Guatemala, the Land of the Quetzal: A Sketch

Excerpt from Guatemala, the Land of the Quetzal: A Sketch

A Belief in the increasing importance of Central America, both geographically and politically, has led the writer of the following pages to collect for his own use and print for the use of others, notes made during three journeys in Guatemala and Honduras. He does not pretend to offer a monograph on Guatemala, nor to add to the general knowledge of Central America; but remembering the lack of guidance from which he suffered in travelling through the country, would in some measure save others from the same inconvenience. He seeks also, with perhaps more ambition, to awaken among Americans greater interest in the much-neglected regions between the Republic of Mexico and the Isthmus of Darien.

A land which was the cradle of civilization on this continent, and whose recently explored monuments are most justly claiming the study and admiration of archaeologists in Europe as well as in America, has been strangely neglected by the American traveller as well as by the American merchant. Since the Travels of Stephens fascinated the public nearly half a century ago, the people of the United States have paid very little attention to Guatemala or its commerce. Even now there are thousands of square miles of wholly unexplored territory between the low Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Lake of Nicaragua.

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