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On these are laid the shingles or slats of iron-wood in regular rows, in just the way in which roof tiles are laid in this country. Each slat is a slab about 1 x 30 x 12 inches, and is lashed by a strip of rattan, which pierces its upper end, to one of the laths. The floor is completed by laying longitudinal joists of stout poles across the main floor-ties; the poles are notched to grip the ties.
For ordinary work a rough paddle made from iron-wood is generally used; the blade and shaft are of one piece; the flat blade, nearly two feet in length, is widest about six inches below its junction with the shaft, and from this point tapers slightly to its square extremity; the shaft is about three feet in length and carries, morticed to its upper end, a cross-piece for the grip of the upper hand.
A tract of forest had been fired, and this clearing planted with bananas, mandioca, sweet potatoes, etc. The blackened trunks of the trees rose up like so many evil spirits above the green foliage. The garden implements used were of the most primitive description; a crooked stick served for hoe, and long, heavy, sharpened iron-wood clubs were used instead of the steel plough of civilization.
Armed with the formidable knife which he had about his person, the settler made the most desperate and infuriated efforts to reach his assailant; but in so masterly a manner did his adversary use his simple weapon, that every attempt was foiled, and more than once did the hard iron-wood descend upon his shoulders, in a manner to be heard from the shore.
Into these were placed stout pegs made of a tree called iron-wood; and, when they were hammered well home, the timbers were as firmly fixed as if they had been nailed with iron. The gunwales, which were very stout, were fixed in a similar manner.
Only a few flakes of it still hung over the tops of the mezquite and iron-wood trees that grew thickly around the huts. Near where the man lay, there might be seen the remains of a large fire. It had been kindled no doubt to protect him from the chill dews of the night; and it now served him to prepare his breakfast.
There are also the mulberry, the clove, the nutmeg, the camphor, and pepper-trees; in fact all the spice-trees and all the tropical fruits. The forests contain some valuable kinds of wood, ebony, iron-wood, teak, famous for its strength and employed from the most ancient times in costly buildings, and the Calilaban laurel, which yields an aromatic essential oil that is highly prized.
A site was cleared, large trees were cut down, coral lime was burned, the timber was sawn, and in two months from the commencement an edifice an hundred and fifty feet long and fifty-six feet wide, the thatched roof supported on either side by seven iron-wood pillars twenty-five feet high, was erected.
After this, I made a great heavy pestle or beater of the wood called the iron-wood; and this I prepared and laid by against I had my next crop of corn, which I proposed to myself to grind, or rather pound into meal to make bread.
A long staff of iron-wood was in her hands, with which she jumped the dykes and streams and rocky fissures; in her breast were yellow roses, and there was a tuft of pretty feathers in her hair. She reached up and touched him on the breast with her staff, then she laughed again, and sang a snatch of song in mockery: "I am a king, I have no crown, I have no throne to sit in "
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