Each one, including Panama, is organized as a republic, with a constitution based on that of the United States, an executive in the personage of a President, and a legislative body composed of two houses—a Senate and a House of Representatives or Chamber of Deputies.
British Honduras is ruled by a governor sent from England.
Guatemala has a total area of 48,290 square miles, with a population of 2,000,000, the greater portion of whom are Indians, mixed breeds, some negroes, chiefly from the West Indies, and perhaps 50,000 whites, mostly Europeans and Americans. It is bounded on the north by Mexico, on the east by British Honduras, and Salvador, while the Pacific forms its southern and western boundary.
Salvador with an area of 7,225 square miles is the smallest of the Central American Republics. It has a population of 1,700,000 and its people are of a progressive type. There is a large percentage of Indian and mixed blood among the inhabitants with a fair number of whites. The Pacific Ocean forms its southern boundary, Guatemala its western and Spanish Honduras its northern and eastern limits.
Honduras extends over 46,250 square miles, with a population of 600,000, chiefly Indians, 100,000 of whom are uncivilized. There are few whites and many mixed breeds. Its northern boundary is the Gulf of Honduras, an arm of the Caribbean Sea. Guatemala is on its western frontier, Salvador, with a bay of the Pacific Ocean on its south and Nicaragua on the east.
Nicaragua has 49,200 square miles of territory with 700,000 inhabitants, mostly Indians, and mixed breeds, with a gradual increasing of the white race. Honduras runs diagonally across from northeast to southwest, the Pacific Ocean is on its west coast, Costa Rica on the southern frontier, and the Caribbean Sea washes its eastern boundary.
Costa Rica covers 23,000 square miles and has 399,424 citizens, about 7000 being Europeans, Americans or from the West Indies. There are about 5000 Indians and the remainder whites, blacks and mulattoes. Its northern neighbor is Nicaragua, the Caribbean Sea washes its eastern shore, Panama is its southern boundary, while the Pacific Ocean laves its entire western coast.
Panama, 33,800 square miles in extent, with about 400,000 inhabitants, and varying in width from 37 to 110 miles, needs little description. It is bounded on the north by Costa Rica, on the east by the Caribbean Sea, the south by Colombia, and the west by the Pacific Ocean.
Through its center is a strip of land stretching five miles on either side of the Panama Canal for a distance of 45 miles and known as the Canal Zone. By the Isthmian Canal Convention of November 18, 1903, the United States acquired a perpetual right of occupation, use and control over the Zone, paying the Republic of Panama the sum of $10,000,000, and, beginning February 26, 1913, the sum of $250,000 annually so long as such occupancy continues. The Canal Zone is governed by the President of the United States. The population of this strip during the building of the canal was as high as 70,000, but it is doubtful if it has 30,000 inhabitants to-day. With the completion of the Canal, the force of workmen necessary to maintain it in running order, together with civilian employes and the United States garrison, will make a permanent population of perhaps 25,000.
British Honduras, with an area of 7562 square miles and a population of 40,000, is the only European colony in Central America. Its inhabitants are Indians and negroes, with a few mixed breeds, and less than a thousand whites. It has no railways, although some effort has been made to get capital interested, so far unsuccessfully. The British Government seems to have completely neglected this possession. Its rivers, navigable for some distance, serve all its transportation requirements.