estimated the population at 7000. It is about 650 ft. above sea-level and stands at the entrance to a narrow valley formed by spurs of the Central Cordillera, through which a picturesque little stream, called the Guali, flows into the Magdalena. The town overlooks the rapids of the Magdalena, and is shut in closely by spurs of the Eastern and Central Cordilleras. The climate is hot and damp and the temperature frequently rises to 102° F. in the shade. Honda dates back to the beginning of the 17th century, and has been one of the important centres of traffic in South America for three hundred years. Within the city there is an iron bridge across the Guali, and there is a suspension bridge across the Magdalena at the head of the rapids. A railway 18 m. long connects with the landing place of La Dorada, or Las Yeguas, where the steamers of the lower Magdalena discharge and receive their cargoes (the old landing at Carocali nearer the rapids having been abandoned), and with Arrancaplumas, 112 m. above, where navigation of the upper river begins. Up to 1908 the greater part of the traffic for Bogotá crossed the river at this point, and was carried on mule-back over the old camino real, which was at best only a rough bridle-path over which transportation to Bogotá (67 m. distant) was laborious and highly expensive; now the transshipment is made to smaller steamboats on the upper river for carriage to Girardot, 93 m. distant, from which place a railway runs to the Bogotá plateau. Honda was nearly destroyed by an earthquake in 1808.
HONDECOETER, MELCHIOR D’ (c. 1636–1695), Dutch
painter, was born at Utrecht, it is said, about 1636, and died
at Amsterdam on the 3rd of April 1695. Old historians say
that, being the grandson of Gillis and son of Gisbert d’Hondecoeter,
as well as nephew of J. B. Weenix, he was brought up
by the last two to the profession of painting. Of Weenix we
know that he married one Josina d’Hondecoeter in 1638.
Melchior was, therefore, related to Weenix, who certainly
influenced his style. As to Gillis and Gisbert some points still
remain obscure, and it is difficult to accept the statement that
they stood towards each other in the relation of father and son,
since both were registered as painters at Utrecht in 1637. Both
it appears had practised art before coming to Utrecht, but where
they resided or what they painted is uncertain. Unhappily
pictures scarcely help us to clear up the mystery. In the Fürstenberg
collection at Donaueschingen there is a “Concert of Birds”
dated 1620, and signed with the monogram G. D. H.; and we
may presume that G. D. H. is the man whose “Hen and Chickens
in a Landscape” in the gallery of Rotterdam is inscribed “G. D.
Hondecoeter, 1652”; but is the first letter of the monogram
to stand for Gillis or Gisbert? In the museums of Dresden and
Cassel landscapes with sportsmen are catalogued under the
name of Gabriel de Heusch (?), one of them dated 1529, and
certified with the monogram G. D. H., challenging attention
by resemblance to a canvas of the same class inscribed G. D.
Hond. in the Berlin Museum. The question here is also whether
G. means Gillis or Gisbert. Obviously there are two artists
to consider, one of whom paints birds, the other landscapes
and sportsmen. Perhaps the first is Gisbert, whose son Melchior
also chose birds as his peculiar subject. Weenix too would
naturally teach his nephew to study the feathered tribe. Melchior,
however, began his career with a different speciality from that
by which he is usually known. Mr de Stuers affirms that he
produced sea-pieces. One of his earliest works is a “Tub with
Fish,” dated 1655, in the gallery of Brunswick. But Melchior
soon abandoned fish or fowl. He acquired celebrity as a painter
of birds only, which he represented not exclusively, like Fyt,
as the gamekeeper’s perquisite after a day’s shooting, or stock
of a poulterer’s shop, but as living beings with passions, joys,
fears and quarrels, to which naturalists will tell us that birds
are subject. Without the brilliant tone and high finish of Fyt,
his Dutch rival’s birds are full of action; and, as Bürger truly
says, Hondecoeter displays the maternity of the hen with as
much tenderness and feeling as Raphael the maternity of
Madonnas. But Fyt was at home in depicting the coat of
deer and dogs as well as plumage. Hondecoeter cultivates a
narrower field, and seldom goes beyond a cock-fight or a display
of mere bird life. Very few of his pictures are dated, though
more are signed. Amongst the former we should note the “Jackdaw
deprived of his Borrowed Plumes” (1671), at the Hague,
of which Earl Cadogan has a variety; or “Game and Poultry”
and “A Spaniel hunting a Partridge” (1672), in the gallery of
Brussels; or “A Park with Poultry” (1686) at the Hermitage of
St Petersburg. Hondecoeter, in great favour with the magnates
of the Netherlands, became a member of the painters’ academy
at the Hague in 1659. William III. employed him to paint his
menagerie at Loo, and the picture, now at the Hague museum,
shows that he could at a pinch overcome the difficulty of
representing India’s cattle, elephants and gazelles. But he
is better in homelier works, with which he adorned the royal
chateaux of Bensberg and Oranienstein at different periods
of his life (Hague and Amsterdam). In 1688 Hondecoeter took
the freedom of the city of Amsterdam, where he resided till his
death. His earliest works are more conscientious, lighter and
more transparent than his later ones. At all times he is bold
Of touch and sure of eye, giving the motion of birds with great
spirit and accuracy. His masterpieces are at the Hague and at
Amsterdam. But there are fine examples in private collections
in England, and in the public galleries of Berlin, Caen, Carlsruhe,
Cassel, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dresden, Dublin, Florence,
Glasgow, Hanover, London, Lyons, Montpellier, Munich, Paris,
Rotterdam, Rouen, St Petersburg, Stuttgart and Vienna.
HONDURAS, a republic of Central America, bounded on the
N. by the Caribbean Sea, E. by Nicaragua, S. by Nicaragua,
the Pacific Ocean and Salvador, and W. by Guatemala. (For
map see Central America.) Pop. (1905) 500,136; area,
about 46,500 sq. m. Honduras is said to owe its name, meaning
in Spanish “depths,” to the difficulty experienced by its original
Spanish explorers in finding anchorage off its shores; Cape
Gracias à Dios (Cape “Thanks to God”) is the name bestowed,
for analogous reasons, on its easternmost headland, which
shelters a small harbour, now included in Nicaragua. Modern
navigators are not confronted by the same difficulty; for,
although the north coast is unbroken by any remarkable inlet
except the Carataska Lagoon, a land-locked lake on the east,
with a narrow entrance from the sea, there are many small
bays and estuaries, such as those of Puerto Cortes, Omoa, Ulua,
La Ceiba and Trujillo, which serve as harbours. The broad
basin of the Caribbean Sea, bounded by Honduras, Guatemala
and British Honduras, is known as the bay or gulf of Honduras.
Several islets and the important group of the Bay Islands
(q.v.) belong to the republic. On the Pacific the Hondurian
littoral is short but of great commercial value; for it consists
of a frontage of some 60 m. on the Bay of Fonseca (q.v.), one of
the finest natural harbours in the world. The islands of Tigre,
Sacate Grande and Gueguensi, in the bay, belong to Honduras.
The frontier which separates the republic from Nicaragua extends across the continent from E.N.E to W.S.W. It is defined by the river Segovia, Wanks or Coco, for about one-third of the distance; it then deflects across the watershed on the east and south of the river Choluteca, crosses the main Nicaraguan Cordillera (mountain chain) and follows the river Negro to the Bay of Fonseca. The line of separation from Salvador is irregularly drawn, first in a northerly and then in a westerly direction; beginning at the mouth of the river Goascoran, in the Bay of Fonseca, it ends 12 m. W. of San Francisco city. At this point begins the Guatemalan frontier, the largest section of which is delimited along the crests of the Sierra de Merendon. On the Caribbean seaboard the estuary of the Motagua forms the boundary between Honduras and Guatemala.
Physical Features.—The general aspect of the country is mountainous; its southern half is traversed by a continuation of the main Nicaraguan Cordillera. The chain does not, in this republic, approach within 50 or 60 m. of the Pacific; nor does it throughout maintain its general character of an unbroken range, but sometimes turns back on itself, forming interior basins or valleys, within which are collected the headwaters of the streams that traverse the country in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean. Nevertheless, viewed from the
