April 3, 1902 



NA TURE 



513 



islands and coast lands, their all-conquering predomin- 

 ance. In fact the Carib, a born navigator, was the 

 connecting link between North and South America, and 

 freely navigated the (lulf of Mexico and the Caribbean 

 Sea for purposes of war or trade. 



Commenting on the " pre-Columbian cultered Toltecs 

 of Mexico," the author shows how these were pushed 

 aside or driven southward by the invasion of the Nahuas 

 from the north, who extended their conquests, by the 

 Pacific coast, into Guatemala and Yucatan, and " pene- 

 trated beyond this region into Nicaragua, everywhere 

 founding settlements amid the surrounding aborigines." 

 But the Nahuatlaca (Aztec) race really overran Central 

 America as far south as the Isthmus of Panama. Vasquez 

 de Coronado, in 1564, 

 met a cacique, Iztolin, 

 on the southern shore 

 of Almirante Bay, who 

 conversed with him in 

 the Nahua tongue ; 

 and Ferraz has shown 

 that numerous existing 

 geographical names 

 in Costa Rica are of 

 Nahua derivation. But 

 Panama was probably 

 a debatable ground 

 between them and the 

 Indians of Colombia, 

 or between them and 

 the Caribs who occu- 

 pied and crossed the 

 isthmus and extended their raids to the 

 Pacific coast of Colombia, which was 

 populated by the Chocoamas. These, 

 according to Codazzi, spoke Cueva, a 

 mixture of Carib and Chocoama. That 

 the Panama Indians were in communica- 

 tion with those of Nicaragua (which 

 [y were, in turn, in contact with those of 

 the Mexican tableland) is also proven by 

 the first Spanish exploring expedition 

 sent northward (1516) from the Pacific 

 side of the isthmus, near which they 

 found a large bay, where the Chinchiris 

 Indians gave the information that there 

 was a communication between the two 

 oceans through a great interior lake 

 (Nicaragua). 



Mexico and the Central American 

 states are passed in review by Mr. 

 Keane,and their 

 history, geo- 

 graphy, physical 

 features, &c., re- 

 ceive such at- 

 tention as is 

 possible within 

 the limits of 



Fig. I.— Quer.'al. jj^g volume. 



Regarding the 

 history of the first, he says, "the endless revolutions and 

 political disorders of all sorts which followed the War of 

 Independence produce a sense of weariness accompanied 

 by a feeling of surprise that the Mexican people could have 

 ever recovered from such a succession of overwhelming 

 calamities." This is true ; but it would have been useful 

 to state that almost all of these revolutions represented 

 the struggle of the Liberal party to shake ofif the baneful 

 grip of the Church, which, in 1827, had 150 convents 

 scattered over Mexico, and, in 1833, held more than 

 one-third of the country in mortmain. Moreover, Europe 

 was responsible for aiding the clergy in the last grand 

 struggle of the latter to retain their power, through the 



NO. 1692, VOL. 65] 



establishment of an Imperial Government under Maxi- 

 milian, backed by a French army. It was the most terrible . 

 and desolating war that Mexico ever saw ; but the effort 

 of the Church was a disastrous failure — the greatest of 

 Mexicans, the Indian Juarez, was the victor, and the 

 Constitution of 1857 and the Laws of Reform of 1859 

 remained triumphant, and became the basis of the 

 subsequent remarkable progress of the country. 



Quoting a careless writer, Matias Romero, Mr. Keane , 

 gives Mexico 15,000,000 inhabitants and estimates the 

 whites at 19, the aborigines at 38 and the mixed at 43 , 

 per cent, of the population ; but such statements are only 

 based on personal judgment. I should be inclined to 

 estimate the aborigines at at least one-half of the entire 

 population. It is a question if the aboriginal blood is 

 not stronger than the Spanish, and if it will not, in the 

 long run, aided by climate and environment, indiatiise 

 the latter, unless arrested from the north. 



Remarking on the mineral wealth, Mr. Keane gives 

 the total mintage of Mexico since 1537 at 706,000,000/. 

 This is probably understated ; the eminent statistician 

 Miguel Lerdo Tejada, in 1853, in an elaborate statement, 

 gave the total amount coined, from the conquest up to 

 1852, at 3,562,204,897 dollars (pesos), of which 1 10,000,000 

 dollars remained in the country. The amount exported 

 did not include contraband shipments of uncoined silver, 

 which were enormous. 



It is impossible within the reasonable limits of a review 

 to comment upon all the interesting and varied data 

 contained in Mr. Keane's valuable book. Some of the 

 countries, however, of which it treats have already out- 

 grown it ; Spanish America, with all its turmoil, moves 

 faster than Europe. In speaking of the two principal 

 Atlantic ports of Mexico, Mr. Keane says that below 

 Tampico, " six miles above the mouth of the Panuco 

 river, this is so shallow that vessels drawing over nine 

 feet have to ride at anchor outside the bar " ; and as to 

 Vera Cruz, "there is no harbour at all. . . . Vera Cruz 

 should certainly have been founded at Anton Lizardo, 

 fifteen miles further south, which has the only good 

 harbour in the Gulf." These statements should be 

 modified somewhat ; the bar of Tampico has been 

 deepened, and admits ships drawing twenty feet of water. 

 The total net register tonnage of vessels entering the 

 port now exceeds that of Vera Cruz. The fine port works 

 of the latter (enclosing an area of nearly a square mile) 

 give safety for ships of heavy draught. As to Anton 

 Lizardo, as a harbour, its safety against "northers" 

 could only be assured by building a very long break- 

 water on the reef which partially protects it and which 

 is only visible at low water. 



Reaching the Central American States, the author 

 properly describes Guatemala as "almost an Indian 

 republic." Here the population double their chances 

 for the efficacy of prayer by worshipping at a Christian 

 altar with images of their heathen deities hidden behind 

 it. The physical features of the country, its products, 

 character of its people and their Government are similar to 

 those of the densely populated contiguous state of .Salvador. 

 Honduras, which has been the victim of financial depre- 

 dations from abroad rivalling in magnitude its almost 

 unequalled natural resources, is well and vividly outlined. 

 It is the richest in mineral wealth of all the Central 

 American States. Nicaragua and Costa Rica are treated 

 at some length. The former is distinguished by three 

 physical zones : — "(i) the Mosquito seaboard, partly of 

 coralline (marine), partly of alluvial formation ; (2) the 

 uplands of the interior, with the Cordillera de los Andes 

 forming part of the original continental framework, and 

 extending from Mosquitia to the great depression which, 

 is now flooded by lakes Nicaragua and Managua : (3 the 

 coastlands between the lakes and the Pacific, which are 

 mainly of igneous origin and form a southern continua- 

 tion of the Salvador volcanic system. . . . Thanks to 



