Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1890 — SOUTHERN NEIGHBORS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SOUTHERN NEIGHBORS.

INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING CENTRAL AMERICA. *- A Country Four Tlntos as Large as Illinois—With a Wonderfully Fertile Soli and Boundless Natural Resources, It Presents an Inviting Field lor the Enterprising Yankee. Central America is that portion of North America lying between the north boundary of the state of Panama and the south boundary of Mexico, and is about 900 miles long, with greatly varying width. In area it is about as large as either France or Spain or Germany, or four times the size of the State of Alabama, or a little more than three and a half times the size of Illinois. It ha 3 a population of 3,025,000. If we include that portion of the state of Panama north of the Isthmus, the area of Central America is four times that of the State of Illinois. It is a monntainons region, and a large part of it is covered with dense and valuable timber. The people are chiefly of Indian and SpanishIndian stock. Nearly all the metals abound, and the lands are very fertile. There is very little capital in the country. It could readily be made to support fifteen times its present population. The states comprising this region are Guatemala, Honduras, British Honduras (Belize), San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Bica, of which the following is some information in detail: CENTRAL AMERICAN STATES. Areas in Present square populaNames of States. miles. t.ion, Guatemala. 51,300 1,300,000 Honduras 47,000 50.1,000 British Honduras (Belize). 9,000 23,000 ran Salvador 7,500 COO,OOO Nicaragua 59,000 400,000 Costa Bica 28,000 200,000 195.500 3,025,000 The state of Guatemala is just the size of Alabama, having an area of 51,000 square miles and a population of 1,300,000. Its capital, of the same name, has a population of 60,000. There are only 200,000 white people in the state, the great majority being Indians. Sheep, cows, horses, goats and pigs are common, and corn, beans, rice, wheat, sugar, coffee ($10,000,000 worlh of coffee was exported in 1889), and

tobacco are raised. There is an abundance of lead in the state, as well as silver and other metals, but little has been done in mining. It could easily sustain a population as large as that of the State of New York. Agriculturally it is far superior to the Empire State. The climate is said to be very herflthful. As yet little if any manufacturing is done in Central America, though Guatemala now has one cotton mill (April 12, 1890 k The state or republic of Honduras is the same size as the State of New York, and has a population of 500,000. Almost every variety of fruit is raised; fish, turtle and wild fowl are abundant. This state ranks high in its native mineral wealth, silver, gold and copper existing in larsre quantities; zinc and tin have also beSh found. The inhabitants are chiefly of the Indian type. There is no capital in the country, but it offers untold opportunities for mining, manufacturing and intelligent agriculture. British Honduras, or Balize, is the size of the State of New Hampshire, but has a small population of 25,000, many of them being negroes who were originally brought there as slaves. A few English residents control the business of the settled portions of this territory, and raise some sugar, and ship immense quantities of mahogany lumber to all parts of the world, and this lumber is inexhaustible in Central America.

The republic of San Salvador is about as large as the State of Massachusetts, and has a population of 650,000, and is the most densely peopled portion of Central America. Indigo has long been a leading article of export, though coffee is now the chief product exported. The cultivation of tobacco and sugar is also engaged in. Like the other States of this region, there is a woful lack of money with which to do business of any kind. The republic of Nicaragua is the size of the State of Georgia, and contains a population of only 400,000. The soil is so fertile and the climate so favorable to rapid vegetable growth that as many as four crops of corn have been raised in one year upon the same ground, and two or three crops of vegetables a year are common. Cattle of all kinds flourish here, and hides are extensively exported. Only 30,000 of the people are classed as white. The republic of Costa Rica is twice as large as Belgium, or twice the size of the State of Maryland, and has a population of only 200,000, while Belgium has a population of nearly 6,000,000. The people here are largely of Spanish descent. The land is fertility itself. Coffee is cultivated and exported, and is the present chief source of wealth, there being 26,000,000 coffee trees on 7,600 farms, and cotton, tobacco, and indigo could be grown in endless quantities. One American, Mr. M. C. Keith, ships a million bunches of bananas annually from Limon to New Orleans. Gold, silver, copper, iron, nickel, zinc, and lead are found, but are undeveloped. Thera is no manufacturing, though

there Ate now ISO miles of railway there, composed of four short lines. With these facts before us how can we doubt that Central America is the seat of a future empire? Its natural resources and the fertility of its soil far exceed those of France or Spain. The day is rapidly neariDg when we shall be connected with this garden spot by a railway which will be extended from Mexico to meet, by way of the Isthmus, the lines in South America, aDd the feeders of this great trunk line will bring the resources of Central America within easy reach. Then the magic of capital and directive ability will create wealth with a dazzling rapidity which will bring comfort and prosperity to a new nation which in a few decades may have a population equal to that of France, There is no field to-day more inviting for enterprise than Central America, nor one which railroads would develop more rapidly. Duane Doty.

MAP OF CENTRAL AMERICA.