Guatemala contains fifty thousand six hundred square miles, being about the size of Illinois, and extends from the thirteenth to the seventeenth degree north latitude. Its greatest length from north to south is three hundred and sixty miles, and its greatest breadth from east to west is three hundred and ninety miles. The range of mountains, or Cordilleras, which runs through the country northeasterly and southwesterly, seems to be a connecting link between the Rocky and Andes ranges. The climate varies through the background of mountains, the sloping direction, the nearness to the sea, or the direction and force of the periodical winds. Depending upon altitude the climate ranges from torrid heat on the coast to regions where snow occasionally falls on the crest of the mountains. The tierra caliente (hot land) is the name given to those lands up to two thousand feet high. From two thousand to five thousand feet is found the tierra templada, and above that is the tierra fria (the cold land). From May to October the rainy season occurs with great regularity. The coldest months are December and January, and the hottest months March and April. By reason of this variation in temperature and soil, all the products of the torrid and temperate zones can be cultivated.
The average person has a habit of associating tropical lands with the idea of intense and disagreeable heat. This person does not stop to think that the conditions are often much different from what they seem on the map. Even at the equator, which one would naturally think almost uninhabitable, the upland sections are just as well adapted for the abode of white people as the temperate zone. If one should start at sea level, at the equator, and ascend the mountains one mile, he will experience the same change in temperature as to go due north one thousand miles. If he goes up another mile he will find the summer temperature lower than in that part of North America twenty-five hundred miles north of the equator. The same is true in Central America, for climate is determined by altitude and not by nearness to the equatorial line. The population of Guatemala in 1904 was estimated to be 1,842,000, of whom about fifty per cent are full blooded Indians and forty per cent are Ladinos, or those of mixed blood. The Ladinos are descendants of the early Spanish conquerors and natives and are generally superior to the natives, although in some instances they seem to have inherited the evil of both races. The remaining ten per cent comprise the Creole, or Spanish, population, who form the aristocracy. A few thousand foreigners are also engaged in business in the country.
Guatemala is a republic modelled in form after the United States. It is made up of twenty-two provinces, termed departmentos, whose chief officer is called a jefe politico and who is appointed by the president. The departmentos are again subdivided into municipal districts, of which there are three hundred and thirty-one, at the head of which is one or several alcaldes, or mayors. Again, for political purposes, the country is divided into thirty-eight electoral districts. There is a congress of deputies elected by the people on the basis of one deputy for each twenty thousand inhabitants. The President is elected by an electoral college for a term of six years. He is not supposed to be re-elected without one term intervening, but this little matter never seems to trouble an ambitious President, for, if Congress is favourable, the law can easily be changed. He has six secretaries and an additional advisory body of nine members of whom a majority are selected by the House of Deputies and the remainder appointed. There has never been a real President, for each one has been a practical dictator, and made the attempt, at least, to run everything his own way. A dictator, however, like Porfirio Diaz, one who was far-sighted enough to see what was for the best interest of his country and had the ability to carry into effect his ideas for the upbuilding of his country, would do far more for Guatemala in her present condition than a man elected president by popular suffrage.
It was curiosity, the mother of science, that became the mother of the new world, gave birth to continents, islands and seas, and gave form as well as boundary to the earth. After the first few discoveries were made the sea soon carried the Spanish galleons to the newly-discovered lands filled with the cavaliers and peasants of that country. These adventurers who carried the flag of Spain into the New World were men of great physical endurance, but possessed of little character, and that little dwarfed by the lust of gold. They were soldiers of fortune who came to destroy and not to create. Even Columbus, who ranked high above the other conquistadores in character, was led to make his first landing on the American mainland by the sight of natives wearing pieces of pure gold suspended around their necks along the shores of the Caribbean Sea. In looking for the source of this gold supply he made an expedition of several weeks in what is now the republic of Honduras, but without profitable results. No serious attempts at colonizing were made until the chief lieutenant of Cortez, Pedro de Alvarado, made his memorable and historic expedition against the Quiché tribe, of the wealth of which people marvellous reports had been brought. Alvarado was a past graduate of the Cortez school of intrigue, deception and duplicity, and soon made himself master of the province which was designated as the Kingdom of Guatemala. He was reckless, impetuous, and merciless; lacking in veracity if not common honesty, but zealous and courageous. His forces comprised one hundred and twenty horsemen, three hundred infantry, including one hundred and thirty cross-bowmen, and twenty thousand picked native warriors. Spain was at once declared the sovereign power and Alvarado was established as the representative of that government. The incidents of the conquest of Mexico were repeated in a smaller and less impressive way since the number of the natives was not so great, and no powerful and advanced tribe such as the Aztecs held sway.
The Quiché Indians were, at that time, the most powerful tribe in Guatemala, but the domination of the country was shared with the Cakchiquels and Zutugils. News of the white men with their wonderful weapons of warfare had already reached these people. Kicab Tanub, King of the Quichés, tried to form an alliance with the other kings against the invading forces, but failed. This conference was held at Totonicapan and was attended by two hundred thousand warriors with great barbaric display. The Zutugils entered into an alliance with Alvarado after receiving certain promises. Alas! for the proffered friendship and friendly hand. It meant only vassalage for the natives and death for the kings.
Thus by lying, deceit, intrigue, duplicity and even the good offices of some of the priests, the power of these mighty tribes was broken and the rule of Spain installed, and a new order of things was established. The people, except a few powerful chiefs, were enslaved. These few chiefs were released upon accepting baptism and went forth as missionaries to their people. Thousands of the natives were set at work making bricks, bringing stone and other building materials for the capital, which was established in a beautiful valley between the mountains in the very shadow of two volcanic peaks which were destined to bring death and disaster upon the invaders, as if in revenge for their trampling upon the rights and freedom of those to whom this valley rightfully belonged. The labour of tens of thousands of enslaved natives resulted in a beautiful city which was overthrown and destroyed in a night of terrible thunder and lightning, of frightful rumblings of the earth, and of a terrific rushing of waters which laid the whole city waste.
CHAPTER II
FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN
After a tour of the land of the Aztecs I embarked at Salina Cruz, that new Pacific port of Mexico whose importance in the commercial world is just beginning to be felt, and started on a journey to the land of the Toltecs. Passage was taken on the good ship Menes of the Kosmos Line, and never were passengers in better hands. There were only five first-class passengers and they made rather a cosmopolitan gathering in the cabin each evening. They were an American, a Scotchman, an Englishman, a Spaniard and a Columbian and these, together with three members of the crew, the captain, doctor and first officer, all Germans, made up the personnel of those who gathered around the table at each meal. I did not mention that there were ten Mexican bulls that had taken passage on the first cabin deck destined for a bull-fight in Guatemala City. As these animals were safely boxed up, however, they were not very sociable on the trip and scarcely made their presence known by even a bellow.
These coasting vessels are unique in the carrying trade. They have an extraordinary amount of deck space and carry everything from mail to fresh lettuce, and perform the functions of a freight steamer and market gardener. Your beefsteak or mutton of to-morrow stands on the hoof in the hatchway below, gazing up at you with inquiring eyes, and, on the upper deck, barnyard fowls blink reproachfully at you through the slats of their double-decked coops. The roustabout crew are Chilean rotos, who look as though they might be pleased to stick a knife between one’s ribs. There are few tourists in the American sense of the word, and the passengers are mostly German, English or Yankee drummers, or engineers bound for railroads or mines in Central or South America, with occasionally a native army officer or merchant travelling from one port to another.