Most of the people of Mexico prefer to live in the high, cool plateau that extends from the United States into Mexico, and reaches from the northern boundary to a point south of. the capital city, Mexico. It is a very fine city, with a beautiful Spanish cathedral, and it has ten times as many people as has Vera Cruz, the chief seaport on the hot coast.
High mountain ranges on the edges of the plateau shut off the rain, so the country is very dry. Some of it is an inland basin like Nevada, where the streams do not reach the sea. On the long peninsula of Lower California, people are as scarce as they are in Nevada, and like Nevada the country is very dry. Little can be grown on the Mexican Plateau without irrigation, but the land is high enough to be much cooler and more healthful than is the wet, low plain between Tampico and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. This hot part of Mexico has winds from the gulf which bring it much rain, and there are swamps with many mosquitoes and other biting insects. The dry parts of Mexico are much like the neighboring parts of New Mexico and Texas, and, like them, have many cattle ranches.
On the plateau, some corn and wheat are grown. On the outer slopes of the mountains, where it is lower, warmer, and more rainy, coffee, tobacco, and many fruits and vegetables are grown and sent up to the mining towns. (Sec. 264.) There are a few sugar and banana plan tations along the Gulf of Mexico, but most of the coast is hot, swampy, and covered with forests. Bushes and climbing vines are so thick that it is hard to pass through them, and people have not taken the trouble to make homes there. Logs of fine wood called mahogany are sometimes taken out of these forests to be used in American furniture factories. Petroleum is found in this low plain near Tampico. It was the port of Tampico that shipped much of the oil that supplied the Allied navies during the World War.
264. are many mines in Mexico, for the mountains of the high lands are rich in silver, gold, and copper. Much of the machinery used in the mines, as well as the food for the men who work in them, comes from the United States. These things are paid for with the metals that come out of the mines. These metals make the chief export of Mexico.
Since Mexico has no good coal, shiploads of it must be brought from New Orleans and Norfolk to Vera Cruz and Tampico. But instead of using coal, the people in the interior far from the coast cook with charcoal. This is wood partly burned to make it light and easy to carry. It is often brought from the mountains long distances on the backs of donkeys. Not much fuel is needed through out Mexico, for the houses are not heated and the food is chiefly corn cakes and beans cooked over an open fire.
265. The West Indies.— The West Indian Islands are very interesting places to visit. Each island is different
from the others, and all are beautiful. The four large ones (name them) are called the Greater Antilles.
Cuba is an independent republic under the protection of the United States. You remember (Sec. 252) that the Cubans send us much of our sugar. The capital, Havana, has four times as many people as has Kingston, in Jamaica, or any other West Indian city.
The people on the island of Haiti are nearly all negroes whose ancestors were brought over from Africa as slaves. The east end of the island is called the Republic of San Domingo, and the west end is called the Republic of Haiti. In both of these countries the people have often fought to see who should be president.
Long strings of little islands that reach from Porto Rico to South America are called the Lesser Antilles, and belong to England, France, and the United States. Nearly all of the people- are negroes. In the olden days there were pirates here, but the United States Navy has caused the pirates to be very scarce indeed, and the people of the West Indies now make their living by selling sugar, fruit, and spices.
On the island of Trinidad, there is a lake of asphalt. It is like very stiff tar. Men can walk on it and dig out chunks, but the holes slowly fill up in a few hours. This asphalt is brought to the United States by the shipload, and is used to pave our streets.
North of Cuba is another group of British Islands, the Bahamas. One of these is San Salvador, the first island Columbus discovered. The people of the Bahamas sell sponges, which grow on rocks in the shallow water near their islands. The sponge fisherman goes out in a boat that has thick plate glass in the bottom. Through this glass he can see where the sponges are, and with a long hook he can tear them from the rocks. When taken out of the water, the animals die, and the sponge is the soft skeleton that is left 266. The banana trade of the West Indies and Central America.—A big white ship lies tied to the wharf at the port of New Orleans, in Louisiana. Out of this ship coins big bunches of green bananas, riding on a white canvas carrier, and falling one after another into the arms of a stream of black men, who carry them into the freight cars waiting on the wharf beside the ship. Hour after hour, the bananas roll out of the ship. All day, all night, and all the next day the men work, for bananas, unlike apples, will not keep long, and the ship has thousands of bunches in her hold. If a bunch has any yellow bananas, it is laid aside to be used in New Orleans. Only the green ones are loaded into the freight cars, one of which is going to Kansas City, another to Butte, Montana, two to Winnipeg, six to Chicago, three to Cleveland, and two to Detroit.