344 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XIX. 



With high-sounding phrases of the equality of man, 

 the lower orders are kept in a state almost approaching 

 to serfdom. The poor Indians toil and spin, and 

 cultivate the ground, being almost the only producers. 

 Yet, in the revolutionary outbreaks, they are driven 

 about like cattle, and forced into the armies that are 

 raised. Central America declared its independence of 

 Spain in 1823, and constituted itself a republic, under 

 the name of the United States of Central America. The 

 confederacy, which consisted of Guatemala, San Salvador, 

 Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, was broken up in 

 1840, when each of the States became an independent 

 republic. Ever since, revolutionary outbreaks have been 

 periodical, and the States, with the exception of Costa 

 Pica, have steadily decreased in wealth and produce. 



It would be ungenerous of me, in this condemnation 

 of the political parties of Central America, not to state 

 that there are many individuals who view with alarm 

 and shame the decadence of their country. Such, how- 

 ever, is the state of public opinion, that their voices are 

 unheard, or listened to with indifference. There seems to 

 be some radical incapacity in the Latin races to compre- 

 hend what we consider true political economy. The will 

 of the majority is not the law of the land, but the will 

 of the strongest in arms. They cannot comprehend that 

 a republic has no more divine right than a monarchy; 

 that a country having an hereditary sovereign at its 

 head, if it is governed in consonance with the wishes of 

 the greatest number of its inhabitants, is freer than a 

 republic where a minority rules by force of arms. They 

 make a principle out of what is a mere detail of govern- 

 ment whether the chief of the State shall be elective or 



