192 REMARKS ON CENTRAL AMERICA. Book I. 
CHAPTEE XII. 
General Remarks on Central America' — ■ Geographical Position and Political 
Importance — Natural Advantages and future Prospects — How the 
Interests of England and those of the United States, in reference to ^the 
Central American Question, could he harmonized — European Immigra- 
tion — Prejudices against the Climate refuted — Native Labourers fully 
available, and how to be treated. 
By its geographical position in connection with the recent 
development and future prospects of commerce and 
civilization in the countries of the Pacific Ocean, Central 
America claims an unusual degree of attention. California 
and Oregon, British Columbia, Australia, Japan and 
China : each of these names carries heavy weight in the 
scale of the political importance of Central America. No 
full justice, however, would be done to that interesting 
region, if it was to be considered only according to the 
importance attached to its different transit routes. If the 
isthmus which connects Africa and Asia, separating the 
Arabian Gulf from the Mediterranean, offers nothing to 
the civilization of the present age but the fact that it 
separates what should be connected and connects what 
might just as well be separated, the case of Central 
America is quite different. Here is an extensive country 
endowed with all the charms and wealth of nature, uniting 
the advantages of an archipelago with those of being the 
most favoured portion of a continent; a country open to 
the commerce of the world in every direction ; a country 
with a diversity of soil and climate- and a variety of sites 
suitable to every constitution, taste, and occupation — and 
