Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/215

Rh altogether unknown; these now live in idleness, and owing to their indolence, misery, and want of education, know no other employment, nor can find any other mode of acquiring money.”

It would be easy to prove the fallacy of such arguments as these, were this the place to discuss the great question of free trade, but it is not necessary; the memorial itself proves that there are plenty of other branches in which they might be more advantageously occupied. After recapitulating a great number of valuable gums, resins, and medicinal herbs, it tells us, all these live and die upon the soil that produces them, because there is no one willing to employ himself in collecting them and conveying them to the neighbouring towns, where their value is known, and where a good price would be given for them. With the exception of a few towns in which commerce maintains and encourages population, the sun shines only on extensive shores, arid plains, delicious valleys, and mountains, always green and verdant, which in succession produce freely an almost infinite number of nature’s treasures.

With these facts constantly before their eyes, the merchants of Guatimala persist in their opinion, that foreign commerce has ruined Central America. The memorial breathing these sentiments was read and approved by the chamber of