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226 such conditions, at no distant day, are certain to be established. European sovereignty over them is, however, repugnant to the sentiment of the United States, and, if attempted, will probably be contested; and this, in turn, if anything more than words of protest are to be used, means formidable military and naval demonstrations and large expenditures. The people of the United States might, however, well hesitate before embarking in such an enterprise, in view of the fact that the foe which their forces would have to especially encounter and most dread, would be one against which neither courage nor skill would avail; for over all the low, tropical regions of Central America, where the routes for interoceanic transit have got to be constructed, the climate for unacclimated persons is most deadly—in proof of which the current mortality of Vera Cruz, San Blas, and the line of the Panama Canal may be cited; as well as the horrible historical experience of the forces which the North American colonies sent in 1741 to co-operate with Admiral Vernon's expedition to Carthagena and the coasts of "Darien" (Panama). But Mexico is a nation of soldiers; and, if proper kindly relations were to be established between the two countries, the United States could confidently rely on, or employ, the well-acclimated