PERCY F. MARTIN, F.R.G.S.
AUTHOR OF
"THROUGH FIVE REPUBLICS OF SOUTH AMERICA," "MEXICO OF THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY," "PERU OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY," ETC.
NEW YORK
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.,
LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD
1911
[All rights reserved]
PREFACE
"And so I penned It down, until at last it came to be, For length and breadth, the bigness which you see."
Bunyan: Apology for his Book.
While it is quite reasonable to hope for a consistent improvement among the Central American nations, and as easy to discern the extent of amelioration which has already occurred, it is necessary to bear in mind some of the causes which have hitherto conduced to the turbulence and the tragedies which have characterized government by some of these smaller Latin Republics.
Many writers, who can know but little of the Spanish race, have attributed the early failures of the States which broke away from the Motherland, not only to lack of stability, but to a radical psychological defect in the national character. This is a decided mistake, for the Spanish people, both in their individual and in their collective character, are fully as capable of exercising the rights, and of enjoying rationally the benefits, of self-government as any other nation of the world. The patriots and heroes who distinguished themselves in the early days of these young Republics, while themselves descendants of the Spaniards, generally speaking, and having only in a few cases Indian blood in their veins, had to combat against all the ambition and avarice, all the pride and prejudices, of the Church-ridden land which had set its grip upon New Spain, and meant, if possible, to keep it there. But it was not possible, and in a few decades was witnessed their complete expulsion as rulers from the countries which had been won by the flower of Spain's soldiery, and lost by the exercise of Spain's oppression and greed.