Photo from Mrs. Harriet Chalmers Adams 



LAKE MARACAIRO, VENEZUELA 



This is a great lake, quadrangular in shape, in western Venezuela, 137 miles long and 

 75 miles broad. It communicates with the sea by 13 channels, each obstructed by a sandy 

 bar, but for which the lake would be navigable for large vessels. The influence of the tides 

 is felt in the lower part of the lake, and the water is consequently brackish, but in the upper 

 half the water is sweet. A city and seaport, founded in 1571, of the same name stands at 

 the entrance to the lake. 



equal density we would have a popula- 

 tion of 700 million in the continental 

 United States ; and although nearly half 

 of the country is mountainous, the peo- 

 ple are able to get their living out of 

 what they produce and still have a bal- 

 ance of trade amounting to about $3,500,- 

 000 a year. 



The Salvadorean people are different 

 from those of any other Central Ameri- 

 can State. They have a middle class. 

 There are thousands of little farms not 

 much larger than a good-sized city block, 

 and yet it is here that the real prosperity 

 of Salvador is created. 



In no other way could nearly 2 million 

 souls find subsistence on 7,225 square 

 miles of territory, nearly half of it moun- 

 tains. Salvador has had its revolutionary 

 troubles, too ; but they have been more 

 because of bellicose neighbors than be- 

 cause of internal difficulties. People who 

 cultivate their own lands have too much 



at stake to start a revolution with every 

 change of the moon. 



THE HOPELESS NICARAGUANS 



Nicaragua is in the same condition as 

 Honduras. They have had revolutions 

 there since the memory of the inhabitants 

 runneth not to the contrary. There 

 seems to be little hope that they will ever 

 be able to give themselves a good govern- 

 ment. Here one sees a thousand oppor- 

 tunities for the development of great 

 wealth. 



Virgin forests of all the precious 

 woods in the category extending for 

 miles on end ; coffee lands where millions 

 of pounds of splendid coft"ee might be 

 grown ; sugar lands which might yield 

 hundreds of thousands of sacks of sugar ; 

 and yet all stand idle. Why? 



Ask the .\merican coffee growers of 

 the Alatagalpa district ; ask the cotton 

 growers of Campo Santo. The revolu- 



235 



