GUATEMALA
THE LAND OF THE QUETZAL
[Illustration: MONOLITH ‘A’ AT QUIRIGUA.]
GUATEMALA
THE LAND OF THE QUETZAL
A Sketch
BY WILLIAM T. BRIGHAM, A.M.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1887
_Copyright, 1887_,
BY WILLIAM T. BRIGHAM.
UNIVERSITY PRESS:
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.
PREFACE.
A belief in the increasing importance of Central America, both
geographically and politically, has led the writer of the following
pages to collect for his own use and print for the use of others, notes
made during three journeys in Guatemala and Honduras. He does not
pretend to offer a monograph on Guatemala, nor to add to the general
knowledge of Central America; but remembering the lack of guidance from
which he suffered in travelling through the country, would in some
measure save others from the same inconvenience. He seeks also, with
perhaps more ambition, to awaken among Americans greater interest in the
much-neglected regions between the Republic of Mexico and the Isthmus of
Darien.
A land which was the cradle of civilization on this continent, and whose
recently explored monuments are most justly claiming the study and
admiration of archæologists in Europe as well as in America, has been
strangely neglected by the American traveller as well as by the American
merchant. Since the Travels of Stephens fascinated the public nearly half
a century ago, the people of the United States have paid very little
attention to Guatemala or its commerce. Even now there are thousands of
square miles of wholly unexplored territory between the low Isthmus of
Tehuantepec and the Lake of Nicaragua.
No country on the northern half of the American continent has a finer
climate or more beautiful and varied scenery, or is a more attractive
field for the genuine traveller. Valleys rivalling the paradises of the
islands of the Pacific; uplands not unlike the plateau of the Indian
Neilgherries; forests as dense and luxuriant as those of Brazil; lakes as
picturesque as those of Switzerland; green slopes that might have been
taken from the Emerald Isle; glens like the Trossachs; desert wastes
that recall the Sahara; volcanoes like Ætna; and a population as various
as in that land whence comes the Indian name,—all these features make
but the incomplete outline of the Guatemaltecan picture. Then there is
that charming freedom from conventionality which permits a costume for
comfort rather than for fashion, accoutrements for convenience rather
than for show. No dangerous beast or savage man attempts the traveller’s
life, no lurking danger or insidious pestilence is in his path. The
hair-breadth escapes, more interesting to the reader than pleasant to the
explorer, are rare here, and the rough places and the irritations from
which no land on earth is wholly free, seem softened and vanishing to the
retrospective eye.
Old travellers know how soon the individuality of a country is lost
when once the tide of foreign travel is turned through its towns or
its by-ways; and when the ship-railway of Eads crosses the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec, when the Northern Railroad extends through Guatemala, when
the Transcontinental Railway traverses the plains of Honduras, and the
Nicaraguan Canal unites the Atlantic and the Pacific, the charm will be
broken, the mule-path and the mozo de cargo will be supplanted, and a
journey across Central America become almost as dull as a journey from
Chicago to Cheyenne.
In the sober work to which this Preface introduces the reader, first
impressions have been confirmed or corrected by subsequent experience,
and flights of the imagination curbed by the truth-telling camera; from
the published maps the most correct portion has been selected, and the
statistics are from the Government reports. Many hundred photographic
plates made by the writer during a period of three years have contributed
to the illustrations of this book, so that accuracy has been secured.
Where the plates are not direct reproductions from the negatives, the ink
drawings have been made from photographic prints with care. There are no
fancy sketches.
W. T. B.
BOSTON, _June 16, 1887_.
[Illustration: From an Ancient Manuscript.]
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. THE KINGDOM OF GUATEMALA 1
II. THE ATLANTIC COAST AND ITS CONNECTIONS 25
III. ACROSS THE CONTINENT WESTWARD TO COBAN 66
IV. FROM COBAN TO QUEZALTENANGO 103
V. FROM QUEZALTENANGO TO THE PACIFIC 148
VI. GUATEMALA CITY 171
VII. GUATEMALA TO ESQUIPULAS 190
VIII. ESQUIPULAS AND QUIRIGUA 201
IX. IN THE OLDEN TIME 228
X. THE REPUBLIC OF GUATEMALA 281
XI. VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL PRODUCTIONS 323
XII. EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES 377
APPENDIX 411
INDEX 445
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
MONOLITH AT QUIRIGUA (A) _Frontispiece_
TO FACE PAGE
A STREET IN LIVINGSTON 28
INTERIOR OF A CARIB HOUSE 30
GRATING CASSAVA 32
WEAVING A SERPIENTE 36
EL RIO CHOCON 44
COBAN CHURCH AND PLAZA (from the tower of the Cabildo) 94
FRANK AND HIS MARE MABEL 106
CHICAMAN (two views taken from the same place before sunrise) 109
VALLEY OF THE CHIXOY 114
PLAZA OF SACAPULAS 118
TOTONICAPAN VALLEY 138
LAGO DE ATITLAN (from the road above Panajachel) 156
A STREET IN GUATEMALA CITY 177
GUATEMALA CITY (from the Church of the Carmen) 178
SANTUARIO AT ESQUIPULAS 202
MONOLITH AT QUIRIGUA (E) 218
ALTAR-STONES AT QUIRIGUA 222
ETHNOGRAPHIC CHART (after Dr. Stoll) 271
A GROUP OF CARIB CHILDREN 272
TWO CARIB BOYS 274
A CARIB PLAITING A PETACA 276
A COURT SCENE IN LIVINGSTON 318
IN THE FOREST 324
COHUNE PALMS (_Attalea cohune_, Mart.) 330
VOLCAN DE FUEGO (from the Cabildo, Antigua) 392
TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
FIGURES (from an ancient Manuscript) vii
LUCIANO CALLETANO (captain at Chocon) 24
BARRACK POINT, LIVINGSTON 27
ENTRANCE TO THE RIO DULCE 41
FEMALE IGUANAS 47
BARBECUE AT BENITO 50
SECTION OF VEJUCO DE AGUA 54
DRAGON ROCK, CHOCON 55
SAN GIL (from the author’s house at Livingston) 59
PUERTO BARRIOS 61
SULPHUR SPRING 63
PADDLE AND MACHETE 65
CASTILLO DE SAN FELIPE (plan drawn by F. E. Blaisdell) 69
MAKING TORTILLAS 71
ROOF-TILE (from a sketch by F. E. Blaisdell) 89
IN HOTEL ALEMAN 91
PLAN OF HOTEL ALEMAN (by F. E. Blaisdell) 92
THE CABILDO OF COBAN 93
INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH AT COBAN 94
PATTERN OF CLOTH 95
QUETZAL (_Macropharus mocino_) 97
INDIO OF COBAN 99
CUARTILLO OF GUATEMALA 102
ROPE BRIDGE OVER THE CHIXOY 107
QUICHÉ ALTAR OF TOHIL (Sacrificatorio) 122
MARIMBA 123
JICARA 124
SOLOLÀ AND VOLCAN DE ATITLAN 132
CHURCH AT QUEZALTENANGO 143
MANUEL LISANDRO BARILLAS (President of Guatemala) 145
ALCALDES OF QUEZALTENANGO 146
CUATRO-REALES OF HONDURAS 147
J. RUFINO BARRIOS (photograph taken in 1883) 149
BOAT ON THE LAGO DE ATITLAN 153
WASHOUT IN THE ROAD 157
ANTIGUA AND THE VOLCAN DE AGUA 159
RUINED CHURCH IN ANTIGUA GUATEMALA 161
RAILROADS FOR GUATEMALA 168
BREAD-FRUIT (_Artocarpus incisa_) 170
SECTION OF BOAT AT AMATITLAN 174
CHURCH OF THE CARMEN 179
SPANISH STIRRUP (of the time of Cortez) 184
TERRA-COTTA FIGURINES 184
INDIAN POTTERY 189
PACAYA, FUEGO, AGUA 190
HUNAPU FROM THE EASTWARD 191
MOZO ON THE ROAD 198
LAVA MASK IN THE MUSEO NACIONAL 200
INCENSE-BURNER (about half the size of the original) 207
REMAINS AT QUIRIGUA (from Mr. Maudslay’s plan) 217
MONOLITH AT QUIRIGUA (F) 219
MONOLITH E (portion of back) 221
IZABAL (from the end of the wharf) 225
WHISTLE FROM LAS QUEBRADAS 227
ANCIENT TEMPLE (from an old Manuscript) 245
INDIO SACRIFICING BLOOD FROM HIS TONGUE (Kingsborough) 246
IDEOGRAPHS 251
ANCIENT INCENSE-BURNER 251
STONE RING FOR BALL GAME (at Chichen Itza) 257
A CARIB WOMAN 272
INDIAN WOMEN, POCOMAM TRIBE 275
MOZOS DE CARGO, QUICHÉ 279
CARVED STONE SEAT (Museo Nacional) 280
ARMS OF GUATEMALA 281
RAFAEL CARRERA (from a silver dollar) 288
MATAPALO-TREE 326
ATTALEA COHUNE (flowers and fruit) 330
LEAF TIP OF CLIMBING PALM (_Desmoncus_) 332
INDIAN PLOUGH; A TYPE OF GUATEMALTECAN AGRICULTURE 340
A PRIMITIVE SUGAR-MILL (common at Livingston) 341
THEOBROMA CACAO (chocolate tree) 346
CASTILLOA ELASTICA (India-rubber tree) 347
A BUNCH OF PLANTAINS (young) 352
POUNDING RICE 356
GROWTH OF A YOUNG COCONUT 360
PASSIFLORA BRIGHAMI 376
CONGREHOY PEAK 384
COSEGUINA (from the sea) 399
GROUP (from an ancient Manuscript) 442
MAPS.
CENTRAL AMERICA 6
LAGO DE ATITLAN 154
CENTRAL AMERICAN VOLCANOES 377
LAGO DE ILOPANGO 403
GUATEMALA _End of Book_
GUATEMALA: THE LAND OF THE QUETZAL.
CHAPTER I.
THE KINGDOM OF GUATEMALA.
That part of the North American continent usually known as Central
America was included by the Spanish conquerors in the kingdom of
Guatemala; and while my purpose is to describe the republic of
Guatemala,—a portion only of the ancient kingdom,—I may be pardoned if
I call the attention of my readers briefly to the geography and history
of all that country which once bore the name and is still closely allied
with the interests of Guatemala.
Central America should extend from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to that
of Darien; from the Caribbean Sea on the northeast, to the Pacific
Ocean on the southwest. Mexico, however, has taken Chiapas and Yucatan,
on the west and north, Great Britain has seized the east coast of
Guatemala (British Honduras), and the Isthmus of Panama is included in
the territory of South America. The present independent republics of
Guatemala, San Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, constitute
what is known as Central America,—a territory extending between 8°
10′ and 19° 20′ north latitude, and between 82° 25′ and 92° 30′ west
longitude. In length it measures between eight and nine hundred miles,
while its breadth varies from thirty to three hundred miles. No competent
survey has ever been made of this country, and even the coast-line is not
always correctly laid down on the best charts. Maps have been made at
haphazard in most cases, and very few positions have been scientifically
determined. Government surveys along the lines of proposed canals or
railways have not extended beyond a narrow line, usually in low regions
remote from important centres. Dr. Frantzius[1] has published a very
excellent map of Costa Rica; but most of the so-called maps published
by or under the authority of individual republics are of no scientific
value, the course of the principal rivers and the direction of the main
mountain-chains being unknown. To illustrate the uncertain geography
of Central America, let me give the extent and population as published
by three authorities,—(I.) Lippincott’s Gazetteer, (II.) Whittaker’s
Almanac, and (III.) the “Geografía de Centro-América” of Dr. González.
Square Miles. Population.
I.
Guatemala 40,777 1,190,754
Salvador 7,335 434,520
Honduras 47,090 351,700
Nicaragua 58,000 236,000
Costa Rica 21,495 180,000
------- ---------
174,697 2,392,974
II.
Guatemala 40,776 1,500,000
Salvador 7,335 554,000
Honduras 39,600 300,000
Nicaragua 58,170 300,000
Costa Rica 26,040 200,000
------- ---------
171,921 2,854,000
III.
Guatemala 50,600 1,200,000
Salvador 9,600 600,000
Honduras 40,000 400,000
Nicaragua 40,000 (1882) 275,816
Costa Rica 21,000 200,000
------- ---------
161,200 2,675,816
Without surveys and without a proper census of the Indian tribes no
scientific description of the country can be given. Humboldt’s theory of
an Andean cordillera has been disputed, and his mountain-chain has proved
to be a confusing (but not confused) series of mountain-ridges. Yet it
well may prove that the great naturalist was right; and so far as we now
know from maps and personal observation, the vast earth-wrinkle which
extends along the western border of our continent is a mountain-range of
definite direction (about E. 20° S. to W. 20° N.) in Central America,
and there occupying nearly the whole width of the continent. If we can
picture to ourselves the formation in those remote ages, that it is
the geologist’s task to rehabilitate in thought, of a vast ridge, not
sharp like the typical mountain range, but of broad dimensions like the
swell of some vast ocean, we shall have the material then forming the
earth’s crust bent upwards, and in unelastic places broken, and this
partly or entirely beneath the ocean. The rising land as the ages passed
would be acted upon not only by the ocean waves and currents, but by
the torrential rains, which were of a force and frequency that even our
water-spouts of the present age cannot equal. Cracks were widened, gorges
were formed; and as the earth approached the present geological age, the
gentler rains only supplied the rivers and lakes which now occupied the
furrows ploughed deeply by primeval torrents. The rough work was done,
the statue blocked out; and henceforth meteoric influences were merely to
finish, add expression and polish to the work.
A traveller crossing this territory from ocean to ocean would sometimes
follow the river valleys, then climb ridges, again traverse a plain,
cross a valley, ride along another mountain-ridge, compassing a volcano,
and finally descend abruptly to the Pacific. His direction had not
changed, but the nature of his path had been wonderfully transformed.
Geologists know well that on one of these lines of disturbance, such as
has been described, molten and disintegrated material is apt to come to
the surface as lava and ashes; they expect also to find metallic veins,
especially of the precious metals, and hot springs with various minerals
in solution, and they infer earthquakes. All these phenomena are present
in Central America in full force. Immense cones have arisen along the
Pacific slope since the general features of the land were made, and
not only have spread vast deposits around their base, but have blocked
up valleys, forming lakes as Atitlan, built promontories as Coseguina,
islands as Ometepec in the Lake of Nicaragua, and have turned rivers,
changed prevailing winds, and otherwise altered the physical conditions
of the country.
Gold sands from the disintegrated veins sparkle in every mountain-brook,
and the deposits of silver are no doubt as rich as those of Mexico,
Nevada, and Potosi. _Aguas calientes_, or hot springs, are found all over
the country, and earthquakes, often severe, are common on the Pacific
slopes.
All along the Atlantic side the rock material is limestone or dolomite,
while as one goes westward he meets andesyte and other forms of trachytic
lava, such as pumice and obsidian. Even among the limestone mountains
of the northeast are occasional volcanic deposits, exactly as might be
expected when so extensive an upheaval has taken place.
Whatever has been the exact process by which this essentially mountainous
country has been formed, we have at present at its northern boundary the
high plain of Anahuac, extending from Mexico (where it is interrupted by
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec) through Guatemala; of somewhat lower level
in Honduras and Salvador; sinking to almost sea-level in Nicaragua (154
feet); and rising again in the Altos of Veragua to about 3,250 feet. This
main range has its axis much nearer the Pacific shore and almost parallel
to it, being in San Salvador distant seventy-five miles, and in Guatemala
(Totonicapan) only fifty. Towards the Pacific the slope is steep,
interrupted by many volcanoes; while on the Atlantic side the gently
terraced incline is broken into subsidiary ridges extending to the very
shores. In the oceanic valleys and along the coast are the only lowlands
of Central America; and these contain the wash of volcanoes, limestone
mountains, and ages of vegetable growth and decay, forming the richest of
soils for agricultural purposes.
In Guatemala the mean height of the cordillera is about seven thousand,
and probably the mean height of this republic is not less than five
thousand, feet. The Sierra Madre, or Cuchumatanes, in the Department of
Huehuetenango, is the highest land (always excepting the volcanoes, which
will be described later); and of the less important ridges are the Sierra
de Chamá (of limestone, and full of caverns), which extends towards the
northeast and ends in the Cockscomb Range of British Honduras; Sierra de
Santa Cruz, also of limestone, extends nearly eastward, north of the Lago
de Izabal and the Rio Polochic, and south of the Rio Sarstun; Sierra de
las Minas, nearly parallel to the last, and separating the valley of the
Rio Motagua from that of the Polochic. Of this range is the Montaña del
Mico and the peak of San Gil, near Livingston: the material is no longer
limestone, but metamorphic rock, containing mines of some importance.
Last we have the Sierra del Merendon, which forms the boundary between
Guatemala and Spanish Honduras; and with various names it finally ends in
the Montaña de Omoa on the coast,—an important landmark several thousand
feet high.
The mountains of Salvador are all volcanic and shoreward of the main
chain; but in Honduras the lines again repeat the general arrangement of
Guatemala, while the names are many, indicating a more broken system.
Between the ranges are broad and fertile valleys, the Llano de Comayagua
being forty miles in length, with a breadth of from five to fifteen
miles. In Nicaragua the ridges slope towards the southwest, breaking
abruptly to the Mosquito coast, and an important part of its territory
is occupied by the lakes of Managua and Nicaragua. From the broad valley
the land again rises towards Costa Rica, where it attains the height of
forty-three hundred feet, and, owing to the narrowness of the continent,
the lateral branches are insignificant. From the table-land of Veragua
the cordillera dwindles to the basaltic ridge of Panama.
[Illustration: CENTRAL AMERICA.]
Rivers are, next to mountains, the most important factors in the physical
aspect of the land; and in Central America they are abundant, though,
from the broken nature of the country, not of great size. From the
position of the backbone of the land, most of the watershed is towards
the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea; even the great lakes of
Nicaragua, which are really on the Pacific side, empty through the Rio
San Juan into the Atlantic, the river taking advantage of a break in the
cordillera. The lower or navigable portion of the Central American rivers
is the only part known; the sources of even the largest streams are still
unexplored. So tortuous are the courses that names are multiplied, and
rivers that flow from inhabited valleys through wild forests again appear
in the lowlands as unknown strangers; and the river that one traveller
describes as important and navigable, because he sees it in the season of
rain, the next visitor may cross knee-deep, and know only as a brook.
On the Pacific side may be mentioned the Rio Lempa, which rises near
Esquipulas, receives the waters of the considerable Lago de Guija (on
the boundary of Guatemala and Salvador), and even after the dry season
is of large volume, thirty miles from its mouth attaining a breadth of
more than six hundred feet and a depth of ten feet, which is nearly
twenty-seven when the floods of the rainy season occur. If it were not
for the bar, which has hardly a fathom of water, the navigation would
develop rich lands on either bank. The Rio Paz, the Rio de los Esclavos,
and the Rio Michatoya are not navigable, although formerly the latter
stream at its mouth (Istapa) was large enough within the bar to admit the
construction of vessels of moderate size; it was here that the Spaniards
fitted out several fleets.
Far different are some of the rivers that find their way into the
Atlantic. Chief among them all is the noble Usumacinta, which flows into
the Gulf of Mexico through the Lago de Terminos, and is navigable many
miles through a singularly fertile and interesting country, as beautiful
as fancy pictures the cradle of the human race,—a land seldom visited by
white men, and the home of the unconquered and unbaptized (La Candones)
Indios. The swift Chixoy, the Rio de la Pasion, and the almost unknown
San Pedro unite to form this “Child of many Waters.”
The Belize River, rising in the Montaña de Dolores near Peten and
crossing the British colony, is the principal highway for the commerce of
Peten, the pitpans bringing down huge mahogany bowls, paddles, baskets,
and other Indian goods. The Sarstun forms the southern boundary of the
British possessions, and is navigable for small canoes as far as the
rapids of Gracias á Dios. None but timber-cutters disturb its solitudes.
The Polochic is at present the most useful river of Guatemala. It rises
near Tactic, and is a foaming torrent for much of its course in Alta
Verapaz. At Pansos the waters are navigable for light-draft steamers,
except in very dry seasons; and not far below, its volume is materially
increased by the Cahabon. It flows through the Lake of Izabal, and, as
the Rio Dulce, empties into the Gulf of Amatique over a bar of sand. The
Motagua is nearly parallel to the Polochic, and rises near Santa Cruz del
Quiché. From Gualan it is navigable in canoes. Smaller streams are the
Ulúa, Aguan, and Segovia in Spanish Honduras, which are navigable for
pitpans. Finally we have the San Juan, known as one of the elements of
the “Nicaragua Canal” route, but not at present navigable for boats of
any size.
All the rivers of Central America that can be used for commerce require
a special river service; for wherever the depth of water is sufficient,
the always-present bar cuts off access to vessels drawing more than six
feet. Should the development of the country warrant it, the bar of the
Rio Dulce could be deepened sufficiently to admit vessels drawing ten or
fifteen feet.
Small lakes are common enough in the northern part of Central America.
The Laguna del Peten is about five hundred feet above the sea, nine
leagues long and five broad. The Lago de Atitlan, in the Department
of Sololà, is sixteen and a half miles long from San Lucas Toliman to
San Juan, and eight miles wide from San Buenaventura to Canajpú, and
soundings show a depth of a thousand feet. With the Laguna de Amatitlan,
this will be described in the Itinerary. Of Honduras, the chief lakes
are the Laguna de Caratasca, or Cartago, close on the Atlantic coast,
thirty-six miles long by twelve wide; the Lago de Yojoa, between the
Departments of Comayagua and Santa Bárbara, twenty-five miles long and
from five to eight wide; the Lago de Cartina, eighteen miles by eight,
and the Laguna de la Criba, fifteen by seven miles. Of all the lakes
of Central America, none is so interesting commercially as the Lake of
Nicaragua. It is large (ninety miles by forty), and the largest south of
Lake Michigan. Of a depth sufficient for all vessels (forty-five fathoms
in places), and connected with the Atlantic by the Rio San Juan, with
the Lago de Managua (thirty-five miles by sixteen), by the Tipitapa, it
has the serious disadvantage of being a volcanic basin, whose bottom
may at any time be elevated above the surface,—as in the case of the
volcano of Ometepec. Whether the channel between these two lakes is
permanent, is a matter of some doubt, as travellers have lately found
no water flowing from Managua. The Lago de Guija, between Guatemala and
Salvador, is seventeen miles long from east to west, and its mean width
is six. Fishes and alligators abound, and its waters—which are not of the
best quality—discharge through the Lempa to the Pacific. Another lake
in Salvador has attracted attention in late years by a curious volcanic
disturbance in its midst; Ilopango will be described with the volcanoes.
With this bare list of some of the prominent features of the country,
we may join a brief account of those other natural and political
characteristics of what was once Spain’s stronghold on this continent
that have most immediate relation to the present inhabitants. Leaving
Guatemala for a separate chapter, the other four republics may be
described as follows:—
_Salvador._—The smallest in extent, but by far the most populous, having
no less than sixty-three inhabitants to the square mile. The central part
is an upland of a mean elevation of two thousand feet above the sea,
bounded on the Pacific side by a chain of volcanic peaks; beyond these a
strip of lowland from ten to twenty miles wide. Eastward and westward are
two great depressions, San Miguel and Sonsonate, “the place of a hundred
springs” (_centsonatl_). The Gulf of Fonseca, fifty miles long and nearly
thirty wide, is said to be the most beautiful harbor on the Pacific
coast. On the southwest side is the principal port of La Union, a town of
little more than two thousand inhabitants, and unhealthful, as are all
the Pacific ports. The mean temperature is 80° Fahr.; and were it not for
the capital commercial facilities of the town, its inhabitants would be
few. Libertad has an open roadstead, and a population only half that of
La Union. Acajutla lies between the headlands of Remedios and Santiago,
and has but five hundred inhabitants; as the port of Sonsonate (distant
five leagues), however, it is much frequented, and is provided with an
iron pier, as is Libertad. In 1882 the first railway in the republic was
opened, from Acajutla to Sonsonate, a distance of fifteen miles; and work
has since been slowly progressing in the direction of Santa Ana.
Mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, and anthracite coal are found
within the borders of Salvador, the principal being those of Loma-Larga,
Corozal, Devisadero, Encuentros, and Tabanco.
The capital was founded April 1, 1528, by Jorge de Alvarado, brother of
the conqueror of Guatemala; but ten or twelve years afterwards it was
removed to its present site in the valley De los Hamacas, where it has
been many times ruined by the terrible earthquakes to which this region
is especially subject.
The republic is divided into fourteen departments, twenty-nine districts,
and two hundred and twenty-eight towns.
Departments. Principal Cities.
Santa Ana. Santa Ana (25,000).
Ahuachapan. Ahuachapan.
Sonsonate. Sonsonate (8,000).
La Libertad. Nueva San Salvador (Santa Tecla).
San Salvador. San Salvador (30,000).
Chalatenango. Chalatenango.
Cuscatlan. Cojutepeque.
La Paz. Santa Lucia (Zacatecoluca).
San Vincente. San Vincente (10,000).
Cabañas. Sensuntepeque.
Usulutan. Usulutan.
San Miguel. San Miguel.
Gotera. Gotera.
La Union. San Carlos (La Union).
The legislative power is exercised by two chambers,—one of Deputies, the
other of Senators; each Department elects a senator and a substitute,
each District a representative and his substitute. The executive power is
in the hands of a citizen elected as President by the people directly;
should there be no election by an absolute majority of votes, the General
Assembly elects from the three citizens who have obtained the greatest
number of votes. Three senators are designated as heirs-apparent.
The term of office is four years, without immediate re-election. The
judiciary is similar in order and functions in all these republics, and
will be described as in Guatemala. The organized militia numbers about
thirteen thousand men; and in case of invasion, war lawfully declared,
and internal rebellion, all Salvadoreños between the ages of eighteen and
fifty are liable to military duty.
In 1879 the number of primary schools was 624 (465 boys’, and the rest
girls’); and these were attended by 20,400 boys and 4,038 girls, at a
probable cost of $150,000. There is a central university, with faculties
of Law, Medicine, Theology, and Civil Engineering, and it has branches at
Santa Ana and San Miguel.
There are six hundred and ninety-three miles of telegraph, with forty
offices; and the service is reasonably well performed by the Government
officials. A railroad between Santa Tecla and the capital, and five
hundred and nine leagues of cart-roads, afford communication; and there
are lines of stages subsidized by the Government.
In 1879 the imports were $2,549,160.19, and the exports $4,122,888.05;
the income $2,914,236.29, and the expenditures $2,785,068. The funded
debt was $1,945,201, the floating debt $392,777.11, and there is no
foreign debt.
Salvador is essentially an agricultural state, and coffee, indigo,
balsam, tobacco, rice, cacao, sugar, rubber, and other less important
products are produced abundantly from her fertile fields.
_Honduras._—The third republic of Central America covers an area of
about forty thousand square miles. Its boundaries are seen on the map,
and its surface is diversified with high mountain-ranges, broad and
fertile valleys, vast forests, and plentiful streams. Its climate is
extremely hot on the coast; but in the mountain region, as at Intibucá,
the temperature is low. Never so hot as a summer in New England cities,
and not so cold as to check a most luxuriant vegetable growth, the
traveller has an alternation of spring and summer as he changes his
level, irrespective of the astronomical year. Four hundred miles of
Atlantic coast-line, dotted with river-mouths, bays, and ports; sixty
miles on the Pacific side, in the secure Gulf of Fonseca,—seem to provide
ample commercial advantages; and to make these of use are the following
resources: vast plains in Comayagua and Olancho, covered with excellent
grass, pasture large herds of cattle, thousands of which are shipped
each year to Cuba.[2] The forests, which occupy much of the Atlantic
coast-region and the lower mountain-slopes abound in mahogany, rosewood,
cedar (_Bursera_), logwood (_Hæmatoxylon campecheanum_) brazil-wood
(_Cæsalpinia Braziliensis_), sarsaparilla (_Smilax_), and other
marketable products; the principal timber regions being on the rivers
Ulúa, Aguan, Negro, and Patuca,—all on the Atlantic side. In mineral
wealth Honduras easily outranks all her sister republics. Silver ores are
exceedingly abundant, chiefly on the Pacific slopes; and among them are
chlorides of remarkable richness. Gold washings occur in Olancho, and
are now worked by several foreign companies. Copper deposits are often
mingled with silver; iron exists as magnetite,—sometimes so pure that
it may be worked without smelting; antimony, tin, and zinc also have
been reported. Beds of lignite are found in the Department of Gracias;
and here too are the Hondureñan opals. Fruits of many kinds are now
grown in the neighborhood of Puerto Cortez, such as bananas, plantains,
coconuts, pines, for which there is a constant demand from the steamers
which come here from New Orleans. Of indigo little is now exported; but
the production of tobacco is increasing. Especially fine is the leaf
grown near Copan, rivalling, when properly cured, the best product of the
Cuban valleys; but the common cigars, which are sold for eight dollars
per thousand, are dear even at that price. In 1879 the importations were
valued at about one million dollars, and the exports twice that amount.
In later years these exports have largely increased. A railroad of narrow
gauge extends from Puerto Cortez to San Pedro,—thirty-seven miles; and
while the republic is sadly deficient in cart-roads, it is only fair
to say that the authorities are doing something to improve these very
necessary means, in the expectation that the country is to develop as it
deserves.
The government is very like that of Salvador, and the administrative
departments are:—
Departments. Chief Cities.
Islas de la Bahía. Coxen Hole (Roatan).
Yoro. Yoro.
Olancho. Juticalpa.
Paraíso. Yuscaran.
Tegucigalpa. Tegucigalpa (12,000).
Choluteca. Choluteca.
La Paz. La Paz.
Comayagua. Comayagua (10,000).
Santa Bárbara. Santa Bárbara.
Gracias. Gracias.
Copan. Santa Rosa.
Colon. Trujillo.
Public lands are abundant, and are granted to actual settlers of any
nationality at low rates, provided they will cultivate them. The towns
are all small, although some of them were flourishing sixty years before
the settlement of Jamestown in Virginia. Of the more important are
Tegucigalpa, the capital, in the midst of a plain some three thousand
feet above the sea, and surrounded by a mining region. It possesses a
Universidad Central, founded in 1849 by Don Juan Lindo, then President.
Comayagua was founded in 1540 by Alonzo de Cáceres, also in the midst
of a plain, where still are visible the monuments of antiquity,—the
less perishable works of a people more energetic than their successors;
for with the exception of some few churches, little of the work of the
present inhabitants would survive three centuries of occupation by a
foreign invader. Amapala, on the Island of Tigre, in the Gulf of Fonseca,
was formerly a favorite rendezvous of the buccaneers, Drake making it
his base of operations in the South Sea. Now it is no less desirable
as a port, having deep water close to shore. Puerto Cortez, or Puerto
Caballos,—as Cortez called it, from the death of some of his horses
here,—on the north coast, in latitude 15° 49′ N., and longitude 87° 57′
W., was selected by Cortez as the _entrepôt_ of New Spain, under the name
of Navedad. For more than two hundred years it was the principal port on
the coast; but dread of the buccaneers caused the removal to Omoa. The
bay is nine miles in circumference, with a depth of from four to twelve
fathoms over its principal area; and on the northern side, where the
water is deepest, large ocean steamers may come to the wharves. Omoa,
in latitude 15° 47′ N. and longitude 88° 5′ W., has a smaller harbor,
defended by the Castillo de San Fernando. Trujillo, an ancient port on
the western shore of a noble bay, is now growing in importance with the
development of Olancho, of which it is the natural seaport; but it has no
wharf or any sufficient landing-place for merchandise.
The Bay Islands are small, but of considerable importance. Roatan, the
largest, is about thirty miles long by nine broad, and in its highest
part nearly a thousand feet above the sea. Guanaja, or Bonaca, the first
land of Central America discovered by Columbus on his fourth voyage, is
fifteen miles from Roatan, and of an extent of five by nine miles. This
group is fertile, and with a fine climate should prove very attractive
to settlers from the North who appreciate the waste of life in an arctic
climate of eight months each year, when all vegetation ceases to grow,
and man himself can be kept alive only by artificial heat, where the
farmer must toil wearily four months for the poor produce that is to
sustain him all the “famine months,” and the laborer live poorly all the
twelvemonth, whatever be his work.
The history of Honduras has not been a happy one, even since its revolt
from the Spanish yoke in 1821, and revolutions have been the rule; but
in 1865 a new Constitution was adopted, with some prospect of internal
quiet. The four hundred thousand inhabitants include perhaps seven
thousand whites, the Spanish population being mainly on the Pacific
side, Caribs along the Atlantic coast, and several thousand of the mixed
races, the great majority being Indios, known as Xicaques and Poyas.
Perhaps the most adverse influence to the progress of this naturally rich
republic, next to the revolutions, was the scandalous loan for building
the “Honduras Inter-oceanic Railway” from Puerto Cortez to the Gulf of
Fonseca, a hundred and forty-eight miles. This loan, amounting in 1876
to $27,000,000, was as complete a swindle as has ever disgraced American
finances; but the people of Honduras, although responsible for the debt,
had little to do with its origin, and cannot rightly be blamed for not
paying interest on what they never had any advantage from. The internal
debt is about $2,000,000.
_Nicaragua._—Of nearly the same area as Honduras, Nicaragua is chiefly
distinguished by its lower level and the great lake which offers so
inviting a route for an inter-oceanic canal. The same fertility and
genial climate extend from the Hondureñan uplands into Chontales and
Segovia, where Northerners can enjoy life; but it is hot and unwholesome
near the sea, especially throughout the Mosquito Reservation, where the
frequent river-floods and the miasmatic marshes breed an endemic fever
very fatal to Europeans. The mean annual temperature (excepting the
highlands) is about 80° F., falling to 70° at night, and rising to 90° in
the hottest weather. The seasons, as elsewhere in Central America, are
two,—the wet from May to November, the dry including the winter months.
At Rivas, on the isthmus between the Lago de Nicaragua and the Pacific,
the annual rainfall is about a hundred and two inches; elsewhere the
summer rainfall is about ninety, and the winter less than ten.
Geologically, Nicaragua is no less rich than Honduras in variety of
structure and mineral possibilities. The volcanic formations on the
extreme West are rich in pumice and sulphur, while across the lake are
andesyte, trachyte, greenstone, and metalliferous porphyries, succeeded
by crystallized schists, dolerites, and metamorphic beds, extending, so
far as is known, beneath the alluvial deposits of the coast-region. The
Chontales gold mines have been worked for some time near Libertad, and
so have the silver mines of Matagalpa and Dipilto; but the total annual
yield of precious metals seldom exceeds $200,000.
The chief articles of export are cacao, hides, coffee, and gums, as
well as gold and silver bullion; and in 1880 the exports amounted to
$2,057,500, and the imports to $1,475,000. The revenue for this year was
$2,435,000, while the expenditures slightly exceeded it. All Nicaraguans
between the age of eighteen and thirty-five are in the army.
For more than half a century Nicaragua has been darkly distinguished
above all other countries of the world by war and bloodshed. Military
_pronunciamientos_, civil war, and popular revolts have so exhausted all
the resources of this rich country that it is quiet at last from utter
exhaustion. Could these fermenting republics be induced to give up their
absurd and expensive military establishments, and expend the money, now
worse than wasted, in opening roads and teaching the people something
besides military drill, the prosperity of this wonderfully fertile and
agreeable region would be assured. Only their revolutionary habits now
stand in the way of the introduction of foreign capital; and are not
these habits fostered by the constant military display which guards the
President and judges alike? It is certainly foreign to all Northern ideas
to have a court of justice guarded by military sentinels. Would that this
Eden might be reclaimed, the swords beaten into ploughshares, and the
generals and other officers turn their wasted energies to agriculture and
commerce!
Nicaragua is divided into the following departments, according to the
census of 1882:—
Departments. Chief Cities.
Managua 12,000 Managua 7,800
Granada 51,056 Granada 16,000
Leon 26,389 Leon 25,000
Rivas 16,875 Rivas 10,000
Chinandega 17,578 Chinandega 11,000
Chontales 27,738 Libertad 5,000
Matagalpa 51,699 Matagalpa 9,000
Nueva Segovia 36,902 Ocotal 3,000
San Juan del Norte 2,000 Greytown 1,512
Mosquitia 36,000 Blewfields 1,000
These figures cannot, however, be relied upon for the population. With
a coast-line of two hundred and eighty miles on the Caribbean Sea, the
only port is San Juan del Norte (Greytown), formed by the northern branch
of the delta of the San Juan; and this is now nearly choked with sand.
The Pacific coast is bold and rocky, extending nearly two hundred miles
from Coseguina Point to Salinas Bay, and has several convenient harbors,
as San Juan del Sur, Brito, and, best of all, Realejo. Among the chief
cities is Leon, founded by Francisco Fernandez de Córdoba in 1523 in
Imbita, near the northwest shore of Lago de Managua, whence it was moved
in 1610 to the present site at the Indian town of Subtiaba. Managua, the
capital of the republic, was nearly destroyed in 1876 by a land-slide,
but is now rebuilt. Granada is the collegiate town of the republic, and
is on the shores of the great lake. A railway has long been in process
of construction to connect the capital with the ocean. In 1882 the
telegraphic system of eight hundred miles was completed, and eighty-one
thousand despatches were forwarded the preceding year through twenty-six
offices. In 1882 the total attendance at the national schools was only
five thousand, or less than eight per cent of the whole population. The
annual grant for the purposes of education was $50,000.
The Mosquito coast cuts from Nicaragua a large portion of her shore-line,
precisely as British Honduras robs Guatemala of hers; and this has
been a cause of serious trouble. This territory, which is about forty
miles wide, had been under the protection of Great Britain from 1655
to 1850, when that very un-American document the Clayton-Bulwer treaty
gave England certain rights in her colony of Belize in exchange for such
claims as she had to this coast, and by the treaty of Managua, in 1860,
she formally ceded her protectorate to Nicaragua; but there are still
several disputed points.
_Costa Rica._—The fifth and most southern republic of Central America
has an area of only twenty-one thousand square miles. The Atlantic
coast is low, and the country is covered with a dense forest, while the
Pacific slope is characterized by wide savannas, or _llanuras_. Between
these borders are high volcanoes and an elevated table-land three to
four thousand feet above the sea,—the latter almost the only cultivated
land in the State. The forests are largely composed of very valuable
trees,—mahogany, ebony, brazil-wood, and oak; and the usual tropical
fruits grow well. Coffee, however, is the staple export, being grown
extensively in the neighborhood of San José and Cartago; the soil most
favorable being dark volcanic ash, from three to eighteen feet deep. The
amount exported in 1874 was valued at $4,464,000; in 1885 the amount is
placed at $4,219,617.
On the Atlantic side Puerto Limon is the chief commercial town, and on
the Pacific, Punta Arenas. In 1871 the Government negotiated a loan in
London of $5,000,000, and the next year another of $12,000,000,—but from
both of them never received more than $5,058,059.60,—with the avowed
intention of building an inter-oceanic railway between the two principal
ports; but only detached portions have been built,—twenty-four miles
from Alajuela to Cartago, sixty from Limon to Carrillo, and six from
Punta Arenas to Esparta. The country is bankrupt, and makes no attempt
to pay any part of its liabilities; indeed, its revenues, derived from
intolerable duties (even on the export of coffee), monopolies of spirits
and tobacco, national bank, sales of land, and internal taxes, do not
balance the expenditures.
The legislature is composed of a Congress of Deputies,—one for each
electoral district,—holding office six years, half being renewed every
three years. The members of the Corte de Justicia are elected by
Congress. The present constitution (from 1871) is the seventh that has
been in force. The departments are,—
Departments. Chief Cities.
San José 45,000 San José 15,000
Cartago 36,000 Cartago 10,000
Heredia 30,000 Heredia 9,000
Alajuela 29,000 Alajuela 6,000
Guanacaste 8,000 Liberia 2,000
Punta Arenas 6,000 Punta Arenas 1,800
The population is estimated by M. Belly.
Both the northern boundary on Nicaragua, and the southern one on
Columbia, are in dispute.[3]
I have endeavored to give most briefly the chief matters of importance
relating to the four republics that, with Guatemala, constitute Central
America. I am well aware that I have turned, that I can turn but little
light on the darkness; too little is known of the country, beyond its
trade and political relations to the rest of the world. Volcanoes,
earthquakes, and revolutions have popularly been associated with the
whole region, and public taste has been turned away from such unpleasant
outbreaks of subterranean fires or human passions. The time will come
when these regions, far more fertile and accessible than those African
wilds that for a score of years have interested, strangely enough, both
explorer and capitalist, will claim the attention due their natural
merits; and the fertile plains will be the garden and orchard of the
United States,—not necessarily by political annexation, but by commercial
intercourse. All our sugar, all our coffee, all our rice, all our
chocolate, all our india-rubber ought to come from Central America,
where these products can be raised better and cheaper than in any other
country; and next to these staples, the subsidiary fruits, as oranges,
plantains, bananas, pines, limes, granadillas, aguacates, and dozens of
others now unknown to commerce, ought to come to us from Limon, Puerto
Cortez, and Livingston. These are to be obtained in Guatemala of better
quality and in better order than in the West Indies. Louisiana would then
perhaps give up the unnatural cultivation of sugar, and Florida cease her
useless striving to raise really good oranges, and both States turn to
the products they are better fitted for raising.
I will ask you to go with me through the republic of Guatemala, and to
see it, so far as you can, with my eyes; and until that journey is
ended, we will leave the story of the old times, the present system
of government, the ethnology, the volcanoes, the flora and fauna, to
chapters by themselves, even if the unsystematic arrangement should savor
strongly of the irregularity of the land we journey through.
[Illustration: Luciano Calletano (Captain at Chocon).]