144  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA

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.
The  topography  and  climate  of  all  these
countries  is  much  the  same.  Mountain
ranges  cross  and  recross  them,  having  peaks
of  considerable  altitude,  many  of  which  are
still  active  volcanoes.  As  is  obvious,  these
mountain  systems  influence  the  climate  to  a
marked  degree,  making  it  always  pleasant
and  spring-like  in  the  plateaus  extended  between ­
  them,  as  well  as  in  the  intermediary
tablelands.  The  higher  elevations  are  always
cool,  while  the  low-lying  coast-lands  are  extremely ­
  warm  and,  as  a  rule,  unhealthy.  The
watershed  which  they  form  deflects  the  streams
arising  in  them  toward  either  the  Pacific  or
the  Atlantic.  If  harnessed  these  streams