I suspected that the coffee I received had been stolen from planters who were loyal to the government, and that the rebels had “levied” on it as a war tax, but as they charged me three cents less a pound than the market price, while I charged them four or five times as much for the arms and ammunition as they cost me, I had no compunctions of conscience about taking it. It is a waste of good time and precious protoplasm to sympathize with Central or South Americans who are pillaged by rebels, for in the next uprising the victims of the previous one will, in their turn, be the plunderers. Thanks to the meddling of American warships, things have quieted down a great deal within recent years, but in the good old days, of which I am writing, revolutions were as much a part of the daily life of the people in those countries as their morning meal, and more so than their morning bath. In fact, the most popular morning salutation was, “Who are we revoluting for [or against] to-day?” Few went further and asked why they were in revolt, for that was a minor consideration and there were not many who knew. At least nine-tenths of the steady routine of revolutions were due to nothing more than personal ambition, which has been the curse of Latin America. Some man of influence or a disgruntled general who had helped to elevate some other general to the presidency, and then had not been shown the consideration to which he thought himself entitled, would raise the standard of rebellion. Under a plethora of promises as to what he would do when he became president, he would attract other dissatisfied ones to his cause, and it usually was only a question of time until he overturned the unstable government. Then he would, in turn, be unable or unwilling to make good on all of his promises, real or implied, and those whom he disappointed would proceed to throw him out. Every man of importance had a following of ignorant natives who, either because they had grown up in his section of the country and had been taught to show him homage, or because they expected to lead lazy lives when he became all-powerful, would follow him blindly. A revolution which involved any question of good government was almost unheard of. It is nothing but the inordinate and, among the upper classes, almost unanimous thirst for power that has retarded the development of these rich countries for generations. Blessed by nature beyond the understanding of those who have not spent years in them, they have been cursed by man. When they have become civilized and their development once sets in, it will eclipse anything America has ever seen.