y^ The West American Scienlist. 



tad. The coach runs from the harbor to the capital, which is 

 situated further in the mountains, on a high volcanic 

 plateau. 



San Salvador is now a fine and well built city, though it has 

 none of its former splendor. In 1854 it was a magnificent city, 

 with many churches,palaces and splendid buildings, but on the 

 night of April i6th, of that year, it was completely destroyed by 

 one of those terrific earthquakes which are so frequent in Cen- 

 tral America. The city was rebuilt and was again partly destroyed 

 in 1873. It remains, however, always the seat of government 

 and the capital of the repubUc. 



The inhabitants of San Salvador pride themselves on being the 

 most polished and the most cultured in Central America. They 

 read a great deal and study much, and are, without question, 

 better posted on all social and political questions than are their 

 neighbors of Honduras or Guatemal?.. The ladies study also 

 a little, and willingly discuss all known, or unknown 

 questions with anybody who happens to come iii their way. 

 With strangers they are free, bold and very anxious to know 

 what the ladies in other countries do, how they dress and 

 how they spend their time. The Salvadorian ladies flirt a little 

 more than their sisters in other Spanish-American republics, and 

 are very anxious to marry early. In fact, it is regarded as a dis- 

 grace if the lady does not marry. The Salvadorian ladies com- 

 pare favorably with their sisters in Guatemala or Nicaragua. 

 They are affectionate; generous, but quick tempered; brilliant, 

 but superficial; vain and vacillating; courageous in the highest 

 degree, but capricious. They like the song and dance, but not 

 so much as the ladies of Leon. 



South of La Libertad the coast is very rocky and steep, and 

 contains no harbors until we reach the beautiful gulf of Fonseca. 

 In that magnificent expanse of water Salvador possesses the old 

 Spanish town and harbor of La Union. 



La Union has a suftbcating climate, for the harbor is land- 

 locked and the fresh sea breeze seldom enters. It is burning- 

 hot everywhere and you breathe the air of a furnace. Had 

 Charles Dickens been in La Union he would never have de- 

 scribed Marseilles as he did in"Little Dorrit,"for Marseilles com- 

 pared with La Union would have been an arctic place. Here in 

 La Union everything is hot; the wind, if there is any, the 

 staring dusty streets, the sandy beach, and even the water 

 within the harbor. The people do not walk on the streets in the 

 daytime if they can avoid it, but remain at home smoking and 

 swinging in large comfortable hammocks, for the hammock in 

 this tierra caliente takes the place of a bed and very often of a 

 chair. 



La Union is a considerable but a very lazy and lifeless place. 

 Only when the fair takes place-and this happens a few times every 

 year— the inhabitants loose their lethargy and are as gay and 



