kinds of manufacturing industries, with the closest commercial relations with every country bordering on the Pacific. In other words we shall be compelled to exercise the same intelligence, energy, and liberality that has built up so many large and flourishing cities and sections throughout the entire United States save in California alone.

I have only to remark in conclusion, as I have elsewhere intimated in this volume, that as a business proposition, clearly apparent to a business man, the United States government at this juncture can better afford to spend some money for national advancement than not to do so. As we figure it up, we are the greatest and the richest nation on earth, the most enterprising, brave, and humane, a nation of boundless potentialities, which in my soul I believe to be true; and yet, seeing how freely the public money is spent on what is of so little use to the public; on political jobbery; on private schemes for the personal advantage of our good patriots; on popular fads as soldiers' pensions and public schools for the piano; on army and navy supplies, necessary as humanity is made, but tending in no wise to the upbuilding of the industrial interests of the nation; when I see how easy the millions come for foolish and unnecessary things, and how difficult it is to get any thing done for the country, such as the construction of this canal, which in truth is too small a matter to haggle over so long, I cannot but feel that we need some men at the head of affairs whose minds are not laid out on such narrow lines, and whose souls are not wholly absorbed in the selfish seekings of party and place. It is the business of the government, for example, if the government has any business further than the comfortable support of the politicians, to reclaim its waste places and desert lands by systems of irrigation, which with less than the cost of the late Spanish war, would add one-fifth to the agricultural area of the United States, or three times as much as we get by all the tropical islands secured. These now waste lands, which can be made as rich as any Egypt by the application of water, of which there is an abundant supply at hand, lie in the heart of the continent, dividing the republic into two parts, between which commercial intercourse is restricted to the arbitrary rule of railway monopolists, who constructed their roads. with funds furnished by the government, and now used with

government permission to crush the industrial life of the people who are forced to use them. A few hundred millions more of debt just now would not embarrass this nation, if the money instead of being wasted in political clap-trap, went for the promotion of public necessities, as a merchant marine, a government railroad across the desert, a ship canal, and like investments, which would yield to both government and people a large and quick return in wealth, power, and prestige. Five hundred artesian wells would be worth more to the United States than five thousand dead Filipinos, and would not cost as much. The price of three battleships would bring the waters of Lake Tahoe to San Francisco, fertilizing a thousand farms on the way, and adding millions to the taxable property of the state. And there are many such needful developments west of the Rocky mountains, awaiting the attention of government.

Many volumes have been written on the subject of interoceanic communication; many men have spent their lives in studying it; nearly all the principal governments of Europe have been interested in some one or more of the many plans brought forward, and several of them have had surveys made at different points. The governments of Netherland America have lived for centuries on the hope that this work would some day be done. Those who should wish to pursue further this interesting study I refer to the following authorities. Garella, Projet d'un canal, 11-194, 230; Chevalier, Pan. 117-22; Reichardt, Cent. Am, 164-5; Cullen's Isth. Darien Ship Canal, 19; Nicaragua, Gaceta, Nov. 18, 1848; Liot's Panamá, Nicaragua, and Tehuantepec, 6-12; Ramirez, Mem., 1108; Garay, Survey Isth. Tehuan., 3-188; Hakluyt, Voy., iii; Gomara, Hist. Ind., 37-89; Duflot de Mofras, Explor. de l'Oregon, 119; Nouvelle Annales des Voy., ci, iii, 8-9; Cortes, Diario, 1813, xix, 392; Robles, Prov. Chiapa, 17; Bustamante Med. Pacific, M S ii Sup. 15; Herrera Hist. Ind., iv, 234; Rivera Gobern. Mex., ii, 116; Ward's Mex., i, 311; Dublan and Lozano, Legisl. Mej., i, 738-9; Manero, Notic. Hist., 51–6; Davis' Report, 5-6; Mex. Diario Debates, 10th Cong., i, 273-1930, passim; Fröbel, Aus. Am., i, 144, 241; Squier's Nic., 658; Humboldt, Essai Polit., i, 1-17; Niles' Reg. xxx, 447; London Geog. Soc. Jour., xiv, 127-9; Scherzer, Cent. Am., 241; Belly, Nic., i, 84-7, 137; Sampson's Cent. Am., 7-18; Maruro, Mem. Hist., 1-47; Bülow, Nic., 44-57; U. S. Gov. Doc., Sen. Miscel. Cong. 30, Sess. 1, no 80, 69-75; Id., H. Ex. Doc. Cong. 31, Sess. 1, no 75, 50-326, passim; Marcoleta, Min, Nic., 1-32; Hunt's Mer. Mag., lv, 31-48; lvi, 32-4; Panamá Star and Herald, Dec 5, 1885; Andagoya, Carta al Rey, in Squier's M S S, xi, 8; Juan and Ulloa, Voy., i, 94; Fitz-Roy, in Lond. Geog., Soc., Jour., xx, 170, 178; Ariz, Darien M S, 11-12; Philosophical Trans. 1830; Arosemena, Examen, 8-34;

Interoc. Canal and Monroe Doc., 23-4; Panamá Gaceta Ist., Sept. 20, 1841; G. B. Watts, in Am. Geog. and Stat. Soc. Bull, i, pt iii, 64-80; Datos Biog., in Cartas de Ind., 761; Tucker's Monroe Doc., 43-4; Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 299-308, 397-417; Strain's Inter. Com., 18-27; Mex. Anales Min. Fomento, i, 83-88; Selfige, Darien Explor., U. S. Gov., Doc., Cong. 43, Sess. 3; Bulletin du Canal Oceanique, 1883-4; Sullivan's Problems Intero. Communic., Washington, 1883; Ammen's Interoc. Ship Canal, Phil. 1880; La Estrella de Pan. July 21, 1884; Guatemala Mem. Sec. Fomento, 1880-5; Pim's Gate of the Pac., 313-21; Laferriere de Paris a Guat., 101-6; Costa Rica Informe Sec. Goberu., 1873-4; Colombia Diario Ofic., 1874.

CHAPTER XVII

RESOURCES OF THE PACIFIC

VAST as are the resources of the countries round the Pacific, they present themselves at the present time in the form of industrial potentialities rather than of concrete wealth. True, there are here, with the limitless natural wealth and possibilities, money and property in abundance, but accumulated stores of riches such as are found in older communities we must not look for in new and undeveloped regions. Speaking generally, if one may speak generally of an area of land and water extending from pole to pole and covering half the earth, the soils here are very like the soils in the other hemisphere, and the flora and fauna, though differing, are much the same. The low-lying lands, where there is heat and moisture, are fertile; the higher and drier regions less so. There are mountains and swamps, and some volcanic débris on which plants grow reluctantly; but there are no great deserts, such as are found in the interior of continents, and no large stretches of land which may not in some way be found of use to man.

Beginning at the southern extremity on the American side, we will take a brief glance round the arena. Patagonia is still largely in a state of nature with some good soil and a fair display of vegetation; elsewhere there are places more barren in aspect and with trees dwarfed, though the largest of birds and the longest of men flourish here, the latter loving their country as well as if it were a better one.

Both Chili and Bolivia, and indeed the whole South American seaboard, produce largely of minerals for export, as silver, gold, tin, bismuth, antimony, mercury, lead, copper, as well as borate of lime, sulphur, and nitrate of soda. Southern Chili abounds in forests, but northern Chili without irrigation is sterile. The southern section, which long remained in its primeval state, the government is now opening to settle

ment, extending its railways, and establishing new towns. Every year is held an auction sale of government lands, which bring from $1.50 to $30 an acre. Many Germans came to Chili under a plan to encourage immigration which is no longer in force, being too liberal for practical purposes. Passage money was loaned to the immigrant, and 100 acres of land allotted him on arrival, with an ox team, boards and nails for a house, and $15 a month advanced him for one year, amounting in all to about $600, the amount to be paid back in eight years.

Though wheat is abundant, there is here no such grain country on the Pacific side of South America as is found over the Andes in Argentina, which is one of the several granaries of the world. From Rosario are shipped weekly thousands of tons of wheat, corn, and linseed. The Chilian farmers as a class are as wealthy as any in the world, living like feudal barons, with hacienda in lieu of castle, with broad acreage, hosts of retainers, and thousands of sheep cattle and horses. At the annual roundup of some of these great estates, an army of cow-boys are present, with their captains and chiefs of all grades. Some 30,000,000 bushels of wheat are annually raised in Chili, and at harvesting a score of American threshing machines may be sometimes seen in operation on a single plantation. While in the United States only 31,000 men own farms of over 1,000 acres, in Chili few who consider themselves of any importance own less. Farms of 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000 acres are not uncommon. Agriculture is the chief industry; half of the population are devoted to farming, and it is not uncommon to find millionaires among the great estate owners. Irrigation is carried on to a considerable extent from mountain streams. Some of the farms are surrounded by stone walls, board or wire fences being little used.

At one time, during the early mining period, Chili supplied California with almost her entire supply of flour, 50 and 100 pound sacks being then first used by Americans. Flour from the east came as of old in barrels, from which it had to be taken and sacked for mule transportation to the mines.

Peru as well as Brazil is a great producer of raw material; rubber is almost the currency of the Para and Amazon countries. The tropical vegetation of the Orinoco is gorgeous. The Peruvian forests, where is found the indiarubber tree,