36 
GUATEMALA. 
or cotton cultivation; although now, owing to the smaller 
capital required, and speedier returns, bananas and plan¬ 
tains are the chief products. The Government deter¬ 
mined to develop these lands, — which have hitherto 
been left to the solitude of their dense forests and the 
occasional intrusion of the mahogany-cutter, — and in 
1882 declared Livingston a free port, including in its 
territory a large triangular part of the eastern coast. 
The public lands were then offered for sale at reasonable 
rates ; and in consequence, several capitalists from the 
United States have purchased large tracts, and are cul¬ 
tivating soil perhaps the most fertile on the continent. 
Climatic changes are insensible here, and it may truly 
he said that the one season is summer. Never has yel¬ 
low fever or other dangerous zymotic disease visited 
Livingston, and the death-rate is about one quarter that 
of Boston. The rapid increase of its population and 
commercial importance will make imperative the demand 
for improved harbor and wharf facilities. 
Ten miles to the south of Livingston is the fine harbor 
of Santo Tomas, where in 1843 a Belgian colony was es¬ 
tablished ; and as this unfortunate attempt has given an 
ill reputation to all Central America, it is well to state 
that failure was by no means due to the insalubrity of 
the climate, but to the want of foresight of the projectors 
and the abject ignorance of tropical trials on the part of 
the immigrants. Landed in an unaccustomed climate, in 
the wet season, without shelter, and inadequately pro¬ 
visioned, they lost heart,, health, or life itself. 
Pioneers and frontiersmen should not be recruited 
from shops and counters. The pluck and caution needed 
for a struggle with untried conditions, the determination 
