seeds, which makes it impossible to extract the fibre by the usual machinery; but if this difficulty cannot be obviated, a better species might be sown.
Coffee is very little cultivated. What is now collected, is chiefly for the consumption of the few strangers who reside in Guatimala, as the natives of the country scarcely ever use it. Some few hides are exported by the north; but the chief population is so distant from the ports as to render any considerable trade in them impossible.
In the year 1825 a commission was appointed to inquire into the state of commerce five years previous, and five years subsequent to the revolution. The commissioners' report is in these terms: “We have no positive data upon which we can state exactly the condition of our commerce during either of these periods, owing to the confused state of every branch of the administration; but from observation, and the opinions of intelligent men, we have the honour to report, that the five years previous to the revolution were the most miserable we have known, and that from the independence to the present period, our commerce may be considered to have doubled. It is well known, that previous to the revolution, our mercantile transactions were confined to the peninsula, or we ought rather to say, to Cadiz. It is equally well known, that in ex-
