57 
Chap. IV— B. S.] DISLIKE TO FOREIGNERS. 
Here we met Don. P. Castellon, to wliom we brought 
a letter of introduction from his brother at Leon, and 
who invited ns to stop the night at his farm of 
Jamaili, which was on onr road to Ocotal, and only a 
few miles off. We gladly accepted the offer, and 
had the advantage of gathering a great deal of in¬ 
formation. Senor Castellon belongs to a family who 
has always shown itself favourably inclined towards 
foreign enterprise and foreign immigration, and, 
what is more, has set his countrymen a good ex¬ 
ample by establishing cotton and coffee plantations. 
There is not hin g more singular than the dislike 
most Spanish Americans have towards foreigners; and 
it is therefore not out of place to note an exception. 
Yet a superficial observer would think that there are 
no people in the world who were more ready to re¬ 
ceive immigration with the open arms of welcome. In 
none of the Republics are Government decrees want¬ 
ing, offering the most liberal terms to foreigners who 
may be ready to come into their depopulated coun¬ 
tries, where on an average there is hardly a man to 
every square mile; and the people themselves, espe¬ 
cially the upper classes, always tell one that all that 
is required to make their country the most flourish¬ 
ing on the face of the earth are u hands.” But 
when their professions are really put to the test, 
they throw so many obstacles in the way of the 
immigrants that most of them lose heart. Many 
a well-considered scheme for the peopling of Spanish 
America has thus become abortive. In a recently- 
published book on Central America I read that 
