THE KINGDOM OF GUATEMALA. 
23 
I have endeavored to give most briefly the chief mat¬ 
ters of importance relating to the four republics that, with 
Guatemala, constitute Central America. I am well aware 
that I have turned, that I can turn but little light on 
the darkness; too little is known of the country, beyond 
its trade and political relations to the rest of the world. 
Volcanoes, earthquakes, and revolutions have popularly 
been associated with the whole region, and public taste 
has been turned away from such unpleasant outbreaks of 
subterranean fires or human passions. The time will 
come when these regions, far more fertile and accessible 
than those African wilds that for a score of years have 
interested, strangely enough, both explorer and capitalist, 
will claim the attention due their natural merits; and 
the fertile plains will be the garden and orchard of the 
United States,—not necessarily by political annexation, 
but by commercial intercourse. All our sugar, all our 
coffee, all our rice, all our chocolate, all our india-rubber 
ought to come from Central America, where these pro¬ 
ducts can be raised better and cheaper than in any other 
country; and next to these staples, the subsidiary fruits, 
as oranges, plantains, bananas, pines, limes, granadillas, 
aguacates, and dozens of others now unknown to com¬ 
merce, ought to come to us from Limon, Puerto Cortez, 
and Livingston. These are to be obtained in Guatemala 
of better quality and in better order than in the West 
Indies. Louisiana would then perhaps give up the un¬ 
natural cultivation of sugar, and Florida cease her use¬ 
less striving to raise really good oranges, and both States 
turn to the products they are better fitted for raising. 
I will ask you to go with me through the republic 
of Guatemala, and to see it, so far as you can, with my 
