270 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMEEICi\, WEST INDIES. 



The armj' consists legally of all able-bodied unmarned men between the ages 

 of twenty and twenty-five, regulars and reserves comprising altogether about 

 25,000 of all arms. Usually, however, th«re are scarcely more than 500 engao-ed 

 in garrison duty. 



For administrative purposes the republic is divided into thirteen departments, 

 for which see Appendix. 



V. — Nicaragua. 



Nicaragua is the largest, but relatively the least densely-peopled, of all the 

 Central Americm states. Yet Avithin its limits is found the true centre of the 



Fig. 117.— Teeeitory claimed at Various Times by Great Beitaik. 

 Scale 1 : 17.000,010, 



90° 



West oF Greenwich. 



310 Miles. 



isthmian region, and one of the cardinal paints in the hi-^tory of the New World. 

 This privileged region is the narrow strip of territory comprised between the 

 Pacific and the shores of Lakes Managua and Nicaragua. Here reigned the famous 

 cacique, Nicarao, whose name has been perpetuated in a Spanish form as that of 

 the Hispano-American republic. 



Like Honduras, Nicaragua suffered much from the incursions of the corsairs 

 on its Atlantic side, and here, also. Great Britain long sought to secure a perma- 

 nent footing. The section of the seaboard known as Mosquitia, or the Mosquito 

 Coast, was even claimed by the English Government, and but for the intervention 

 of the United States, the whole space comprised between the Nicaragua River and 

 Honduras Bay would have become British territory. In virtue of the Monroe 

 doctrine, '^ America for the Americans," this territory was restored to the republic 



