CENTRAL AMERICA
GUATEMALA, HONDURAS, BRITISH HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, SALVADOR, COSTA
RICA, PANAMA
On Michaelmas Day, in the year 1513, a Spanish adventurer,
surrounded by his followers--they had sailed from Hispaniola, or
Santo Domingo, on an expedition of discovery--found himself on the
high ridge of the land called Darien. His eyes, seeking the horizon,
fell, not on an endless expanse of mountain and forest, such as here
might have been expected to stretch away into the unknown solitudes,
but upon the sheen of waters. A smothered exclamation fell from his
lips. "_El Mar!_" ("the Sea!") he cried, and he and his followers
remained a space in the silence of astonishment.
The Spaniard was Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. It was one of the most
dramatic of geographical discoveries. They had but traversed an
isthmus, where they had expected a continent--to-day the Isthmus of
Panama. They had discovered an ocean; they realized in that moment
much that before had been a mystery.
Descending to the shore and wading deep into the waters, Balboa drew
his sword, and waving it thereover took possession of that ocean and
whatsoever shores it might wash for the King of Spain, naming it the
"South Seas," for, from the curvature of the isthmus, he was looking
towards the south, having crossed from the north.
Thus was the great Pacific Ocean first beheld by the white man, as
far as history records.
We have already seen that Balboa's exploit preceded the Conquest of
Mexico. The land of the Aztecs, like that of Peru, was undreamed
of, but the discovery of both followed, as did the passage of the
Magellan Strait by the explorer whose name it bears, and who first
crossed the Pacific, and from its gentle and favouring gales gave it
its name.
The discoverer of the isthmus and the great ocean was a _hidalgo_,
and had been Governor of a province, but to escape his creditors
in Hispaniola--according to one account--he concealed himself in
a barrel on board ship, and so began his voyage. Balboa, pressing
into his service a train of Indians, many of whom, it is said, died
under the lash in the task, caused the timbers of two vessels to
be dragged across the rugged neck of land and launched upon the
South Sea, bent upon the discovery of Peru, which, later, Andagoya
attempted, but which, however, the fates had reserved for Pizarro.
Balboa was afterwards treacherously done to death by Pedrarias
Davila, one of the most ruthless of the Spanish adventurers of that
time.
Thus did the inhabitants of this region we are now to traverse have
their foretaste of the white man's overlordship--a foretaste of
the dreadful lot which fate had in store for them, the simple folk
of Central America, who, with their ancient culture and beautiful
arts, akin in some respects to those of the Aztec and the Inca, were
almost stamped out under Pedro de Alvarado, who invaded Guatemala in
1522, and his successors of the early Colonial period.
Seven different States or entities to-day comprise this zone
of territory of Central America, washed on the one hand by the
Caribbean and on the other by the Pacific, whose people dwell in
one of the most beautiful and interesting part of the earth's
surface--Guatemala, with its coffee plantations and lavish fruits,
Honduras of the rugged surface, and British Honduras, Nicaragua with
its great lake, Costa Rica, the one-time "Rich Coast," Salvador,
most populous and advanced of all, Panama, the land of the famous
Canal.
We may be permitted a brief glance at the ancient inhabitants of
this portion of America, prior to the advent of the Spaniards.
As in the case of North America, in Mexico: and South America, in
Peru and Colombia, so in Central America was there a ruling caste or
culture. Here it was that of the Quiches, a people of Maya stock.
These people were most numerous in Western Guatemala, and at the
time of the Conquest the most powerful inhabitants of Central
America. The sacred book of the Quiches, known as the _Popol Vuh_,
embodies a mythological cosmogony, in which is a Creation story
and an account of a Flood, after the manner of that of the Old
Testament. (The Quiches are not to be confounded with the Quechuas
of Peru.) Their capital was Utatlan, near where stands the modern
Santa Cruz Quiche, and the place was cleverly fortified. Their
system of government was an elaborate one, as was their religion.
Indeed, the student remarks with surprise how far these early
peoples had gone in the development of social polity and economic
order. The Quiches, like the Aztecs, kept historical records in
picture-writing. The Incas, we may remark in passing, of Peru, kept
their histories by means of the _quipos_, a mnemonic system of
knotted and coloured cords.
The Sun God was the chief deity, but there were many lesser objects
of adoration. But the religion was of a high order in some respects,
although the Spanish priests, after the Conquest, strove to hide
the fact, and, indeed, there was wholesale destruction throughout
Spanish America of native records and objects, whether it were of
the beautiful picture-writings and scrolls of Mexico and Central
America, whether the pillars of stone by which the early Peruvian
priests skilfully determined the solstices. The jealous priestcraft
of the Roman Catholic religion could not tolerate anything that
showed ingenuity or knowledge by their pagan predecessors, and all
these things they considered, or affected to consider, "things of
the devil," and destroyed them wherever possible. The marvel is that
so much has remained, for the benefit of the archæologist to-day.
The religion of the Quiches, like that of the Mexicans, contained
horrible practices involving human sacrifices. This was probably
absent in Peru. Repulsive as it was, we may question whether it
was as cruel as the dreadful tortures of the Inquisition, such as
rendered Mexico and Lima and other places in the New World centres
of horror, until the time of Independence, when the infuriated
populace destroyed the Inquisitional centres.
We have previously remarked that Columbus sailed along the Atlantic
coast of Central America, that of Honduras and Costa Rica, and it
was here that, seeing the ornaments of gold on the swarthy bodies
of the natives, the voyagers' imagination was freshly aroused to
the possibilities of conquest. But the natives of this region were
not necessarily as docile as those of Hispaniola and the Antilles.
They mustered on the shore, leaping from the dark forests as the
strange sails of the Spaniards hove in sight, communicating rapidly
with each tribe by those peculiar methods they employed, and made
the air resound with the beatings and blasts of their war-drums and
bugle-shells, brandishing their clubs and swords of palm-wood.
Columbus, however, did not generally employ harsh methods against
the natives. He is regarded rather as their protector, and a
beautiful monument at Colon represents him as sheltering an Indian
who timorously looks up for protection--a contrast, as remarked
elsewhere, with the lack of monuments in Spanish America to Cortes
and Pizarro. However, under Bartholomé Columbus, the brother of
Christopher, great animosity was aroused on the part of the Indians
in the settlement at Veragua, resulting in the death of the Spanish
colonists.
One of the most tragic episodes after the Conquest of Mexico was the
expedition of Cortes to Central America, following on the expedition
he had sent into Guatemala under Pedro de Alvarado. There had been a
desperate fight between Alvarado's band and the redoubtable Quiches
of Utatlan, and it was only due to the fortunate circumstance
of dissension among the different predominant tribes that the
Conquest of Guatemala was so readily carried out. Thus was history,
as in Mexico and indeed in Peru, brought about also in Central
America--fall under dissension, a house divided against itself.
In Honduras Cortes committed a foul deed. Suspecting, or pretending
to suspect, Guahtemoc, the son of Montezuma--who after the fall
of Mexico accompanied the conquerors to Central America--of some
treacherous design, Cortes had the unfortunate young Aztec hanged
head downwards from a tree. It will be recollected that Guahtemoc
was the author of the saying, well known in Mexico, of "Am I,
think you, upon some bed of roses?" when, whilst the Spaniards
were roasting his feet in order to make him reveal the whereabouts
of the Aztec treasure, he replied to his companions who were also
being tortured and were groaning in agony, and who asked if he too
suffered. This scene is depicted on a beautiful sculptured monument
in the city of Mexico--the statue to Guahtemoc, in the Paseo de la
Reforma.
In the early colonial government of Central America the capital was
set up by Alvarado in the chief town of Guatemala. The scenery of
the region is striking. Great volcanoes overhang the countryside,
and these have at times wrought terrible havoc here, and still do
so. In fact, the history of the city of Guatemala is a record of
successive destruction and re-establishment, probably unique in the
history of any land, due to the dreadful forces of Nature, seismic,
tectonic and volcanic, exerted upon this unrestful point of the
earth's surface.
We may glance briefly at some of these catastrophes. They show the
trials which the inhabitants of this part of the world are called
upon to bear.
The first city was established by Alvarado in 1527, on the banks of
the Rio Pensativo, at the foot of the Agua volcano, but in 1541 this
unfriendly mountain threw from its crater a deluge of water that,
carrying rocks with it, rushed down the mountain side and bore upon
the doomed city, whose destruction was lighted by the terrible fire
which simultaneously burst from the angry peak.
Afterwards the surviving inhabitants removed their city to another
site, and for twenty years made solemn annual pilgrimages to the
Ciudad Vieja, as the former place came to be called--the old town
about a league from the new. This flourished greatly and became the
most populous place in Central America, with more than a hundred
churches and convents, devoutly administered after the fashion of
the Catholic priesthood and pious folk of the Spanish American lands.
But this progress and piety failed to give security from acts of
Nature. After being many times threatened, this beautifully built
town, in the midst of the most romantic scenery, was destroyed
by a dreadful earthquake in 1773--earthquake to which was added
the horrors of eruption from the volcano Fuego (or "Fire"), which
overlooks it. In vain the people confessed their sins in the open
street, in vain priests and people weepingly carried procession
of the saints and saintly relics from church to church. The
very pavements rose up against them with the undulations of the
earthquake; the very heavens rained down showers of stones and ashes
upon them, obscuring even the light of the volcano, and morning
dawned upon a ruined and broken city with its people crushed beneath
the walls of their own dwellings.
The city was moved again twenty-seven miles away, and became the
seat of government in 1779--the third attempt, though whether it
will be the last remains to be seen, for but a short time ago we
heard of serious earthquakes in the district. Lofty mountains
rise on every side, with deep ravines on the edge of the tablelands
upon which the city stands. The houses have been kept of one story,
as a measure of security. The general beauty and prosperity of
Guatemala city has earned for it the name of the Paris of Central
America. We may reach it by the railway which, starting from Puerto
Barrios on the Atlantic coast, winds upwards to the elevation of
5,000 feet, which is that of the plateau on which it stands, 190
miles from the sea, and continues for a further 75 miles to San José
on the Pacific.
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL, GUATEMALA.
Vol I. To face p. 70.]
Guatemala is a land rich in natural resources, with fruitful plains
and valleys, and the peculiar volcanic constituents of the soil
are specially favourable for the production of coffee, which has
been the source of considerable wealth. There are vast plains and
extensive lakes, and innumerable rivers and streams. Many valuable
kinds of wood exist in the forests, and such products as cocoa,
sugar-cane, tobacco, bananas, and oranges, with other less common
kinds are plentiful. There are some small deposits of gold and other
precious and commoner metals. The climate is excellent, except on
the coast.
But this fruitfulness and bounty of Nature is not conducive
necessarily to peace among the people of the land. Rather the
restlessness of Nature, as evinced by earthquake unrest, is
reflected in the politics and general economy of the Republic. The
colonial civilization, which was marked by the destruction of the
Indians and their more or less beneficent old civilization, and
the enslavement of many tribes, with total extermination in some
cases, was succeeded by a republic in which pretenders and dictators
strove with each other, less to advance the interests of the country
than to satisfy their own ambitions and fill their own pockets.
There were, too, constant embroilments with the neighbouring
States, and bloody local wars. Some of the presidents, however, did
endeavour, side by side with their other activities, to promote
education and commerce, and to improve the means of transport and
communication--ever a vital matter in Spanish America, with its
rugged soil and vast extent.
We find in Guatemala many remains of the ancient folk, in
beautifully carved stelæ, in innumerable idols recovered from the
soil, and in the native arts, which, evincing the dexterity and
love of beauty of the aboriginal, have happily survived both the
destructive force of the Hispanic domination and, so far, the
equally destructive forces of modern commercialism, which ousts
their industries with imported goods.
In Quetzaltenango, the ancient "Town of the Green Feather"--the
Quetzal was the sacred bird of the Quiches--we shall specially
remark the native aptitudes in their quaint and pleasing
handicrafts. If these quiet and peaceful folk--for the natives
themselves are peaceful enough--are from time to time disturbed by
the subterranean roarings which precede earthquake shocks in the
hills and the tidal waves upon the coast, they soon forget these
manifestations of Nature, which, after all, are less destructive
than those due to the political ambition and ruthless cruelties of
mankind itself.
The characteristics, natural and human, which we have remarked in
the northern part of Central America, as represented by the Republic
of Guatemala, are found in varying degree in the sister States
extending to the south. The general topography of the isthmian
region which Central America embodies is that of a long backbone of
mountainous highlands extending from Tehuantepec for eight hundred
miles to the South American mainland. The physiography of the
region, however, is associated with that of the Antilles rather than
the northern and southern land masses, and its belts of volcanoes
correspond to those of the West Indies.
In earlier geological times the region probably consisted of
isolated stretches of land and mountains, and before man appeared
upon the earth there may have been not one but several isthmian
"canals" or apertures, with the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific
intermixing therein. Alternately rising and sinking--as evidenced
by the "drowned" Valley of the Chagres, on the site of the Panama
Canal, the land took on its present form, in which, however, it may
be that final stability is not yet reached. It is fervently to be
hoped, however, that the particular belt traversed by the Panama
Canal will remain immune from any earth movements, for that great
work of human ingenuity, carried out at such enormous cost, might
otherwise be rendered useless in a single instant.
Panama, however, forms the extreme south of Central America, and we
must cast a glance at the sequence of States below Guatemala.
Honduras is a land of considerable area, but among the most
backward portions of the region. The efforts of its Government
to encourage economic and commercial development have not been
very well sustained and successful, and there are only two
towns in the Republic of any size, one of which is the ancient
capital Tegucigalpa, picturesquely situated upon its river in an
amphitheatre of the hills, for Honduras is essentially a land of
mountains and depths, as its name signifies. The great grassy plain
of Comayagua, however, which extends across the country, upon which
great herds of cattle feed, redeems the land from too broken a
condition. The city of Comayagua was in earlier times the capital,
but it was ruined by the wars of the Central American Federation,
when, after an endeavour to establish some form of political
unification quarrels set in.
This little-known Republic has a long frontage upon the Atlantic
side, but only a few miles on the Pacific, which, however, affords
it an outlet of corresponding importance at the picturesque seaport
of Amapala, on the beautiful Bay of Fonseca. Indeed, this condition,
of straddling a continent, as it were, is one enjoyed by all the
Central American States, with the exception of Salvador, which lies
between the Pacific and the backbone of the highlands. Otherwise,
Honduras is unfortunate in its means of communication: its railways
are few and short; its roads are difficult of construction over the
broken topography, and in the absence of national funds and private
enterprise; and an attempt made of recent years to inaugurate
services of motor-cars did not meet with success. However, a railway
across from sea to sea should be of national value, and the wealth
of the country, both agricultural and mineral, may become more
intensively developed.
The name of Honduras is almost a byword for revolution, which occurs
with marked regularity.
The colony or possession of British Honduras lies in a commanding
position between its neighbours of Guatemala and Mexico on the west
and north, facing, on the Atlantic Ocean--under its local name here
of the Caribbean Sea--towards the important island of Jamaica, some
600 miles away.
Belize, as this foothold of the British Empire is otherwise termed,
is about the size of Wales, and not unhealthy in comparison with the
other British possessions of tropical America. It is well endowed
with a wide variety of natural resources and potentialities, but
it cannot be said that its economic progress is commensurate with
its position. One of the neglected offspring of Britain, it is,
like Demerara, an example of British national and governmental
supineness. It might have been supposed that a people such as
those of the United Kingdom, urgently requiring for their teeming
millions of folk the things in foodstuffs and material that
the Tropics produce--things of the grocer's shop and the store
cupboard--would have demanded a more vigorous administration and
development of this piece of national property, but it is doubtful
if one in a hundred would know where or what British Honduras is.
We cannot here dwell at length upon its possibilities and
attractions. Approaching the capital, Belize, from the sea, we
pass the green islands that fringe the coast, and extending along
the banks of the river we see the high roofs and wide verandas of
the houses and remark the coco-palm's grateful shade. Often an
invigorating breeze blows from the sea, the same gales that crisp
the surf at Colon, which the traveller will inevitably note, and
this and the high tides wash the fever-bearing mangrove swamps and
marshes, rendering them less unhealthy than otherwise would be the
case. The inhabitants are grateful for these tonic breezes from the
east upon this coastal belt.
This belt gives place in the interior to savannas, pasture lands and
forests of useful timber, which latter is cut for export; and beyond
are the Cockscomb Mountains, the birthplace of numerous streams.
In this interior region of British Honduras there lie the remains
of an ancient culture area, ruins of buildings such as we see in
Yucatan, the adjacent part of Mexico, and in Guatemala on the
west. They appear to show the existence of a larger population
in pre-Colombian times--part of that undoubtedly clever and
industrious ancient folk of Central America who have so entirely
disappeared.
To the buccaneers of the Spanish Main the colony largely owes its
origin, and to the logwood cutters. The coloured folk here are some
of the most expert woodmen in the world, and we see the results of
their labour in the rafts of timber--pine, cedar and dyewood--being
piloted down the flood of the Belize River. These people are
descendants of the buccaneers, people of European blood forming part
of the population, the majority of which is composed of a mixture,
the descendants of negro slaves, Indian and white settlers. There
is, of course, a small purely white class, official, colonial and
commercial, under colony government from Britain.
The natural products here most in evidence are the timbers, together
with bananas and other characteristic fruits, and coconuts, rubber,
coffee, cotton and fibre-producing plants; and gold and other
minerals are found and worked in small degree.
It might perhaps be said that a description of British Honduras is
out of place in a book such as the present, treating of Spanish
America. But geographical considerations would not thus be denied.
Further, this little outpost of the British Empire, if it should
always remain such, cannot fail to influence, and to be influenced
by, the Spanish American civilization around it. It might under
better development accomplish much good in this respect, if
the policy of drift were abandoned. A North American traveller
who had journeyed across the Central American Republics and had
been badgered unceasingly by revolutionary strife there, and by
customs-house officers and others of the bureaucracy of those
States, once exclaimed that the only peaceful moment of his journey
was when he at length entered the confines of a portion of "that
hated British monarchy"--British Honduras! This may have been an
exaggeration, but held something of truth.
The little Republic of Salvador, as already remarked, lies upon the
Pacific side of this interesting isthmian region of Central America,
but, small in size, it is the most thickly populated and perhaps
the most prosperous and advanced of all this group of States. Its
capital, San Salvador, may be regarded as a fine example of Spanish
American culture, and, with its buildings and institutions, would
compare more than favourably with a European or North American town.
The climate and general character of the uplands upon which it is
situated, and the social atmosphere of the place, are pleasing.
But the Pacific littoral is of that low and monotonous character
characteristic of the western slope of much of Central America, and
as a consequence the ports are often difficult of access through
shoal water and heavy surf. The interior is gained either from La
Libertad or Acajutla, by railway to the capital, ascending to 2,000
feet above the sea.
The Republic shares with Honduras and Nicaragua the beautiful Bay
of Fonseca, but this beauty is characteristically associated with
natural terrors, for not far inland arises the dreaded San Miguel
volcano, one of the worst burning mountains of Central America, ever
threatening the life of the capital. Upon this bay lies La Union,
the chief port of Salvador.
The Republic prides itself, and not unjustly, upon the freedom
of its life politically. But it is by no means immune from the
inevitable factional strife of Central America, the ambition
of dictators and the evils brought about by such corruption of
self-government. However, many foreigners carry on successful
businesses in the capital.
The population tends to increase with some rapidity, and we shall
remark the much smaller proportion of Indians found here; the bulk
of the people, the _Ladinos_, being a mixture of white and Indian,
distributed throughout a number of pleasing secondary towns, and,
in the country districts, are engaged in the production of coffee,
sugar, tobacco and other characteristic resources; whilst the
hills afford them those minerals with which the region in general
is dowered, with some mining establishments, which, as usual, are
controlled by foreigners.
The economic life of Salvador is too greatly dependent upon European
markets and financial centres; upon the export of coffee thereto;
upon the elevation or depression of such markets--a condition,
of course, common to many Spanish American States, but which a
better-ordered regimen will seek to rectify.
We might wander long through the beautiful scenery of Salvador,
enjoying the grand and imposing aspect of its volcanoes, the beauty
of its valleys and streams, for this part of Central America is
famed, or rather should be famed, for the beauty of the landscape.
Quaint towns and curious products, the quiet and in some respects
pleasant life of its folk, the budding industries, and a certain
promise for the future leave a pleasant impression upon the mind of
the traveller in this little State facing the broad Pacific.
Of the Republic of Nicaragua, which we may approach either from the
Atlantic or the Pacific, and which is the largest of this group of
States, many dismal descriptions have been given. It is described as
economically and in civic conditions the most backward. Yet some of
its towns are fine places. Leon was described as a splendid city by
travellers in 1665, and about that period the very active buccaneer
Dampier gathered rich booty from it. Granada, founded by Cordova in
1523, was also one of the richest cities in Central America, and
it, too, gave up its toll of booty to the corsairs. The Cathedral
of Leon is one of the most noteworthy, massive and ornate of the
great stone temples with which the Spaniards endowed the New World,
typical of the colonial architecture which redeems these centres of
life from the prosaic vulgarity of some other lands.
[Illustration: THE CITY OF GUATEMALA.
Vol. I. To face p. 80.]
We may visit these towns from the line of railway which runs from
Corinto, the chief seaport on the Pacific coast.
The capital of the Republic, the city of Managua, is of less
interesting character, and was, in a measure, raised to that
position in order to put an end to the rivalry between Leon and
Granada, both of which claimed metropolitan predominance. It is
situated upon the great lake of Nicaragua, the most prominent
topographical feature of this part of Central America, and which,
it will be recollected, was at one time destined to form part of
the waterway of a proposed trans-isthmian canal in place of that of
Panama.
This great lake valley and its adjacent highlands form the most
plentifully inhabited part of Nicaragua, as the Spanish colonial
development seized first upon its more fertile soil, watered by the
lake and streams. This civilization entered the country from the
Pacific side, from which we remark the grim and distant ramparts
of the Central American Cordillera, with its volcanoes intervening
between the western versant and littoral, and the low, monotonous
and swampy region of the east, and the Mosquito Coast bordering
upon the Atlantic. The Pacific coast here is bold and rocky, with a
headland enclosing the Bay of Fonseca in Nicaraguan territory.
Through the Cordillera flows the San Juan River, draining this low
eastern slope, and here lay the route of the projected Nicaraguan
Canal, whose abandonment caused bitter disappointment to the people
of the Republic.
In places in this wild land we remark the remains of the
pre-Colombian folk, who have left vestiges of their temples and
other structures, and thus we realize once more how a chain of
temple and palace-building folk in ancient times was carried down
the length of the continents from Mexico to Peru.
If too gloomy a description of the eastern side of Nicaragua has
been given, this must be tempered by noting that it possesses
certain natural advantages which may render it one of the most
valuable districts, from an economic point of view, in the whole
of Central America. Its rivers may be navigated by ocean-going
steamers, and in the Bluefields district the industry of banana
production and shipment has risen to very considerable importance.
The name of Nicaragua comes from that powerful native chief, Nicoya,
who, when the Spaniards first arrived, received Davila, their
leader, in a friendly spirit, and accepted Christian baptism at the
hands of the Roman Catholic priests. But the Spaniards overran the
country; those who invaded it from the east clashing with their own
countrymen who came in from the west, and Nicaragua's fine Indian
chief--pathetic page of native history--could not conserve here
anything of independence for the rightful owners of the soil.
The Spanish rulers of this unhappy land were a dreadful band, of
which it has been recorded that "the first had been a murderer, the
second a murderer and a rebel, the third murdered the second, the
fourth was a forger, the fifth a murderer and a rebel!"
In time the Indians revolted against intolerable oppression,
and, later, rebellion after rebellion took place against the
Mother Country. After Independence, the Wars of the Confederation
constantly deluged the soil with blood, and the political government
of the State was distinguished by a continuous series of military or
civil revolts, during which the land was impoverished, debased and
ruined, and from whose effects it has never recovered so far.
Yet Nicaragua is rich in natural products, agricultural, forestal
and mineral.
Famous in local history is the name of the North American
filibuster, William Walker, who for a space became president, and
the doings of this man and his band are stirringly adventurous. The
traveller will also recollect the long British Protectorate over the
Mosquito Coast.
But few remember that Nelson, the hero of Trafalgar, nearly met his
death from fever in Nicaragua. The great sailor, sent to report upon
the prospect of a canal, stated his intention of occupying Lake
Nicaragua, which in his opinion was "the inland Gibraltar of Spanish
America," whose possession would permanently sunder Spanish America
into two parts. But Nature was against it. Nelson and his force
ascended the river to the lake and successfully attacked the Spanish
force. He was wounded by a cannon shot, fired by a sixteen-year-old
girl, wife of a Spanish officer, and the maid was rewarded for the
act by her people.
Of Nelson's army of two hundred men all but ten perished of fever,
and left their bones in the soil of Nicaragua.
In the adjoining States of Costa Rica and Panama we are approaching
the narrowing, curving form of the isthmus, whose topography
culminates in the famous neck of land which joins the twin
continents of America together, and which has been severed to give
access between the world's greatest oceans, in the great Canal.
Whence the name of Costa Rica? Their eyes ever sharp to the glint
of gold, the Spaniards who approached Central America from the sea
immediately remarked that the swarthy forms of the Indians were
decorated with trinkets of yellow metal. The savages wore earrings
of gold, which dangled invitingly from their scared countenances
when the bearded and armoured white warriors approached, and there
was little ceremony in the transference of ownership. "This is a
rich coast! This is _Costa Rica_!" the Spaniards exclaimed.
Indeed, it was part of the old culture area of Chiriqui, whose folk
were clever producers of native jewellery in gold and precious
stones. Pedro de Alvarado called the whole region, including
Salvador, Cuscatan, the native Mexican name, meaning "Land of
precious stones, of treasures and abundance." But here in Costa Rica
the greedy Iberians found disappointingly little gold, except for
these trinkets. This region was the limit of the Maya civilization.
To-day Costa Rica is a flourishing little State, with fertile
soil and bright sunshine, with many luscious fruits, with food in
plenty, famous for its splendid coffee, special product of the
volcanic earth: a land of small peasant owners, upon which is
founded some political stability and civic prosperity, an example
to other Spanish American States, where oligarchies monopolize the
countryside, and the labourer dwells in peonage.
The Pacific coast here displays as we approach it, bold headlands
and broad bays, among them the Gulf of Nicoya, the home of that
pious-minded Indian chief, who, as before described, gave his name
to the adjoining State of Nicaragua. Studded with richly wooded
islands, and famous for its purple-yielding murex (the beautiful
ancient dye of the whelk), its pearls and mother-of-pearl, is this
bay, from which, leaving our steamer at the port of Punta Arenas, we
may ascend by railway to the pleasing capital of San José de Costa
Rica, on a plateau between the Cordillera at an elevation of nearly
4,000 feet above the ocean.
Here we are in a well-advanced city, the amenities of whose
public life are creditable to Central America. The line runs on
and descends to Puerto Limon, on the Atlantic, thus crossing the
isthmus.
But, like its neighbours, Costa Rica stands perennially in awe of
the volcanoes which top the summit of the Cordillera. Turialba, ever
hot and angry, and Poas are among these, pouring forth smoke and
vapour.
Let us take our stand a moment on Irazu, 11,000 feet above the
sea--we may reach it on horseback--higher than the summit of the
Pyrenees, and looking east and west remark the vast horizons which
unfold below: on the one hand we see the gleaming waters of the
Atlantic, on the other those of the Pacific, whilst, between,
the whole expanse of the country unfolds. Here, indeed, may the
inhabitant of Costa Rica cast a glance over the whole domain of his
_patria_, and let fancy wander over the realms of ocean towards
Europe and Asia.
Costa Rica was peopled largely by Spaniards from Galicia, but the
bulk of the folk are to-day _Ladinos_ or _Mestizos_, and, where the
native tribes have not been exterminated, there are Indians still in
complete savagery. The land is one of the healthiest in the region
we are treading, and its products of fruits and foods, of timber,
tortoise-shell, rubber, cedar, mahogany, ebony, and great stores of
bananas, give to the land a further claim to the name of the Rich
Coast.
And now our vessel floats upon the beautiful Bay of Panama, studded
with verdant isles, and if perchance it be the sunset hour the
flashing colour of the sky may light up the towers of the old
colonial city near its shore, a romantic haven, whose memories of
Drake and of the cruel Morgan, of Nuñez de Balboa, of Pizarro, and
all that gallery of bygone adventurers who made the history of the
New World upon these tropic shores. The sun does not rise, however,
in the Bay of Panama, but sets, for the curvature of the isthmus has
disoriented us, at Panama.
[Illustration: A COFFEE ESTABLISHMENT IN CENTRAL AMERICA.
Vol. I. To face p. 86.
]
This independent Republic of Panama threw off its allegiance to
Colombia, whose heritage the isthmus was, in a grandiloquent
manifesto after the--alleged--machinations of the Americans, who,
wearied of the dilatory tactics of the parent State, laid hands on
the isthmus to carry out their cherished plan of making the Canal.
"Just as a son withdraws from his paternal roof, so the isthmian
people, in adopting the destiny they have chosen, do so with grief,
but in compliance with the supreme and inevitable duty the country
owes to itself. Upon separating from our brethren of Colombia, we do
so without hatred and without joy." So ran the manifesto.
But the people of Bogata, of Colombia, consider that an unspeakable
outrage was perpetuated upon them, and regard the United States and
its then President, Roosevelt, as its author--an outrage which time
will take long to heal.
We shall see something of the doings of the immortal Drake in our
journey down the great Pacific coast of South America, undertaken in
another chapter.
The Panama Isthmus was to Drake a vantage point, from which he
viewed a promised land. After his attack on Nombre de Dios, a
fugitive slave--a _cimarron_--conducted him and his followers to the
summit of the isthmian hills. There lay before Drake the gleaming
waters of the vast Pacific, as they had lain before Balboa. Drake
fell on his knees. He prayed to sail those waters in an English
ship. It was partly his destined work of "Singeing the King of
Spain's beard." Back to England he went. The commission which Queen
Elizabeth had given him to sail the Spanish Main had been honourably
accomplished, even if the Spaniards at Cartagena and elsewhere did
not so regard it. The queen must extend the charter to the Pacific.
She did it, and Drake's exploits there and return home westwards are
among the most thrilling annals of those "spacious days."
Hear a tale now of Morgan the buccaneer, and Panama, and the
dreadful things that befel that city. Young Morgan, born in Wales,
kidnapped for a sailor in the streets of Bristol, also sailed the
Spanish Main. Drake was a gentleman; Morgan seems to have been a
bloody-minded corsair. At thirty-three years of age he sacked Porto
Bello, committing frightful cruelties and excesses. But at Panama he
surpassed himself. Yet praise must be given him for his bravery and
resource.
Ascending the Chagres River from Colon in boats, with a dreadful
struggle over the hills, Morgan and his men, like Drake and Balboa,
beheld the Pacific beyond. Whether he prayed for success or not
history does not record. But there lay the rich city of Panama. It
must be taken. It was defended by hundreds of Spaniards. But Morgan
had taken Chagres and killed three hundred Spaniards there, and
double his own number at Panama did not daunt him. Down they went to
Panama. The enterprise was a tough one, but the result may be seen
to-day in the massive ruins of the old city, a sight for sightseers,
buried in the jungle some miles from the present city. For within a
few hours the buccaneers attacked and slew its defenders and burned
the place with fire, leaving but an empty shell, having robbed it
of its treasure, excepting that which an escaping plate ship bore
safely from his clutches.
It has been said in extenuation of Morgan's doings here that the
place was in reality burned by the Indians and the slaves, who were
animated by the most bitter hatred of the Spaniards, and were quite
ready to assist the Englishmen.
The isthmus resounded for more than a century with the tramp of
mules bearing gold and silver from the Pacific plate ships; the
treasures of Peru, of Bolivia, the pearls of Nicoya and the isles,
the gold and silver stripped from the Inca temples, the silver bars
from Potosi, the silver mountain of the Andes. Along that dreadful
trail the mule-trains groaned their way. It was a rough road for
horsemen.
The trail became, as time went on, one of the world's greatest trade
routes, under the development of the Spanish Colonies. We have
seen how the great Nelson hoped to split these colonies in two by
establishing a "Gibraltar" on Lake Nicaragua. A toll of human life
has been paid upon this rugged path for every human movement over
it. Has it not been said that for every sleeper in the first Panama
railway a human being died in the terrors of construction? If it is
not true, it is true that of the eight hundred Chinamen who left the
Flowery Kingdom to build the line--labourers who knew nothing of the
horrors that awaited them in this fever death-bed--many committed
suicide. Crowds of labouring peasantry from Ireland found here, too,
a more emerald grave, and hordes of negroes filled up with their
poor bodies any vacant tombs.
Punishment fell upon this railway, for, according to an American
writer, it degenerated until its rails "became nothing but two
streaks of rust."
Another tale of Darien the fateful: Listen, ye sons of Scotia,
to the story of one William Paterson, and his New Edinburgh. Not
content with having founded the Bank of England, Paterson must
fight the great East India Company, and with another enterprising
"interloper" he got over-subscribed, a company with a capital of
£600,000, and set sail for the isthmus "amid the tears and prayers"
of half Scotland. The new settlement was "to hold the key of the
world's commerce." "Universal free trade" with all the world was
to be maintained; all differences of race and religion were to be
annulled in this Utopia. Death, fever, loss, the attacks of the
Spaniards and complete disaster--such was the answer of Fate to
their enterprise, and of the two thousand trustful souls who left
the Clyde in the closing year of the seventeenth century for this
desired haven of the Spanish Main, a few hundreds alone returned to
tell the tale.
Paterson's idea was in reality that of a great empire-builder. It
was a magnificent scheme, and only lacked the element of success.
England might have possessed another India, and in the New World.
The Scotch were fully alive to the position, but the English were
stupid, and lost an enormous opportunity.
The making of the Panama Canal has greatly appealed to the
imagination of the world, although its triumph, in a spectacular
sense, was interfered with by the rise of the Great War. Here was
a wild isthmus which cut off the Atlantic from the Pacific, Europe
from Asia to the west. An isthmus which, whilst it formed a barrier
between two oceans, did not, nevertheless, serve as a bridge between
two continents: those of North and South America. Its construction
is an epic of engineering, and, be it added, of medical skill, for
without the latter the former would have been of no avail. What has
been picturesquely described as the "Conquest of the mosquito,"
also the conquest of malaria and yellow fever, enabled this work to
be done. Formerly the traveller hurried fearfully from his steamer
at Colon by rail across the neck to Panama, and if his journey lay
beyond to his steamer at Panama, anxious to leave the deadly region
as soon as were possible. Now no such anxiety marks his journey.
The fight against the natural obstacles to the work--those of
climate, of inefficient labour, of mountainous cuttings, of floods,
of finance and political intrigue, and all else, was brought
to an end--or mainly so--in November 1913, four hundred years
after Balboa's dramatic discovery of the Pacific from the "Peak
in Darien"; when a vast concourse of people witnessed the great
explosion that blew up the last barrier, and a small steamer, the
little French steamboat _Louise_, which, twenty-five years before
had conveyed de Lesseps to turn the first sod, passed completely,
on its own keel, across from Atlantic to Pacific waters--an act of
American courtesy to France.
Several lessons were learned by the construction of the Panama
Canal. One was that corruption and inertia among officials will
ruin all effort, as it did with the French--who, however, did very
valuable work on the Canal. Another that, with modern appliances and
just methods, even so stupendous a work could be carried to success,
even in the face of enormous natural obstacles; that the obstacles
raised by Nature are less formidable than those man raises himself.
Another lesson was in the methods of overcoming the dreadful
tropical diseases of yellow fever and malaria.
The last lesson was in the treatment of labour, in this case that of
the negro; a matter of much importance to all tropical lands, which
may justify here a few words.
A great part of the labour employed on the Canal, in fact, the
majority of it later, was that of the West Indian negro, largely
from Barbadoes. But it was soon found that this labour was very
inefficient. The negro would not or could not "put his back" into
the work. In 1906 an American commission appointed to investigate
conditions, reported upon the impossibility of concluding the job
with negro labour. "Not only do they seem to be disqualified by lack
of actual vitality, but their disposition to labour seems to be as
frail as their bodily strength," ran the report. The negro was, in
fact, roundly cursed as a lazy or incapable hound.
But some, wiser than others, thought there must be a cause below
this inertia. Such, indeed, was found to be the case. It was shown
that the negro either could not afford, or was too idle to prepare,
proper food for himself; in short, that he was ill-nourished. A few
bananas, and whatever else the difficult conditions of the isthmus
afforded, formed his meals. It was then resolved that he must be
properly fed and housed. A commissariat was set up, at which the
negro was obliged to take his meals, and the bare cost was deducted
from his wages. No profit was to be made. The system answered
admirably; the actual cost was found to be only thirty cents
American money, equal to about one shilling and threepence, for a
day's board of good food. The result was that the negro performed
entirely satisfactory labour, and he practically built the Canal.
Many writers have sung of the deeds of the Canal building, which
must always furnish a thrilling story of the triumph of human
genius, and we need not enter upon it here.
The Great War over, the American fleet--which had played a valuable
and noble part--accomplished, in July 1919, a spectacular passage
of the Canal, which brings us to-day again to realize the strategic
value of the waterway. Some two hundred vessels of war, flying
the Stars and Stripes, including six Dreadnoughts, embodying the
American Pacific fleet, entered the eastern end of the Canal as
the sun was rising in the Spanish Main. But before the orb of day
had turned its "westering wheel" into the bosom of the Pacific,
the great procession had passed through the Canal and was ruffling
the waters of that great sea, thus accomplishing in a few hours, a
passage which the battleship _Oregon_, during the American war with
Spain in 1898, had taken nearly two weeks to make, around the South
American Continent.
The Americans have fortified the Canal, but blockading would be in
contravention of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty with England; and indeed
it is to be hoped and believed that the United States will prove a
conscientious guardian of her charge and creation. Yet the future
may have much in store in this region for good or ill.
Enthusiastic descriptions of the possibility of the Canal to
commerce have been written, in the shortening of distances, in
the "shrinkage of the world," and there is no doubt of its great
utility, which it is not, however, needful to exaggerate. Since
the project was conceived and executed, the world has learned that
more than the passage of armaments and argosies of merchandise are
requisite for the stability and progress of mankind.
A glance now at the general life of the people of these States.[6]
[6] A full account of all these States will be found in _Central
America_, Koebel, South American Series.
In the aggregate the population numbers somewhat over five million
souls, but they tend to increase more rapidly than others of the
Spanish American countries, or at least in some of the Republics,
for the native women are prolific, and mortality is low, due to the
comparatively easy conditions of life and the beneficence of Nature.
In some districts illegitimacy, both among whites and Indians, is
very marked, and the economic condition in a modern sense is a low
one. Primary education is generally compulsory, the Governments
generally making considerable parade of educational intentions,
but, withal, only a small proportion of the population can read and
write. Naturally this is true mainly of the Indian and lower class
mixed race.
As to food, this is mainly such vegetable products as maize, beans
and bananas, and at times jerked meat. Excessive drinking is a
frequent attribute of all Spanish American folk of the working
classes, and it is not in the financial interests of their masters
to stint the supply of liquors, the fiery _aguadientes_ or spirits,
which are so remunerative a product of the sugar-cane plantations,
possessions of the large landowners frequently. The Indians are
generally a peaceful folk, however, except when under the influence
of liquor, and they have many good qualities, which it is time
should now be more beneficently and wisely fostered by those in
whose hands their destiny so greatly lies.
The Central American States are dowered, as regards Nature, with
almost everything that could make a people happy and prosperous.
The varying elevations of their lands above sea-level afford every
variety of climate, and consequently of food product and industrial
material. They can enjoy their own beef and corn, produced in their
highlands, or, descending to the torrid strip of their coasts,
gather coffee, cocoa, bananas, oranges, sugar-cane, and a variety
of fruits which tempt both the eye and the palate. As for their
minerals, the precious metals of gold and silver in the hills could
provide sufficient for their uses and to spare, the baser for
manufactures. The timber of the forests is rich and varied, the
fibrous plants are of innumerable uses.
The noble landscapes which open to the view, of wooded mountains and
majestic peak, of romantic river valley, and the blue line of the
tropic sea, are such as might well bring out those attributes of the
poet and the artist which exist in the Spanish American mentality.
In brief, there are here, in each State, the elements of a quiet
and pleasing existence, far, it is true, from the world's more
ambitious centres, but nevertheless capable of producing peace and
plenty. Alas! however, for the unsettled temperament which cannot
yet assimilate the bounties of Providence in such method as shall
ensure their equitable enjoyment.
[Illustration: CUTTING SUGAR-CANE IN CENTRAL AMERICA.
Vol. I. To face p. 96.]
To the foreign traveller, Central America might afford an extremely
pleasing field of travel. There is a charm in the remains of the
prehistoric American cultures, the carved walls of the old temples,
the buried idols, the ancient industries. Restful and quaint
are these little towns with the stamp of the Spanish Colonial
architecture. Here man and Nature soon forget the bloodshed and the
enmity of the torn and stained pages of history. The simple folk of
the countryside are full of courtesy, the needs of life are cheap
and plentiful, for the earth is bountiful. All these are elements
which impress themselves upon the mind of the traveller here.
This, then, is Central America, that region so slightly known to the
world outside that, as elsewhere remarked, its very geographical
position is often a matter of doubt. But, in the future--it may be
distant--it cannot be doubted that, with its advantages, the region
must play a more important part in the developing world.
Three Latin American island-Republics enclose the Caribbean Sea and
Spanish Main to the north: those of Cuba, Hayti, and Santo Domingo,
upon which, however, we cannot here dilate at length.
Nature has, in general, endowed these regions of the Antilles
with great beauty, but man, in their past history, has made them
the scene of the utmost cruelty, first by the Spaniards, in the
ill-treatment and extermination of the gentle and harmless natives,
and second, in the slave trade.
Cuba stretches its long, thin bulk from the Yucatan Strait, off the
Mexican coast, and the line is continued by the Island of Hayti,
containing the Republic of that name, the famous Hispaniola of the
days of the Conquistadores, now a French-speaking negro State, and
Santo Domingo, whose capital, the oldest settlement in the New
World, founded in 1496, may be regarded as the most perfect example
of a sixteenth-century Spanish town. Its cathedral contains the
reputed burial place of Columbus.
No countries in the world excel these lands in the variety and
richness of their tropical products, and in the beauty of their
scenery. Havana, the handsome capital of Cuba, was the last
stronghold of Spain in America, the Spanish flag flying there until
the time of the war between Spain and the United States in 1899. The
American attitude towards Cuba revealed the wisdom and generosity of
the great Anglo-Saxon Republic.
* * * * *
Our way now lies to the north, into Mexico, that buffer-state
between the Spanish American and the Anglo - American civilizations,
which, upon its frontier, roll together but do not mingle.