THE KINGDOM OF GUATEMALA. 
19 
deposits of the eoast-region. The Chontales gold mines 
have been worked for some time near Libertad, and so 
have the silver mines of Matagalpa and Dipilto; but the 
total annual yield of precious metals seldom exceeds 
$ 200 , 000 . 
The chief articles of export are cacao, hides, coffee, 
and gums, as well as gold and silver bullion; and in 
1880 the exports amounted to $2,057,500, and the im¬ 
ports to $1,475,000. The revenue for this year was 
$2,435,000, while the expenditures slightly exceeded it. 
All Nicaraguans between the age of eighteen and thirty- 
five are in the army. 
For more than half a century Nicaragua has been 
darkly distinguished above all other countries of the 
world by war and bloodshed. Military pronunciami- 
entos , civil war, and popular revolts have so exhausted all 
the resources of this rich country that it is quiet at last 
from utter exhaustion. Could these fermenting repub¬ 
lics be induced to give up their absurd and expensive 
military establishments, and expend the money, now 
worse than wasted, in opening roads and teaching the 
people something besides military drill, the prosperity 
of this wonderfully fertile and agreeable region would 
be assured. Only their revolutionary habits now stand 
in the way of the introduction of foreign capital; and 
are not these habits fostered by the constant military 
display which guards the President and judges alike ? It 
is certainly foreign to all Northern ideas to have a court 
of justice guarded by military sentinels. Would that this 
Eden might be reclaimed, the swords beaten into plough¬ 
shares, and the generals and other officers turn their 
wasted energies to agriculture and commerce ! 
