Natural history -- Nicaragua; Nicaragua -- Description and travel
It would be ungenerous of me, in this condemnation of the political
parties of Central America, not to state that there are many
individuals who view with alarm and shame the decadence of their
country. Such, however, is the state of public opinion, that their
voices are unheard, or listened to with indifference. There seems
to be some radical incapacity in the Latin races to comprehend what
we consider true political economy. The will of the majority is not
the law of the land, but the will of the strongest in arms. They
cannot understand that a republic has no more divine right than a
monarchy; that a country having an hereditary sovereign at its
head, if it is governed in consonance with the wishes of the
greatest number of its inhabitants, is freer than a republic where
a minority rules by force of arms. They make a principle out of
what is a mere detail of government--whether the chief of the state
be elective or hereditary--but the fundamental principle of good
government, namely, that the will of the majority shall be the law
of the land, is trampled under foot and treated as the dream of an
enthusiast.
The environs of Granada are very pretty; it is situated only a mile
from the lake, and a few miles lower down the sleeping volcano of
Mombacho juts boldly out, rising to a height of nearly 5000 feet,
and clothed to the very summit with dark perennial verdure. The
cacao of Granada and Rivas is said to be amongst the finest grown,
and there are many large plantations of it. The wild cacao grows in
the forests of the Atlantic slope, and when cultivated it still
requires shade to thrive luxuriantly. This is provided at first by
plantain trees, afterwards by the coral tree, a species of
Erythrina, called by the natives Cacao madre, or the Cacao's
mother, on account of the fostering shade it affords the cacao
tree. The coral tree rises to a height of about forty feet, and
when in flower, at the beginning of April, is one mass of bright
crimson flowers, fairly dazzling the eyes of the beholder when the
sun is shining on it.
One of the principal courts of law is held at Granada, and whilst
we were there a priest was being tried for having seduced his own
niece. He was afterwards convicted, and, to show the moral
torpidity of the people, I may mention that his only punishment was
banishment to Greytown, where he appeared to mix in Nicaraguan
society as if he had not a spot on his character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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