Maybe...he did "see" (visions God gave him)...
Consider:
Rev. 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
So, a beast coming out of the earth would be a (relatively-speaking) sparsely inhabited land?
Yeah, kinda like #24 suggests = 'merica! - started like a lamb! ...religious freedom & all (and the 2 horns could represent the separation of church & state, though, eventually...dragon!)
21, and 23 are pretty obviously anti-papacy,
32, the multitudes seem happy, and
#26 is just too kitchy - class-warfare-ish....jmo
What a Showman God is! He gives us the whole script, and yet we are left to speculate and to wonder.