COSTA KICA. 



COTTON. 



229 



PPNTARENAS: Entered, 79 steamers and 28 sailing 

 vessels, with an aggregate of 157,025 tons, and 769 

 passengers ; and cleared, 79 steamers and 25 sailing 

 vessels, with an aggregate of 156,126 tons, and 527 

 passengers. 



LIMON : Entered, 22 steamers and 75 sailing ves- 

 sels, with an aggregate of 31,384 tons, and 639 pas- 

 sengers ; and cleared, 12 steamers and 60 sailing 

 vessels, with an aggregate of 497 passengers. 



In the matter of the railway, but little prog- 

 ress was made in the earlier months of 1877, 

 mainly owing to the remissness of the Govern- 

 ment in supplying funds to pay the workers, 

 the latter having been driven, it is said, in the 

 month of February, to the extreme of refusing 

 to continue until all the arrears due them should 

 be paid up. They are reported at that time not 

 to have received any money since July, 1876. 

 There was, besides, a lack of material, likewise 

 attributable to the neglect of the Government. 

 A change for the better took place about May ; 

 the arrears were for the most part liquidated, 

 the necessary material furnished, and the work 

 resumed with a degree of energy which bid 

 fair to lead to the early termination of the 

 most of the Atlantic branch of the line. This 

 healthy condition appears to have been con- 

 firmed after the change of Government in Sep- 

 tember. Meantime the making of new wagon- 

 roads was in active prosecution. 



The telegraph- lines of the Republic, in 1875, 

 were set down at 200 miles, with 1 6 offices. 



There are no recent reports concerning edu- 

 cational matters. The sum of $120,864, men- 

 tioned in the foregoing table of the national ex- 

 penditure as having been appropriated to the 

 Department of Public Instruction, would seem 

 rather encouraging for so small a country, and is 

 even considerably in advance of the appropria- 

 tion for the same purpose in the year immedi- 

 ately preceding ; but whether there was mere 

 appropriation, without application, is a ques- 

 tion which, with others of scarcely less mo- 

 ment, may receive some light from the follow- 

 ing sketch of the general state of affairs in 

 Costa Rica, in February, 1877 : 



Of the five Central American States, Costa Rica 

 hadj perhaps, been justly considered fully as enter- 

 prising as the foremost up to within the last few 

 years. It was a pleasure to make mention of her ef- 

 forts in the line of progress, to commend the wisdom 

 of her rulers, and to praise the spirit of her people. 



That time has, unfortunately, passed away, and we 

 have now but to deplore the recent decline of pros- 

 perity and present an almost hopeless condition of 

 affairs political, financial, educational, and general 

 in that little country. 



This state of things has been brought about mainly, 

 if not altogether, by bad government, and clearly in- 

 dicates the pernicious evils of bigotry and absolutism, 

 combined and working in unison to control the free 

 thoughts and subvert the liberties of a people. Costa 

 Rica exhibits to-day the sad spectacle of a so-called 

 republican state, under a nominally constitutional 

 Government, close held in the clutches of an auto- 

 cratic and despotic Directory. The name Republic 

 can no longer, in truth, be applied. We are informed 

 from trustworthy sources that " the hatred against 

 foreigners grows every day stronger and stronger 

 under the present rule, and the poor country is on a 

 downward rush, the end of which everybody may 

 calculate." 



A happier order of things was, however, in- 

 augurated with the new Administration, under 

 the leadership of General Guardia, whose un- 

 remitting zeal and untiring energy for the wel- 

 fare of the people at home, and the establish- 

 ment of the national credit abroad, had been 

 so fruitful of good results in former days. His 

 return to power was regarded throughout the 

 country as a peculiarly happy omen, and a sure 

 earnest of returning and ever-increasing weal. 



With the exception of a short-lived uprising 

 of a few hours on the morning of July 29, 

 1877, the peace of the country was undisturbed 

 throughout the year ; nor was any serious rup- 

 ture of friendly relations with the sister Repub- 

 lics chronicled, spite of the subjoined announce- 

 ment (December, 1876) from the sources there- 

 in mentioned. 



The Nicaragua Gazette publishes the decree of 

 Costa Rica, suspending all official relations between 

 the two Republics, the first consideration of which 

 says : " The Government of the Republic of Nicara- 

 gua by act has severed its relations with that of Costa 

 Rica, by refusing to recognize the present Adminis- 

 tration of the nation." The official organ of Nica- 

 ragua, refuting this decree, says the assertion that 

 Nicaragua has not recognized the Administration of 

 Herrera is not correct. Nicaragua has said openly 

 that she did not choose to qualify the legality of 

 every act, but thought it her duty to call the atten- 

 tion of the Costa Rica Cabinet to the circumstance 

 that the Government of Herrera had been placed in 

 power on account of its enmity to Nicaragua. 



COTTON". According to the statement of the 

 New York Commercial and Financial Chroni- 

 cle, the cotton crop of the United States for 

 the year ending August 31, 1877, amounted to 

 4,485,423 bales, while the exports were 8,049,- 

 497 bales, and the spinners' takings 1,435,418 

 bales, leaving on hand, at the close of the year, 

 a stock of 119,638 bales. The gross weight of 

 the crop, and the average weight of the bales, 

 were as follows, for two years : 



