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drive the United States from a natural market, I will state several facts which an intelligent reader may interpret for himself.

The largest mercantile houses in Guatemala are German; Americans of the North are absent. When it was suggested to the agent of one of the largest cotton-mills. in New England that the cases in which its cloths were usually packed for market could not be handled in a country provided only with mule transportation, the Yankee agent thought it not worth the trouble to pack in smaller bales, as did the English and French manufacturers. Ready-made clothes are cheaper in France, and shoes in Germany and France. If I want barbed wire for my fences, corrugated iron for my warehouses, or rails for my tramways, my English correspondent can deliver all these to me on my wharf at Livingston much cheaper than I can buy any of these manufactures of iron in protected New York. England, from her experience in her tropical colonies, knows how to prepare merchandise, and what sorts are needed for the trade with tropical America; she buys the crop of mahogany, logwood, and coffee, and saves exchange by selling her own products, and at the same time supports her own vessels in the carrying trade. If it were not for the fresh fruit which the United States needs, there would probably not be a single line of steamers between these countries; for on the Pacific side Guatemala is merely a way-station. Finally, the sarsaparilla goes to England, and is there manufactured into extract or syrup for the use of the immense establishments of patent medicines in the United States.

Now let us see what Guatemala contributes to the needs of foreign nations; and I give a table of exports

for two years, that the changes may be noted.

Of the former staples, such as indigo and cochineal, the amount now exported is insignificant; the exportation of coffee fell off, owing to a short crop; sugar was influenced by the low prices ruling in foreign markets.

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The business is divided between the three principal ports in the following proportion:

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I have elsewhere written of the products that Guatemala might export, and I willingly turn from the commercial features of the country to those that affect the comfort and happiness of the inhabitants. A sufficient government is the first necessity. To sustain this the people

must be educated; and to develop it the country must possess natural riches and the opportunity of marketing them. But all these elements work, not in a line, but in a circle, as it were. Without revenue, government cannot provide for free education; without education, a people will not establish a wise form of government; without a wise government, the resources of the country cannot be developed to yield a proper income. All these things are interdependent. The government must foster education. and protect property; it must encourage those occupations which increase the material wealth of the people. Increased wealth means larger revenue, and permits greater expenditures for public works; so government and people grow together.

Possessed of a remarkably fine climate, a favorable geographical situation, and great variety in its fertile soil, Guatemala has a population poor and unable to undertake important works which require capital. Money must therefore be sought abroad to develop the riches of the land, which are in agricultural products rather than in mines; and the Government offers to any industrious, respectable colonists suitable tracts of public land (terrenos baldíos), together with exemption from duties and taxes for ten years. That this offer may not seem too attractive, it must be added that the best public lands remaining undisposed of are remote from ports, with no adequate means of communication. They are also covered for the most part with dense forests, to be cleared away only at great expense. Besides, it is well known that whenever virgin soil is broken up, mysterious fevers and malarial emanations are liberated from the soil; and although these are not dangerous to men of good constitution,

they certainly are not pleasant. Not only enterprise and perseverance are needful for the planter, but a respectable capital as well; for the colonist has to build his own houses, wharves, and bridges, make his own roads, and own his tools, animals, boats, and carts.

Labor is both by the day and by the task, and wages are very low. A day's labor- from six o'clock in the morning to six at night, with an hour from ten o'clock to eleven for breakfast (almuerzo), and another from one o'clock to two for rest is paid from twenty-five to fifty cents. Laborers are also hired by the month, with allowance for rations. On the Atlantic coast the Carib is a good, strong workman when properly managed, while in the interior the Indios and ladinos supply fully the present demand.

Articles of food are cheap, and some of the prices, as given by the Minister of the Interior, are as follows: beef, pork, and mutton, eight cents per pound; fowls of good size, thirty-seven and a half to sixty-two cents; rice, a dollar and a half to two dollars per arroba (twentyfive pounds); flour, eight to nine dollars per quintal (one hundred pounds); maiz, a dollar and a half to three dollars a fanega (four hundred ears); beans, white, black, or red, four to six dollars a quintal; eggs, a dollar and a half a hundred; milk, six cents a botth; cheese, twelve to twenty-five cents a pound; buttr. sixty-two cents per pound. Guatemaltecan cookery, though simplicity itself in its instalment, is excellet and wholesome, -none of the vile saleratus-bread, toug doughnuts, and clammy pies (I have great respect f a good tart) which are the curse of the country coo ing of New England. But let the comida consist

only tortillas, frijoles, and huevos; these staples are always well cooked.

Of the industrial and mechanical arts Guatemala has very little to show, apart from the woven fabrics and pottery already alluded to. Tailors and shoemakers abound,

and this in a climate where the former might almost be dispensed with, and where the latter work for not a moiety of the population. On the other hand, there are few cabinet-makers, although the native woods offer the choicest material for the skilled workman. There are no foundries or forges worthy the name, and all machinery is imported, and repairs must be made in San Francisco or New Orleans. Glass, porcelain, and stoneware is all imported, although the materials, of the best quality, are found here in abundance. Fibre-plants and rags are plentiful, and the consumption of paper is large; but every sheet is imported, - that used for stamps being made in France. While coconuts, sesame, cohune, castor-bean, and croton grow abundantly, there is no commercial manufacture of the vegetable oils; and we have seen that more than fourteen thousand dollars' worth were imported in 1884.

While the general climate of Guatemala is remarkably healthy, the people are exceedingly careless of all sanitary precautions, especially in the matter of drainage and the waste products of the human body, trusting to the intervention of vultures and dogs to remove healthendangering filth. Yellow fever was common through the hot lowlands of the Pacific coast in 1883, and whooping-cough, measles, and small-pox prevailed in many parts of the country. The consumption of patent medicines and empirical preparations, obtained from the

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