From the INTRODUCTION to the edition of 1889.
The name Costa Rica, to even the European or American possessing a certain degree of culture, suggests ordinarily but the vaguest idea of a little republic situated somewhere on the American continent and producing—if indeed this much be known—a coffee which is quoted rather high on the market. Geographies and encyclopedias give at most the name of the capital of the country and an estimate, often erroneous, of the number of inhabitants. As for special works, these are few and so thickly covered with dust on the library shelves that few persons are able to consult them. Many of these works, besides, were written a good many years ago and supply information wholly insufficient at the present day.
Costa Rica, however, deserves to be known. The prevailing idea in Europe and America as to the Central American republics is that they are sunk in a state of somnolence and inertia, from which nothing can come for a long time yet. They are also represented as the scene of incessant interior wars, and one imagines them as constantly suffering from instability of government and insecurity in general. Nothing is falser than these suppositions, based on a complete ignorance of the facts. A perusal of the study which we here present to the public will give—we are pleased to believe—a juster idea of Costa Rica.
For several years all has been life and progress; the forward march goes on day by day in a remarkable fashion, and this little country has arrived at a state of culture and civilization that many larger nations might well envy it.
It is now, especially, when the hour has come for crowded European and American cities to overflow the world and when emigration has become a social necessity, that former prejudices should be dissipated. It is but fulfilling a duty to make known in all justice a country worthy of the attention of persons who may seriously consider the matter of seeking a new home for themselves.
We have not sought to offer an untruthful panegyric; we do not present Costa Rica as an El Dorado or promised land we give but a brief resume containing the most important elements of an estimate. A residence of several years in the land we depict, the collaboration of persons worthy of all confidence, the pains we have taken to provide ourselves with the latest and most accurate information, the figures or the terms of comparison that we constantly present, will produce, we hope, in the mind of the reader the conviction that our work, although forcedly incomplete, is indeed the expression of the truth.
