But above all, there are innumerable small centres of population, of quiet and docile folk, hungering for the presence of intelligent and enterprising settlers who would look kindly upon them, who would foster their local life, increase the productivity of the neighbourhood, take part in their civic and economic advancement. Nowhere in the world is there such desire for these things, nowhere is there such opportunity for the settler for benefiting both himself and the folk around him as is to be found in the innumerable little villages and towns of Spanish America hidden away in Cordillera, plain, valley and woodland. There are literally myriads of such localities scattered over the face of the Latin American world, and I could give many instances from personal experience. The well-meaning foreigner in such places, with some small capital, becomes one of the most esteemed and predominant personages of the locality. He could acquire and profit by flocks, herds, plantations, mines. There is plenty of labour, among the Indian and other folk, to be obtained--labour, that is, in small local undertakings, not for over-greedy or absorbent joint-stock operations--under the relation of master and servant. Here is an opportunity, then, for those good English and other folk who complain so hardly of heavy taxation and other burdens of life! Any degree of climate may be chosen, from heat to cold, including the "region of perpetual spring," of which we have spoken elsewhere. It is not intended here to advocate settlement in Spanish America as against the British colonies. The field is scarcely suitable for the settler who has to depend upon his own labour, without capital. He could not possibly compete with the native. The difference is, that here are innumerable old-established centres of population, centres of civic life, and not, as in Canada or Australia, vast areas of unsettled territory where the lonely colonist is remote from social amenities. Moreover, with every desire to people the British Empire with settlers from Britain, it is also to be recollected that British settlers in Spanish America increase the prestige--and incidentally the trade--of Britain in those lands--matters which should be encouraged. In Mexico, in better times, there was something about the atmosphere and environment that very strongly attracted the American settler, and large numbers of people from the United States established themselves in the country--conditions which unfortunately do not now exist.