id="pgepubid00006">INTRODUCTION

GENERAL CONDITIONS IN LATIN AMERICA

The New World or Western Hemisphere consists of two continents. The greater part of the northern continent is occupied by two great Powers, which may be described as mainly Anglo-Saxon in origin and character. One of them, the Canadian Federation, is a monarchy, covering the northern part of the continent. The other, a republic, the United States, occupies the middle part. To the south and south-east of these two extensive and powerful countries stretch the twenty republics, mainly Iberian in origin and character, which constitute Latin America. These lands cover an area which is about twice the size of Europe or three times the size of the United States. Their population approaches eighty millions. Latin America, extending as it does through every habitable latitude from the north temperate zone to the Antarctic seas, possesses every climate and every variety of soil, and accordingly yields, or can be made to yield, all the vegetable and animal products of the whole world. Moreover, most of the republics also severally contain territory of every habitable altitude, so that a man can change his climate from torrid to temperate and from temperate to frigid simply by walking up-hill. Thus, equatorial lands can produce within the range of a few miles all the products of every zone. Most of the republics also furnish an abundance and variety of mineral products. The name Costa Rica, or Coast of Riches, which was given by the early discoverers to a small strip of the mainland, was prophetic of all its shores. And the fable of El Dorado, concerning its interior wealth, has proved to be not fabulous but only allegorical.

The geographical distribution of these republics should be indicated. Three of them are island states of the Caribbean Sea. Cuba is the largest of the Antilles; Santo Domingo and Haiti divide between them the next largest. The rich tropical fertility of these West Indian isles has been a proverb for centuries and need not here be emphasised. Upon the mainland, the vast territory of Mexico and the five Central-American republics may be grouped together, forming as they do a kind of sub-continent, a narrowed continuation of North America. Through this region a broad mountain-mass curves from north-west to south-east. This configuration provides the characteristics and the varied products of every zone upon the same parallel of latitude: the torrid coastal strips, bordering both oceans; the beautiful, wholesome and productive region of the central plateau and long upland valleys; and finally the chilly inhospitable regions of the mountain heights. The long sweep of the country south-eastwards through the tropics also provides a wide range of character, from the cattle-rearing plains of Northern Mexico to the coffee and banana plantations of Costa Rica. Nowhere are lands of richer possibilities to be found.

The small newly-created Republic of Panamá completes this northern system of Latin-American countries. Thus, before coming to South America at all, we count ten Latin-American states, three in the Antilles, seven upon the mainland.

The other ten republics lie within the continent of South America. That continent is shaped by nature in lines of a vast and imposing simplicity, so that it is possible to sketch its main features in a few words. It is divided broadly into mountain, forest and plain—the immense chain of the Andes, the vast Amazonian forests, the wide-stretching plains of the Pampa, and the colossal water system of the three rivers, Orinoco, Amazon, La Plata. The dominating element is the great backbone, the cordillera of the Andes. From the southern islands of Tierra del Fuego this cordillera stretches for 4000 miles along the Pacific coast to the northern peninsulas of the Spanish Main, and thence throws out a great eastward curve along the southern shore of the Caribbean Sea. This continuous mountain-wall, clinging closely to the Pacific coast, determines the whole character of the continent. In the tropical zone, the trade winds, blowing continually from the Atlantic, sweep across South America until they strike this towering mountain barrier. Then they shed their moisture on its eastern slopes, which give birth to the multitudinous upper waters of the Orinoco, the Amazon and the western affluents of the River Plate. The Amazon rather resembles a slowly moving inland sea, its twelve principal tributaries all surpassing the measure of European rivers. The River Plate pours into the ocean more water than all the rivers of Europe put together. The Orinoco, shorter but not less voluminous, drains a vast area with its 400 tributaries.

But the Andes, whose forest-clad eastern slopes pour these immeasurable water-floods across the whole continent to the Atlantic, oppose to the Pacific, in the southern tropics, a bare dry wall of rock and yellow sand. In the north, the garrua, the winter mist of equatorial Peru, supplies moisture for cultivation. South of this region, the rainless desert stretches, a ribbon-like strip, between the mountains and the sea. Here, except in some transverse river-valleys, not a blade of grass can grow for over a thousand miles. Yet it is this very barrenness which has produced the materials of fertility for other lands in the form of guano and nitrate deposits. Far to the south, in the "roaring forties," these conditions are reversed. Here, moisture-laden winds blow continually and stormily from the Pacific, feeding the dense and soaking forests of southern Chile. In the same latitudes, to the east of the Andes the terraced plains of Patagonia supply sheep pasture, thinly nourished by slight rainfall, although, over so vast an extent, these flocks amount to many millions. In the more temperate regions, between these zones of climatic extremes, more normal conditions prevail. On one side of the Andes are the rich valleys of Central Chile, on the other side the wide plains of the Argentine Pampa, formerly given over to pasture, now producing wheat, maize, flax, barley and oats as well as meat, hides and wool.

South America has been called the fertile continent. Considering that most of the land lies within the tropics, it might be called the habitable continent—habitable in comfort and health by white men. In form, the continent may be roughly compared with Africa, but the comparison is in favour of South America. The traveller who has sailed along the east or west coast of tropical Africa meets a contrast on crossing the Atlantic. Along the Brazilian coast, he finds a succession of busy ports, crowded with the shipping of all nations—flourishing and growing cities, inhabited largely by Europeans living the normal life of Europe. The perennial trade winds, blowing from the sea, bring coolness and health; and, almost everywhere, the worker in the ports may make his home upon neighbouring hills. On the west coast, tropical conditions are even more striking. Here, a soft south wind blows continually from cooler airs, and the Antarctic current flowing northwards refreshes all the coast. At Lima, twelve degrees from the Line, one may wear European dress at midsummer and, descending a few miles to the coast, may plunge into a sea which is almost too cold. Moreover, in these regions the Andine valleys offer every climate, and a short journey from the coast leads one to uplands resembling southern Europe. Higher yet, beyond the first or western chain of the Andes stretches the vast and lofty plateau enclosed between the double or triple ranges of volcanic mountains. The western part of Bolivia, though tropical in situation, is a temperate land, lying as it does at a height of above 12,000 feet. This broad Bolivian plateau narrows northwards through Peru and finally contracts into the Ecuadorian "avenue of volcanoes." Here, in the very central torrid zone, a double line of towering peaks shoot their fires far above plains and slopes of