... ... ... ... ... 191 PACIF South America (continued): — The Republics or Paraguay and Uruguay 193 Geography and Resources of Paraguay ... ... ... ... 107 The People and Prospects of Paraguay 202 Uruguay 204 The Argentine Republic ... 207 The People and their History ... 211 The Pampas : — Commerce ... ... ... ... 218 Monetary Matters 223 Men ANn Manners 228 Physical Characteristics ... 230 Vegetation... ... ... ... 234 Animals ... ... ... ... 235 Life in the Camp 239 The Gaucho 240 The Gran Chaco 248 Misiones 250 Patagonia 251 The Falkland Islands 254 The Strait of Magellan 260 Tierra del Fuego ... .. 205 The Republic of Chili : — Geography ... ... ... ... 270 Appearance ... ... ... ... 271 Climate ... ... ... ... ... 274 History ... ... ... ... ... 275 Resources 280 Revenue and Trade 284 The People 286 The Republic of Peru: — Geography ... ... ... ... 291 Population ... ... ... ... 292 Industries and Trade 292 Mines 294 Guano 304 Pre-Incarial Times 310 The Incas 311 The Spaniards 315 Revenue ... ... ... ... ■•• 318 Climate LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

I'.lr.H PAGE A Thicket of Cactus {Cereua Dgckii) in Guatemala Botanising in Colombia (Flowers of a Palm-tree) 88 Frontispiece Map of South America ... 89 View on the Rio Dulcc, Guatemala ... ... 4 On the River Guayaquil, Ecuador ... ... ... 92 View on the Rio Polochic, Guatemala ... ... 5 Gathering Cinchona Bark in Ecuador ... ... 93 View of Gatun Village, Chagres River, Panama ... 9 Interior ofthe Cathedral of -Quito, Ecuador ... 96 Exploring a Tropical Forest ... ... ... 13 View on the River Surinam, Dtiteh Guiana Ancient Idol and Altar at Copan, Guatemala ... 16 Tofacepage 97 View of the Valley of the Polochic, Department (or Corregimiento) of Vera-Paz, Guatemala .. 17 View of Caracas, the Capital of Venezuela ... 97 A River Scene in Venezuela ... ... ... 101 A View on the Spanish Main ... ... ... 21 Tho Mirita Palm {Mauritia flexuosa) of Tropical America ... ... ... ... ... ... 105 View of the A'illage of Pansos, Guatemala ... 25 British Barracks at Orange Walk, Belize 29 Steamboat Travelling on the Orinoco ... ... 109 View of Bay Islands, Honduras ... 32 The Victoria regia Water - Lily of Tropical America .. ... ... ... ... ... 112 View of the Cit}- of Panama ...

Chapter I

Central America : Its Physical Geography. '^^^^' ">l'''' hundred yearago, or more, the region we are now entering was a land WMMSL ' romance. A century later if was still the scene of many a fight for gold and for glory, and even in the memory of those not long ago dead, its bays, aESxBjj "keys," and danky river mouths were the lurking-places of the pirates and «S«; buccaneers who made the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico waters dreaded by the peaceful mariner. The neck of land connecting North and South America, and dividing the Pacific from the Atlantic, has always occupied a prominent position in the world's history since the day when Vasco Nunez de Balboa first crossed it and sighted the " silent sea " beyond. The man whose name is henceforward for all time to be linked with this great and gallant exploit — the most commander-like soldier of his day — arrived at the isthmus in a most prosaic fashion.

He was a bankrupt of Hayti, or Hispaniola, and as the Hispaniolians objected to people who owed money leaving the island, Balboa was smuggled over to the Spanish Main in a cask on board Encisco's vessel. Such was the manner of the man's coming. From that year — 1513 — to this, the isthmus has seen a mighty succession of similar heroes. For nearly three centuries it witnessed a stream of armed adventurers struggling through the forest, driving before them troops of wasting Indians laden with cannon and stores, panting to reach Panama. From Panama they spread southward in search of the gold and silver of the Incas of Peru, and northward to take tithe of the riches of the Aztecs of Mexico. From the south and the north again were ever pouring floods of adventurers, returning homeward laden with ill-gotten wealth, or enfeebled with wounds, disease, and disappointment.

To Panama came the " plate ships " from that empire of the Indies which Columbus and his companions had won for their sovereign, and in or about Panama waited the cruisers, the buccaneers, or tbe pirates — for it is difficult to distinguish them — of all nations, ready to reap where they had never sown. Then the scene changed. To Panama came wanderers in search of wealth, content to live by honest labour and fair trade. But the ill-fated Darien expedition is a sad page in Scottish history. Then the colonists shook off the hated yoke of Spain. They escaped a despotism, but speedily groaned under a democracy which no master spirit has even yet been able to control. Anarchy and revolu- L reign supreme, and the unhappy land has for fifty years seen 400 rulers, all incompetents and few worthy, in even a remote degree, of the position to winch they attained and temporarily held.

A few years more, and the isthmus again saw crowds of excited men rushing after gold. The old days of the conquistadores were revived m another form and the gold-seekers of California and British Columbia were almost as wild after riches as their predecessors, the companions of Cortes, Pizarro, and Balboa, and nearly as lawless as those of Morgan, Drake, and Dampier. For years millions of treasure were carried over the railway, which now spans the isthmus, just as in days past millions were borne across on the way to Spain. But, as in these days, little remains. Over the soil of Central America wealth passed, but the wealth passed away. Yet those who oftentimes plundered Panama could scarcely believe that the city was poor; a city that saw so much gold must surely have some of it. Under any other people than the Spaniards the isthmus, so favoured by geographical position, ought to grow great and powerful.

But it does not. Even the prosperity which the railway for a time gave it has partly gone, for the traffic to California crosses the American continent far to the north, while in time Vera Cruz will be the starting-point for a network of railways which will open up Mexico and let into that country the sweetness and light of a more wholesome civilisation than its own. By-and-by a canal may join the two oceans that lave the shores of Central America, and again bring prosperity to the country through which it is cut. But when that happy event takes place, Central America will doubtless feel the grasp of stronger hands than those which now supervise, but neither guide nor control, the chaos which is dignified by the name of government. Central America is a very natural division. It is the narrowest portion of the continent, and forms a well-defined nexus between its two great land masses.

Properly speaking, it should include the whole extent of territory from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the Isthmus of Darien. Politically, however, it only comprises the five independent Republics of Guatemala, San Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, with the English colony of Belize, or British Honduras, which may be said to be the Atlantic coast region of Guatemala, and that slice of Nicaragua which used to be known as the kingdom of the Mosquito Shore. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Peninsula of Yucatan are now included in Mexico, while the Isthmus of Panama constitutes a State of the United States of Colombia — the Old Republic of New Grenada — and is therefore, politically, a part of South America. However, political divisions have nothing usually to do with natural ones.

Accordingly, in the following pages we shall consider Central America, physically, as com prising most of the isthmus; though, politically, we must speak of it as embracing only the republics and colony already mentioned. For convenience saks we may first sketch out the broad features of the region, then consider, so far as may be, each political division individually, and then, on the basis of the knowledge thus acquired, give a more general account of the products and resources of the whole region, as well as the social features which may be common to all of it. CENTRAL AMERICA: GENERAL GEOGRAPHY. 3 General Geography.* Glancing at the map of the world we see not only how almost in the centre of it is the region we are about to describe, but how favoured it is in having abundance of harbours and diversified features.

At the Isthmus of Tehuantepec the Gulf of Mexico approaches the Pacific to within two hundred miles. Southward, the isthmus widens out and embraces the high temperate table-lands and mountainous region of Guatemala on the west ; and the plains of Tobasco, Chiapas, and Yucatan, in Mexico, upon the north and east. The Gulf of Honduras on the south-east, however, again narrows the continent to less than two hundred miles. Here also the mountain chain of Cordillera is interrupted, and its place is taken by a great transverse valley, only divided by a slightly elevated ridge, from one side of which the large river Ulua flows to the Atlantic and the smaller Goascoran to the Pacific. Further south is Nicaragua, with a great basin-like formation, in which lie the well-known lakes which give that portion of the isthmus its chief importance, while still nearer the equator is the Isthmus of Panama, or Darien, over which, as Mr. Squier aptly remarks, " the tide of emigration has twice poured its Hoods, once upon Peru, and again upon the glittering shores of California."

It has been observed of the isthmus that it possesses in its physical aspect and configuration of surface something belonging to all the world. " High mountain ranges, isolated volcanic peaks, elevated table-lands, deep valleys, broad and fertile plains, and extensive alluvions, relieved by large and beautiful lakes and majestic rivers, the whole teeming with animal and vegetable life, and possessing every variety of climate, from the torrid heats to the cool and bracing temperature of eternal spring. The great chain of the Cordillera here, as in South America, runs nearest to the Pacific Coast, but in places it is interrupted, and assumes the form of detached ranges and isolated elevations, groups or knots of hills, between which the streams from the interior high valleys or elevated plains wind their way to the two oceans.

As a consequence, the principal alluvions border on the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Here rain falls in greater or less abundance for the entire year, vegetation is rank, and the climate is damp and proportionately unsalubrious. The trade winds blow from the north-east, and the moisture with which they are saturated, condensed on the elevated parts of the continent, flows down towards the Atlantic. The Pacific slope is therefore comparatively dry and healthful, as are also the elevated regions of the interior." t This configuration of the surface has had from the remotest time, as it has yet, an influence on the destinies of the race who inhabit the isthmus. On the high table-lands of Honduras and Guatemala lived a people advanced in civilisation, of great intelligence, carvers of sculpture, builders of cities, * Bailey : " Central America ;" De Waldeck : " Voyage Pittoresque et Archeologique dans le Province d'Yucatan (Amerique Central) ; " Stephens: " Central America ; " Squier: "Nicaragua;" " The States of Central America ; " Scherzer : "Travels in the Free States of Central America;" Wagner and Scherzer : "Die Republik Costa Rica, &c. ;" Wells: " Honduras;" Frobcl : " Central America, &c. ;" Morelet : " Travels in Central America;" Bidwell : " The Isthmus of Panama," and the various works and papers referred to under special heads in the ensuing pages. t Squier: "Honduras," p. 3.

No one can study Central America without acknowledging his endless obligations to this greatest authority on that region. I accordingly do so once for all. I may add that I visited the Isthmus of Panama in 1863, and crossed the continent through Nicaragua in 1866. The notes taken in these hurried peeps at Central America I have incorporated in the descriptions which foUow. • , 4-„lc Tn the wide and fertile savannas or prairies lay and artificers in the precious metals. In the wide ana American lands inviting to agriculture ; while the maize-that all-powerful element in American saton_;-as prlablv indigenous in this part of the continent and spread then e northward, as J tribe from this officina gentiun migrated in search o new hom-m Florida, and even to Mexico. On the Atlantic shores, on the other hand, there is^nothing to cause us to believe that the aboriginal inhabitants have ever been anything but the rudest savages.

Here nature is also bountiful, but not in the direction tending to the benefit of VIEW ON THE MO DULCE, GUATEMALA. man. The damp swampy shores produce a rank vegetation which even the appliances of man have been unable to cope with, and the steaming soil sends up pestilential miasmatic vapours. In this sweltering region man could form no permanent settlement, nor could he successfully cultivate the soil. Hence he has become — as to his habits — a nomadic hunter, while the struggle for existence eats out of him, or rather fails to give him leisure for any religious aspirations worthy of the name, or to develop political or social institutions of a stage more advanced than that of the family. In the limited sense we have taken it, Central America will contain in round numbers nearly 15,700 square geographical miles, is in length from 800 to 900 miles, and has a varying breadth of 28 to 300 miles.

Both on the Atlantic and Pacific shores there are numerous seaports. We may particularise, on the Caribbean Sea, Yzabal and Santo Tomas CENTRAL AMERICA: GENERAL GEOGRAPHY. ■j in the Republic of Guatemala; Omoa, and Truxillo, in Honduras; San Juan Del Norte, or Grey Town, in Nicaragua; and Matina, in Costa Rica. On the Pacific shore there are Nicoya, belonging to Costa Rica; Realejo, to Nicaragua; La Union, or Conchagua, Libertad, and Acajutla, belonging to San Salvador; and Ystapa, to Guatemala. The last three, however, are mere open roadsteads, but the others are very good harbours indeed. In addition there are San Juan Del Sur, in Nicaragua ; Culebra and Salinas, in Costa Rica, though in an almost uninhabitable district ; Jiquilisco in Salvador, and Olos in Guatemala, all on the Pacific.

VIEW ON THE RIO POLOCHIC, GUATEMALA. The mountain range which forms the backbone of the isthmus is not so elevated as the mountains further south and north. Yet the peaks are by no means low, some of the more prominent points rearing to nearly 14,000 feet, though from 5,000 to 7,000 feet may be taken as the average. There are amongst them several volcanic cones, two or three of them still active, and the others extinct. They are all near the Pacific coast, none being found in the interior or close to the Atlantic shore. This chain sends off lateral spurs, so that the whole of Central America is an alternation of mountain valleys clothed with dense vegetation, and nowhere allowing of great plains, though naturally presenting so immense a variety of climate, that in the course of a day's journey the traveller may pass through hot, temperate, and cold regions.

The great mountain ranges disappear before they reach the Isthmus of Panama, the high Cordillera of the north and south dwindling down to elevations of from to 1,000 feet, and which do not even form a continuous chain, but are isolated and independent of each other, so that every here and there low plains or valleys intersecting the isthmus can be found amongst them. Rivers are found everywhere, and hot springs-as might be expected from the volcanic character of the country-are common. None of the rivers are, however, large, and before most of them can be of much use for navigation they would require to be o-reatly improved, as they are liable to be silted up by the washing away of the soft clay banks between which they generally flow. All of them are obstructed by bars at their mouths; many of them have falls and rapids, and owing to the rapidity of the current and the amount of sediment they are continually bearing down to the sea, are apt to get shoaled up here and there, and, accordingly, have a very variable depth.

The San Juan is perhaps the river which is of most importance, but even it of late years has got shoaled up in places, and owing to the formation of a bar at its mouth, has been all but destroyed for navigation for any craft save small steamers. The lakes of the region are in some cases of large size, but only three of them, namely, Nicaragua and Managua in Nicaragua, and Golfo Dulce in Salvador, are ever likely to be of any great use commercially as a highway for commerce or travel. The Golfo Dulce, or Gulf of Dulce, is the means by which most of the foreign trade of Guatemala is carried. It communicates with the Atlantic by a smaller lake called the- Golfete and the Rio Dulce. The Polochic we shall have occasion to mention when speaking of Guatemala, through which it flows, first discharging itself into the Gulf of Dulce, and then into the Bay of Honduras (pp. 4, 5).

Climate. With the exception of the lowlands, Central America is not so hot as we should expect a region occupying nearly the middle space between the equator and the Tropic of Cancer to be. The heat of the Pacific shore, owing, probably, to the greater dryness and purity of the atmosphere in that region, is not so intense as on the Atlantic coast. The north-east trade winds arrive at America laden with moisture, but the greater portion of their vapour is intercepted by the mountains of the interior, and flows down the Atlantic slopes in streams and rivers. But the mountains of Central America are not high enough or continuous enough to entirely intercept the trade winds. Accordingly they blow entirely across the continent at this spot, arriving, however, at the Pacific deprived of much of their moisture, and cooled by passing over the elevated region of the interior.

Hence, as Mr. Squier has pointed out, the greater salubrity of that declivity, the com parative coolness and dryness of its climate, and the consequently more numerous population. On both coasts heavy dews fall at night, but at higher elevations, at and above three thousand feet, the dews are slight, and " the nights as dry as the day." The result is that these regions look arid and burned, and are never clothed with the bounteous vegetation which, in spite of its drawbacks of climate, give such a charm to the lowlands and coast regions of the isthmus. The rainy season is usually from May to December, and is disagreeable enough. It does not rain in the tropics — it pours. A shower does not usually last more than half an hour, but it falls so briskly that in that period the earth is covered with water.

Then the torrent ceases as abruptly as it began — " the sky as suddenly recovers its serenity, the sun comes out unclouded, dispersing the humidity, and in a brief space CENTRAL AMERICA: CLIMATE. 7 the earth becomes, to all appearance, as dry as if no rain had fallen." The elevated plateaux have a climate of their own. On most of these rain falls in small quantities every month ; but during the dry season the showers are slight, while during the wet one they are long and heavy. Continuous rains, or temporales, as they are called, are here unknown. Johnson has calculated that the average amount of rain which falls in the tropics is 113 inches per annum. In some parts of Brazil it is 276 inches, and in Guadaloupe and a few of the Lesser Antilles as high as 292 inches. On the other hand, taking Honduras as a type, 48 inches fall on an average annually, while between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific there falls — according to a return before me — 97-7 in one year.

The mean maximum heat of the interior may be about 68° Fahr., and that of the coast 82°, though in many places — at Omoa, for example — it runs much higher. The north coast and the Mosquito Shore are perhaps the most insalubrious places, while, as we have already remarked, the Pacific coast is much more healthy. The Isthmus of Panama has a climate a good deal worse than any of the localities north or south of it, and as Central America is, unfortunately for its good name, familiarly associated with Panama, sweltering Colon, that home of intermittent fever, Chagres, or still worse with Portobelo, it may be well to point out that this portion of the region we are describing is exceptionally hot, owing to its low elevation. No doubt, take it all in all, Panama thoroughly deserves its infamous reputation.

The heat is great, moist, and enervating. It takes the colour out of the ladies' cheeks, makes the most energetic of Britons languid, and in time destroys appetite, health, and temper. Passengers cross the isthmus as if they were passing through a plague-infected city. In these lovely tropical forests through which the railway runs they seem afraid to breathe. In Panama they have more cause for dread, and once out into the Bay, and past the Pearl Islands of the buccaneers, they heave a sigh of congratulation that now they are out of danger. In reality, there is very little danger to the passing traveller if he takes ordinary care, and even the resident does not lose his health under several years. " It is," writes a resident, " the fashion to report the climate of Panama as a fiery burning furnace, and pestilential.

I would not call it either the one or the other. In our house (it was a cool one) the thermometer ranged from 7S° to 84° Fahr. I never knew it higher. I have even known the temperature to fall as low as 72°, and after a good spell of Panama we felt that cool. The dry season, commencing nominally in December and lasting until April, is the healthiest, and the first part of it the pleasantest. In December and January the intense heat has not set in ; only in the morning, until the Norther, as it is called, begius, the warmth is oppressive. By 5 p.m. it is becoming cool, and through the night the fine fresh wind is delightfully refreshing. I have always found March and April most trying ; then the heat is felt sensibly, and the effects are very debilitating. The rainy season is, up to a certain time, merely showery uncertain weather, and thunder and lightning vivid enough may be seen and heard every night.

Later, there are terrific storms, sharp, short, and angry, and 6uch crashes of thunder that the old crazy town seems falling in one mighty smash, succeeded by tropical rains in vast sheets, as if heaven opened to pour forth its seas upon the earth." The city of Panama is really more healthy than most places under the tropics l but the Atlantic coast, low and swampy as it is for a considerable distance from the sea is extremely pestilent. Miasmatic fevers and bowel complaints prevail, and yellow fever is not uncommon, though in most cases it has been introduced from St. Thomas, Havannah, and New Orleans, and rarely spreads among the natives or old acclimatised foreign residents. Light kinds of intermittent fevers are, however, common, and are extremely injurious to foreign constitutions in combination with the debilitating effects of a tropical climate, though it only takes root after a certain term of residence* Panama is hot-decidedly hot.

Yet new-comers do not feel it very much. They have before reaching so far got somewhat accustomed to the tropics, and so far from complaining of the intense heat of the isthmus, they are rather astonished that the "place" has been so maligned. If the visitor escapes the initiatory fever he will get along very well for the first few months, and may possibly find the weather no hotter than that which he has experienced in London, Paris, or New York in July or August. But by-and-by he feels less inclined to go about. He may mount his horse for exercise, or go around the walls of the city to catch the sea breeze at night, but he would much rather lie in an uneasy half -boiled sleep in his hammock. His digestion gets out of order; and in time he is disgusted to find that he is quite as indolent as the shopkeepers and other residents whose dolce far niente life so stirred his astonishment and contempt when he first arrived.

" He sits," observes our late Consul in this city of evil odour, "in his shop, with his feet cocked upon the back of a chair, like a true Yankee, and he will hardly take the trouble to rise when his customers go in to buy; indeed, he seems generally most happy if he can say he has not the article asked for." Women do not thrive on the isthmus. They always look as if they were in a rapid consumption — lean, sallow, and seldom in good health. The children thrive better, but they also are pale from the effects of the heat. There is little temptation to take exercise, and no winter to brace up a constitution enfeebled by the summer. Hence they languish, lose strength, grow old before their time, and yet rarely die much before the alloted span of life has expired. After a few years' residence, Mr. Bidwell has most truthfully observed, that what is generally experienced is a sort of lassitude, with a disinclination for exercise, and a derangement more or less of the digestive organs, which, added to the monotonous life of the ordinary dweller in these dead alive tropical regions, has a most depressing effect on the nervous system.

Mr. Anthony Trollope has most thoroughly expressed this feeling when he remarks that the heat made him uncomfortable, but never made bim ill. "I lost all pleasure in eating, and indeed in everything else. I used to feel a craving for my food, but no appetite when it came. I was lethargic, as though from repletion, when I did eat, and always glad when my watch would allow me to go to bed ; but I was never ill." The longer one stays, the more thoroughly does he experience this feeling. He cannot labour hard, for in a few minutes he streams with perspiration, which may be healthy, but is decidedly exhausting and uncomfortable. He dare not walk about much in the sun for fear of sunstroke, and all the ills that the sun brings to mortals in its favourite land. There is no twilight here ; the sun rises at once, and sets as suddenly, while a bad road through a tropical forest is neither a desirable nor a safe place for promenading on a dark night.

He can read, if * Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from her Majesty's Consuls, 1863. CENTRAL AMERICA: CLIMATE. 9 the mosquitoes will allow him, but as he generally begins the day half tired, after a feverish broken sleep stewing in a hammock, or in a close tent-like mosquito-curtained bed, the chances are that the liveliest volume would send the reader asleep. I do not think that I ever saw any one reading in Panama, unless, perhaps, it was the Star and Herald, and then most frequently the student of that not very absorbing record of current news was half asleep, and, if even awake, never by any chance excited. An Irishman once expressed an opinion to the Consul regarding the climate of Panama, which is perhaps unscientific to the last degree, and very Milesian, but yet exceedingly truthful.