198 NATIVE LABOUBEKS AVAILABLE, Book I. 
negroes did. The pretended inability of white men to 
work in a hot climate is all nonsense." 
I have heard similar opinions from other gentlemen, 
derived from the same experience. It might be objected 
that in these cases the experience was made in countries 
where the heat of the summer months is very excessive 
indeed, but which are not exactly marked by the tropical 
features. This is true. But the pine and oak regions of 
Honduras and Guatemala have even less of what is generally 
called a tropical character, and are by far more healthy in 
many other respects. 
If the white race should be unable to perform exactly 
the same amount of labour in a hot as in a temperate 
climate, it must not be forgotten that there is no necessity 
for their doing so. In those countries where agricultural 
labour is restricted by the character of the climate, agri- 
cultural labour, in the same and perhaps in a much higher 
ratio, is more productive. 
Speaking, however, of European immigration to Central 
America, the intention cannot be to recommend that region 
to European agriculturists entirely without capital. But 
there is scarcely -any necessity for making this remark, as 
mere labouring hands seeking employment will scarcely 
find the means of getting there. Mere hands are not wanted 
in Central America, the unemployed portion of the popu- 
lation being numerous and willing enough, sufficiently 
active, and endowed with many qualities which, if well 
directed, will make them highly available. What they 
want is to be freed from military conscription, from revolu- 
tion, and civil war — to be set to work in a sensible way — 
to be directed with firmness, without the haughty and over- 
bearing manner of which Englishmen and Anglo-Americans 
are so often guilty towards their inferiors — and to be treated 
