INTKODUCTION XX111 



There is an impression that the peoples of these coun- 

 tries are either negro or Spanish, and that despotism or 

 anarchy, due to the character of the inhabitants rather 

 than to environment and administration, are the prevalent 

 political conditions. In these heterogeneous conceptions 

 the dominant Indian population of Mexico, the negroes of 

 Haiti, and the white Creoles of the islands are indiscrimi- 

 nately considered together. But this region is a most 

 remarkable example of the combined influences upon 

 mankind of geography, race, and government, and is prac- 

 tically a great sociological laboratory where many human 

 species are being differentiated. 



It is true that some people of Spanish descent, in coun- 

 tries like Colombia, Honduras, and San Salvador, where 

 population is scattered and separated by topographic ob- 

 stacles fatal to the establishment of strong governments, 

 are normally in revolt. There are other Spanish- American 

 republics which, in comparison with the government of 

 the European country from which they seceded, are fair 

 models of stability and prosperity, such as Costa Rica, 

 where capital punishment has been abolished, which is 

 as peaceful as Acadia, and boasts that it has never had a 

 war. Argentina and Chile are worthy of consideration; 

 and Mexico, by gigantic strides, since free from European 

 interference, has changed from a land of revolution and 

 banditti to the home of a prosperous industrial and com- 

 mercial nation. 



The conditions of the tropical countries in which the 

 negro race prevails are indeed varied, but in some instances 

 better than is generally supposed. The Haitians have 

 made more progress than is credited to them ; their revolt- 

 ing experience has caused us to overlook the fact that other 

 negro populations, such as those of Jamaica and Barbados, 

 where the blacks outnumber the whites in the proportion 

 of fifty to one, under beneficent English colonial con- 

 trol, at least present orderly spectacles. Of these tropical 

 countries and peoples, we are now chiefly concerned witli 



