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 GOSTA RICA 395 ing among these Indians, who speak their na- tive tongues, the language used is the Span- ish. The predominant religion is the Roman Catholic, but the constitution, supported by special provisions of treaties with the United States and Great Britain, permits unrestricted freedom of worship. There is little religious bigotry, and among the higher and educated classes a general indifference in regard to spiritual matters prevails, and the clergy have lost much of their influence. The people are industrious and orderly, and are doing more for the improvement of the natural resources of their country than some other of the Cen- tral American states. The centre of population is the district of the Rio Grande about San Jose, where the climate is salubrious. It is es- timated that nearly seven eighths of all the in- habitants of the republic are concentrated here within a territory of 50 m. in length by about 20 m. in breadth. Coffee is the staple produc- tion and the chief source of wealth, the soil being peculiarly adapted for its growth. The first plantations were started in 1829. The experiment proving a success, the greater part of the enterprise and capital of the state was soon directed into this channel. In the plain of San Jos6 the trees flower in March and April, and the berry ripens in November and December. Almost all the labor connected with the picking of the coffee and its prepara- tion for market is performed by women and girls. The crop of 1870 was 27,327,550 Ibs. ; that of 1858 did not exceed 11,500,000. Ibs. Sugar cane, indigo, and cacao are raised on the Pacific coast, and on the plateau maize in large quantities, wheat, some barley and oats, and tobacco enough for home consumption, are produced. Potatoes are abundant and of .good flavor, though small, and frijoles (a kind of bean) and the various vegetables and fruits of the temperate zone are plentiful. The exces- sive rains are unfavorable to the cultivation of cochineal, cotton, and the vine. Manufactures can scarcely be said to exist, being confined to the weaving of coarse cotton and woollen fab- rics and the making of household utensils of wood and of earthenware. The commerce of Costa Rica has been steadily increasing of late years. Of the exports, the greater part of the coffee goes to Great Britain ; hides, deer skins, and India rubber are sent to the United States ; and the remaining articles are taken in nearly equal proportions by the United States, South America, and Europe. The following shows the exports for the year ending Sept. 30, 1871 : ARTICLES. Quantities. Value in U. S. gold. Coffee, sacks 187,135 $2,250 000 Hides, number Deer skins, packages 9,463 39 22,500 2400 Cedar, logs and planks 1,626 9,500 India rubber, packages 104 1550 Pearl shells, plants, &c. . 2500 Total value $2,288,450 The value of the imports for 1871 was esti- mated at $2,225,000 in United States gold, of which about 70 per cent, were from Great Britain, 20 per cent, from France, Germany, and other European countries, 5 per cent, from the United States, and 5 per cent, from the other Central American republics. In 1871 the entries at Punta Arenas were : 80 steamers of 125,466 tons in the aggregate, and 35 sail- ing vessels of 12,541 tons; clearances, 80 steamers of 125,466 tons, and 34 sailing vessels of 12,232 tons. Besides the steamers of the Panama railway company, which make regular tri-monthly trips between Panama and the Central American ports on the Pacific, a steamer of the Pacific Mail steamship company now touches once a month at Punta Arenas. This is regarded as very favorable for the com- merce of Costa Rica, for whose coffee it is presumed that San Francisco will soon become the principal market. Means of communica- tion with the interior are very limited, there being only one good carriage road, that from San Jose" to Punta Arenas. On the eastern side merchandise can be transported with difficulty to Limon and to San Juan del Norte (Grey- town) by means of barges on the Sarapiqui to the San Juan, and thence in small steamers down that river. The only alternative is to send across the Panama railway at ruinous rates, or by the long and perilous route around Cape Horn. This will soon be remedied, as a railway is now building to connect San Jose" with Limon on the Atlantic, to be extended hereafter to Punta Arenas on the Pacific. Two branches of this road, from Cartago to San Jos6 and thence to Alajuela, are already (1873) open to public traffic, and the rest is in rapid progress. Carriage roads and other public works are also in course of construction. A telegraph line is in operation between Car- tago and Punta Arenas, and a line is projected from Cartago to Limon. Education is at a low ebb, although efforts have been made of late to increase and to improve the character of the public schools. Primary schools are establish- ed in all the principal towns and in most of the barrios (villages in the vicinity of cities), gen- erally for both sexes; but, in consequence of inadequate appropriations and the lack of suit- able teachers, they are not very well attended. Young men destined for the liberal professions are usually sent to Guatemala, the United States, or Europe for education. There is in San Jose" a national university, supported by the government, where are taught mathema- tics, philosophy, physics, chemistry, the an- cient and modern languages, and political sci- ence. A medical course was begun in 1872. There is a museum and a chemical laboratory connected with this institution. There are also several grammar schools in the country, the principal of which are the collegio de San Luis in Cartago and that in Heredia, both under the direction of able Spanish professors. The establishment of a national library is under