12 



CHAPTER II. 



INHABITANTS. REVOLUTIONS. TROOPS OF THE STATES. 



CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTIONS. OFFI- 

 CIAL PROCLAMATIONS. ATROCITIES BY THE MILITARY. 



DWELLERS IN THE WOODS AND FORESTS. 



T^HERE is nothing that can strike a person, 

 who resides any length of time in Central 

 America, so much as the quiet steady de- 

 meanour of the great mass of the people, 

 contrasted with the frequency of insurrections 

 and revolutions, accompanied by the most 

 atrocious and revolting murders. 



The most respectable of the better and 

 easier classes are chiefly Spanish, or of 

 Spanish origin, with some mixture of Indian, 

 and even African blood. Some, but not 

 many, boast of pure white European blood, 

 but the generality of the higher classes in 

 the towns, or " haciendas" near them, are 

 what we should call '' persons of colour." 

 The lower orders are of every shade of colour 

 and of vice ; the mixture of white and Indian 

 which greatly preponderates, being very su- 

 perior to the Indian and African black. 



